Dark and Darker Hotfix #120 Tunes Parry Combat and Firedeep Encounters

Dark and Darker Early Access Hotfix #120 is live, bringing a broad set of fixes and balance changes to IRONMACE’s dungeon-crawling extraction game. The update focuses heavily on parry and riposte combat, while also adjusting several class abilities and addressing problems with Firedeep encounters.

IRONMACE detailed the changes in its official Steam announcement. Both the Fire Colossus and Magma Wyvern will now always appear in The Firedeep, and the artifact drop rate for Firedeep bosses has been improved.

The hotfix also gives players more information about riposte damage. The Character Stats window now includes a Parry Riposte Attack stat, while the Player Detail window displays both normal riposte and parry riposte damage multipliers. Parry weapons can now perform a standard block-to-riposte outside their parry area, though that attack does not receive the extra bonus damage granted by a successful parry riposte.

Class changes include a longer opening window for the Rogue’s Veil of Shadows, lower Whirlwind damage multipliers for the Barbarian, and two Teleport charges for the Wizard. The Cleric received several ability adjustments, including changes to Sacred Flame, Vow of Silence, Judgement, Barefoot Pilgrimage, and Confession.

Patch Notes: Dark and Darker Early Access Hotfix #120

Hotfix #120 addresses crashes, movement locks, spell behavior, party issues, boss encounters, and reward problems. Its balance changes also affect defensive weapon timing, Firedeep boss difficulty, class abilities, and two items.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the game could crash if the Detail or Recent Matches button was pressed immediately after entering the Leaderboard screen.
• Fixed an issue where canceling the Rogue’s Play Dead too quickly and then using Tumble could cause the character to become unable to move.
• Fixed an issue where the Sorcerer’s spellcasting wind-up animation, in which they extend their hand forward before casting, might not be visible to other players.
• Fixed an issue where the Cleric’s Pain Offering, Confession, and Divine Grace could continuously increase an ally’s Magical Healing whenever their effects were applied.
• Fixed an issue where the Wizard’s Arcane Infusion could trigger when attacking corpses.
• Fixed an issue where using the Wizard’s Transmutation to transform into a tree allowed players to see from an excessively high viewpoint.
• Fixed an issue where players could be launched into the air when moving over objects transformed by the Wizard’s Transmutation.
• Fixed an issue where, after a successful shield block, repeatedly blocking and canceling before the next attack, an attack hitting the sword could incorrectly apply a blocking state to the sword.
• Fixed an issue where hit-scan spells, such as Zap and curse spells, would be hit location specific (such as headshot damage) when striking specific body parts.
• Fixed an issue where players could become unable to escape after defeating the Fire Colossus in Firedeep of The Goblin Cave.
• Fixed an issue where the Midnight Curse sound effect could repeatedly play in the outer area of The Ruins.
• Fixed an issue where the Magma Wyvern could leave its combat area during certain attack patterns.
• Fixed an issue where the Magma Wyvern would remain stationary instead of pursuing players within its combat area.
• Fixed an issue where attacks against the lower body of the Magma Wyvern would not deal damage.
• Fixed an issue where the visual effects and damage timing of the Magma Wyvern’s flame attack could become out of sync.
• Fixed an issue where the target player’s health bar might not be displayed during Death Cam playback.
• Fixed an issue where if the party leader was loading into a dungeon and another player accepted a party invitation, the new party member might not appear in the party list and could become unable to leave the party.
• Fixed an issue where players could claim rewards from the previous season’s Religion system.

Game Updates

• Both the Fire Colossus and Magma Wyvern will now always appear in The Firedeep.
• Added a Parry Riposte Attack stat to the Character Stats window. When a weapon is equipped, players can now view the damage bonus applied to a riposte after a successful parry.
• The normal riposte attack stat displays the damage bonus applied to a riposte after a successful block.
• Removed the sound effect that plays when a player becomes very low health.

Balance Updates

General

• The parry area has been expanded to ensure better consistency across parry weapons for performing a parry→ riposte.
• Parry weapons can now also perform a normal block→riposte when they block an attack outside the parry area. However, parry weapons do not receive additional bonus damage when landing a block→riposte.
• The Player Detail window now displays info for the normal riposte and parry riposte damage multipliers.
• The defense recovery times for weapons and shields have been improved to allow for better block→riposte.
• Improved an issue where an attacker’s weapon could pass through a defending weapon and damage the defender.
• Improved the drop rate of artifacts for The Firedeep bosses.
• Adjusted the Magma Wyvern’s attack patterns to slightly increase its difficulty.

Class

Rogue

• Veil of Shadows has been updated so that the stealth effect will not be removed by moving for the first 2 seconds after the stealth effect is activated.

Barbarian

• When using Whirlwind, all weapon damage multipliers have been reduced from 100% to 90%.

Wizard

• Increased the Teleport count from 1 → 2. Teleport cannot be cast again while in the ‘destabilized’ state.
• The ‘Sleepy’ duration in Sleep has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, and the sleep duration has been increased from 1.25 seconds to 2 seconds.

Cleric

• Increased the stack duration of Sacred Flame from 2s → 3.5s.
• Increased the cooldown of Sacred Flame from 2s → 5s.
• The magical damage bonus for Vow of Silence has been reduced from 10% → 6%, and cast time has been increased from 0.75s→1.25s.
• The cast time for Judgement has been increased from 1s →1.5s.
• The cast time of Barefoot Pilgrimage has been reduced from 3s → 2s, cooldown reduced from 90s → 45s, and effect duration increased from 12s → 16s.
• Confession cooldown reduced from 60s → 24s.

Items

• Sling’s weapon damage has been reduced by 2 at all rarities.
• Lantern Shield’s impact resistance has increased from 4→5.

Hotfix #120 gives parry-focused builds more room to work while trimming or extending several class tools. Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.

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)
• Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
• Release: 2023-08-07
• Publisher: IRONMACE
• Age Rating: GRAC 19+ / PEGI 16 / ESRB M
• IGDB Rating: 70.4/100

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