Whenever the Dark and Darker developers release a new alpha playtest for players to enjoy, they always add a huge list of new content and updates.
Dungeon-crawling fans, it’s that time again. To hop onto Steam and get into the Dark and Darker Alpha Playtest #4. If you’ve been rubbing your daggers together in eager anticipation, you’ve now got it — and with this new alpha also comes a host of new features. Here’s what you need to know about the latest playtest.
Dark and Darker Alpha Playtest 4 Schedule & Details
The Dark and Darker Playtest will run from February 6-13, 2023, according to the developers, IRONMACE, on a recent Steam Post. Like previous Alphas, the game will be online for the entire week, minus temporary outages for server updates and reboots.
Unlike previous alphas, Playtest #4 introduces a host of new features, including a Gathering Hall, which is essentially a chat room for different regions where players can form parties with other players.
In the thread of being more social, the developers have added a new Karma system where you can rate your fellow travelers after an adventure, hopefully cutting down on toxicity and griefers.
There’s also the addition of new VoIP, which will make coordinating and working with team members a lot eaiser and more enjoyable.
Last but not least, the addition of solo “Goblin Caves,” is most-welcome among people who prefer to dungeon-crawl alone. For a full list of changes, see below.
Alpha Playtest #4 Patch Notes (February 6, 2023)
The full list of changes for the Dark and Darker Alpha Playtest #4 Patch Notes for February 6, 2023 are as follows:
New Features and Updates
- New Gathering Hall System
- New Karma System
- New VoIP
- New experimental Solo Goblin Caves
- New Trading Channel QoL features
- New Report system to help us round up and punish the wicked
- New Cosmetics
- New Weapons: Short Sword and Quarterstaff
- Some Unique Weapons have been greatly improved
- Attack animation improved for the War Maul, Double Axe & Battle Axe
- Weapon attack animations now do more varying amounts of damage
- New Armors for the ‘head’ slot
- New ‘Sanctuary’ spell for the Cleric
- New Ore and Craft Items
- New ‘Valentine’ NPC
- The secretive ‘Goblin Merchant’ now sells mysterious wares
- An improved party invite system
- Added bundled items to the merchants
- Added Flavor texts for a more immersive game mood
- Added a new Tokyo Region + preliminary Japanese localization – first draft
Balancing
- Moved the starting spawns from the edge of the map to the interior and added more variations to test
- The 2-handed weapon attack movement penalty has been reduced
- Added +1 base stat point to ‘agility’ to the Cleric to normalize the class with all other classes
- Rebalanced the Wizard’s starting stats
- Added a projectile damage falloff system where damage slightly decreases based on distance. Currently, the effect is very small
- Plate armor improved to give more bonuses
- Lightfoot Boots, Regal Gambeson, and Templar Armor are a little slower
- Rapier damage slightly buffed
- An attack can now knock down an installed Pavise
- Buffs for many of the less frequently used Perks and Skills
- Wizard’s ‘Light’ spell now removes the ‘Hide’ status. Does not remove the ‘invisibility’ status
- Increased the duration of an installed campfire but the recovery effects per tick have been reduced. You will need to sit at a campfire longer than the last playtest for the same recovery effects
Players can find the Dark and Darker Playtest 4 on Steam.
See our Dark and Darker Section for more content on the game.
