Dark and Darker Early Access Season #9 Patch Notes (28th April 2026)

Hello Adventurers,

Welcome to Early Access #9. All character levels, items, stashes, inventory, reward tokens, karma, quest, affinity, and triumph levels have been reset. This season brings several large new features.

• Face the Inferno – The gates to Hell have opened wide with a revamped Inferno. Enter a classic fantasy world of fire and brimstone plagued by a new demonic horde. Face the embodiment of malice as the foreboding Demon Overseer looks to seal your ultimate fate.
• New perks and skills for the Rogue and Ranger – The two most agile classes get brand new skills and perks including Shadowstep, Explosive Shot, Overdraw and more!
• In-game Ping System – A new in-game ping system helps boost party communication within the dungeons. You can now easily share item links, quest objectives, alert your party members to dangers or send simple notifications between party members by using the ping button.
• New Party Finder System - A new system that helps players find like-minded adventurers to fill out their parties.
• Squire Royale mode – A quick access PvP battle mode where everyone starts out on even footing. Ready up and quickly jump into the game. Race to gear up and crush your opponents and be the last ones to make it out of the dungeons alive.
• More Improved QoL – Adventure Rank points are now earned for the account instead of being tracked separately for each character. Also added an additional character slot to all accounts and included an additional shared stash for all Legendary accounts. Streamlined the merchants to make it easier to get back in the dungeons after each run.

We have decided to start this season with a two-week ‘Solo Self Found’ event. This means that the Trading Post and Marketplace will not open until May 14, 2026. In the lead up to that date, we will be running a Twitch Drops Campaign from May 1 to May, 21 2026. Also be sure to login and collect all your EA Season 8 rewards including the first Arena portrait borders. The new Arena season 2 will also commence on May 15, 2026. Please note that the Arenas will be limited to ‘Epic’ grade and you will not lose your gear upon a loss.

Finally, be sure to collect your ‘EAS9 Welcome Delivery’ pack from the Expressman’s ‘Post Express’ service tab to help you start the season off with a bit of gold. We thank you and see you in the dungeons!

IRONMACE

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an issue where the Fighter's Weapon Guard might not apply to projectiles.
• Fixed an issue where the Hydra summoned by the Warlock might not die to bosses monsters other than the Ghost King.
• Fixed an issue in the Fallen Forest module of The Forgotten Castle - Ruins where a path could be difficult for players to pass through.
• Fixed an issue where interacting with the portcullis in the Greathall C module of The Forgotten Castle - Ruins could cause abnormal sounds.
• Fixed an issue where a wall in the Wheel module of The Forgotten Castle - Crypt would appear to flicker.
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the Barracks module of The Forgotten Castle - Crypt.
• Fixed an issue where interacting with the Down Stairs in the Broken Bridge module of The Forgotten Castle - Crypt could cause a Portcullis to protrude through the wall.
• Fixed an issue where the roots of an Ash Tree placed in the Forest Path module of The Forgotten Castle - Ruins would appear outside the ground.
• Fixed an issue where the VFX of a specific attack pattern of the Frozen Ghost in the Glacial Teeth module of The Frost Mountain - Ice Abyss would appear incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where the minimap appears blacked out for a revived player.
• Fixed an issue where the lighting effect after using the Altar of Sacrifice could flicker.
• Fixed an issue where certain parts of a monster’s corpses might not be interactable.
• Fixed an issue where the Giant Centipede's corpse could fly away or get stuck on a slope after being killed.
• Fixed an issue where all grades of Flame Boar could have the same health and damage.
• Fixed an issue where the Flame Boar and Lava Turtle could become misaligned in angle depending on the terrain.
• Fixed an issue where the Harpy's corpse might shake abnormally.
• Fixed an issue where the sound and animation might not play correctly when the Living Statue dies close to the ground.
• Fixed an issue where certain animations of the Midnight Stag would appear awkward.
• Fixed an issue where the sound could be muffled when interacting with the reward room door after defeating the Spectral Knight.
• Fixed an issue where the Abomination might produce no sound while moving.
• Fixed an issue where a specific attack of the Abomination could deal damage even when the Warlock is in the Phantomize state.
• Fixed an issue where some monsters could preemptively attack players who are playing through Faustian Bargain.
• Fixed an issue where the number of random options on the Light Bringer, Brave Hunter's Pants, and Foul Boots did not match other items of the same grade.
• Fixed an issue where the animation after the War Maul's attack is blocked by a wall could appear interrupted.
• Fixed an issue where no sound would play when blocking with the Abyssal Trident.
• Fixed an issue where the lantern could momentarily clip inside the arm when attacking.
• Fixed an issue where the glowing cosmetic skin would turn off when pressing Shift while in the rest state.
• Fixed an issue where a glowing cosmetic skin might appear non-glowing after moving far away and back relative to the viewing player.
• Fixed an issue where the glowing effect on the Emberflame weapon skin might not turn off when sitting or walking.
• Fixed an issue where the character with the highest MMR among characters of the same class might not be correctly reflected on the Arena Leaderboard.

Game Updates:

• The Early Access Season #9 Self Found Event will occur for the first two weeks of the season. The Marketplace and Trading Post will open on May 14th.
• Arena Season #2 is scheduled to begin on May 15th.
• Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, and HVCI must be enabled to enter High-Roller and Arena modes. Players who do not meet these requirements will see a pop-up guiding them on how to enable them.
• New perks and skills have been added for the Rogue and Ranger.
• The Forgotten Castle - Inferno has been newly revamped. Experience a fiery Inferno showcasing a more classic fantasy look populated with new demons underlings. A monstrous Demon Overseer lords over this hellish domain.
• Several additional doorways connecting the modules have been added to the 7x7 Ruins map.
• The Goblin Caves is now separated by floor names, and the dungeon campaign name has been updated to The Ashen Range.
• An in-game ping communication system has been added. You can now easily share item links, quest objectives, alert your party members to dangers or send simple notifications between party members by using the ping button.
• A party finder system has been added. Create your own custom party or browse the party list to recruit like minded adventurers.
• The Adventure Rank system has been overhauled. Basically play any mode (except Arena) and make progress up to Demigod.
• Adventure Points are now accumulated at the account level instead of per character.
• Removed the rank cap for earning Adventure Point for the Normal and PvE modes — players can now earn Adventure Points up to Demigod rank in these modes.
• Players can now earn Adventure Points through the Squire Royale mode up to Demigod.
• Updated the amount of Adventure Points required for each rank.
• Added a 50% Adventure Point boost for the High-Roller mode.
• The cosmetic rewards for achieving ranks 'Pathfinder' and higher still require ‘Legendary’ account status to unlock.
• The 'Squires to Riches' mode has been updated the ‘Squire Royale’ mode. The ‘Squire Royale’ mode is a quick access PvP battle mode where everyone starts out on even footing. Ready up and quickly jump into the game with a quick-purchase option for basic healing supplies and a convenient ‘Stash and Go’ option. Race to gear up and crush your opponents to be the last ones to make it out of the dungeons alive. Juiced up loot for this mode with a chance to pull an artifact by defeating the Demon Overseer or from the Skull Key hoard in the Inferno. Item extraction is possible via the Expressman between floors or by escaping through the final portal in the Inferno. The boss for the Ruins will always appear, while other bosses on deeper floors will spawn at random. Bosses in this mode do not drop any hunting loots.
• Improved several animations for blocked and cancelled attacks.
• Sounds are now occluded based on whether doors are open or closed.
• The intensity of landing sounds now varies based on height of the drop.
• Destructible objects now produce sounds to indicate damage taken.
• The option to allow Whispers from all players has been re-added.
• Potions no longer overlap each other on the utility belt.
• An additional default character slot has been added for Squire accounts, allowing up to 2 characters to be created. Legendary accounts also receive an additional character slot.
• Increased the amount of stashes you can unlock: Unlockable Stash slots 4 → 5.
• Increased the amount of shared stashes given to Legendary Status accounts: 1 → 2.
• The positions of the Training tab and the Perks & Skills tab within the Skills tab have been swapped.
• The number of default Potions and Bandages provided to Squires has increased from 2 to 3.
• 500 gold coins have been added to the 'Welcome Delivery' parcel provided at the start of this season.
• All items — including Hunting Loot, equipment, and other types — can now be sold to any Merchant regardless of category. The Collector will purchase equipment items and the other merchants will purchase trinkets.
• Merchants and quests have been streamlined for player convenience.
• The Treasurer has been merged into the Tavern Master. The Tavern Master now handles the sales of gold containers and exchanging silver coins into gold coins. The diamond->gem exchange feature has been removed.
• The Surgeon and the Fortune Teller have been merged into the Alchemist. The Alchemist now sells Bandages (Normal affinity 50 / Uncommon 100), Lucky Potions, Healing Potions (Normal affinity 75 / Uncommon 125), and magical items (Crystal Ball, Crystal Sword, Magic Staff, etc.).
• The Quick Fill feature when selling has been improved so that currency and Hunting Loot are no longer automatically included.
• Updated the Workshop functionality and fees.
• The workshop’s ‘Enhance’ service can now only service items that are “Found By” the character.
• The material fees required for each workshop service has been dramatically reduced.
• Service descriptions and requirement texts have been added.
• Added Portrait Frame cosmetics based on your Arena rank.
• Added several new cosmetics and the return of fan favorites to the Shop.
• The Season 9 Season DLC Pack has been released that includes the following: The New Inferno Lobby Skin (permanent), 2 Red Stones (permanent until used), 1 shared stash, 5 additional Marketplace slots, 1 gold coin pouch, Consumables bundle.
• The Twitch Drops campaign is scheduled to run from May 1st to May 21st. Please check our separate announcement for more details.

Balance Updates:

General

• The number of random escape portals per game mode has been slightly decreased.
• The speed of raising a weapon into a guard stance has been changed to match that of a shield.
• The blocking hitbox area of weapons has been slightly reduced to better match the geometry.
• Updated Weapon Damage so that each rarity now uses the max value instead of rolling within a range. For example, a weapon that had a damage range of 46–47 will now have 47.
• The Sling has been changed from a weapon type to a utility type item.
• Equipping gear or swapping to another item is no longer possible while an item swap is in progress.
• The interaction time of the Altar of Sacrifice has been slightly reduced, and it can now be reused after a set amount of time.
• Campfire setup time has been decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
• The Harpy is no longer invincible when getting back up after being knocked down.
• The spawn frequency of Nightmare monsters has been adjusted. On High-Roller campaigns, they will appear less frequently than before, gradually increasing on lower floors. They will also appear at a very low rate in Normal campaigns and PvE campaigns.
• The difficulty of some monsters, including sub-bosses and bosses, have been adjusted. Previously, some were too easy relative to their rewards, while others were so difficult that players resorted to glitches instead of normal strategies. Difficulty has been rebalanced to a level where players can clear them through normal gameplay.
• The drop rate of Artifacts has been doubled in the High Roller campaigns.
• Cooldown times are now displayed for each perk and skill.
• The movement speed bonus granted by the Agility attribute has increased from 0.5 to 0.6 per Agility.
• The maximum cap for Undead Damage Reduction and Demon Damage Reduction has been decreased from 65% to 50%.
• Debuff Duration no longer affects the cooldown of perks.
• Fireball and Fire Orb now deal only direct hit damage on a direct hit, and only splash damage when the projectile misses but the splash radius connects.
• Buff Duration and Debuff Duration are now displayed as Buff Duration Bonus and Debuff Duration Reduction respectively.
• The movement speed during the Emotional Breakdown emote has been reduced.

Classes

Fighter

• Shield Mastery now grants 10% Action Speed and Physical Damage Bonus for 1 second upon a successful block.
• The aggro range of Taunt has been decreased from 3x to 2x.
• The cooldown of Disarm has been decreased from 28 seconds to 24 seconds.

Rogue

• A new perk, 'Trickster', has been added.
• A new perk, 'Veil of Shadows', has been added.
• A new perk, 'Lethal Mark', has been added.
• Revamped the 'Creep' perk.
• A new skill, 'Dual Strike', has been added.
• A new skill, 'Sneak Attack', has been added.
• A new skill, 'Shadowstep', has been added.

Ranger

• A new perk, 'Longshot Expert', has been added.
• A new perk, 'Point-Blank Expert', has been added.
• A new perk, 'Windfletch', has been added.
• A new perk, 'First Aid', has been added.
• A new skill, 'Overdraw', has been added.
• A new skill, 'Explosive Shot', has been added.

Barbarian

• The health threshold for Finishing Blow has increased from 5% to 10%.
• Hurl Weapon damage has increased from 120% to 150%, and impact force has increased from 4 to 7.
• Blood Exchange health recovery rate has increased from 10% to 15%.

Druid

• The cooldown of Dreamwalk has been decreased from 18 seconds to 12 seconds.

Wizard

• Fireball direct hit damage has increased from 20 to 35.
• Zap damage has increased from 18 to 20.
• Explosion damage has increased from 23 to 25.

Sorcerer

• Fire Orb direct hit damage has increased from 30 to 45.

Bard

• Shriek of Weakness Physical Damage Reduction has increased to 6%/8%/10%, and an additional effect of reducing Armor Rating by 6/8/10 has been added.

Items

• The random modifier values on items have been adjusted.
• The option on Cobalt crafted items has been changed from Armor Penetration to Projectile Damage Reduction.
• The option on Obsidian crafted items has been changed from Projectile Damage Reduction to Armor Penetration.
• Great Helm Headshot Damage Reduction has been decreased from 23% to 22%.
• Topfhelm Headshot Damage Reduction has been decreased from 24% to 22%.
• Stillmend Boots health recovery time has been decreased from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Spellweaver Magical Damage has increased from 7 to 8, and effect (buff) duration has increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Castillon Dagger damage has been decreased by 2.
• The movement speed reduction while reloading the Sling has been reduced.
• Crystal Sword Weapon Damage per rarity has increased by 1.
• Artifact Weapon Damage has increased by 1.
• Quarterstaff Armor Penetration has been decreased from 10% to 5%, and Weapon Damage has been decreased by 1.
• Club Armor Penetration has been decreased from 10% to 5%, and Weapon Damage has been increased by 1.