Do you want to have piles of coins in your stash, but you keep dying at the hands of goblins and skeletons? Are you sick of losing 1v1s and not getting better at the game?

This beginner’s guide will give you tips and tricks on how to go from Zero to Hero real quick in Dark and Darker.

Classes You Can Choose

All classes in Dark and Darker are valid and usable to start with. However, for new players, three builds are particularly helpful: the Fighter, the Cleric, and the Rogue.

Fighter is good because you get a shield, and you do decent damage with your sword. You also get a skill that heals you and you get a bandage for a little cheeky heal on the side.

Cleric is good for similar reasons. They get multiple spells to heal themselves or teammates, a shield to block incoming attacks, and a mace for bonking.

Rogue is a great starter, purely for getting out of a sticky situation. If you find yourself stuck in a corner surrounded by mobs, just go invisible to dig aggro everything. Rogues are also really fast and they have this crazy fun double jump skill, which is just absolutely OP.

Tips For Avoiding Damage

Avoiding damage in Dark and Darker is absolutely essential, especially when first starting out. You have very average gear and most classes don’t get healing items to start with. So, here are some tips to help overcome that.

It can be really hard to avoid damage from scales and archers as they have a long range. However, docking just as they release the arrow from their bow will make their arrows hit nothing but sweet air.

There are three ways around traps. First is simply walking around them. There’s usually a narrow path that you can quickly go past them. The second way is to throw a torch on top of the trap to trigger it. Wait until the exact time the spikes withdraw and then jump over. The third way is being a Rogue who has that OP double jump I was talking about earlier and just eat over it.

Each weapon has its own hitbox and learning how far away from your attacker you need to be is crucial in Dark and Darker. This comes with practice. Although if you are using a sword, you can usually get one hit in. And then, move backwards or strafe to the side to avoid the hit. Then, hit again. Bobbing and weaving is very important in this game.

The hardest attacks to avoid, in my opinion, are the skeletons with the long swords or the spears. You just need to give them a really wide berth. Also, watch out for ax animations as sometimes they go back to back with their swings. So, be careful of those. Also, some goblins deal blade damage, so watch out for that. As that’s nasty, it hurts you over time.

Maps

There are multiple maps in Dark and Darker: one for solos, two other free maps for solos or squads.

There’s also two High Roller Maps, which means you have to buy your way in. If you have a large amount of Dark and Darker Gold, this will be a piece of cake for you.

But the loot and challenge is absolutely top tier. Only the most stacked squads go in there to reap the rewards.

Bosses

There are bosses in Dark and Darker, for example, the Troll in the basement who has massive health and basically one or two shots of you.

Take these guys on when you know the game a little better.

But a great tip for finding them is to crouch stab the heck out of them and look for the cues of when they are doing overhead attacks and make sure you avoid these.

Portals

There are two types of portals in Dark and Darker.

The Blue Portals will let you escape from the dungeon and take all your loot back with you.

The Red Portals will take you deeper into the dungeon where higher-level enemies and loot await those are brave enough to venture through it.

Things The Game Doesn’t Tell You

Press ‘J’ to rest and you’ll see there’s two health bars. There’s a dark red health bar and a transparent one. The transparent one actually shows you how much health you will gain if you press ‘J’ to rest to recover it.

Press ‘T’ to emote.

In the lobby, there are practice dummies where you can hit them and see how much damage your weapon is currently doing.

Pressing ‘X’ will sheath your weapons.

Lastly, being naked makes you run much faster.