Dark and Darker Hotfix #124 Will Add Tamed Beasts and a Tutorial
Rangers will gain six commands for controlled beasts, while new accounts must complete the tutorial before account creation.
IRONMACE has announced Early Access Hotfix #124 for Dark and Darker, a patch that will give Rangers a way to tame dungeon animals, add a required tutorial for new accounts, and place a new Unique-grade Loot Goblin in every dungeon. The developer outlined the changes in its Steam announcement.
The Ranger changes are the biggest addition. After taming a beast with Taming Shot, players will be able to hold the E key to open a command wheel. Six orders will be available: Attack, Follow, Hold, Aggressive, Defensive, and Passive. The class is also receiving the new Taming Shot Skill and Feral Resonance Perk.
New accounts will have to complete a tutorial before they can be created. It walks players through movement, combat, interaction, healing, skills, magic, and extraction, and can be replayed later from the ESC menu. Inventory management is getting a long-requested item swap feature as well, although it will not work in the Trading Post or Merchant UI.
The update will also bring Golden Goblin-themed cosmetics to the Shop for a limited time. The Loot Goblin itself will be a Unique-grade monster found across all dungeons, adding another dangerous reason to keep searching after a successful run.
Hotfix #124 follows Hotfix #123, which lowered the High Roller Gear Score requirement and introduced Emberwing. The new patch will also improve anti-cheat and ping systems, add skins for summons and shapeshift forms, expand the Trading Post trade window from 5×5 to 6×6, and add confirmation prompts when blocking players.
Balance changes will touch several classes and monsters. Emberwing will have slightly lower Impact Power, while some Magma Wyvern attack patterns will be easier to handle. Meteor Strike, Curse of Weakness, Apex of Sorcery, Glaciate, and Mana Flow are also receiving adjustments.
Dark and Darker Early Access Hotfix #124 Patch Notes
The hotfix covers a wide spread of dungeon bugs, class fixes, interface improvements, and combat changes. Rangers receive the new beast-control tools, Sorcerers get a revised approach to spell penetration, and several boss and arena exploits are being addressed.
Bugfixes
- Fixed an issue where Power of Sacrifice could remain applied to a boat passenger until the passenger stood up.
- Fixed an issue where Fire Mastery might not apply to Meteor Strike.
- Fixed an issue where the healing reduction effect of Fire Mastery could be applied incorrectly.
- Fixed an issue where the duration of the healing reduction effect from Fire Mastery could be applied incorrectly.
- Fixed an issue where the effect range and VFX range of the Cleric’s Sanctuary could differ.
- Fixed an issue where attacks could be blocked by ropes.
- Fixed an issue where Wizards could use Fly to move outside the map in the Ritual Room module of The Forgotten Castle – The Crypt.
- Fixed an issue where players could become stuck between the stairs and the surrounding geometry when interacting with the lever in the Demon Stairs module of The Forgotten Castle – The Inferno while the stairs were moving.
- Fixed an issue where the dust VFX from the Lava Pillar Door might not disappear after the door was destroyed while opening in The Ashen Range – The Firedeep.
- Fixed an issue where players could become stuck at certain locations in the Bridge module of The Frozen Mountain – The Ice Cavern.
- Fixed an issue where Bladehand’s attacks might not reach players at certain locations in The Blue Maelstrom – Bladehand’s Refuge module.
- Fixed an issue where players might not be able to escape when standing on the railing of the escape ship while boarding it in The Blue Maelstrom.
- Fixed an issue where Emberwing could appear partially embedded in walls when performing an evasive maneuver with its back against a wall.
- Fixed an issue where the Soul Collector icon for Warlocks could disappear when affected by a Wisp.
- Fixed an issue where the Warlord and its summons could leave the boss room.
- Fixed an issue where the pattern of the Ghost King could reset when using Hide or Invisibility during certain patterns, causing its sounds to not play properly.
- Fixed an issue where the Death Skull summoned by the Ghost King might not disappear.
- Fixed an issue where players at high elevations in the Ruins Arena module could avoid being affected by Murder of Crows.
- Fixed an issue where players could reach unintended high areas in the Inferno Arena module.
- Fixed an issue where party members could have the same ping color when entering the Squire Royale mode as a party through random matchmaking.
- Fixed an issue where a character’s name might not appear in the popup when removing a party member through the Party Finder UI.
- Fixed an issue where the ankle area could appear incorrectly when certain race skins were equipped without wearing shoes.
Game Updates
- Improved the anti-cheat system.
- Added a skin system for summons and shapeshift forms.
- Added new Golden Goblin-themed cosmetics to the Shop.
- Added a tutorial. The tutorial guides players through the game’s core mechanics in sequence, including movement, combat, interaction, healing, skills, magic, and extraction. New players must complete the tutorial before creating an account. The tutorial can be replayed at any time through the ESC menu after completion.
- Added new Perks and Skills for the Ranger.
- Added the Servant Control System. When you have a beast tamed with the Ranger’s Taming Shot, hold the E key to open the command wheel and give it orders. One of six options can be selected: Attack, Follow, Hold, Aggressive, Defensive, and Passive.
- Changed the behavior of the Rogue’s Wall Ride. Players must now press the Jump key while holding the W key to perform Wall Ride.
- Added network latency compensation. Damage from hitscan spells targeting players is now determined based on the position of the target as it appeared on the attacking player’s screen.
- Improved the ping system.
- Party member name colors displayed in chat now match each party member’s ping color. Accordingly, the text of ping and radial messages, as well as player names, is now displayed in white, while highlighted ping messages remain red as before.
- Ping information can now be checked regardless of distance. When multiple pings overlap, only the closest ping to the center of the screen is displayed.
- Hovering over a ping icon on the full map now displays the same ping information shown in-game.
- The ping color assignment system has been improved to prevent duplicate colors among party members. Assigned colors are now retained after reconnecting, party members leaving the party, or moving between floors.
- Updated some ping messages.
- An item swap feature has been added. Dragging an item onto another item swaps the positions of the two items, but gold storage items and stackable items of the same rarity cannot be swapped. This feature applies to inventory and utility slots both in-game and in the lobby, but is not supported in the Trading Post or Merchant UI.
- Added a new Unique-grade monster, the Loot Goblin, to all dungeons.
- Improved the blocking sound effects for Tear of Hrímthurs.
- Increased the size of the trade window in the Trading Post from 5×5 to 6×6.
- Added a confirmation popup when blocking a player. This applies to all locations where the block option is available, including the player list, chat, and trade menus.
Balance Updates
General
- Emberwing’s Impact Power has been slightly reduced.
- The difficulty of certain attack patterns of the Magma Wyvern has been reduced.
Classes
Ranger
- Added a new Skill, Taming Shot.
- Added a new Perk, Feral Resonance.
Wizard
- Reduced the Burn Multiplier of Meteor Strike from 1.0 to 0.5.
Warlock
- Reduced the all-stat reduction effect of Curse of Weakness from -25% to -20%.
Sorcerer
- Apex of Sorcery now grants 30% Magic Penetration while casting spells, and its Magical Damage Bonus has been reduced from 50% to 30%.
- Increased the damage of Glaciate from 3 to 5.
- Removed the Magic Penetration effect from Mana Flow.
What do you think of the Ranger’s new beast-control tools and the rest of Hotfix #124? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Dark and Darker
Developed by IRONMACE
An unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure. Band together with your friends and use your courage, wits, and cunning to uncover mythical treasures, defeat gruesome monsters, while staying one step ahead of the other devious treasure-hunters.
- Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Tactical, Adventure
- Platforms PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Perspective First person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release August 7, 2023
- Publisher IRONMACE
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Age Rating
