Dark

For the assassin named Darkness, see Darkness (bandit).

Dark is one of the five elemental attributes in Dragon's Dogma.

Overview

In several respects Dark is the opposite of Holy - generally enemies weak to Holy will be strong to Dark, and vice versa.

Dark-based abilities are commonly associated with non-elemental debilitations like Blind, Poison, Torpor and Silence.

Critical hits

See also: Elemental Debilitation, Critical Hit

Critical hit on the second Ox charge. (using Darkcounter) The Arisen's block is broken due to stamina depletion

Damaging Dark attacks accumulate with every hit to the enemy, and will eventually cause a "critical hit" should their Dark threshold be breached. Both physical (eg Rooted Gloom) and magickal attacks (Stagnant Surge) from dark enchanted weapons can inflict critical damage; some but not all dark based spells (eg Necromancy, but not Abyssal Anguish) can also give critical hits.

Generally larger and more dark resistant foes have a higher threshold: a Cyclops can take over a dozen successive hits to breach the threshold, whilst an Ox usually is critically hit after under six strikes; and some small creatures such as spiders or snakes have no resistance and take a critical hit on every strike. All Undead including Skeletons have very high resistance; all Ghosts are immune; and all Goblin species show high resistance too.

Dark magick resistant equipment does not reduce the chance of a critical hit, though it does reduce the damage. It is not known if some equipment has a critical resistance as a hidden stat.

A critical hit is indicated by tendrils of dark 'anti-energy' flashing through the target. The critical hit damages with dark based magick with very high base power supplemented by the attacker's character Magick.

Notes

• In some special cases Darkcounter or Abyssal Riposte can inflict dark critical hits imbued with a different element (from the Magick Shield used).
  • A similar effect can occur with Grapnel spells (see High Grapnel).
  • Also may occur with Necromancy spells (see High Necromancy).
  • Doesn't happen when using the magick of Core Skills.
• When upgraded the Set of Caretaker's Garb gains the bonus "Better resist Draining attacks. Better resists Barrage attacks" - this does not seem to have an in-game effect - it may be a forgotten remnant from an earlier version of the game - with Barrage attacks refering to Dark Criticals, and 'Draining Attacks' some form of the Holy Healing found in the released version of the game.
  • This outfit doesn't seem to protect against or prevent dark critical hits in the released version of the game.

Dark Magick Bolt critical hit on Bandit (in air)

Dark Magick Bolt critical hit killing blow on Ox

Dark Magick Bolt critical hit on Snow Harpy

Dark Magick Bolt critical hit on Boar

Pawn chatter

• "I grant you shadow's cloak" (when gifting a Dark enchant to an ally)

Creature resistances

For lists, see List of Creature Elemental and Melee Resistances and List of Creature Debilitation Resistances.

Spells, Skills and Equipment

Ring	Resistance
Ring of Sable	15%
Ring of Onyx	25%
Virtuoso Ring †	10%
Preceptor Ring †	11-20%
Master Ring †	21-30%
† Randomly may resist

Spells and Skills

• Dark based skills

Weapons

• Dark based weapons

Equipment

• List of Armor and Clothing Sets with Dark resistance
• List of Head Armor with Dark resistance
• List of Torso Armor with Dark resistance
• List of Leg Armor with Dark resistance
• List of Arms Armor with Dark resistance
• List of Leg Clothing with Dark resistance
• List of Chest Clothing with Dark resistance
• List of Cloaks with Dark resistance

Notes

• ERROR!!! According to the Dragon's Dogma Official Guide by Brady Games dark magick is supposed to add a fraction of the users Magick Defense to attacks with dark enchanted weapons - this is not correct.