Dark is one of those games that could have been great. It had the right ideas but the execution in the developing process was very poor. At its heart Dark is a stealth game. Unlike a typical stealth game the basic stealth elements are not there at the beginning of the game. The basic stealth elements must be upgraded and here lies the flaws.

Basic stealth elements like taking down an enemy in the shadow without anyone noticing is impossible without upgrading a skill to reduce take down noise. Another example, it is impossible sneaking past a guard in the shadow from behind without being notice. Again you need to upgrade your sneak skill to make less noise. In other stealth games these basic elements are built into your character without the need to invest skill points.

What make the situation worst is the bad level design early on. These early level would have been alright if checkpoints are more frequent and have more points to invest in skills. If a player invested the skill points wrong like me, your stealth enjoyment diminished greatly early in the game. It is probably the main reason why the game is so hated. After completing half of the game I realized how great this game could have been if the developers ease the players into the game. Early part of the game suck really really hard if you don’t know where to invest your skill points.

This guild is design to help new players to enjoy Dark stealth element by investing the skill points correctly throughout the game. There is a walkthrough from gamepressure but it is not need if you used the skill points correctly. In fact it is a easy stealth game once the basic mechanics are master.

This guild is base on normal difficulties.

Game Pressure walkthrough. It did help in in a few take down cases. Overall if you have the right powers you don’t need to follow it.

http://guides.gamepressure.com/dark/

INSTANT KILL must be upgraded to level 3 (silent kill) as soon as possible. It will allow you to kill enemies without being notice. Even enemies in very close dissent, ie like taking down a rear walking guard without the lead guard noticing. If you did not upgrade to the max like I did your frustration level will be high in the early game.

ASSASSIN skill must be upgraded to Ghost as soon as possible. I high recommend fully upgrade as soon as possible. Ghost make it so you have time to correct your mistakes without being detected. Enhanced Sneaking is really good. It combo well with Obscure, Subdue, and Feed. Enhance Sneaking speed is 30%-40% (eyeballing it) less than your normal speed. In others you will close the distant really fast in sneak mode.

FEED is very important but not as important as Instant Kill and Assassin upgrades. Try to upgrade to level 3 (Sanguinarian II) early in the game. It will reduce sucking noise significantly. Once the BLOOD skill tree is fully upgraded it is wise to take Sanguinarian III. Sanguinarian III combo well with a fully upgrade Blood skill tree (4 energy blood) and Subdue.

VAMPIRE VISION should be upgrade to level 2 (Premonition) once Ghouls and Undeads shows up. Upgrade to Premonition II when alarm traps appears (later in the game).

BLOOD: Upgrading blood is good when you start using offensive skills frequently, ie Subdue, Shadow Kill, Shadow Grip, etc. Blood II combo well with Sanguinarian III.

SHADOW GRIP is the most powerful offensive power skill in the game. Unfortunately I did not know this until halfway through the game. I upgraded Shadow Kill first which itself is good but nowhere as powerful or useful as Shadow Grip. Shadow Grip allows you to take out enemies at range minimizing (silent grip) or eliminating (destroy corpse) any risks of being detected. This power alone will turn Dark into easy mode. At Level 3 Shadow Grip will make stealthing super easy and fast. Shadow Grip should be your first offensive power skill and it should be upgraded to level two (silent grip) with your next two points before using it.

SUBDUE combo very well with Sanguinarian III (FEED) and Enhance Sneaking (ASSASSIN). You do not need to upgrade it to level 2. At level 1 it will work great if you have enhance sneaking. Subdue is stun. That means once an enemy is stun you can feed or kill him outright without any fear of detection. With Sanguinarian III you get a net 1 blood energy point. So you always end up with an extra blood point without any risk of detection. Very powerful skill.

SHADOW KILL by no means a bad offensive skill. In fact it really good but Shadow Grip is way better. Shadow Grip is range kill while Shadow Kill is range melee kill. Shadow Kill teleport to the target and automatic kill him. It a very useful utility skill and a quick backup to Shadow Grip. As a utility skill it allows you to get to a desire location undetected and dispose the guard at the same time. It allow you to bypass traps just like Shadow Leap. As a backup it allows you to kill two enemies in quick session, ie combo with Shadow Grip. As always the skill is only good if it doesn’t make any noise. So make sure it is at least upgrade to level 2 (silence) before using it. At level 4 (stun) Shadow Kill have a build in subdue. On a few occasions I use it to take out two or three enemies close to each other. Shadow Kill take out one and stun the others which give me the option to outright kill or feed on them. With a level 4 Shadow Kill you can cut enemies conversations short. It a very good offensive skill but 10 out 10 times I recommend Shadow Grip first. Shadow Kill combo very well with Shadow Leap.

SHADOW LEAP is very useful and probably a requirement to fully upgrade in the late game. It allows you to bypass trap and travel large distances (full upgrade). Shadow Leap has some use in the early game. Upgrading to level 2 (increased range) is entirely up to you in the early game. You will know when to fully upgrade (perfect shadow leap) Shadow Leap in the late game, ie lots of traps.

TOUGHNESS is not needed throughout the game. Unfortunately for me I fully upgraded early in my game due to high frustration of not knowing how the stealth mechanic works. The wasted points set me back greatly.

VAMPIRIC SPEED. I never use this power in story mode. To be honest Shadow Leap is better and free.

CONFUSION. I never use this power so I really don’t know. With Subdue there really no need to put points into it.

REGENERATION. I did not upgrade it early in the game. I did use it a number of times before knowing how the stealth mechanic work.

DISTRACT seems to be a great skill but it actually is pretty useless. Other sealth games (Hitman, Thief, etc) have similar mechanics. Unfortunately it doesn’t work the same way as most stealth games. The distraction range is too short. However I did fully upgrade it late in the game and used it to distract two guards away from the door camera. Once they are out of the camera range I Shadow Kill (lvl 4 stun) them. It usage is limited.

OBSCURE. I did use this power a few times to bypass enemies. It combo well with Shadow Leap. Overall I wouldn’t put points into it unless you think you need it at a certain area.

AWAKENED INSTINCTS. Pretty useless. By playing the game you get a good feel of the AI detection range.

Dark is a stealth game but start without any basic stealth skills. In other words your character make so much noises the entire city can hear him. This IMO is the major flaw in the game. It is compounded by players investing in the wrong skills early in the game.

The first 2 points should immediately go to INSTANT KILL. Fully upgrade it to silent kill.

The next 4 points should be invested into ASSASSIN toward Ghost. It is up to you if you want to spend another 2 points to finish the Assassin tree. Enhance Sneaking is very good and combo well with a lot of other skills.

The next 4 points should go to FEED. Sanguinarian II will allow you to feed on an enemy without being notice.

Once these three skill trees are finish you now have a basic stealth character and it plays like other stealth games. Yeah it kinda sad to even have to put points into those basic skill elements.

If you haven’t taken Enhance Sneaking I suggest you do it now. Depending on how you play the game either put one point into SUBDUE or go right into SHADOW GRIP. If you decide SHADOW GRIP make sure you get it to level 2 (silent grip). Without silent grip, Shadow Grip will have limited uses. Next fully upgrade BLOOD than finish FEED tree (Sanguinarian III). Complete SHADOW GRIP (destroy corpse). If you haven’t put a point into SUBDUE or VAMPIRE VISION you should do it now. The rest is up to you but I do recommend SHADOW KILL or SHADOW LEAP next.