Draft of Darkness Basic Guide For Beginners

I’m going to be honest…your first run-through may be complete ass or maybe it will go well! For me, I got my ass kicked.

Select Your Hero: I disliked the starting hero, so as soon as I unlocked Cara by finding her note I switched to her. Both can be powerful though.
When browsing your hero ensure to look at their stats and passive.
–Strength: Physical damage
–Intelligence: Increases light power and mend power
–Dexterity: Critical chance and speed
–Vitality: Increases health
–Side Note: Sometimes you may need to have a certain trait score to do a certain event, such as having X strength to rip open a purse you find. You won’t be able to do all events, but that is okay as you will have to do multiple playthroughs.

SPAWNING:
In the first area you should be able to find ONE companion to join you on your journey. Out of the three or four runs I’ve completed I have only encountered a nurse to join you which is perfect and essential. Nurses can MEND or HEAL you, as well as cleanse debuffs on allies and remove buffs on enemies.
Sometimes the nurse will spawn very close to you and you can immediately recruit her to the party. This is not always a guarantee though! On some occasions I did not find the nurse until the middle or end of the level and we should be wary of this for a few reasons.

IF THE NURSE SPAWNS FAR AWAY FROM WHERE YOU START:
-If possible try to avoid as many enemy encounters as you can until you recruit the party member. Some battles may be unavoidable. As you progress the battles in the area aren’t going to stay easier just because you’re missing a party member. Don’t take more of a beating than you should.
-Keep in mind if you kill enemies without the nurse, the nurse isn’t going to be able to gain that experience and will be behind.

SECOND RECRUIT (Third Party Member):
-I have noted on my runs there are two companions available to choose on the second level (the streets). All companions I have encountered have been officers with handguns who can also equip flashlights. I have had NO EXPERIENCE with companions who can use a shotgun. Ensure to look at the passive of the allies and choose which may be a best fit for you. We will touch on passives a bit later.
-ALSO NOTE IF A COMPANION HAPPENS TO DIE, YOU CAN REPLACE THEM WITH A NEW ALLY IF AVAILABLE. THERE WILL BE TWO MORE ALLIES AVAILABLE TO CHOOSE ON THE THIRD LEVEL (THE HOSPITAL).

Party Variety:
This section is going to be biased, and more oriented towards beginners. I’m not saying this is the ONLY way to run your party. I am sure there is a variety of combinations. In fact there are lone wolf achievements, so once again this is only for those starting out.
We will dive into material consumption a little later, but for now understand that we find resources to use throughout the campaign. Different weapons consume different items and have a variety of risks and advantages.
For beginners in specific it is (in my opinion) better to have a VARIETY of weapons used so that one resource isn’t eaten up too quickly. For instance the first time I made it to the hospital sector I was given the opportunity to recruit another nurse (giving me TWO nurses and my hero) because hAvInG tWo SuPpOrTS mUsT bE oVeRpOwErEd. Long story short nurses use CHEMICAL resources when they heal and I was consuming twice as much with two and did not have enough damage output. Perhaps it can work sometimes, but it didn’t for me. I would avoid doing so until you are much more comfortable with the game.
To Provide An Example Of Party Variety, I will simply share the party I won a playthrough with
Cara (My Hero): Shanks and bleeds hoes (Melee no consumption)
Nurse Nikki Minaj: Mends Hoes (Chemical Consumption)
Officer Daddy: Shoots and Flashes (Bullets And Batteries).
This allowed my party to have an even distribution of resources.

Now just because you destroy planet Earth doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to conserve your resources!

Jokes aside you’ll die if you aren’t careful with your resources. Below is the resources we have:
–Handgun Ammo:
–Shotgun Ammo:
–Chemicals: Heals, Debuffs, Etc
–Batteries: Flashlights
Cards you collect will utilize these resources so please be cautious of what your card uses before casting it. For awhile I was blinding enemies with my handgun because I was like this is SO overpowered, but then I realized it consumed three precious bullets on each use…whoops.

Other Materials:
–Pennies: Used to purchase cards, materials, items from merchant.
–Credits (Box with an eye shape on it): Used to purchase relics and a variety of other things…we’ll cover this later.
–Not sure of the name, but it’s three rows of little dots in the shape of a triangle: Gained from Anolette Dust, allows user to heal a party member AFTER you clear the floor or remove a card from your deck back to the trunk.
~Costs 1 to heal
~Costs 2 to remove card

Utilizing weak versions of your attacks when necessary. CONSERVE, CONSERVE, CONSERVE. As a beginner rule of thumb try not to use resources if there is only one enemy you’re fighting. Save it for bosses, elites and groups of enemies.
-SIDE NOTE: If you’re scarce on resources you can always avoid enemies if needed. But they drop nice loot (and sometimes resources). I, although risky actually fight every enemy on the floor if I feel comfortable enough doing so. Go at your own pace.

SHOP:
As mentioned earlier throughout the run you gain pennies which are used to make purchases from the shop keepers. There is a wide variety of cards, gears, and consumables to purchase. Make sure to purchase the credit cards as they give you credits to use at terminals, which I’ll get into later.
I’m not going to tell you what to buy as it differs from run to run, but typically I’ll buy pills and any resources I need. Note the shop keeper doesn’t have an infinite supply of these so be wary. GEAR:
Gear is actually super important as you progress. I was initially a little frustrated because of the various status boosts and how many pieces of them you obtain but you’ll be glad for this later.
-Some gears provide initial status boosts, such as dodge (enabling you to dodge the next attack), along with stealth and other things.
-Some weapons have a dual wield bonus so look out for those

Weapon qualities (probably missing a few): Junk–>Flimsy–>Decent–>Pristine

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SELL ALL OF THE USELESS GEAR I PROMISE IT ADDS UP. SELL. SELL. SELL. MAKE. THAT. MONEY.

WEAPONS:
–Knives: Uses no resource, melee. Used with knife cards, which appear red. Melee attack
Pro: No resources, Can Inflict Bleed
Con: Melee attacks may be reflected on some occasions depending on enemy status effects.
–Syringes: Melee, no resources on some attacks. Ranged may utilize some resources. Can Also Heal for resources. Cards appear green.
Pro: Versatile
Con: Can be heavy on material consumption
–Handguns: Ranged. Can also melee pistol whip for no resources. Cards appear blue?
Pros: Pew pew
Cons: Costs bullets
–Flashlights: Ranged for batteries, but some melee. Cards appear yellow?
Pros: Light damage is great for certain enemies.
Cons: Battery heavy. Batteries have many uses, so you may want to be careful.
–Shotguns: Consume shotgun bullets, otherwise no experience with them yet. Will update later.DECK:
I think to have a good first experience you should find your own play-style. I will say Cara and the nurse have some of my favorite cards so far. I can’t walk you through EVERYTHING.
Honorable mentions:
-Needle Stab
-Bleeding Cards
-Restoration (heal over time).

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T FORGET TO IMMEDIATELY ADD YOUR NEW CARD TO YOUR DECK AS SOON AS YOU GET IT. GET IN THAT HABIT. If you don’t want to add a card to a deck, you can sell cards in your trunk (:

I’m not going to discuss most mechanics of enemies as I want you to explore them for yourself. However here are a few starting tips. Additionally, I will mention a few of the tougher enemies on each floor. I may add tips to fight these “tougher” enemies I included in the spoiler section for future reference.

Some enemies move around, the red area surrounding the enemy is their personal bubble. If you step inside it you’ll trigger a battle.

First Area:
-Enemies may move slowly and periodically with your steps. If you walk in a little circle (or square) while observing an enemy you may be able to see how it moves and get a pattern for it’s movement. This is particularly useful if you’re avoiding enemies because you are low on resources or are avoiding fights as you search for your first party member.
-WATCH OUT FOR
~The Invisible Man (In Spoiler Section)
~Radiated Spiders
~Zombies

Second Area:
-Enemies for the most part move more frequently. Be extra careful of the helperbots as I have had a few actually pursue me once they had vision of me…and they aren’t friendly. Another mechanic to keep in mind is to avoid THE BARRELS BECAUSE THEY GIVE YOU RADIATION.
-WATCH OUT FOR
~The Invisible Man
~Semi-Automatic Rifle Robot

Third Area:
-Now this could be a bug but I did not see movement of any enemies in the hospital level. This makes sense though as the majority of them are zombies. This is great because it means you can’t get chased…however, with them stationary it often means you MUST fight them to get to the desired area.
-WATCH OUT FOR
~♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CRAZED ZOMBIES FK THOSE ONES
~♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CROOKED ZOMBIES FK THOSE ONES TOO

ELITE ENEMIES AND EXTRA ENEMY DROPS:
Enemies that are elite will have a unique icon on the map. These enemies will be HARDER, but will drop good loot along with a relic. Additionally if you are to step on a square that initiates two enemies at once I have noticed you get drops from both (and both mobs will vanish). I will attach screenshots of what I mean below:

(Enlarge photo and look at the map top right to see I interacted with two enemies at once in the same square. I’m not sure if this is supposed to make the fight harder but they do drop more rewards and make your life easier)

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(Enlarge photo and view the map at the top right. An Elite enemy will have that special icon. The fight is harder, and I have noticed the enemy will have a random passive buff throughout the fight. At times the passive they have may be overpowered. If you survive it is well worth it)

The status ailments in this game will give you nightmares. And the amount of time they can last is actually insane. I won’t spend too much time in this section considering you can identity what each status ailment does by simply hovering over it with your mouse. With that said I will give some honorable mentions to statuses that will make your life a nightmare, and ones that can benefit you as a player. MAKE SURE TO HAVE A CARD THAT CAN REMOVE DEBUFFS. YOU NEED IT IN THIS GAME.

My Least favorite Statuses:
–Terrified (Found on Third level)
–Sickly (You’ll understand when it happens to you)
-Virus 1: This one I will actually elaborate on. Be careful when fighting zombies as you have a chance to get infected when interacting with them. This status is “permanent” and at every 10 stacks you receive a virus a card in your deck that can’t be discarded and damages you. It can also spread to ally’s. To combat this there is a cure that you can find later in the game. You can also remove the virus cards in your deck at rest areas after you complete a level. Keep in mind that it costs 2 per card.

Useful Statuses if YOU are using them:
-Stagger depletes an enemies energy bar
-Blinding freezes the enemies energy bar buying you more time
-Often found on gear, LEADER is a great ability to have increasing stacks of damage. It places a status effect called MARK on an enemy. If you have a multi-hit card, these can add up fast (see picture below for reference).

To flee in this game you need to have some foresight. If you wait too late to flee it could result in your death. Once you attempt to flee a card will be added to your draw pile that will allow you to do so. The more cards in your deck the longer it may take to draw this card. You also receive no rewards from the battle if you flee. I have only fled twice from battles and it was far in advance.

These are machines found on each level that give you welcoming music when approaching. You spend credits to make transactions on it. From my experience it fills with three different relics/trophies on each run that could cost from 1-3 credits each. The higher the credits the more “rare” a relic is however this doesn’t mean a rare relic will always be more useful to you.

3D PRINTING:
You can choose to sacrifice a consumable (such as pills) for one credit to add a blueprint to the machine. Once added it will always be available for the user to use on future runs. Note it will also cost one credit to print the item for future runs.
You can’t add chemicals or bullets to my knowledge as a blueprint to the machine but alcohol, pills and vitamins can be added. Primarily consumables.

RELICS/TROPHIES:
Just for future reference I will always call these items relics. Essentially they are actives and/or passive giving items that appear at the top of the screen offering an assortment. These could increase your deck size, crit chance, radiate you for a buff…it just depends. Some relics are passive and apply to the battle overall while others must manually be assigned to a party member. You simply need to click and drag it to a party member for it to apply. You can sell relics you don’t want to the terminal I believe for one credit each. You can also sell them to the merchant…but the terminal may be a better option in most cases.

There are a TON of consumables throughout the game. Some are gained from loot, secret bosses or can be bought from the merchant. I will not go into detail about all consumables and instead will discuss the most important ones for beginners.

Pills: Heal ten health in exploration mode to a party member. Can be used to heal five health in battle (Only use it battle for emergencies).
Vitamins: Increase perm. health by 10
Radi-Bye: Reduce radiation by 5. These have been pretty rare for me to find, but use them if you must. Radiation stacks over 40 will make your run a nightmare. Stay away from those barrels.

Ensure to LOOT EVERYTHING YOU CAN!

Booster packs are more for when you’ve gotten the hang of things. However, they are equally as important. Once you complete a run you receive credits. I have gotten as much as 600 credits in a single run. Utilize these credits on booster packs that will add potential cards to your starter deck. This is important because it allows you to modify your hero’s starting deck before a run if you want to experiment with different builds.

Yes, I probably have some grammatical issues in my guide but this suggestions section is NOT for that. Instead, please see this as an invitation to ask any questions (the community and I would do our best to answer them). If you have any recommendations for a section I should add let me know! I believe this guide is open to comments!
Keep in mind this guide is for the intermediate level, and may not be fit for the pro-gamers sick plays.

SO RUN AWAY IF YOU AREN’T INTERESTED.

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This boss scared the FK out of me when I first encountered it. I have encountered him on both the first area and the second, but not the third (yet). You will know when he is near as you’ll hear heavy chains somewhere dragging along as the screen starts to glitch.
WARNING: Unless you’re a gamer god (I am not) I would flee if you encounter this monster on the first floor. You won’t be able to do too much damage to him.
Key Boss Factors:
-Distorts Time, limited time per move
-Screen distortion makes it a little harder to see consumables and such
-Has several annoying status effects
-Delays your flee (don’t panic too much).
-He has a lot of health but he doesn’t hurt too bad.I encountered him again in the second area and was able to defeat him with three party members. My main strategy focused on Cara and my nurse stacking bleed effects until his death. A pretty long process but well worth it…he drops a consumable that resets a party members health to what it was at the beginning of a battle, during a battle. May have other uses quest related, but as of right now I am unsure.

This section will be added soon, and will involve the “event/choices” instances and the potential outcomes for each (example: the robot or the painting). I’ve been typing this guide a few hours now so I will begin working on this in a few days!

I also plan on adding each unique relic and what they do!