Dark and Darker is an upcoming dungeon-delving game that borrows mechanics from other games, creating a unique experience. Aside from the delving, there’s an ever-shrinking safe area of the dungeon. Like in any battle royale, staying out of it will result in death. There’s also the aspect of loot collection, the reason you’re going through the dungeon in the first place. Finally, you will be fighting more than the dungeon guardians because other players are in it with you.
In summary, Dark and Darker provides a dungeon raiding and escaping experience. It’s like if Skyrim and Escape from Tarkov made a baby. Guns are replaced with swords, bows, and magic. Then you go into dungeons to find loot and treasures, but it protects its hoard intensely. Besides that, things are no less challenging with the PvP aspect.
With that in mind, you’ll need help to survive and escape the dungeons with your loot.
Dark and Darker Tips You Need to Know
Picking A Class
The demo provides six playable classes. It also gives players enough character slots to try all of them out. You don’t have to agonize too much with this choice because of that. Go with whatever you feel like and pick a favorite. Guides can only do so much when they can only describe the roles and what they can do. There’s still nothing like experiencing it yourself.
Practice With Your Chosen Weapon
Unlike most games, Dark and Darker has a more realistic take on combat. If you’re using a sword, you can end up hitting anything but your target. Plus, if you’re playing with friends, you can hit them because the game has friendly fire always enabled.
According to the trailer, there are some practice dummies you can try weapons with. Also, you can get used to the dynamic crosshair for melee weapons. It transforms to show you the path of the next swing, which lets you aim where the swing will hit.
Learn How to Dodge
You can still avoid most hits despite not having a dedicated button for dodging. Jump over low swings and duck (by crouching) under high ones. Otherwise, you can disengage to avoid their swing and come back to swing at them or block with a shield (only if there’s no other choice).
At any rate, most attacks are dodge-able, though other players will prove to be more challenging. That brings us to the next tip.
Bring Lots of Health Recovery Potions (or Bandages)
Dark and Darker may not shy away from the nitty gritty, but it’s also generous about providing recovery options. Once you get your footing, always stock up on these. They’re cheap, and you’ll need them frequently on your delving adventures. Make sure to secure a room before using bandages, though, because it takes time for the effects to heal.
Otherwise, you can have a friend be a cleric and a dedicated healer/buffer. Still, as they’re also human, you need the potions because they can’t always heal you. It does, however, free you up to bring other things or leave free space in your inventory. The latter lets you bring home more loot to sell, which is always good.
More Advanced Tricks: Being Aware of the Environment
Darkness and Light
Some dungeon parts require a torch or a similar light source to navigate. Of course, you can use this to your advantage as much as it could sometimes inconvenience you. If you encounter a fight in a dark location, you can drop your torch to see what you’re doing.
While wizards and rogues have abilities that render them invisible, you can achieve a similar effect, especially if players are nearby. You can hide in a shadowy corner, turn out the lights around, and wait in an ambush. Otherwise, you can also use it to get away from any pursuers.
General Observation
Look around the rooms and corridors, and judge the distance and what you can use to your advantage. You can also check for traps and other dangerous hazards. With practice, you can quickly catalog where spawns could be or where the treasure is.
You can also use the environment and shelves or tables to block approaching enemies or projectiles. At any rate, being aware of the environment can help immensely.
Positioning
So it’s already been mentioned that the game has friendly fire. That means players have to be conscious of their positioning. Melee characters should move in predictable ways and position themselves to the advantage of their ranged allies.
Similarly, ranged characters should also do their work. If their melee ally isn’t in position, they can be the ones to move so they can avoid hitting their friend(s).
Pay Attention to the Minimap
As mentioned in the introduction, dungeons have a safe area you can be in. If you’re not paying attention to the minimap, you might get caught up in the dark and unsafe place. You can also see the safe area in your player character’s view. It shows up as a white forcefield-like thing.
Watch out when you see it, as past it is the dark swarm that will kill you if you don’t get out of it.
Strategies for Each Enemy You Can Encounter
You’ll encounter many kinds of enemies. Each has different moves and actions, so you should also have strategies for them.
- Skeletons: They come in melee or ranged (bow users) variations. Stay away from the melee swing until they finish the animation. As for the ranged ones, they sometimes shoot two arrows in a row, so watch out for that. When encountering Champions, skeletons with horned helmets and shields, you should kite them and defeat them with ranged attacks.
- Mages: They have a protection spell they use when you get close. Also, they fire magic you should avoid. It would be best if you made them a priority because they can cast their protective spell on other enemies.
- Spiders: These will continuously spawn unless you destroy their origin, usually a turned-over vase. Aim down to hit them, and you can clamber onto something to get a little distance from them.
- Flying Skulls: Their eyes glow when they’re gonna swoop down on you. They don’t have so much HP, so it should be easy to defeat.
- Mummies: Enemies that release a poisonous green cloud. Steer clear as they and the cloud disappear shortly after.
- Wraiths: These ghost-like apparitions are pretty strong. They’ll aggro on the person who hit them last. You can use them to bait other players into attacking it to make it chase them.
- Enemies with red eyes (or, in the case of skeletons, are red) are elite mobs with more significant damage and life.
- One step higher from that are black-eyed mobs which are called Nightmare mobs.
About Opening Portals
Portals are your ticket out of the dungeon. In Dark and Darker, you can open one when you find a glowing blue pillar, usually when the safe area has shrunken down into a smaller space. Be careful, as other players can ambush you and take the portal themselves. It only accepts one person to go through, so if your portal gets stolen, you must find another one.
You can open one and have enough time to search one last room for some more loot. However, secure the room you’re in before doing so. Lay some traps, close doors, and prepare for any eventuality.
If you can’t find an Escape Portal, consider going through a Down Portal. These pillars glow red instead of blue and take you to the second floor of the dungeon. Going through these portals makes the dungeon harder, with you encountering red or red-eyed enemies more often. You can get to another Escape Portal on this floor if you can survive this.
It’s risky, but if you’re out of options, it’s the only way besides becoming one with the Darkness.
Sometimes you must decide who goes to the portal when you’re in a group. Decide on this beforehand so you save time and the others can try to find another. At least nobody will have hard feelings. This is moot for solo players, but that’s only for the most hardcore players, as it is more challenging than playing with friends.
You can decide to send off who has more loot or who has the lowest level. Escaping provides a significant EXP bonus to whoever that is, so it can be a way for them to catch up.
Accept Your Inevitable Death
You’ll still die no matter how much you prepare and train yourself. Since we’re only human, we’re prone to making mistakes, and some mistakes can cost our life (in the game). Otherwise, another player can get the best of you, and you lose all your loot and gear on your death.
The sooner you accept this fact, the easier it is to pick yourself up and try again. That’s how you grow and get better. Anyway, don’t be discouraged about dying. You can get stuff back (or collect better gear). You learn a good lesson and be warier of what killed you.
It’s also a warning to not get too attached to your items. You’ll definitely be more upset if you lose your favorite things. However, if they’re not your favorite, it’s easier to swallow that you lost them. Still, you should strike a balance between good gear to survive and your reluctance to lose them.
It’s somewhat better than EFT, though, because there are more opportunities to be stealthy in this literally dark game. That means you can better avoid encounters if you want to in this game (see Darkness and Light).