If you don't need an essay, here are some info graphics on what the team is, what threats there are and things to look out for.

EDIT: I have completed a Grand Slam with all 3 current DLC characters, see here or at bottom of the guide for more info.

Swap Plague Doctor's Path back to Wanderer. Combo tokens from Crusader / Antagoniste Duelist or Trinkets can be enough to offset the Blight reduction. Additionally, this rework will probably make this guide a bit out of date, and I will not maintain the information too much as I would rather make a new guide if Red Hook decides to release another DLC character.

• The Binding Blade DLC (Required obviously)
  
• Unlocked the following Skill Paths: Crusader Banneret, Duelist Antagoniste, Flagellant Scourge and Plague Doctor Alchemist.
  
• Fully Completed both the Crusader and Duelist Shrine of Reflection.
  
• Complete Chapter 3 of Plague Doctor's Shrine of Reflection.
  
• Complete Chapter 4 of Flagellant's Shrine of Reflection.

• Fully upgraded Timeless Wood.
  
• Unlocking all Skills on Plague Doctor and Flagellant.
  
• At least the Orphan Wolf Cub.
  
• 3 Wheels and 3 Armour on Stagecoach.
  
• Blight and Fire RES piercing Trinkets.
  
• Annotated Textbook, Early Experiment, His Prison and Lover's Glove hero trinkets.

Rank 1: Antagoniste Duelist
Rank 2: Scourge Flagellant
Rank 3: Alchemist Plague Doctor
Rank 4: Banneret Crusader
Missing Skills: Blinding Gas is in optional
Missing Skills: Blinding Gas is in Don't
No tierlist. Just get rid of anything that prevents characters from carrying out their primary job (e.g. Flagellant has less HP) or anything that hurts relationship chance.
Order of Regions (Applies to which boss to fight as well):
Tangle > Shroud > Sprawl > Foetor. Never go to the Sluice.
If confession boss gets buffed due to Loathing maxing out, try to end the mission at the Inn to preserve characters as you won't lose their memories.
Crusader
Plague Doctor and Flagellant
Duelist

I started writing this guide before the DLC came out. In addition I am not familiar enough with Abomination to give recommendations or his potential in a challenge like this. Lastly, I looked the Abomination's skills and noticed he has no consistent form of taunt, forcing the team comp to shift drastically, an estimate of what the team could look like would be at the bottom but I have yet to actually attempt it. See at the bottom.

Darkest Dungeon 2 has 3 achievements that are all prettty similar in whats required, but going for them individually can take way too long for most people, myself included. So I want to see if there was a way to get Maitre De La Lame, Battle Hardened and Grand Slam at the same time. When I looked for guides or builds for a team, I didn't see much that provided an informative overview. So this guide aims to achieve that.

This guide will go through all aspects of the game so will contain spoilers for all Confession Bosses, special unique encounters, trinkets etc.

Now, with that out of the way, lets get into the meat and potato of this guide.

Recommended Skills: Disengage, Feint, Fleche, Coup de Grace and Touche.

The first required character for the party. The Duelist was designed to be very flexible damage dealer to help enable Dance Party comps like from DD1. However, with the high demands of consistent performance in damage output and durability, she has a slightly different role. This build of Duelist allows her to move around and change stances quick enough to be self sufficient. I spent most battles using Disengage -> Feint -> Fleche until the enemies fell over and it worked wonders. Touche and Coup de Grace are here to give Duelist some flexibility as to not accidentally shuffle Crusader to Rank 1 / 2 by using Touche or snipe low HP rank 4 targets with Coup de Grace.

• Disengage if it doesn't shuffle team awkwardly (Rank 3 Flag or Rank 1 Crusader)
  
• Feint to setup Fleche bonus damage.
  
• Fleche if it doesn't shuffle team awkwardly.
  
• Touche or Coup De Grace as needed.

• Bonus Damage as Duelist is your most reliable flat damage dealer so increasing that output will go a long way.
  
• Crit Chance: I have found the Duelist to be able to get a lot of crits without much assistance from teammates (unlike Grave Robber) so increasing that chance can help you breakthrough more slow battles.
  
• Dodge Trinkets as a last resort against strong attacks.
  
• Lover's Glove starting in Aggressive Stance means you can put Duelist Rank 2 and start every fight instantly Fleching.

Recommended Skills: Punish, Deathless, Acid Rain, More! MORE! and Sepsis.

Before attempting this Grand Slam, I was never a big fan of Flagellant in either DD1 or DD2 as he always felt too volatile to use consistently but that opinion has changed very swiftly. Flagellant is probably the best hero in the game and is probably the best Tank. More! MORE! alone makes every fight much easier and you should use it turn 1 99% of the time. With his incredible Base HP + some Trinkets / Quirks, he can become a massive wall able to take back to back crits if needed. In addition, Acid Rain deals significant damage to the backline, especially with Combo or RES Trinkets. Deathless and Sepsis also give Flagellant some other things to do like popping massive DoT buildups on high HP targets or providing an alternative source of healing to allies if the Plague Doctor can't.

• If in Rank 3, move yourself to Rank 1 (I know it sucks but Flagellant needs to be able to use More! MORE! and the Crusader would prefer being further back anyway.)
  
• Turn 1: Use More! MORE!
  
• Turn 2: Use Acid Rain.
  Repeat until Backline is dead (where you spam Punish instead), need to heal with Deathless or pop a DoT Bomb with Sepsis.

• Blight RES Piercing as this team struggles with reliable Combo placement, especially on Rank 1-2 targets.
  
• Anything that increases HP or provides armour.Dodge Trinkets are viable but are better used on other characters due to the fact that Flagellant wants to get hit.
  
• Resistance Trinkets depending on region or enemy. The Flagellant getting moved because of enemy attacks can make the fight a bit awkward.
  
• His Prison is a viable trinket once at the Mountain as the negative banter is no longer an issue.

Recommended Skills: Noxious Blast, Battlefield Medicine, Plague Grenade, Indiscriminate Science and 1 between Incision / Blinding Gas / Ounce of Prevention / Cause of Death / Magnesium Rain.

Alchemist Plague Doctor is probably one of the most common heroes used in Grand Slams and for good reason. Battlefield Medicine and Indiscriminate Science are 2 of the best healing options in the entire game and combined that with almost guaranteed Blight Damage due to innate Blight RES, the PD can deal and heal significant damage. The lower HP stat is offset from trinkets, food and bonus DoT Resistances and the defensive utility that the Flagellant and Crusader provide (and some help from Coup de Grace.)

• Spam Plague Grenade if backline is alive.
  
• Spam Noxious Blast if frontline is alive.
  
• Use Battlefield Medicine / Indiscriminate Science as needed.
  
• Use Magnesium Rain to remove Dodge.
  
• Use Ounce of Prevention in Sprawl or Foetor.

• Blight Duration or Blight Damage increase but not Blight RES Piercing. 99% of the time you do not need to increase Blight RES piercing.
  
• Annoated Textbook (If you have Medicinal Herbs)
  
• Early Experiment (If you have Noxious Combat Items)
  
• Any defensive trinket that gives HP, Dodge or Armour.
  
• Fate's Foreteller as it gives self sustain and is very likely to Proc due to increased Resistances.
  
• Speed Increasing Trinkets to reduce risk of Death Door checks occurring due to fast enemy attacks or Duelist being afflicted with DoTs.

Recommended Skills: Zealous Accusation, Inspiring Cry, Holy Lance, Tenacity and 1 between Smite / Stunning Blow / Reap

Crusader is probably the most modest part of this team composition but it doesn't mean he is dead weight. The Crusader provides invaluable support and covers some major weaknesses that the other 3 characters struggle to deal with. Being in Rank 4 instead of Rank 3 allows the Crusader to fire Holy Lance 2-3 times in a row to shred most high priority Rank 3-4 targets, aid in taking down bulky Rank 2 threats and is the most reliable source of Combo Tokens for this team when upgraded. Tenacity can protect the entire team from massive AoE attacks and Inspiring Cry will ensure minimal meltdowns and keep relationship's high. Zealous Accusation is a decent source of Dodge/Armour Removal and doesn't force the Crusader to move ranks if he doesn't want to and having an attack option in Rank 1/2 is important as it is very possible for team to end up in an awkward position.

• Dodge/Armour Removal or apply Burns to backline with Zealous Accusation.
  
• Burst important threats with Holy Lance.
  
• Don't Holy Lance if Flagellant will end up in Rank 3.
  
• Use Inspiring Cry as needed to prevent Meltdowns (This includes the Flagellant in non-Mountain regions as keeping relationships healthy before then is important.)
  
• Use Tenacity if you know a big attack is coming soon.

• Ranged Damage increase. Vital for the Act 2 Confession Boss.
  
• Fire RES Piercing, damage increase or duration increase. Charred Litany is one of the stronger ones.
  
• Due to Crusader's natural bulk and defensive tools, you shouldn't give him any defensive trinkets as it would be better suited for Plague Doctor / Duelist. Giving Allies buffs like with Hastening History or Insulating Insignia are fine.

No team comp in Darkest Dungeon can single handily deal with every enemy and boss in the game with ease, so there are some potential threats to be aware of and how to deal with them.

The Problem
As one of the few enemies in the entire game immune to both Burn and Blight, it can be a struggle to remove it from the battle. As a result your team could end up taking multiple "BOOOOOOOM!"s which does insane damage and large AoE stress. In addition, reloading gives it 2 armour and sends it to the back ranks where most of your damage falls off due to its DoT reliant nature. Lastly, as it is an Elite Pillager encounter, you can never prepare your team in advance to deal with it.

The Solution
Kill the other bandits first and remove their corpses as soon as possible to force The Implication into the front ranks to allow your Duelist to use her more suitable skills like Touche with Aggressive Style. Use Crusader Tenacity, Duelist disengage, PD Blinding Gas to reduce/avoid the damage from "BOOOOOOOM!"


The Problem
Exemplar is one of the most consistent high damage threats in the game with its combination of "Prelude" into "The Fall" that can put PD and Duelist at Death's Door in 1 turn. In addition to its very strong riposte and support from other Cultists, it is one of the most formidable enemies. The Exemplar was the only time I ever lost a hero trying to do this Grand Slam, my Duelist in Act 4 just before the boss.

The Solution
Blight shreds through the Exemplar quite well, especially if you have RES piercing trinkets on your Flagellant. It is also quite common for there to be Cultist allies to be on Rank 4 meaning you can use Plague Blast and Acid Rain to both hit the support and the Boss for extra value. Flagellant "MORE! MORE!" must be used Turn 1 because Flagellant's HP is so incredibly high he can tank even a Crit "The Fall" if needed.


The Problem
Chirurgeon is a bit of an unusual threat as its not because he has high damage, DoT or debuffs, its because of how durable he can be and threatening if mismanaged. Buffing his allies with strengths and crits can mean damage and stress can rack up quickly. In addition, his bloodletting ability may remove diseases from your party, but it comes at a hefty stress price. Lastly, he converts DoT into healing over time making the fight potential drag on if target prioritisation isn't decent.

The Solution
The main threat in the fight is the supporting enemies he comes with, so they should be dealt with asap. In addition, try to not use PD or Flagellant to attack him with DoT as to prevent him from healing. Crusader inspire's can deal with most of the stress inflicted here.


The Problem
The Collector is another roaming boss that can surprise teams with a variety of mechanics that can destabilise a run. Collected Highwayman can rack up very high amounts of bleed that can tough to heal through, Collected Vestal stalls out the fight much longer and make squishy targets vulnerable to massive damage, Collected Man-At-Arms can make reaching the Collector a massive pain. On top of all that, the Collector himself has reliable token application, self healing and bleed.

The Solution
The Collector is very slow and will spend his first turn in Rank 1. This gives you a massive opportunity to deal significant damage and set the tempo of the fight, and some combat items can be very cheeky by abusing his 10% Stun Resist. After he uses "Collect Call" I have found the best strategy is to remove the Vestal and Man-At-Arms whilst trying to apply backline AoE at the same time. Plague Grenades and Acid Rain can make swift work of them and even the Collector if enough Guards have been used.


The Problem
Death can show up after general enemy encounters randomly and throw a wrench in your plan, catching off guard and weakened team comps in a really bad situation. That with high bleed damage and occasional hiding at Rank 3-4 means you can easily lose a hero.
The Solution
As its a random encounter, you cannot prepare for this every single time, but Death is weak to blight so smart use of PD and Flag can neat you an easy win.


The Problem
Harvest Child is the most difficult out of all of the region bosses in the game with its high Blight resist as well as strong shuffling potential forcing your team into very weird positions. There is very little debuff resist available in the game making its debuff almost guaranteed. Its AoE cleave attack is very deadly and wipe out unprepared Duelists / PDs.

The Solution
The easiest way to deal with the Harvest Child is to not force yourself into a position where your only option is to fight the Harvest Child. Visit the Foetor as little as possible and fight other bosses to meet the requirements to go to the Mountain.

However, if you are forced into fighting the Child here is what you can do. Get debuff resistance as that will prevent Harvest Hunger being applied. Have Blight RES piercing trinkets on Plague and Flagellant to bypass the child's high resistance. Be smart with your position of units as they will move forward by 1 and if they are in the front row, they will be forced to use "Feed the Hunger." For example, Duelist and Crusader can move forward and put Flagellant in Rank 3 preventing "Feed the Hunger."

One of the most dangerous part of Grand Slams are each of the confession bosses as they all pose significant risk to your party. Proper planning and team building is required to ensure you can survive this challenge.

The Problem
Denial of Reach and Denial of Arms can severely hamper your backline or frontline DPS and with various debuffs and stuns, can ware down teams who can't heal the stress of damage with Denial of Reason and Denial of Denial of Fortitude.

The Solution
As this the first confession boss in the game, it is much easier than the others and is an effective way to start a Grand Slam comp by giving your characters some very powerful memories early on. Ensuring every character has at least 2 different types of moves will mean that characters won't have to awkwardly shuffle / pass turns. I usually focus on Lamentation first as Plague and Crusader are heavily impacted by Denial of Reach.

Not much strategy otherwise, just general good play ensuring you play around the possibility of bad skill blocks (e.g. Heal blocked and you have someone on Death's Door.) with either combat items or just good foresight makes this fight very easy.

The Problem
The Lungs being immune to both Burns and Blight mean that matching the DPS check on the lungs can be very difficult as you become reliant on Crusader to match the Rank 4 Lung and Duelist to match the Rank 1 to do the heavy lifting.

The Solution
Damage Trinkets on both Duelist and Crusader can help meet the DPS requirements each lung. Crusader Tenacity can also mitigate damage if you can defeat the front lung for some reason (and the buff might last long enough to help deal with a double lung attack.)


The Problem
Focused Fault to put simply, is the most uncontrollable and most dangerous part of the run. I got very lucky with my 2 attempts (I still had to pass a Death Door Check on PD) on the boss but its very obvious why most other achievement hunters consider this to be the biggest run killer. Crit Limerence damage forces PD and Duelist down to Death's Door whilst Crusader and Flagellant don't want to be hit by too many either, it can't be redirected by taunts and its possible for it to be used 2 times a round meaning you don't have an opportunity to prevent Death Door checks. In addition it can be an immense struggle to remove "Seen" tokens on heroes and sometimes down to RNG on how many tokens each party member has.

The Solution
Despite all of these problems, there are still many options for you to wrangle back control into your hands. The most reliable way to remove "Seen" tokens is through killing Cloistered Eyes and careful positioning and attacks can potentially mean most characters enter Phase 2 with no tokens. Additionally, both Duelist and PD can either give Dodge or Blind Focused Fault to remove tokens in phase 2 and various trinkets, quirks and combat items can provide dodge. Crusader Tenacity can help provide stability and reduce risk of Death Door check. Flagellant is durable enough to reliably survive even with multiple tokens if the turn order works out in your favour (For example, Crit at start turn, PD heals Flag, Crit again, Flag heals himself.)


Dreaming General Trophy that immobilises you is super strong here, same with Crusader's Inspiring Cry.

Rest To Be Done.

As this is the longest fight in the game, extensive preparing needs to be done to ensure you can outlast the onslaught that 3 phases of fights will do to your team.
To Be Done.

One of the most important aspects of the run will be having frequent visits to the field hospital to purge negative quirks and protecting valuable quirks. Having multiple characters with strong quirks can make many aspects of the game much easier.

For example, the team I had locked in the following quirks:
PD: Jinx
Crusader: Jinx
Duelist: Slugger

Did not lock in a quirk for Flagellant.


The Jinx (All characters)
Debuffs are very strong and the fact that it can apply multiple times on AoE attacks can significantly neuter some threats like Tangle Knights and The Implication.

Positive Relationship Chance Buffs (All characters)
Having positive relationships are a strong boon to have but it additionally will also prevent the possibility of negative relationships which are very detrimental.

Cosmic Slayer / Cosmic Hater (All characters)
Has all of the Act bosses are labelled as Cosmic, it would give your team extra damage and durability against them which is very solid.

Slugger (Duelist)
Has Duelist almost always uses Melee skills and how stuns are very strong, it never hurts to tip the odds of Crits and action economy in your favour.

Field Surgeon (PD / Duelist)
As PD and Duelist are the faster characters on the team, having access to a 50% heal can very useful, especially on Duelist as she could prevent DoT checks on PD or respond to a fast threat.

HP / Armour buffs (Flagellant)
Extra durability on the strongest tank in the game is a no brainer.

Speed increase (Not Crusader, see notes on Crusader and Speed)
Speed is a very strong stat in Turn Based Combat, in addition, applying DoT before the enemy has a turn will mean fights can end very quickly with 1 - 2 turn kills. Speed on PD is probably the highest priority has you can be more likely to also out speed the Duelist which can be useful if they might die from DoT.

What makes this team incredibly effective is that with decent routing and planning, the trip to the mountain can be very risk free and you can easily get strong trinkets and ability upgrades.

Region priority for me was: Tangle -> Shroud -> Sprawl -> Foetor -> Sluice

Consistent results vs most enemies
Easy match up vs Boss
Good Boss Trophy synergy
Strong defensive region Trinkets


3 Foot Soldier + Drummer is awkward and may result in Drummer using Death before Dishonour
Little damage increase from Trinkets
Bullseye Barrett with Drummer is incredibly threatening


Tangle enemies are very simple with little gimmicks that can disrupt your game plan as there is little dodge, blind, shuffle or debuffs. Drummers and Bishops can easily be hit with AoE DoT from Crusader, Flagellant and PD. Dreaming General is also incredibly easy as you focus fire him turn 1, use 3-4 AoE attack turn 2 and then appropriately balance regular 3-4 AoE attacks, stress heals and Crusader Tenacity for the Waking Dead. Dreaming General also gives the team comp one of the best Trophies in "The General's Dream" which immobilises your party for 5 turns meaning you can spam Duelist Fleche and Crusader Holy Lance for 5 turns without risk of Crusader or Flagellant being out of position.


Consistent results vs most enemies
Easy match up vs Boss
Some niche trinkets for PD


Most Trophies and Trinkets are not usable
Bosun knockback and pulls can mess with positioning
Docker is very threatening
Barnacles can be dangerous for Duelist


I usually visit the Shroud if I already have a boss trophy or a need one and want to minimise any risks getting one.

The Shroud like the Tangle has relatively simple enemies with only minor annoyances coming from knock back and pulls from Bosun as well as a small chance for Cabin Boy's to get dodge. Leviathan is a very easy boss that requires little specific strategy. The main downside is that this region has little trinkets or trophies that help with this build outside of PD with Sodden Sweater for 100% Bleed RES and decent Move RES and maybe Fisherman's Line on anyone that isn't Duelist because if they have a net you can roll 15% stun on rank 3-4.

Solid trinkets for Duelist and Crusader
Decent match up vs Boss
Ok dodge and blind removal

Duelist struggles to deal with Dodge / Blinds
Crusader struggles with high Fire RES
Librarian can be a bit dangerous

Sprawl is better loot wise than Shroud but it comes at cost of each encounter being more difficult and annoying. Plenty of blinds and dodges causes potential risks of bad rng.

Very strong trinkets for PD and Flag
Duelist doesn't have to deal with much Debuffs or Enemy buffs
You can clear corpses semi-reliably with PD / Flag

Minus Death Blow Resist Trophies
Majority of enemies have Blight RES that even Alchemist can't break through
Harvest Child is extremely dangerous
High Disease Risk

Foetor is very high risk for a slightly decent reward as many trinkets are a great benefit to PD and Flag. Only go if you are confident enough to fight the Harvest Child as otherwise you risk diseases and very slow fights for maybe 1 decent trinket?

I just avoid the Sluice as its unpredictable routing and lack of progress for getting to the mountain means its an optional region, thus an unnecessary risk.

To Be Done
See Tierlist for general pointers.

Most memories are very underwhelming and don't help you in future runs that much. The main things to look out for are

Favourite Toy to PD and Flagellant to give their DoT that much more power. Optional for the Crusader.

Promise Kept / Lesson Learned for Duelist to help fill the role of direct damage and crit spam.

Mother's Comfort and Spring Rain for Flagellant to give RES to his weaker stats.

Rare Treat and Second Chance for anyone to just help reduce risk of losing characters.

Harmless Mischief on anyone that isn't Crusader (See notes on Crusader and Speed.)

Crusader and Speed

The Crusader has a base speed stat of 2 which puts him in the unique threshold to interact with various trinkets. This includes Clenching Claws which can immobilise him enabling more uses of Holy Lances at Rank 4. However, some trinkets punish slow characters like Sprawl Burn damage and Fire RES Piercing.

With the Crusader, be careful with Harmless Mischief as that takes him out of the 2 speed category which some trinkets have interactions with. So if you want to run Clenching Claws to keep Crusader in Rank 4 spamming Holy Lance, don't give him Harmless Mischief, but if you want to take various Sprawl trinkets for bonus Burn damage and Piercing, give him that memory.

When deciding which character between PD or Flagellant to remove, we lose to major aspects of the team that keeps the glue together. Lose an amazing healer, or lose an amazing Frontline. In an addition, Abomination doesn't hit Rank 4 for much, almost nothing if the enemy resists blight. What do we get in return? Character that can apply a lot Debuffs and Combo Tokens. Which is nice but it isn't really either of those things, not to mention how little value Combo Tokens are getting with this current lineup. Abomination's other paths can help spec into healing or a very situation Guard but it isn't enough. So who is the 4th slot? I have thought of a few teams but I cannot attest to their viability at the moment.


EDIT (09/03/2025): Its possible! A team with Abomination, Crusader and Duelist is possible and I have completed a Grand Slam with them. I may write another guide for operating them but that will take time.

Bulwark of Faith to provide taunts in place of Flagellant. Crusader uses the Combo Tokens from Abomination with Smite. So far this team was able to beat Seething Sigh with only 1 Death Door check that was completely preventable in hindsight (Duelist had to pass 1 burn DoT check but Abomination was faster and I could of equipped medical herbs on him instead of the Duelist.) Very little Death Door Checks elsewhere, there was 1 close call where my Duelist dodged an attack that could of been killed during the Act 1 Boss. I did Acts 2 -> 1 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5. Its vital to change Duelist from Wanderer to Antagoniste on Act 5 as so not accidentally knockback the spectre to rank 4.