The new Bard class in Dark and Darker is first and foremost a support class, with access to a number of instruments that buff yourself and your allies while debuffing your enemies. These core elements of the Bard have to be seriously considered when coming up with a build. Our guide will provide you with the best Bard build in Dark and Darker, including the best perks, skills, stats, armor, weapons, and music.
Best Bard Build in Dark and Darker
Here’s a short list of everything you’ll need for this support build of the Bard class:
- Best Bard Perks
- Best Bard Skills
- Best Bard Stats
- Best Bard Gear and Weapons
- Best Bard Music
Best Bard Perks
Bard should be an effective support character, making his team stronger, but you shouldn’t forget to balance his own drawbacks. That’s why these four perks were selected to make Bard both an excellent supporter and a decent solo character:
- Charismatic Performance: Upgrades a good performance to a perfect performance.
- Superior Dexterity: 50% faster switching time between items.
- Wanderer’s Luck: Increases Luck by +100 to find high-quality items.
- War Song: Increases Weapon Damage of allies by +3.
Best Bard Skills
Bard strongly relies on his instruments and his ability to play melodies off of the music sheets to improve the gameplay of both his allies and himself. That’s why I’d strongly recommend picking skills that permit you to store as many music sheets as possible, such as:
- Music Memory: Store up to 4 sheet music.
- Music Memory 2: Store up to 4 sheet music.
Best Bard Stats
It’s no secret that Bard is a vulnerable class, and that’s why I’d put all my stat points into Bard’s HP and Agility. But the overall stat distribution for your build should look like this:
- Strength: 15
- Agility: 20
- Will: 10
- Knowledge: 18
- Resourcefulness: 12
- Health: 100
- Weight Limit: 0
- Spell Memory: 18
- Utility Effectiveness: 0
Best Bard Gear and Weapons
Bard’s gear shouldn’t be too heavy, but at the same time, it should protect you from heavy damage, although your movement speed may suffer a bit. Here’s what I suggest:
- Head: Feathered Hat
- Chest: Regal Gambeson
- Legs: Leather Chausses
- Hands: Riveted Gloves
- Feet: Heavy Boots
Weapons, on the other hand, can be quite heavy and deal a lot of damage both at melee and range, including:
- Falchion is an excellent close-to-mid range one-handed sword that deals 30 Slash damage. You can also improve it with the Kuma’s Fang attachment, which grants +15 Dark magic damage, which is really useful against bosses. Falchion typically drops from Skeleton Guardsmen, Demon Bats, or Ghost King elite enemies.
- Crossbow will work like a charm for this build’s two-handed ranged weapon, dealing 39 damage. There’s no slot of improvement like in the case with Falchion, but you’ll be using it more rarely than Falchion, so it’s perfectly serviceable as is. This weapon can be found inside ordinary oak chests or dropped by Mimics and Ghost King elites.
Best Bard Music
Finally, it’s time to decide what kind of music you want to play for your party as a Bard. You can choose between four types of instruments and add 10 different music sheets. So here’s what I recommend to fit the given Bard build:
- Drums:
- Accelerando: Increases the speed of movement of your own and your allies.
- Rousing Rhythms: Increases all attributes of your allies.
- Flute:
- Shriek of Weakness: Reduces physical power and armor rating of nearby enemies.
- Unchained Harmony: Opens all locked non-special doors and containers.
- Lute:
- Chaotic Discord: Forces monsters to attack the closest target.
- Lament of Languor: Reduces speed of movement of nearby enemies.
- Song of Silence: Prevents casters from casting magic.
- Lyre:
- Ballad of Courage: Grants +10% bonus to physical power.
- Harmonic Shield: Grants +40 bonus to armor rating and magic resist.
- Tranquility: Restores 2 HP per second.
That’s everything you need to know about the best Bard build in Dark and Darker. Stay tuned for more Dark and Darker guides on our dedicated tips page.
