Introduction

Welcome to our Dark and Darker Fighter guide for beginners. In this guide we’ll be covering all the basics you need to know to get your adventure started in Dark and Darker. The Fighter is a strong melee class with a knack for every form of combat. The Fighter is a very flexible class that when equipped with the right perk, has access to all weapons in the game.

Pros

• Jack of all trades
• Can equip most items
• Sprint skill allowing great movement
• Great for solo and group play

Cons

• Gear dependent
• While flexible, has less identity

Skills

Skills in Dark and Darker are the core abilities each class has unique access to. Currently you can select two of the following skills to complement the playstyle or build choice you prefer:

• Adrenaline Rush
• Breakthrough
• Perfect Block
• Second Wind
• Shield Slam
• Sprint
• Taunt
• Victory Strike

Adrenaline Rush

Gain 15% action speed for 8 seconds. After the duration ends, lose 8% action speed and 4% move speed bonus for 2 seconds.

Breakthrough

Removes debuffs that slow move speed and ignores all move speed debuff effects for 8 seconds.

Perfect Block

Gain 5 impact resistance for 6 seconds.

Second Wind

Recover 40% maximum health over 12 seconds. Additionally, Second Wind removes the negative effects of Adrenaline Rush.

Shield Slam

Inflicts 25 physical damage on the player, and reduces the target’s move speed bonus by 20% for 2 seconds.

Sprint

Gain 3 stacks of Momentum upon activation. Each stack of momentum gives 15 additional move speed. Lose 1 stack every 2 seconds.

Taunt

increases the aggro value to all monsters within a 7.5m area by 50%. Gain 10% physical damage reduction and 10% magical damage reduction for 8 seconds.

Victory Strike

Your next attack deals an additional 20% physical damage bonus. If the target dies from this attack, heal for 15% of your maximum health.

Skill Recommendations

For starting out and the foreseeable future, we recommend using Sprint and Second Wind. Both of these skills are just too powerful as a baseline to give up for the others. Sprint allows you to engage or disengage with ease, chase down to finish kills or dodge in and out of combat.

While Second Wind allows you to keep in the fight without relying on other healing sources. It should be noted however that popping potions alongside Second Wind provides a tremendous amount of healing per second.

Perks

Perks in Dark and Darker serve as unique passive traits. Each class can slot up to 4 perks once they reach max level:

• Adrenaline Spike – When your health goes below 40% gain 15% action speed for 12 seconds.
• Barricade – While in defensive stance, gain 50 armor rating and 50 magic resistance.
• Combo Attack – When you successfully melee attack consecutively within 2 seconds: gain 10% physical damage bonus temporarily.
• Counterattack – When you successfully block an attack, gain 10% move speed bonus and 10% action speed for 3 seconds.
• Defense Mastery – Gain an additional 10% armor rating bonus from equipped armor.
• Dual Wield – While you have weapons equipped in both hands, gain 10% action speed.
• Projectile Resistance – Gain 10% projectile damage reduction.
• Shield Mastery – While in defensive stance , gain 10% move speed bonus. When you successfully block an attack, gain 50% action speed towards your next block.
• Slayer – While holding a weapon in each hand, gain 5 weapon damage and lose the ability to equip plate armor.
• Swift – Reduces the armor move speed penalty by 20%. Not applicable to additional modifiers.
• Sword Mastery – When using a sword-type weapon, gain 2 weapons and 5% action speed. Also gain 10 additional move speed when taking a defensive stance with your sword.
• Weapon Mastery – Gain the ability to use any weapon, While using a non-native weapon to your class, lose 10% physical damage bonus on the weapon.

Perk Recommendations

Currently, we recommend taking Weapon Mastery, Combo Attack, Projectile Resistance and Swift. However when starting out in your adventure and you are leveling your Fighter, we suggest starting with Weapon Mastery. This is due to the fact that you can pick up a bow and safely clear rooms early on.

Spells

Currently in our Dark and Darker Fighter guide, the Fighter has no access to spells, but this could change with the addition of artifacts or scrolls. Check back here in future updates!

Weapons

The Fighter is a weapon master, having access to a plethora of weapons:

• EVERY weapon in the game due to the Weapon Mastery perk

Starting, we recommend taking either an Arming Sword and Shield or Longsword as your melee option and a Bow as your ranged option. You can activate a parry styled block with the Longsword.

You can however, use anything you like. We do believe though that having a melee and ranged option is a currently overpowered playstyle.

Stat Priority

Different stats in Dark and Darker have different properties, as a result we recommend prioritizing the following stats on gear:

• +All Attributes
• Physical Damage Reduction
• Movement Speed
• Strength

+All Attributes is a no-brainer, allowing you additional stat points in every stat is huge value. We recommend both Movement Speed and Strength to give yourself decent mobility and health pool/damage. Physical Damage Reduction allows the Fighter to become a tanking monster, able to fight off entire teams of Physical Damage-based players.

How To Play Fighter

In this Dark and Darker Fighter Guide, we will focus on the fundamentals. Ultimately as a Fighter you will provide melee damage and serve as a frontline to teammates but also serve as a ranged poke. Dark and Darker is a very brutal and unforgiving game, as a result mechanics such as friendly fire is on. This means as a Fighter you have to be careful when swinging your melee weapon.

PvE

When dealing with PvE mobs throughout your dungeon run most mobs can be taken down fairly easily with a single swing or at most two to the head. It is important against any mobs to take a swing and immediately move out to avoid taking unnecessary damage or block with a shield. Due to Weapon Mastery on the Fighter, you have access to Bows. Take absolute advantage of this and use Bows to clear out mobs from a safe distance.

As a Fighter you have Second Wind available to you, so if you happen to take damage to PvE you can at least top up for free! However, bring a few Campfires with you!

PvP

Fighting with teammates versus another trio can get hectic quickly, with the Fighter use this opportunity to start most fights from range with the Bow. As a result of poking down targets with the bow, you can then pivot to being the melee frontline, and use Sprint to push into the enemy team! As a Fighter you set the pace and pressure of the fight due to this, learn to capitalize on ranged punishment and when to switch into melee to push! Remember that you can soak damage for your team and use Second Wind to keep in the fight.

Solo

When you are playing solo however, you have to pick your fights a little more carefully. The aim of the game when solo is to find the perfect opportunity to take out a player instantly without the enemy teammates reacting to it in time. Looking for favorable odds is key. Fortunately as the Fighter you have so much versatility in your kit due to Weapon Mastery that you can find a playstyle that suits you and solo play more! Having the ability to use a Bow and a Sword and Shield for example allows you as a solo player to potentially pick off opponents with a Bow and put the pressure on, or leave the players low enough to pursue and finish them. Remember to abuse Second Wind and Sprint to turn an otherwise disadvantaged fight into a potential win!

Playing as a Tank

A strong way of playing Fighter in group play currently in Dark and Darker is the full plate tank build. This build revolves around using a Longsword and a choice of either a ranged weapon or Falchion & Shield. The key to this playstyle is the use of stacking Physical Damage Reduction on plate armor. With this set-up, you are almost immune to Rangers or other melee characters. As a result, be aggressive and push up as a frontline and soak the initial push. It should be noted that with a Cleric and/or Bard with you, you are also an unstoppable killing machine!

We hope you enjoyed our comprehensive Dark and Darker Fighter Guide for beginners! To check out other class guides and more, click here.

Dark and Darker’s next Playtest is coming on 6th February, with many potential changes and additions discussed in our Q&A Recap.