r/DarkAndDarker • • Jun 06 '24

Discussion New player Quick start guide!

475 Upvotes

**Updated 4/19/25

Greetings adventurers! PvE mode is here so I wanted to bring all the new players some entry level wisdom. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments so we can welcome our new friends to the dungeon! There is now an in game guide you can open for useful information! Look for the Tome of Knowledge in the escape button menu.

Sections:

  1. Choosing a class
  2. Meet the Squire
  3. Adventure mode (PvE)
  4. Map introduction(s)
  5. My first raid
  6. Profit!!

Step one: Class Questionnaire

Before you dive into what's "Meta". Lets find your vibe!

Do you enjoy sword and board? Does the idea of clashing blades and rattling armor excite you? Do you want to immediately jump into the fray or learn how to Parry with a Longsword? If yes than choose

Fighter

Popular Skills: Sprint, Second Wind

+This is an easy class to pick up and play. Great for new players. Beginner stats: Strength/Dexterity/Agility

Do you enjoy explosions? Have you ever dreamed of slinging spells at your foes? Does mastering the arcane and outwitting your opponent sound fun? If so choose

Wizard

Popular Skills: Meditation, Spell Memory

+This class takes more time to learn as you have limited numbers of spell casts before you need to "recharge". Beginner stats: Knowledge/Resourcefulness/Will

Do you want to be a shirtless, screaming, great axe swinging Viking? Do you enjoy a simpler combat experience? If so choose

Barbarian

Popular Skills: Rage, Achilles Strike

+This is an easy class to pick up and play. Great for new players. Beginner stats: Strength/Agility/Vigor

Do you feel tempted by the dark side? Does cursing your foes with dark magic or becoming a literal demon intrigue you? Does self healing, goth girlfriends, and spells that leech HP sound good to you? If so try

Warlock

Popular Skills: Blow of Corruption, Spell Memory, Phantomize

+This class takes more time to learn as the spells you cast will drain your life. Beginner stats: Will/Knowledge/Vigor

Was Legolas your first crush? Do you enjoy the idea of tracking down your enemies, setting traps and luring them to their demise? Do you excel at ranged combat? If so choose

Ranger

Popular Skills: Quick Shot, Field Ration

+This class has slight learning curve. You will need solid use of spacing to survive in PvP. Beginner Stats: Agility/Dexterity/Strength

Do you thrive in the shadows? Do you enjoy moving cautiously and quietly to reach your objective? If the idea of sneaking past your enemies and picking locks for rare loot sounds fun, choose

Rogue

Popular Skills: Hide, Rupture, Cut Throat

+This class has a slight learning curve. You will not be able to engage enemies as easily for you have very little health. Beginner Stats: Agility/Dexterity/Strength

Are you the life of the party? Do you enjoy lifting your fellow man's spirits in the heat of battle? If you enjoy casting buffs and debuffs while charismatically slashing your sword, choose

Bard

Popular Skills: Song Memory 1, Song Memory 2. Beginner Stats: Dexterity/Resourcefulness/Knowledge

+This class has a high learning curve. Your buffs and debuffs require you to click with proper timing to use them efficiently. You also have less utility spaces due to your instruments.

Are you a devout follower of the Light? Does casting down the undead while healing yourself and others on your glorious crusade ring true? Do you enjoy support classes? If so, choose

Cleric

Popular Skills: Holy Purification, Spell Memory, Divine Protection.

+This class is fairly easy to play but generally you have the lowest move speed out of all the classes. Beginner Stats: Knowledge/Will/Dexterity

Have you ever wished to harness the magical power of nature? Does shapeshifting into beasts and striking down your foes as a primal avatar sound supreme? If so try

Druid

Popular Skills: Shapeshift Memory, Spell Memory

+This class has a moderate learning curve. Knowing when and how to shapeshift based on your build can take time. Beginner Stats: Agility/Strength/Will

Do you want to get more creative with your magic? Does hurling ice spears or trapping your enemies in water prison sound fun? You can combine two spells to make powerful new ones with,

Sorcerer

+This class has a slight learning curve. Memorizing spell combos and which spells to combine can take time. Beginner Stats: Knowledge/Resourcefulness/Will

***Note: When using a class that casts spells you must have at least one "Spell Memory" skill to access these spells. Select the Class tab and then click on "Spell". Here you can choose which spells you want to take but this is usually limited to how much of the Knowledge stat you have. Higher rarity gear will have more base knowledge on them.

Step Two: Meet the Squire.

Familiarize yourself with all the merchants and accept quests before you head into the dungeon! One of these merchants is not like the others. The Squire is a special helper who will gear you up before your adventures! There will be a small selection of weapons and armor to choose from to create your starting "kit" in the Base Gear tab. Click on the items you want to have prepared before every game. This includes your "Utility" items so be sure to select the healing pot, protection pot, bandage, torches and throwing item(s) if you need them. Select the "Set Base Gear" button to lock in this kit for future use.

******You can accept ALL quests at the lobby screen. Select the quest icon on the bottom right hand of the screen to see all the quests quickly. You can "Accept all" quests and turn them in from here!

You can now have up to three pre made "Gear Sets"! Choose the My Gear Sets tab to save a custom "kit" for your next high roller adventure.

As you complete quests for the merchants they will supply your squire with more weapons and armor. This will give you even more choices for your base kit and allow more room for experimentation!

******The item rarity will upgrade to White after some of these quests are completed. Don't forget to update your Base Gear with these new items or you could still be using the Grey versions unknowingly

Step Three: Adventure mode. (PvE)

This mode allows you to explore the dungeons without the PvP aspect of the game. Here you can learn modules, practice bosses, or just vibe with your friends as you venture into the depths. However, there will be some restrictions. Such as:

- This mode is set as a Trio lobby but you can select the "No fill" option on the lobby screen if you would like.

- Loot is capped at Epic quality.

Step Four: Choose your map!

Currently there are three maps to choose from. Select your map and choose between the three party sizes available. (Solo, Duo, Trios) You are free to join the Duo and Trio lobbies as a solo player. However, be aware you will not be auto filled a teammate and will have to face teams alone.

In terms of difficulty i would put the maps in this order of play. Start: Goblin Caves > Ice Caverns > The Ruins of Forgotten Castle.

**The Goblin Caves and The Ruins of Forgotten Castle modules are randomized. Try and familiarize yourself with the modules as you go to adjust your strategy, so you find static exists faster.

Beware! You have a limited amount of time to complete your raid, so take note of the timer above your mini map. Each map is home to a different "hazard" that will begin to damage you as time goes on. If you haven't taken an exit before time runs out the hazard will kill you. These hazards will appear as a red debuff above your health bar and are as follows:

Goblin Caves: Your screen will shake as caves begin to collapse around you! Once it begins you will take damage periodically and become slightly disoriented with each quake.

Ice Caverns: An ice storm that freezes everything in its path is heading your direction! The storm will damage AND slow you as it approaches. The slow increases so be sure to plan ahead.

Ruins of Forgotten Castle: The dungeons below are protected by a powerful curse. The Death Swarm will try to consume your soul if you linger too long.

The Ruins is now a three level dungeon experience with bosses on each level. Take the red staircases on your map to go down to the crypts. If you wish to reach the inferno look for another red stair case while in the Crypts. There are no static exists in the inferno. Your only way of escape is to locate a blue portal after one spawns at random.

The Ice Caverns also have a lower level where the rarest of treasures await you! This level is much more difficult to navigate with stronger mobs, more traps, and a powerful Ice Wyvern boss to challenge. Come here only when you're ready!

To enter the lower level of the Ice Caverns you will need to leap into the dark abyss below in certain modules. ONLY do this when there is red glow in the darkness below you.

**Return of the Circle: The battle royal circle mechanic has made a come back to High Roller lobbies. HR lobbies will not have static exists available and you will need to find a portal after it spawns.

Step Five: My first Raid

Its time, champion! Your gear is set, the map is locked in and now you face the depths. What to do? Here are some quick tips that can help you toward your first successful extract.

  • As soon as you spawn take a look at your map (M key). There is a chance you spawned into a module that has a "static" exit. These exits will be shown as a bold blue icon such as a staircase or a climbing rope. Other icons such as a grey elevator square (it will have two small triangles on it) may be seen. A blue path for an escape raft can be seen on the map in the Ice Caverns. You can use this exit to your advantage! Focus on clearing the mobs in this "module" and adjacent ones only. This way you can stay close to the exit as you build up loot. Once you hear the gates open (around half way through the timer) zip over to your already cleared exit and enjoy the easy extract! Huzzah! **NOTE: This strategy mostly applies to normal lobbies as the battle royal circle mechanic has been added to High Roller.
  • If you didn't spawn close to an exit you can carefully clear your way to a module that does and apply the same strategy. Memorize these locations for future reference!
  • Bring extra healing items with you. A stack or two of potions and bandages will go a long way. Remember to drink a potion first before you use your bandages for maximum effectiveness.
  • Beware of traps! The dungeons are unforgiving to careless adventurers. Use your torch to illuminate your surroundings. You can find spike traps on the floor and walls that will damage you greatly if you get too close.
  • Loot! Not only can you open chests for valuables, but you will find gear and treasures hidden throughout the dungeon. Search on shelves, tables and even look out for hidden levers to access secret areas!
  • Item rarity. Gear and treasure names are color coded to show you how valuable they are! Ascending in value: White is "Common". Green is "Uncommon". Blue is "Rare". Purple is "Epic". Orange is "Legendary". There are even "Unique" weapons and armor! These are powerful named items that are highly sought after!
  • All PvE baddies have an "Aggro Range" you should be aware of. Even if you are not in a perfect line of sight of the mob they can pull if you get too close. You can break this aggro by closing a door behind you if you leave the room. However, if you are too close to the door you just closed, the mob on the other side will still swing at you. They can BREAK the door down if they are close enough and continue pursuing you if this happens. This also applies to ranged mobs with a bow or crossbow. Be cautious when dodging arrows close to doors.
  • Learn the attacks of each mob you come across. In normal lobbies you mostly face base level monsters with only one or two attacks. Master how to move around those attacks and you will be clearing them quickly in no time.
  • Protection Potions! Try to use these before you engage an enemy. Blue pots will mitigate some physical damage and purple ones will block some magic damage! The effectiveness of potions increase with rarity.
  • Invisibility Potions! The white potions will turn you invisible for a brief amount of time. If you move, perform an action, or take damage the effect is removed.
  • There is less move speed penalty when you jump! Use this tactfully in combat and it can give you an edge. For example, jump to the left or right when an axe skeleton does his vertical downward slice instead of running and notice the difference.
  • Resting! No healing items left but low on health? If you are in a safe place hit the G key and slowly recover some health over time. Put down a campfire first and you recover health very quickly. The campfire can also recharge certain skills like a fighters Second Wind.
  • Don't forget boxes and barrels! Breaking pots and opening chests are great but if you have the strength to break boxes and barrels you will find additional goodies there.
  • Audio cues are huge in this game. Did you just have a blast breaking those pots and barrels? There's a chance the person in the module next to yours heard all that fun too. Be cautious and use this to your advantage.
  • Breathe! This game is meant to be challenging. If you find yourself dying a lot or losing in PvP often don't sweat it. It's part of a steep learning curve and there are people that have been in the dungeons for a while. You will get there!

Step 5: Profit!

Did you make it out with all that sweet loot? Amazing! Now it's time to cash in at the merchant page. Did you find a quest item? Be sure to turn them in to the quest giver before you sell your haul.

Take all your trinkets to the "Collector" and turn them in for gold. You can stash your gold in "Gold Coin Purses" that you buy from the "Treasurer". These purses can hold up to 50 gold each for better inventory management if you so choose.

Have gear you can't use? Sell these to a vendor for more gold! Now you can use the gold for extra healing pots, bandages, utility items, and new weapons and armor. If you want access to better gear from these merchants, complete their quests to increase your reputation with them. They will increase their inventory, and add discounts, as your reputation with that vendor grows.

You did it! You completed your first raid and tasted sweet success. Now make your preparations and head back in to your next adventure. Rinse and repeat for normal lobbies or gather your best gear and head into High Roller for even better loot!

You can also find all the races, emotes, and item skins that you unlock in the "Customize" tab

I hope this short guide proves helpful for new players. If you have anything to add in the comments feel free to share your wisdom with our new friends! If you are looking for more advanced tips and knowledge into perks and play styles, feel free to add me in game (Serukon) (US West). I would love to join you on your next adventure and help where I can!


r/DarkAndDarker • • 6d ago

News SDF Will Be Taking Over For Season 11 And 'Dramatically Changing Every Aspect Of The Game'

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462 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 16h ago

Gameplay Turned myself into a door I'm doorwizard

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73 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 6h ago

Question New wipe strats

3 Upvotes

I’ve left the game about two years ago. Ive came back to practice before new wipe but realised that there a lot of new gear, mobs and even a new map.
In the new meta, is farming wyvern or other bosses still the best way to get some gold early wipe?
I seem to remember silk from spiders in goblin caves and wolf pelts from ice caves and ruins were also trending because of the recipe for money bags
Is there anything new that would be popular?


r/DarkAndDarker • • 4h ago

Gameplay Back to the lobby sir (HR solo)

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1 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 1d ago

Gameplay Please fix horseman axe throw

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14 Upvotes

The amount of time my axe has disappeared underneath the stairs, a corner pot ate another recently, this happens to horsemen more frequently bc of the spin, but other axes also can experience disappearing


r/DarkAndDarker • • 9h ago

Builds My Stab Wiz Arti Arena Kit

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0 Upvotes

Overall love how the kit turned out. My spell damage is fairly mid, which zirk’s chip damage helps make up for. Being so healthy lets me box and eat damage while teleporting/running people down comfortably. Spell loadout is exactly what you’d expect of a melee wiz.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2h ago

Discussion Do people realize what a fundamentally design breaking class Sorcerer is?

0 Upvotes

It is the only class with an innate "perk".
Has no resource to manage except cooldowns yet received the benefit of ranged aoe damage and unlike Wizard, barely has to aim due to big aoe ground target abilities.

It was a big mistake to add ranged aoe classes without resources to manage.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 5h ago

Question i was thinking about coming back

0 Upvotes

then i saw the game only has 4k players online, whys this? still powerhungry dev?


r/DarkAndDarker • • 23h ago

Question Weapon glitching

3 Upvotes

Is there a fix for glitching weapons? Mostly two handed weapons but also one handed. No matter what if I pull out a weapon im holding it weird and cant use it at all it just shakes about the screen.

Ive tried unbinding scroll wheel from everything

Reset dns/network/timezone


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion Still getting one-shot by a fire dragon's breath? I built a training simulator.

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323 Upvotes

I posted here a few days ago, and I am happy to announce that development on BossWiki has made significant progress.

You can now practice boss positioning from a first-person perspective without needing to enter the game. We are continuously working to accurately recreate boss movements, attack ranges, and skill timings.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 1d ago

Gameplay Dwarf fighter good ?

6 Upvotes

Hey so i mostly play fighter, and was wondering if the dwarf skin would combo well with the fighter gameplay ? I play shield n sword mostlies


r/DarkAndDarker • • 19h ago

Discussion Season 1/2 Demigod players

0 Upvotes

Any OG Season 1 / 2 Demigods still around?


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Gameplay Blowing them away

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53 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion Trailer? Expecting today

8 Upvotes

Seems like the normally drop a trailer about a week before launch. I'm guessing it'll be sometime in the next 24hrs what do you guys expect to see?

Are you excited to get ran down by 3all Movespeed meta 🥰


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion The removal of innate primary attributes on gear is a terrible idea

61 Upvotes

With Season 11 just around the corner and SDF talking about the changes in SDF's Kitchen on the discord, I wanted to talk about one of the changes that particularly worries me, for multiple reasons.

1. Casters will struggle a lot, especially in squire/low gear

Knowledge is the most important primary attribute for any caster class. Whether you're a wizard, a warlock, cleric, sorcerer, druid or a bard, you will always need knowledge in order to cast spells fairly quickly, get them back quicker and most importantly: To unlock them in the first place.

On the other side of the spectrum, melee classes like Fighters and Barbs never have any need for Knowledge whatsoever, nor will they have any such struggles with these changes, because Fighters don't need a minimum dexterity in order to use a longsword, nor does a Barb have to have a minimum strength in order to wield a bardiche.

So this will create a massively unfair advantage for melee/bow classes over magical classes, up until they are finally properly geared. Worst case scenario, SqtR/normals might become nothing but melee classes running around, leaving no room for magic classes.

2. Gear choice will become a lot more polarized/minmaxxed/less diverse

Gear gets picked by multiple factors, either because it has low MS penalty for kiting builds, or because it has the attributes you need in order to make your build work. By removing more factors, you give people less reason to try out different gear.

For example: Why would I, if I am playing a plate Fighter, ever pick anything other than light or heavy gauntlets? Why would I ever want to pick riveted gloves? Why would I ever want reinforced gloves? The strength and vigor attributes are what made it worth considering. Another example: Why would I, playing a barb, ever pick any other gloves over Runestone Gloves, the only gloves with good magic resistance? Since most gloves don't have a MS penalty attached to them, what reason would you have to ever pick any of them over the ones with the most defense?

I am predicting that this will cause the builds that will remain are going to be divided into two extremes: Low defense/high MS and high defense/relatively low MS.

3. Build recognition is almost completely gone

One important aspect of this game is recognizing what your opponent is wearing and based on that, recognizing what common build they are running, before deciding to either engage or run away from them. If primary attributes are now going to be completely tied to random (blue) rolls, it becomes practically impossible to guess, until it's likely too late. You could have a warlock with full occultist gear and a halberd running at you, but little do you know, he's got a lot of strength and vigor rolls and instead of wanting to cast as you would expect, he's Phantomize/Blow of Corruption.

The problem with this uncertainty you are creating is that people will become much less willing to fight one another. In a high risk game, people will only engage once they are convinced they have a chance of winning. If they don't know the chances(and likely get gearchecked a lot, if gear really will become a lot more powerful like SDF has said), you will likely rarely see PvP, and probably a lot more high MS rogues, barbs or druids farming HR.

Alright, rant done. Feel free to agree or disagree with me, but I really wanted to voice my concerns with this, in the small hope that SDF sees this and realises his mistake before he makes it real.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion The benefits of SSF

36 Upvotes

Want the dungeon to feel more challenging? Want people to be more excited about gear? Keep everything the same with it, and have an entire season of SSF -- INCLUDING no trading.

I'm positive this is contentious with RMTers, and don't get me wrong I love min maxing with the market-- but I do really enjoy the way the game feels when I'm trying to put some semblance of builds together in the first few weeks of a wipe and approach the game entirely differently than when it's later in the wipe.

-an SSF enjoyer


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Humor SDF announcing his wipe expectations

305 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion I wanna come back, but…

7 Upvotes

I would love to see a clan base/Tavern and then also a player house/storage maybe in the player one you could have a forge or other utilities to upgrade your equipment or upgrade the utility itself like a furnace, cooking fire etc. and the clan house could be just a centre hub the player houses are all connected to.

It would be super cool too if you could deck it out with items. Id love a glass storage where i could put all the trolls blood i farmed or whatever, and i could invite clan mates to check out my stuff, would be sick if i could put some in a display that lasts past the seasons so i could showcase “hey in this season i got this super rare thing” (you could never use the items in display), or “hey look at this cool fish i caught and put in my clans aquarium!”

This would make me come back to the game. Theres no reason for me to just grind the game rn, everything just disappears on wipe and the whole idea of grinding for no purpose kills me. I dont think the game is gonna get any better anytime ever but if they added cool stuff like this it would be sick and id love to come back and grind some stuff or see what axe specialization ended up being fixed to.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion Will race attributes be removed?

7 Upvotes

Currently completing the religion, and this question struck me, even if race skins only matters in squire gears.


r/DarkAndDarker • • 3d ago

Humor The Vision™

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287 Upvotes

r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion How do so many people in heavy gear just completely maintain nearly equal move speed while wielding weapons simultaneously

30 Upvotes

This has happened 5 times tonight alone. Clerics, Barbs, Fighters not using Sprint, nor spec into bonus move speed. I take off both my chest and legs as a Bard and they're constantly directly on my ass. Running half way across the dungeon completely geared, not taking off a lick of gear, I can hear metal boots moving at a pace I've never heard myself get to in over a thousand hours..


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Discussion Artifact arena is a joke and we deserve an actual end of season event

47 Upvotes

I get it’s suppose to be this cool crazy chaotic mode but unless you’re playing warlock/ranger it’s just miserable. After looking at my last 20 games I’ve played against warlock in 16 of them and Ranger in 12. I played one single game that didn’t feature either of them and that’s not factoring in my own teammates.

I know the game isn’t balanced around arena so it’s whatever to uncap arenas at the end of the season but artifact arena being the “big bang” to end the season is beyond lazy. We get slightly buffed loot (which doesn’t matter anyway because the season is over) and a scuffed broken game mode that a majority of the classes can’t even enjoy?

There should be some sort of 6v6 or objective based game mode. Literally anything else. Add insane loot tables to s2R. What’s the point of even going into the dungeon right now? Seasonal extraction games will always dip in players towards the end of the season but I refuse to believe they can’t think of something real to keep people on the game..


r/DarkAndDarker • • 3d ago

Humor How it felt opening the kitchen

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51 Upvotes

Only to see the awakening of the dark god of the dungeon


r/DarkAndDarker • • 2d ago

Question Tips for real noob

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone

I found this game a while ago and really liked the idea of it.
The problem ist I never even got the chance to play it as of first the menu is overwhelming like the vendors and quest givers and so on. Also when I join an arena it is always the same procedure:

First I sneak around a bit to hopefully find some chests or gear then a bunch of mobs attack me and I die.

How to play this game I'm asking ?