Darkest Dungeon Burn: Fire’s Edge Mechanic Guide

Burn at Retail 27987

Burn is the Runaway's Fire's Edge damage-over-time effect in the original Darkest Dungeon. It is a real system with a listed damage sequence, not a Darkest Dungeon II rule transplanted by name. The Retail 27987 badge above is the baseline for every numerical and interaction claim on this page; higher-numbered test-branch changes are excluded until they reach Retail.

This matters for a build: Burn rewards target order, movement, and setup. The useful question is not only “how much Burn did I apply?” but also “whose turn occurs next, what will the stack become afterward, and can the result spread or be converted?”

Turn timing and stack decay

Burn damages a target at the end of that target's turn, not at the beginning. It deals damage equal to the displayed stack count, then halves the stack count rounded down. A 7-stack therefore deals 7 at that turn's end, becomes 3, then deals 3 and becomes 1 if it remains in place. Do not estimate Burn as a fixed-duration DoT without following that decay.

Multiple Burn sources stack additively. That makes the order of Firefly, Controlled Burn, a critical hit, and a later conversion meaningful. It also means that adding a small stack to a target about to act can be more valuable than adding the same stack to a target whose turn is far away.

Critical hits and resistance

Critical hits apply 50% more Burn, rounded up. Burn normally cannot be resisted; the current source calls out only a small set of specially coded invulnerable enemies, including the empty Cauldron version, Crocodilian vegetation, and one final boss. This is a mechanic fact, not a guarantee that every visible target is safe to plan around—read the current encounter and tooltip when a run depends on it.

Because Burn's amount halves after it damages, effects that change the initial stack or slow decay are often more important than a generic direct-damage comparison. Firefly is the clearest example: it applies 7 Burn and carries a temporary -50% Burn-decay debuff at its listed base chance.

Cures, corpses, and removals

Skills that cure both Bleed and Blight do not cure Burn in the current original-game rules. If Burn kills a unit, it does not leave a corpse. If the target dies another way and a corpse remains, the Burn amount transfers to that corpse. Those details affect whether a planned Ransack corpse clear, a delayed kill, or a back-rank target still has a valid Burn state.

Treat a removal claim as versioned game data. A mod, a special enemy ability, or a later Retail patch can change the answer; record the build and the exact skill when reporting a discrepancy rather than turning one fight into a universal rule.

Wildfire spreads a dying target's Burn

Wildfire is a separate Fire's Edge effect. When a burning unit dies without leaving a corpse—for example through a critical hit or damage over time—or when a burning corpse is destroyed, half of its Burn amount spreads to one random adjacent ally. This turns corpse timing and adjacency into part of a Burn plan rather than a cosmetic after-effect.

Infernal Coalstone changes that outcome by making Wildfire apply to both adjacent targets. It also supplies +3 SPD while anyone is burning and position-specific push or pull on attack hit. Equip it when the party can exploit adjacent spread and movement; do not call it automatically best when a single-target boss or an exhausted trinket state changes the encounter.

Runaway skills that create or exploit Burn

Searing Strike applies 3 Burn from ranks 3–4 and gains damage against burning targets. Firefly applies 7 Burn from ranks 1–2 into the back three enemy ranks and slows decay. Run and Hide increases the Runaway's Burn skill amount while its Stealth condition is active. Controlled Burn places a three-round rank effect that applies 3, 4, or 5 Burn stacks at an occupant's turn start according to skill level, with two uses per battle.

Backdraft is the conversion button: it requires a burning target, bypasses Guard, deals into the position behind, copies Burn to that second target, and cures Burn from the first. It is powerful precisely because it is not free duplication. Choose the target that should lose its stack before using it.

Build and team use

A Burn-pressure loadout needs a way to apply stacks, a way to remain in a legal rank, and a party that can still act after the Runaway moves. A control-oriented team adds Stun, Pull, Knockback, or Shuffle so an enemy can be moved through a Controlled Burn rank or positioned for Backdraft. Red Hook's release description specifically points to this kind of synergy.

These are editorial team patterns, not a universal tier list. For a reproducible recommendation, record the Runaway's equipped four skills, her opening rank, the enemy order, trinket charges or transformation state, platform, and Retail build. A claim that omits those conditions is advice to test, not a settled mechanic fact.

Common mistakes with Burn calculations.

Do not use Darkest Dungeon II Burn tokens, paths, or resistance rules for the original game. Do not add a full stack again after it has already decayed at a target's turn end. Do not assume a corpse keeps Burn after a Burn kill, or that a spread target is chosen by the player. Finally, do not blend a coming_in_hot experiment into a Retail build guide.

Each of those mistakes produces a result that can look plausible in one battle and still be wrong for the version a reader is actually playing.

Sources and change log

Last reviewed: September 14, 2026, against original-game Retail build 27987. The detailed rules are drawn from the original-game Burn reference, with Fire's Edge context from Red Hook's official release announcement. Recheck the current tooltip and report the target, stack, turn order, corpse state, build, and platform whenever an observed result differs.