Imagine having a medieval world in your pocket, ready to take on challenging dungeons at a moment’s notice. That’ll be possible soon, as Dark and Darker Mobile is bringing with it a suite of mobile-exclusive features.
If you’re unfamiliar with Dark and Darker, it’s a dungeon crawler with battle royale elements developed by Bluehole Studio and published by Krafton – the studios behind PUBG Mobile and PUBG: Battlegrounds. The PvPvE experience sees you take on a host of monsters in parties of up to three players, while pervading darkness creeps ever closer. As you head deeper through the dungeons, the loot you’ll uncover gets stronger, and the foes you face will really begin to test your mettle.
While you’re contending with all of that, you’ll come across escape portals that will allow you to safely transport your loot home, securing it for future runs, but spelling the end of your current one. Will you bravely traverse beyond all of the portals in search of the best loot there is, or do you prefer to play it safe and get home intact? If you die, you lose it all, so choose carefully.
Besides the ever-present threat of the monsters you’ll encounter, you’ll also face the Darkswarm. Similar to the storm in Fortnite, or the fog of Call of Duty: Warzone, Dark and Darker’s Darkswam creeps closer as you progress, forcing you to be within close proximity of other players who also desperately seek the most precious treasures in the game. Eventually, PvP becomes inevitable. You can either adapt your strategy or perish to the Darkswarm or other players.
Dark and Darker’s combat also presents its own challenges. You’ll need to master precise movements, making decisions while thinking of your weapon’s weight, damage output, and how to use it effectively in narrow dungeon spaces. Take your pick from swords, daggers, axes, bows, magic, and more, but make sure you know how to wield your armament of choice. Don’t be mistaken though – brute forcing your way through Dark and Darker isn’t an option. You must think strategically, or victory will never be yours. Why not try luring a foe to a tight space before hurling magic attacks their way while they blindly swing their huge, overbearing melee weapon around?
When starting the game you’ll come across six distinct classes to choose from:
Fighter
The fighter is skilled in both offensive and defensive measures. As a fighter, you’ll carry a shield for added protection, and have the option to increase your movement speed to outrun and outmaneuver dangerous enemies.
Barbarian
The Barbarian is the tank of the Dark and Darker universe. An absolute powerhouse in close-up, melee combat, you’ll wield two-handed weapons for devastating damage numbers. As an added bonus, you can also use those weapons to break down obstacles in your path, making your getaway smoother. Keep an eye on your unique skill, which will boost your attack power even further.
Ranger
Where the Barbarian prefers to get up close and personal, the Ranger takes a more hands-off approach, attacking from a distance with bows and arrows. Just like the Barbarian, if you choose the Ranger you’ll also have a unique skill. This one allows you to fire multiple arrows at once – perfect for disorienting enemies or when you really need to land that final killing blow in a close-call PvP encounter.
Rogue
The Rogue lives up to its name and is incredibly stealthy. Choosing the Rogue class will allow you to sneak up close and personal in a much less obvious way than the Barbarian. To add to your stealthiness, your unique skill makes you almost invisible which, in a dark dungeon, is an unrivaled skill to possess.
Cleric
If you’re usually your group’s healer, you’ll want to choose the Cleric. Excelling in support roles, you can heal yourself and your allies while wielding a shield to keep other threats at bay. You can deal significant damage to undead foes with your unique skill. It’s more common in Dark and Darker than you’d think.
Wizard
Though they may sound like something straight out of a fairytale, do not underestimate the Wizard. You’ll be able to choose from fire, ice, electric, or arcane elements to produce spells that can aid in your attack, your defense, or other support.
When you’ve chosen your preferred class, you’ll notice there are a few various maps and modes to get acquainted with. There’s a solo Goblin Cave and the three-player adventure, Forgotten Castle. They each have four difficulty levels; normal, hard, nightmare, or hell. As you increase the difficulty, you can get better loot, but the enemies will be much more formidable, with different patterns of behavior. Don’t forget the different bosses for each difficulty, too. If you manage to keep some loot from a dungeon run, you can use it for any of the difficulties, so our advice is to start off simple and work your way up. If you’re taking friends with you, or forming a party in-game, it’s always better when you’re together. A combination of the classes provides a more well-rounded approach and means you’ll get further, faster.
While we did say it’s always better together, there is a competitive element at play here. As the Darkswarm creeps ever nearer, you’ll be forced into battle with other players and their parties. Fight with your heart if you want to secure the best gear, or steal theirs if it looks more appealing when you defeat them.
If you need an extra helping hand but haven’t got friends available to play, you can hire mercenaries to form a party with. They have a range of capabilities, and while they won’t quite replace a human party member, they’re pretty handy to have around! They have basic combat abilities, can revive you if you fall, and lean into their class skills and abilities to assist your adventure. They can even level up! If they level up enough and you encounter them in a tavern, you can promote them, whereupon they’ll get new skills, or their gear level will increase. Mercenaries are only available in the mobile version of Dark and Darker, and are certainly not to be sniffed at.
When Dark and Darker comes to mobile, you’ll also notice a few optimizations lovingly built in by the developer. A third-person view means you have maximum visibility, and the auto attack and aiming systems are intended to remove clunky, difficult controls of similar mobile games. Dark and Darker Mobile executive producer Joonseok Ahn says, “We plan to introduce a separate matchmaking system to ensure fair gameplay between PC emulator users and mobile users,” and adds that this has been done to “balance the platforms” so everyone has a fun Dark and Darker Mobile experience.
You can also fully customize your display to match the way you prefer to play, meaning it’s easy to collect loot, navigate the perilous dungeons, and adjust your field of view. Having been developed on Unreal Engine 5, you’ll notice the realistic dungeon environments, dynamic lighting, and detailed characters, no matter which class you choose to play as. Ahn says that, with these optimizations in mind, there had to be careful adjustments to get the game where the studio wants it. “Dark and Darker Mobile strives to balance the hardcore gameplay elements with casual accessibility,” he says, “Our goal is to make the game more approachable while retaining its core fun elements.”
Dark and Darker Mobile is scheduled for release on iOS and Android by the end of 2024, but you can sign up to pre-register on the Dark and Darker Mobile website now. The game will receive updates after launch including new dungeons, classes, and items to enhance the experience, and the developer promises to listen to player feedback to ensure it’s fresh and exciting for everyone. We can’t wait to jump back into the dungeons of Dark and Darker on the move, headphones on, as the ominous noises of the Darkswarm make us forget our surroundings.