With the release of the Dark World, we got a “new” hero. King Noctis, who is ten years older than the Noctis that we all know and love. The King is prophesied to bring us the Light in the Dark. His specialty is Dark Troops and resource production.
I think it’s pretty nice that he comes in at level 1 instead of 200 (looking at you, Iris Amicitia). This gives us plenty of hero levels to use when he is upgraded. I mean, he already gets 100 levels to unlock right at the beginning. That is a heck of a lot of Moogle Monster trophies to collect here. Most packs also offer MP Carryover for King Noctis when you get it. That means you can level him up and keep your leveled up MP (it STACKS!) for future use when you need it.
Not only that, you can even max hit a monster and it will only use the MP that you need to kill it. How is that for a win/win situation? No more worrying about losing hits because you forgot to change gear. Although, I do recommend that you don’t hit the Moogle Monsters with full Slayer gear on. Just the boots for the speed, since you can get more hits out of each individual monster, and save you a ton of time. Want another tip? Pop monster MP boosts and your best monster hunting gear before mass leveling up King Noctis (or any other hero you have MP carryover on), to get the most MP possible.
Along with the Dark World comes intimidating Dark Monsters! You can unlock the skill to attack them at King Noctis level 65. This is a Hero Skill, so that means you can only attack the Dark Monsters with King Noctis. So far, we have Dark Garchimacera and Dark Havoc Fang monsters lurking in our realms. Be aware, but with King Noctis by our side, we have nothing to fear from these awful creatures. We can also expect to see more of the level 9 monsters in realm boss form like the level 9 Golden Flan. These special monsters should give us special loot since it isn’t as easy as hitting the level one.
Hero Skills Tree
Of course, looking at his tree you can see that it is very similar to the younger version of Noctis. Although in King Noctis’ skill tree, it is a little more mixed up than our first hero. Remember when we started out and we all skilled for production and food upkeep? Oh, those were the days… Then, you realized that you don’t need to boost your Gil anymore and would rather boost your troops on the left side of the tree. MEMORIES!!! That being said, get a few skill resets while the Moogle Market is live so you can change out his skills as you see fit. Eventually, we won’t even need the “basic” Dark resource types. Perhaps we will see Dark Granite and Dark Elite Stone? Obviously, the one size fits all doesn’t ever apply to our heroes and empires.
Starting from the top and working down both sides, these are the skills that you will see in King Noctis’ tree:
- Dark Troop Armor: Increases Dark Troop armor up to a max of 154%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1.
- Dark Food Production: Increases Dark food production up to a max of 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1.
- Dark Research Speed I: Increases Dark research speed up to a max of 20%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Troop Armor level 1 and Dark Food Production level 1.
- Warrior Attack: Increases Dark warrior attack up to a max of 80%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Troop Armor level 1.
- Mage Attack: Increases Dark mage attack up to a max of 80%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Warrior Attack level 1.
- Cavalry Attack: Increases Dark cavalry attack up to a max of 80%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Mage Attack level 1.
- Monster Tactics: Dark Monsters: Unlocks the ability to attack Dark monsters while King Noctis is active. (level 9 monsters, so far) Unlocks at King Noctis level 65.
- King Noctis Attack vs. Dark Garchimacera: Increases King Noctis’ attack versus Dark Garchimacera up to a max of 10,000%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, but requires Monster Tactics: Dark Monsters to be unlocked at King Noctis level 65.
- King Noctis Attack vs. Dark Havoc Fang: Increases King Noctis’ attack versus Dark Havoc Fang up to a max of 5,000%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 50, but also requires Monster Tactics: Dark Monsters to be unlocked at King Noctis level 65.
- Dark Energy Production: Increases Dark energy production up to a max of 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1 and requires Dark Food Production level 1.
- Dark Training Time Reduction I: Increases Dark training time by a max of 20%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1 and requires Mage Attack level 1, Cavalry Attack level 1, and Dark Energy Production level 1.
- Dark Troop March Size: Increases Dark Troop march size up to a max of 640,000% (most likely a typo). Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Cavalry Attack level 1. Possibly means a straight number increase and (hopefully) not a percentage.
- Dark Rally Size: Increases Dark rally size up to a max of 2,500,000% (another typo perhaps?). Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Troop March Size level 1. Again, I think this might mean a number and not a percentage. I will clarify and edit.
- Dark Stone Production: Increases Dark stone production up to a max of 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Energy Production level 1.
- Dark Food Upkeep Reduction: Increases Dark food upkeep reduction up to a max of 50%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1 and requires Dark Troop March Size level 1, Dark Rally Cap level 1, and Dark Stone Production level 1. If that description is a bit confusing, it actually means that it DECREASES your Dark food upkeep for your Dark Troops.
- Dark Troop Health: Increases Dark Troop health up to a max of 154%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1, requires Dark Rally Cap level 1.
- Dark Research Speed II: Increases Dark research speed even more, up to a max of 30%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1. This stacks on the previous research speed skill, for a total of 50%!
- Dark Metal Production: Increases Dark metal production up to a max of 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1 and requires Dark Stone Production level 1.
- Dark Training Time Reduction II: Increases Dark training time reduction even more up to a max of 30%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1.
- Dark Gil Production: Increases Dark Gil production up to a max of 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1 and requires Dark Metal Production level 1.
- Dark Troop Attack: Increases Dark Troop attack up to a max of 135%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1.
- Dark Crystal Holding Health: Increases Dark Crystal holding the health of your troops by up to 100%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 1. Only applies to the troops that are currently in the Crystal while King Noctis is accompanying them.
As you can see, a lot of his skills only require him to be at level 1 to apply points to it. Some of them don’t even have prerequisite skills that need to be leveled up to get! Look through the tree when you unlock him to see the hidden unlockable skills down at the bottom. Consider these your freebies! (Hint: Dark Research Speed II, Dark Training Time Reduction II, Dark Troop Attack, and Dark Crystal Holding Health). King Noctis comes with 8 Hero Skill points and 4 Mastery Skill points at level 1.
Hero Mastery Skills (Tree?)
It’s more like one line of mastery skills, but it still gives the mastery skills that apply to all heroes, no matter who is active at the time. This will come in handy when newer heroes come out, or if there is an update to our previously unlocked heroes.
- Increases Dark Troop Attack: Up to a max of 10%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 56.
- Increases Dark Troop Armor: Up to a max of 15%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 51.
- Increases Dark Troop Health: Up to a max of 15%. Unlocks at King Noctis level 52.
Pretty boring Hero Mastery Skills Line, huh? It’s not even in numerical order and that bothers me a little bit more than it should. I should edit the picture to reflect how it should work… Although, I am just a little bit too lazy to do that, and I have a build event that I need to get to. Those Prosperous Chests are giving me so many diamonds!
Wrapping it all up here
All around, you’ll realize that King Noctis is the jack of all trades when it comes to the Dark World. He will help us all navigate the treacherous road that follows. As we become accustomed to the new Dark Troops and what they bring, it’s nice to see a friendly face, even if he is haggard and weary looking. Believe me, I think King Noctis has seen a few things in his lifetime.
What do you think of the new Dark World that we are living at the moment? Let me know on Line, Discord, or the FFXVANE HUB Facebook page!! There are a lot of discussions about it going on right now, I would like to see everyone’s take on it.
