Dark and Darker wiped player progress today due to an influx of cheaters

Dungeon crawling PvP game Dark and Darker is undergoing maintenance and a server wipe today. Though you'll lose character progress, it is bringing back one of the best bits of the game: the voice chat.

Ironmace warned its players last week via its Discord server that a progress wipe would be incoming today and has now shared the rest of the details about what to expect after downtime.

"All character levels, items, gold, and skills have been reset," Ironmace says. Ironmace also references the cheating issues it was battling last week with a characteristically slapdash solution of a Discord bot reporting system. 

"This first wipe occurred much sooner than we expected due to challenges we faced from exploiters. We have learned from this experience and have updated the game and our services to be more robust against these adversaries."

Ironmace also says it will be conducting "frequent balance updates during the upcoming weeks" as it onboards continued feedback from players.

Most importantly though, voice chat is coming back. Hollering to friends and foes alike was possible in the popular demo version of Dark and Darker but not in the early access version that surprise launched earlier this month.

"We hope you enjoy screaming to your hearts delight in the dungeons," Ironmace says. Assuming there aren't any bugs or issues with voice chat, that's a big win. If I can't listen to my friend playing as a bard attempt to fearfully broker the most tenuous truce between us and two spell slinging jerks, how else am I supposed to feel alive?

Dark and Darker went offline at 11 am Pacific time and is now back online. The remainder of the patch notes with balance changes are as follows:

• All spells Attribute Bonus Ratio returned to 100%.
• The All Attributes random modifiers can now go up to +3.
• All potions now heal for 15 hp. The required duration for the potion decreases as the grade improves.
• Improved the ratio of recoverable health from 0.5 to 0.65 for taken damage.
• All bandages now take a base time of 5.5s to apply but heals varying amounts of recoverable health based on the grade.
• Regular Interaction Speed bonus is applied at only 50% bonus when using a Surgical Kit or Bandage.
• Francisca Axe price reduced from 24 to 18 and Hunting Trap price increased from 7 to 10.
• Bard’s Accelerando 5/8/11 -> 5/7/9
• Bard’s Allegro 3%/5%/7% -> 3%/4.5%/6%
• Bard’s Shriek of Weakness -10/-25/-40 -> -10/-20/-30
• Wizard’s Zap 1s -> 1.25s
• Quarterstaff MoveSpeed Penalty -35 -> -30
• Zweihander MoveSpeed Penalty -50 -> -45
• High Roller entrance fee will be kept at 50 gold for now.
• The gold hoard has been removed from the Ruins map.