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Keys to beating Dark Mode: It's easy!


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So i just finished Dark Mode and im pretty pleased with myself! But not at the game, rather dissapointed actually.

 

So i'll just threw a couple of things out in list form that are the most important things you'll have to do and what not to. (remember this is purely my opinion and might not work for everyone ;)

 

Step 1: Invest in the Dark Armor Sets! Nothing to say really rather then you'll kick some serious butt with the sets. If you're having trouble getting money, just farm Nekkers in Chapter 1 and Harpys in Chapter 2.

 

And also bring money to chapter 3 as its quite hard to farm any monsters here and its a short chapter. Also bring all the materials you need so you can get your hands on the Kinslayer Armor early on! Note: I completed chapter 3 with the Oathbreaker set so you do not HAVE to get it.

 

Step 2: Invest in footwork and Quen, these are the things that makes this game rather easy, so when you get your talent points spend it on these two at first then feel free to spend your points on whatever you like, i should recomend Swordsmanship path as it will make monsterslaying life much easier.

 

Step 3: DODGE, and dodge some more. I did not use Riposte or block or anything like it in my Dark playthrough as they're rather useless imo so just roll around like a fool and keep attacking various of enemies and then, well roll some more! Takes awhile to perfect dodging but its worth the grinding.

 

These 3 simple things are pretty much the key to this game and believe me its not THAT hard do complete it on Dark. I thought i would never complete it as i first started my playthrough (first one ever) cuz i kept on dying like 50 times in a row in certain areas.

 

But after awhile it becomes really easy and even the boss fights tends to be even easier then most human enemies so you don't have to worry about them whopping you're ass to hard:)

 

So happy hunting and keep on slaying fellow Witchers!

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I am currently on Act 3 myself, and am also finding Dark Mode to be quite easy. This is my second playthrough, and I am actually dying less despite the increased difficulty. On normal difficulty during the first fight with Letho I died over ten times before I beat him, and when I fought him again on Dark I beat him the first time, as well as the Kayran. However I will say that the Draug gave me some trouble on Dark, but other than him I have not died more than 10 times on a single boss on Dark. I tend to abuse Quen and Aard heavily in order to win fights, and rarely even need to drink potions with the armor sets. I feel like the sets shouldn't have been included, it seems like it makes the game too easy to me.

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snip

 

This works really well I can vouch for this strategy beat the game 5 times now 3 on normal 2 on dark. My 3 normal playthroughs consisted of me using one skill tree.

 

Step 1: Invest in the Dark Armor Sets! Nothing to say really rather then you'll kick some serious butt with the sets. If you're having trouble getting money, just farm Nekkers in Chapter 1 and Harpys in Chapter 2.

 

And also bring money to chapter 3 as its quite hard to farm any monsters here and its a short chapter. Also bring all the materials you need so you can get your hands on the Kinslayer Armor early on! Note: I completed chapter 3 with the Oathbreaker set so you do not HAVE to get it.

 

This works both ways I think by the time you acquire the necessary materials for the first set. Its so late in act 1 the amount of time you get with Blasphemor set is pretty much the equivalent of the time you get with Kinslayer set in Act 3. So my first Dark playthrough I actually got oathbreaker & kinslayer. Then my 2nd dark playthrough I got all 3 which was a pain to do. I never farmed monsters btw.

 

To add to this oils is rather useless their icing on the cake really their just overkill. So I would recommend all found oils should go to crafting hardened leather for the sets. Another thing is once they run out dont buy 2 oils to make one hardened leather it actually cost more to do that. So from there just buy individual hardened leather.

 

Walking in a door and walking back replenishes a stores stock. also get a robust cloth diagram I always had enough materials to craft that. Although diamond dust got really low even when I used herbalist gloves to get 2x diamond dust instead of 1. Which brings me to my next point. Keep herbalist gloves around when not killing enemies put them on and pick up 2x alchemy ingredients.

 

The ability that made this possible is haggling so very useful to have a 20% discount. Hoard the crap out of everything and then sell all but alchemy, crafting and quest items.

 

Step 2: Invest in footwork and Quen, these are the things that makes this game rather easy, so when you get your talent points spend it on these two at first then feel free to spend your points on whatever you like, i should recomend Swordsmanship path as it will make monsterslaying life much easier.

 

Step 3: DODGE, and dodge some more. I did not use Riposte or block or anything like it in my Dark playthrough as they're rather useless imo so just roll around like a fool and keep attacking various of enemies and then, well roll some more! Takes awhile to perfect dodging but its worth the grinding.

 

I play this way and found this is just the fastest way really. I played every skill tree even when I played magic only I found myself still dropping enemies faster using that strategy. Than using igni sign with the operators godly staff. Hell that same playthrough I'm pretty sure thats the same one I dropped the endrega queen in 3 hits on act 3 Roches path. This strategy works so well because of the assassin ability that 25% extra damage for back attacks awesome.

 

All my fights consisted of this exactly match starts. Cast Quen wait for an attack roll behind opponent if they manage to hit you. Oh well you got quen and don't get phased got their back now, do 2 heavy slashes rinse repeat. I actually prefer leveling up the roll skill once having 100% extra roll distance is just right to dodge and get behind people at the right distance. 200% extra roll distance is just to much.

 

I don't think using this strategy takes any grinding really its quite simple to do this. I use this strategy on everyone but letho for him its aard,X,X rinse repeat for however much vigor I got.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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I don’t know if anyone mentioned it before, but here’s a tip for Dark mode if you have trouble with certain enemies in specific conditions.

 

During Chapter 1 Cedric (and others) have placed numerous Snare traps around the forest; try to collect at least 50 of them. You’ll probably need a lot less than that, but I say 50 just to be safe since I haven’t tested it in all possible scenarios yet (there’s also carrying capacity to consider).

 

If you have access to the arena where you are about to fight a single strong foe (the Endrega Queens for example) place a bunch of snare traps on the same spot without moving, as many as you think the enemy needs to die (20 are enough for the Queens).

 

Be very careful not to step on them because it will result into an instant KO for Geralt. As soon as the battle starts, put the enemy between you and the traps, as soon as they step on them is an instant KO and you didn’t even have to draw your sword (not that fun right?).

 

For a similar scenario but with a group of enemies, you can try to create a big circle of snare traps in the middle of the arena, and circle around as enemies step through them; you can enhance that by placing like 2 per spot or how many you think are necessary.

 

And the best part is that after the fight is done, you can re-collect your laid traps for future use without the need to buy or make more.

 

Obviously you can’t use this in every fight for obvious reasons, but you should theoretically be able to use it against Letho at the very end (haven’t tried but can’t see why not).

 

Keep in mind this tip makes some battles boring, so use at your own discretion, and it is unnecessary if you pay attention to some of the other stuff people have suggested here (Dark Mode is easy as far as hard modes go anyway).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Chapter 1 was pretty tough. I stuck with mostly non combat quests at first to level up and some parts were still tricky. Once I got some skill points into magic, it got a bit better. I skipped the first armor set because I would have been in chapter 1 way too long if I stopped to grind for it. I am in chapter 2 now and harpies are fairly easy to take down and just need some studded leather for the armor set to complete.

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I really don't know why everyone recommends Quen, I think it's utter crap later on, because it blocks Vigor regeneration.

 

I'm currently at the beginning of chapter 3 during my Dark Mode run and think a combination of rolling/attacking and spamming Igni is much more effective against regular enemies.

 

Basically, I went full magic, with the exception of 5 points into the swords tree for rolling, improved vigor regeneration and damage reduction (later also took improved vitality and positioning, but it's not that important right away) . The Game has become extremely easy. Though I have to say it wasn't even hard at the beginning ... I had much more problems during my first run. No need to prepare battles or anything, the only potions I actually sometimes use are the ones for further improved vigor regeneration and sign damage.

 

Magic is just fucking awesome in this game and your swords (if you have the dark sets) still dish out enough damage without further points into the tree. Especially when you get the 25% backstab perk at the beginning.

 

It has also the huge advantage, that you can just avoid sword fighting completely, if the enemy or enemy group dish out too much damage. And since you went full magic, you can still put the 2nd point into Quen (you have to put 1 point in it anway) against bosses or whatever.

 

Witcher 2 suffers from the same problem that many action RPGs face: It's fucking hard in close combat, but kiting basically breakes the game. Kinda like Divinity 2 at the start of the game.

Edited by Schreckofant
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  • 2 weeks later...
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Everyone keeps saying Igni makes the game easy even on Dark Mode. I tried that and didn't see it being overpowered at all. I maxed out all the sign damages, etc., etc. so it's not that.

 

Enemies take a while to burn and take damage, and bosses/big dudes will take you down if you don't have Quen up (which reduces the amount of Igni you can use seeing as you can't regenerate vigor with Quen up).

 

Even though my skill tree was severely skewed towards magic, I would say I did most of my Dark Mode playthrough relying more on Quen, rolling, and my sword.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished playthrough on dark difficulity while ago. It was much easier than I thought it'll be. You don't even need any bombs, traps, etc. The most important thing is to complete dark armor sets(At least two of them, I never completed last one and there was no need). Upgrade your vigor, roll ability and Quen. The first opponent was struggling with was I encountered at the end of chapter 2. Before that I died less than 10 times. Remember: cast Quen, hit as much as you can(Depends on enemy) and roll away.

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  • 1 month later...
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This is good information to know, Igni is probably one of the best abilities you can have in the game. I used it during my Arena Mode run and it made dealing with the huge enemy clusters a breeze, until I faced the Fire Golems. Quen is good to have in the event you have to get up close and personal with the enemy as it will absorb damage.

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  • 2 weeks later...

All the bombs and more bombs. I'm at the end of chapter 2 - and it seems like no one else has adopted this strategy - but once I started farming ingredients for bombs I pretty much stopped dying in this. Tough bosses sometimes thwart bomb spamming, but a Yrden and stab repetition seemed to do the trick.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finally gave in and started on dark mode, and just beat it the other day, and it's not really that hard at all. My main tactic was to use Quen and jump around like a maniac, and then occasionally use Yrden during bosses or enemies with shields or a lot of hp. I had a easier time going through this then I did my first time on normal.

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