Dark and Darker Beginner’s Guide, Tips, and Tricks

Beginner’s guide and general tips & tricks and how to play to be a successful solo player.

Your main goal as a beginner

Your main goal as a beginner is to defeat monsters and level up your class so you can equip more perks.

Earning XP by killing monsters and leveling up your class is more important now than getting out of the dungeon alive with some loot or fighting players.

Learn how to fight monsters first while avoiding traps (and other players).

Learn monster attack patterns, so you know when to attack and how to dodge/block attacks.

Getting out alive with some loot comes after you become good at defeating monsters. And PVP is the last thing you should worry about now.

You will get killed by monsters and players, don’t worry about it, go back again!

General tips

• Learn your class and figure out what playstyle works for you
• Thinking before you do anything keeps you alive
• Aim for the head! You deal more damage hitting the head
• You can crouch to avoid wall traps
• You can hit multilple enemies with one swing
• Everything you do will make some noise
• You run faster, and jump further with the torch/nothing in your hand
• Watch your surroundings, loot can be anywhere
• Be wary of dark rooms and corners, players might hide there to ambush you! Sneaky rogue
• Darkness is your friend, not just as a rogue
• You make less noisie moving around while crouching (Ctrl) or walking (Shift)
• Try to not get hit while fighting, learn how to dodge attacks and spells
• You can hold down Left Mouse Button for combo attacks
• Some weapons have a right click attack as well
• Smash open vases, boxes and barrels, There is loot in them!
• Try to not get cornered
• You will lose gear, don’t get too attached
• Don’t panic when seeing multiple enemies, kite them around and kill them
• Look out for shiny things on the ground, you can sell jewelry, gems, and other valuables for gold
• Keep the jewelry and other valuables, throw away bad gear while looting
• Use your torch! You can even throw it with the RMB
• Always heal yourself after a fight with whatever healing item you got, no point saving them for later. Only exception is when you got barely damaged by poison or a little fire damage
• When you run into a player who then starts running after seeing you… don’t assume that he is alone…
• Look out for secret rooms and passageways behind wooden boards (break them), and moving walls that you can open by levers/pressure plates nearby
• Listen carefully, it’s easy to tell whats going on around you by ear. You can hear other players moving around, open doors and chests, fights etc… You can use this to avoid fights with other players, or if you feel confident go towards them and kill them
• Sometimes it’s better to leave a room early. You don’t have to kill everything in the room, or smash every object
• Generally it’s best to avoid fighting teams, maybe you can fight them and win if you can pick someone off and you surprise/ambush them so they panic, but if they saw you already, they’ll come for you and it’ll be harder to kill them
• Try pressing crouch repeatedly when you see a solo player, they might be friendly and you can team up or just avoid a fight with them and move on. (unlikely, but it can happen)
• Throw your torch onto a floor spike trap to trigger it, you can walk over it now. Sometimes it’s possible to walk around it by hugging the wall

Best Classes for Solo Play

• Cleric
• Barbarian
• Ranger
• Fighter

Cleric
You can heal yourself with spells
You have high damaging spells: Single target and area damage (to kill undead)
You have self buffs: shield, damage, stats

Barbarian
High weapon damage and HP
You can bust through doors (with the right perk)
You can solo teams with some skill

Ranger
You can kite enemies around while damaging them
Multiple self heal options
You can snipe players

Fighter
Easy to play
Some self-heal
You can use most gear and weapons (e.g. a bow, with the right perk)

Other classes (Rogue and Wizard) are not so beginner friendly, so i don’t recommend them, if you are just starting out, but they can be played as solo after you got some practice with other classes and you understand the game better.

Cleric

Before you fight or enter a room switch to your staff (press 2) and buff yourself with Bless and Divine Strike and put on Protection. Don’t aim at enemies when you buff or heal yourself, because you can buff and heal enemies as well. Kill things with your melee weapon, if there are more then two mobs, or you want to kill something fast, then use Holy Light, if you get swarmed run away a bit then use your AOE spell (Holy Purification), if you chose that as your active skill, then finish them off with melee.

• Holy Light will two shot most enemies.
• Use Lesser Heal to heal yourself after the fight.

Recommended Perk for level 1: Undead Slaying
Recommended Perk for level 5: Perseverance/Advanced Healer

Recommended Active Skills: Holy Purification/Smite, Spell Memory

Spells to use:

• Lesser Heal
• Bless
• Holy Light
• Protection
• Divine Strike

Barbarian

Use the Smash perk so you can just break through doors by swinging your weapon at it. This is how you should open doors as a barbarian. No other class can open doors as quickly as you!

• Smash open barrels, boxes, some chests, vases, doors, heads.
• Use your shouts (active skills) whenever you can during fights. Don’t forget that you have throwing weapons, use them.

If you get jumped by a rogue or someone else unexpectedly, you should just fight. It’s you or them. Barbarians don’t run from fights.
Except when it’s a team of three, then you can fake a retreat, bust through a few doors as you “run” and find a good spot for an ambush. Preferably while they fight with the monsters you awakened.

Recommended Perk for level 1: Smash
Recommended Perk for level 5: Axe Specialization

Recommended Active Skills: Reckless Attack, Rage

Ranger

Aim for the head! Get a melee weapon as a secondary and don’t forget to use it to fight or smash open stuff with it. You can break barrels etc with your bow too. You can put down bear traps and lure monsters (or players) into them, so you can attack them safely for a while, but be careful it works on you as well!

• If you see skeletons on the ground, shoot them so they wake up. You can pull them this way if there are two next to each other, only one will wake up. Use Quick Shot and Multishot whenever you can.
• The skills use “extra” arrows, so you don’t have to reload your arrows to use them.

Recommended Perk for level 1: Sharpshooter
Recommended Perk for level 5: Nimble Hands

Recommended Active Skills: Multishot, Quick Shot

Fighter

You start with a shield so use it. You have to aim your shield where the attack is coming from, or it might not block the attack. Your perk (Combo Attack) should give you the damage needed to kill monsters easily. If you get in trouble use Adrenaline Rush for an attack speed boost, then use Second Wind to heal yourself. You can buy/find a bow to pull enemies and deal some ranged damage after you get to lvl 5.

Recommended Perk for level 1: Combo Attack
Recommended Perk for level 5: Weapon Mastery (so you can use bows)

Recommended Active Skills: Adrenaline Rush, Second Wind