The latest Dark and Darker patch notes are in, and they provide a series of exciting changes designed to reduce the grind and boost the rewards.

Alongside that, you can expect a whole host of squished bugs and fixes. This is a patch, after all. There are also balance changes for all classes, with some experiencing buffs, and others nerfs.

Let’s take a look at the Dark and Darker patch notes in full.

Class Balance Changes

Class balancing in this patch focuses mostly on the Barbarian, giving the class a big buff across the board. Wizard also gets a small nerf, while most other classes get tweaks.

All Classes

This seems a bit harsh but all classes have had a reduction in maximum health.

  • Maximum health reduced by 15

Fighter

It’s just a small tweak for the Fighter, with Weapon Mastery now affecting magical damage as well as physical.

  • Weapon Mastery now reduces physical damage and magical damage bonuses by -5%

Barbarian

The Barbarian has seen a considerable buff, with a boost to base Strength, and perks across the board now providing greater bonuses.

Rage and Two-Hander have been given the biggest boost, while the sole nerf is a dip in base Resourcefulness.

  • Base Strength increased from 20 – 25
  • Base Resourcefulness decreased from 12 – 7
  • Axe Specialisation increases Weapon Damage by 5, up from 3
  • Two-Hander now increases Armor Penetration by 15%
  • Rage has seen a considerable buff to its bonuses
    • Strength: 10 – 15
    • Vigor: 10 – 15
    • Physical Damage Reduction: -10% – -15%
    • Movespeed Bonus: 10% – 15%

Rogue

Rogue has had a small buff for Poisoned Weapons, allowing the class to reduce their opponent’s healing.

  • Poisoned Weapons now reduced healing by 10%, stacking five times to a max of 50%

Wizard

The Wizard’s had a buff for Magic Missile, but a nerf for Fireball and Explosion. It’s all minor stuff though, so shouldn’t affect your favourite class too much.

  • Magic Missile spell count increased from 5 – 10
  • Fireball damage tweaked from 25/12 – 25/10
  • Explosion damage decreased from 28 – 25

Cleric

The sole Cleric change is likely designed to counter the Rogue’s new Poisoned Weapons effect. Clerics can remove it.

  • Cleanse now removes poison

Warlock

Warlock gets a small buff, with Torture Mastery getting a boost in bonus.

  • Torture Mastery bonus increased from 10% – 20%

Bug Fixes

There isn’t anything particularly exciting here, as it’s mostly what you’d expect. The most noteworthy include fixes for unique items not dropping and the round shield now sitting in the correct drop tier.

  • Player corpses won’t act weird when you move over them
  • Cleric’s Holy Strike will now produce the flash effect every time you use it
  • The crossbow won’t play the animation or sound if you fire it against the wall, as it doesn’t actually fire
  • Fixed an issue where certain unique items weren’t dropping
  • The artefact round shield is now in the correct loot drop tier
  • The Elven Torch won’t change colour when you hit a wall
  • You can’t claim leaderboard rewards when you’re entering a dungeon

Weapon and Item Balancing

This is more of a sweeping change than something we can break down into notes.

Broadly speaking, Dark and Darker has made it so that items in a specific tier have similar base properties.

There are also a few tweaks to random modifiers, which we’ve detailed below.

  • Max Health and Max Health Bonus sit in the same random modifier family
  • Additional Movespeed and Movespeed Bonus sit in the same random modifierfamily
  • Random modifiers from the same family can’t appear on one item
  • Lantern Shield’s impact resistance has been increased from 3 – 4
  • Void Blade and Demon’s Glee now deal additional magic weapon damage (instead of magic damage)

Drop Rates

Broadly speaking, drop rates have improved across the board, outside of the Arena.

  • Items should now drop more often outside of chests
  • Gold Coin Bag and Gold Coin Chests drop rates increase alongside the difficulty of the dungeon
  • Loot boxes will no longer appear in the Arena

Miscellaneous

  • Viking Sword has a new animation
  • Crystal Sword has a new animation
  • Gold Coins should now combine in containers
  • Arena matches can be cancelled if not enough players show
  • High Roller now no longer allows Dungeon Recovery
  • Dungeon Recovery and the Marketplace have had unconfirmed quality of life improvements
  • There’s a new Lobby skin system

Halloween is Here!

We thought we’d save the most exciting feature for last: Halloween has arrived in Dark and Darker. You can purchase Halloween-themed skins from the store, and Jack O’ Lantern has returned to the merchants.

  • Halloween skins are in the store
  • Jack O’ Lantern is back
  • Teasing emote is available in the store

You can read the full Dark and Darker patch notes on Steam.

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