Dark Hero Secrets
Hero Secrets 2.0 (Dark World Edition)
As Eos forays into the Dark, we see that it is cold and unrecognizable. You don’t need to worry since this guide will help you forge your path into the Dark World. With this, you will see that the best secrets are the ones kept in the dark.
*******TIP: This guide is pretty lengthy, so if you’re looking for a particular hero and level, use the handy tab at the top right of your screen.*******
This guide will help you ensure that you are getting the most out of your hero levels and skill points. Remember that you can change up your skills at any time by resetting your Hero or Mastery Skills or simply removing points whenever you need it. You could go so far as to use a Skill Preset!
Efficiency and Speed
These words are repeated many times throughout this guide, and many players are confused as to what exactly they mean. Surely a 100% T4 Construction Cost Efficiency means that you wouldn’t need to use any RSS to build your 265 Hospital Ward? Well, this is where it gets tricky since efficiency is just a way to say how efficient you are at using RSS. Still, confused? Let’s work with Speed instead: Imagine you are driving at 25mph and you drive 100% faster (50mph) does that mean you get to your destination instantly? No, it just means you will arrive there in half the time. Efficiency and Speed work the same way!
If that still doesn’t make any sense, here is a mathematical formula:
Original Cost/(1+Speed/Efficiency) = Your Cost
Secret Dark World Initiation
When Dark World first comes to Eos, each hero has an extra skill in their Mastery Tree. These skills can be activated as long as you have that hero unlocked. So, if Dark World has just arrived or you are expecting it soon, this will allow you to get an extra boost right off the bat.
If you haven’t noticed already, a lot of the secrets held by our heroes have mostly been Mastery Skills. Since they are passive, the skill will apply no matter which hero you have active. While this might take the whole strategy out of the game, it makes life so much easier! Remember when we would activate Ravus to collect from expansions to increase production? Mastery Skills mean that you won’t have to do that again.
Noctis Lucis Caelum
Power of Kings
Level 301-400
- The jack of all trades, Noctis offers Dark T2 Cost Efficiencies for both construction and research.
- Tier 6 Dark Troop Training Speed (300%).
- Unlock Premium Noctis Gift Tiles
- This triggers the Noctis Gift Tiles to drop T2 Armaments instead of T1 only.
Level 401-500
- Charismatic Leader – The following halls will give Recruitment Initiatives chests when you run with Noctis.
- First, Charismatic Leader I – T10 and T11 Dark Core Troops
- Also, Charismatic Leader II – T11 and T12 Dark Core Troops
- Challenge of the Hexatheon, Resourceful Retreat, Tonberry Troubles, Mines of Darkness, Gilgamesh’s Trial, and Gems & Gears Galore.
- Dark T3 Construction Cost Efficiency as well as Research Dark T3 Cost Efficiency and Resplendent Speed. Note: There are no Dark T3 Construction Speed skills!
Pro-Life Tip: If you’re running out of RSS and your needs are under your empire capacity, keep Noctis as your active hero to increase your RSS buildings’ productivity.
BONUS Tip: Use the 24 Hour (RSS BUILDING) Boost to increase your production by 25%. These can be found in the Guild Store and purchased with 50,000 Loyalty.
Prompto Argentum
Power of Kings
Remains one of the best hitters in the Guild Adventure Hall. Only topped by Kingsglaive Noctis and Iris.
Level 301-400
- Dark Troop March Speed – Gathering (100%), Attacking (50%), and Rallying (50%). As you know, every little bit of speed helps!
Level 401-500
- Fishing – Unlocks and increases bonus rewards when catching (Dark Adventurer’s Research also unlocks and increases the same bonus rewards).
Luna Nox Fleuret
Power of Queens
Level 301-400
- Well known for her double and quadruple Luna Gifts, she continues with her generosity in the Dark World with the Offering of the Hexatheon Unlock. A daily Hexatheon Chest gift which is quadrupled drops generous loot.
Level 401-500
- Luna’s daily Hexatheon Chest gift gets additional rewards when you unlock Empowered Offering at the bottom of her Mastery Skills tree.
Ignis Scientia
Power of Kings
Level 301-400
- Ever so studious, Ignis boosts research speed for Dark Research (5,000%), Dark T2 Research, and Infused Dark Research (250% each).
- Dark Troop Capacity (3.2B), Dark Mercenary Capacity (1T), and Max Trap (100M).
Level 401-500
- Imbued Dark Troops Research Tomes Efficiency (20%). Looks like there’s not much for this release.
Aranea Highwind
Power of Queens
Level 201-300
- Combat gets a boost with increased Dark Rally Capacity (150M), Dark March Size (50M), and Dark Troop Capacity 5B).
Level 301-500
- Not much to note besides the fact that the Dark Troop Cripple HP node is unlocked without any prerequisites when Aranea 500 drops. Enjoy your free stats boost!
Gladiolus Amicitia
Power of Kings
Level 301-400
- Note that all the skills are unlockable at any level. If you have any extra skill points, then you can add them to any node at any time!
- Troop Supply increases March Size, Rally Capacity, and Troop Capacity of all Troop Supplies.
Level 401-500
- Increases T13 and T14 Mercenary Cost Efficiency and Training Speed with Gladiolus active.
- Troop Supply (a different one than above) increases March Size, Rally Capacity, and Troop Capacity of all Troop Supplies.
- Dark T4 RSS Cost Efficiency for Construction (500%).
Ravus Nox Fleuret
Power of Challengers
Level 301-400
- Dark Empire Expansion Speed (250%) and Dark Expansion Blueprint Cost Efficiency (250%).
- Even more Dark March Size and Hospital Capacity increase.
Level 401-500
- Be sure to have Ravus active to increase Radiant Expansion Construction speed. But, he does also have Mastery Skills for Dark Expansion Speed and Dark Expansion Blueprint Cost Efficiency! There is also a skill for Basic Expansion production and cost reduction (5%).
- Hospital Capacity gets a boost as well as various Dark March Size increases in two different skill nodes.
- Get more drops from the Mines of Darkness Arena in the Guild Adventure Hall in Ravus’ Mastery Skills.
Cindy Aurum
Power of Queens
Level 201-400
- You will find yourself stuck unless you can get an Instant Cindy Hero 350 token since there are no medals to be found to get her from 201-300.
- Increases to Dark March Size, Elemental March Size, Rally Capacity, and Troop Capacity.
- Cindy still boosts Expansion building, but now they are Mastery Skills so you can set it and forget it. Basic, Royal, Exalted, and Dark Empire Expansion Blueprint Cost Efficiency, as well as Basic up to Dark Expansion Construction Speed.
Level 401-500
- Disputed Oasis Unlock – allows you to control a Disputed Oasis Fort in the Disputed Realm. Can only be captured with Cindy active!!
- Check out the Disputed Realms Tips below!
- More Expansion skills, this time Radiant Speed and Attuned Blueprint Cost Efficiency. These skills are tiny, however.
- You’ll find more March Size and Rally Capacity increases with these levels.
Iris Amicitia
Power of Queens
Not only is Iris the second-best attacker in the Guild Adventure Hall, but she also heals guild members and refills their stamina.
Level 251-350
- Pre-Dark Troop Troop Crystal and Empire Intimidation. Any marches that have Pre-Dark Troops will march significantly slower towards the Crystal or your Empire.
- Dark March Size increase and Hospital Capacity.
Level 351-500
- Nothing to note, except all her combat Mastery Skills cannot be used until she is leveled up to 450!
King Noctis
Power of Kings
Our very first Dark Hero, King Noctis is the second version of the original Noctis. If you look through his skills trees, you will notice that they are very similar to Noctis.
Level 1-100
- All these skills are Hero Skills, so they need to have King Noctis active for them to apply.
- RSS Reduction, Production Speed, and Dark Food Upkeep.
- Dark Research Speed (the original kind before we knew of any Resplendent, Luminous, etc.)
- Reduction for Dark Troop Training.
Level 101-250
- More Dark RSS Production Speed and Food Upkeep Reductions in the Hero Skills tree.
Level 251-400
- Increase the number of Astrals you can send in a march by 1. This is at the very bottom of the Mastery Skill Tree.
Ardyn
Power of Challengers
Level 1-100
- Increase March Size with Ardyn active.
Level 101-400
- These levels jump like crazy to catch him up with other heroes, I guess.
- More March Size increases in the Hero Tree only apply when Ardyn is active
Level 401-500
- Finally, the March Size increase is in the Mastery Tree!
- There is a skill node which significantly increases the Order of Heroes Verstael Boost, so add Verstael to any Order and make sure this skill is unlocked and points applied.
King Regis
Power of Kings
Level 1-100
- Neutral City Lucky Loot nodes increase the drops from PvE empires. This skill doesn’t seem to work on PvE that drop tokens for the Moogle Market.
- Extreme Combat Massacre skills remain relevant for a long time as they reduce your opponent’s combat stats by a certain percentage. Although the exact math is unclear, the Massacre boosts are pretty nice when you add them all up.
- Even more Dark March Size and Rally Capacity increases
Level 101-400
- Just like Cindy, you won’t be able to find the Heroic and Regal Medals you need to get from 101-300, so you’ll need to get an Instant King Regis 350 token to get past this hurdle.
- More Lucky Loot from PvE cities.
- Even more combat Massacre bonuses!
- March Size increases in this part of the tree, too.
Gentiana
Power of Queens
- Dark March Size and Dark Troop Capacity.
- An INSANE troop train queue boosted in the billions of percent. I’m pretty sure this will be a virtually unlimited Troop Train Queue that is only restricted by your RSS on hand.
- A few Guild Adventure Hall Limit Break skills (Enchantments in the Arcanaeum).
Veteran Prompto
Power of Veterans
Level 1-100
- Increase to Dark March Speed and Rally March Speed (100%).
- March Size and Reinforcement Size increase.
Level 101-200
- Same as 1-100!
Veteran Gladio
Power of Veterans
Level 1-100
- Dark T3 RSS Construction Cost Efficiency (25%).
- Unlocks more rewards in the Offering of the Hexatheon – T3 RSS (Luna’s daily gift).
Level 101-200
- Dark T4 RSS Construction Cost Efficiency (500%).
- More T13 Merc Cost Efficiency (75%) and T14 Merc Cost Efficiency (75%).
- T13 Merc Training Speed (1,000%) and T14 Merc Training Speed (1,000%).
- While Veteran Gladio is active, you can also get Dark Warrior, Dark Mage, and Dark Cavalry training time reduction (5%).
Veteran Ignis
Power of Veterans
Level 1-100
- Dark T3 Cost Efficiency for Dark Advanced Mercenaries (75%) and Battle Marks Research (75%) ONLY.
- Resplendent Research Speed (100%) as well as Infused Dark Research Speed (150%).
Level 101-200
- In Veteran Ignis’ Hero Tree, there is a skill that increases Ignis’ Order of Heroes bonuses. This ONLY applies if Ignis is in an Order (doesn’t matter which) and if Veteran Ignis is your active hero.
- Dark T4 RSS Cost Efficiency for ALL Research (75%).
- Luminous Research Speed (150%).
Umbra
Power of the Wild
Level 1-100
- Increases to Dark Gathering March Speed (100%), Attacking March Speed (50%), and Rallying March Speed (50%).
- These levels make most Mirror Heroes relevant again by upgrading their boosts through Umbra’s Mastery Skills.
Level 101-200
- Even more increases to Gathering March Speed (150%), Attacking March Speed (100%), and Rallying March Speed (100%).
Pryna
Power of the Wild
Level 1-100
- Unlocks these special boosts which activate under special circumstances. They can last up to 180 seconds depending on skill level.
- Loyal Defender – Activates when you lose a battle defending your empire.
- Blitz Drive – Activates whenever you take hostile action against another player (scouting, attacking, or even reinforcing your guildmates). NOTE: You will not be able to activate an empire barrier during the boost! However, you can remove points from this skill if it is a problem.
- Crown Assault – Activates whenever you take hostile action against the Crystal.
Gilgamesh
Power of Challengers
Level 1-100
- Adds additional boosts to the Blitz Drive boost provided by Pryna. These boosts are for Capitals, Disputed Realms, and Vaults. See Pryna’s secrets to find out more information.
Cor Leonis
Power of Challengers
Level 1-100
- Increases Rally Capacity with the last skill Blade of the Immortal.
Glauca
Power of Challengers
Level 1-100
- No real items of note, but he does have a lot of enemy debuffs in his Mastery Skills that should be useful for some time after he is released.
Level 101-200
- Increases to Dark March Size and Rally Capacity along with Dark Mercenary March Size and Rally Capacity in Glauca’s Mastery Skills.
- This is the second time that two heroes were increased in level at the same time, the first time being Gladiolus and Veteran Gladio. Glauca and Nyx got level 200 released and you can check out Nyx’s Secrets below.
Nyx
Level 1-100
- Increases boosts provided by Luna, King Regis, and Glauca when they are placed in any Order in the Order of Heroes. However, these boosts will only apply when Nyx is your active hero.
- Dark Troop March Size and Rally Capacity increases in the Mastery Skills tree, so these are passive and apply with any hero.
Level 101-200
- Increases to Dark March Size and Rally Capacity as well as Monster Troop March Size and Monster Troop Rally Capacity are found in the Mastery Skills.
- This is the second time that two heroes have been increased in levels at the same time. The first were Gladiolus and Veteran Gladio. This time Glauca also leveled up to 200 with Nyx.
- They have some similar and contrasting skills. You can check (LINK: Glauca’s Secrets) above.
Verstael
Level 1-100
- Significant increases to Max MP and MP Regeneration when he is released, but they only apply to Verstael.
- Adds Daemon Cores in the Offering of the Hexatheon Chests provided by Luna’s Mastery Skill. Daemon Cores are what you will use to craft the Magitek Chests shown below.
- Unlocks 12 Magitek Recipes that you can use to craft various Magitek Chests. These chests will help many people catch up and get more materials to train troops.
- Masterwork Magitek Gear Material – materials to craft and upgrade the Masterwork Magitek Gear Set.
- Dark Magitek Infantry Troop – Drops Dark Magitek Infantry troops (not useful, so don’t worry about this if you are at this point).
- Kings of Lucis – Empowerment Sigils for Kings of Lucis.
- Mount – Signets for your Mounts, plus materials for Power of Mounts.
- Troops – Troop training resources and troops, including Command Center Chests, Chaotic Essence, Food, and Armaments.
- Blueprints – Blueprints for buildings and expansions, even the Auxiliary buildings!
- Research – Materials useful for research like RSS, Speedups, gemstones, and the Tomes that you need for uncompleted research.
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WARNING
- Completing the last node in the Empowered Mirror Hero Research tree will completely stop the Empowered Mirror Hero tomes from dropping from these chests, even if all the other nodes are not complete. Ask me how I know…
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- Gear – Materials needed to craft and upgrade many gear sets, including Nyx, Dragon Knight’s, Gilgamesh, Glauca, and Monster Stalker’s.
- Gems – Lots of different gems! New Hero gems, as well as Dungeoneer’s, Halloween, Behemoth, and MORE!
- Hero – One of my favorites, these chests drop Medals, Hero Exp, MP, AP and Mastery Points, plus materials needed for Powers of Kings, Queens, Veterans, and Challengers.
- Astral – Included in these chests are Astral Sigils and materials for Power of Astrals, unlocks and upgrades
- RSS – Resources, gemstones, and speedups galore!
Please be aware that these chests DO drop valuable items when Verstael is unlocked. These chests usually vary based on your level and needs. They are also updated when Kingsglaive Noctis is released, so check out his secrets to find out more…
Aldercapt
Level 1-100
- Nothing to note, so far…
Crowe
Level 1-100
- Unlocks the ability to attack and capture Fort Crowe in the Disputed Realm. You can only use this skill if Crowe is your active hero, so when the Fort is safely in your hands you can change your hero.
- Check out the Disputed Realms Tips below!
Kingsglaive Noctis
Level 1-100
- Introduces a new type of combat stat: Royal Dark Troops. This new stat is an effort to decrease the huge numbers that we currently use for combat stats. A 1% Royal Dark Troop stat is equal to a 100T% Dark Troop stat.
- Combat debuffs and multipliers for Dark Troop Stats will not apply to these new, reduced numbers.
- Ruthless Monsters is a new type of monster invading Eos and Kingsglaive Noctis is the first with the ability to attack them.
- Future hero releases and new levels for current heroes will also have this ability added to their Hero Skills.
- Remember the Magitek Chests from Verstael? They get an upgrade with Kingsglaive Noctis’ new skills! All but the Dark Magitek Infantry and the Masterwork Magitek Gear Chest, but there is a NEW recipe unlocked:
- Magitek Dark Monster Slayer Gear Chest – these chests drop what you need to craft the newest Dark Monster Slayer Gear.
Kingsglaive Luna
Level 1-100
- Unlocks the ability to attack and capture Fort Kingsglaive Luna in the Disputed Realm. Make sure you have Kingsglaive Luna ready to be activated when you want to capture one of her Forts! Max of 3 unlocks in her Hero Skills tree.
- Check out the Disputed Realms Tips below!
- Increases your Injured Dark Troop Hospital Capacity by up to 3T. This is a Mastery skill, so it is persistent and applies no matter which hero you have active.
Kingsglaive Prompto
Level 1-100
- Upon the release of Kingsglaive Prompto, he becomes the best hero to use in the Guild Adventure Hall. Move over, Kingsglaive Noctis and Iris, there’s a new slayer in town!
- Unlocks the ability to capture three Kingsglaive Prompto Forts in the Disputed Realm.
- Check out the Disputed Realm tips below.
- There is a Mastery Skill for T16 Dark Troop Cost Efficiency and Training Speed up to 100% each!
Kingsglaive Ignis
Level 1-100
- Unlocks the ability to capture three Kingsglaive Ignis Forts in the Disputed Realm. So be sure to have Kingsglaive Ignis active when you send your march.
- More Disputed Realms tips below, check them out!
- Research efficiencies are found in Mastery Skills.
- Luminous Speed and T4 Cost Efficiency up to 100% each.
- Opulent Speed and T5 Cost Efficiency up to 100% each.
Kingsglaive Gladio
Level 1-100
- Unlocks the ability to attack and capture Fort Kingsglaive Gladio.
- This is the first time you’ll see this skill in the Mastery Skills tree! Since it’s a passive ability, you do NOT have to have Kingsglaive Gladio as your active hero to capture this Fort.
- Check out more tips below for the Disputed Realms events.
Tips for the Disputed Realms
Since several Forts require certain heroes to be active in order to capture them, you will want to make sure you have all the relevant heroes ready to go!
- Remove the heroes for each Fort from the Order of Heroes, so it won’t take you as much time to switch between them.
- Cindy, Crowe, and Kingsglaive Luna are the current heroes that have their own Forts.
- Dress them in the appropriate attack gear, if you will use that hero to capture or hold the Fort.
- You don’t have to use a special hero in order to defeat your enemy and kick them out, so you can use the current attack hero you prefer. Then, you will need to switch to the hero needed to actually take hold of the Fort.
- Need an extra march or two? Add a hero in the Order of Kings slot for an extra march. Also, you can use Noctis as your active hero for the extra march in his Hero Skills. Just be sure to have points applied to that skill.
- Put your best in the Forts that you absolutely want to keep. Keep in mind that Fort Oasis blueprints are hard to come by…
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“Capture early and pray for the best.”
-Ron Jeremy
What Are Majestic Forts?
- Majestic Forts: These are special, more powerful Forts that you can only capture if you already have control of three “little” Forts.
- Example: If you control three Kingsglaive Gladio Forts, you can then attack and capture a Majestic Kingsglaive Gladio Fort.
- This is true no matter which type of Majestic Fort is available, as there will be a prerequisite Fort that you will need to have control of.
- If you lose one or more of the “little” Forts, you will still have the bigger Majestic Fort, but if you lose the big one, you will have to regain enough “littles” to up your count to three.
Power of:
Kings
- Dark March Size, Dark Rally Capacity, Dark Reinforcement March Size, and Dark Training Queue increase.
- Noctis: Dark T6 Troop Training Speed and Dark T2 Construction and Research Cost Efficiency, as well as T3 Construction Cost Efficiency. Just to be a little extra, he also has more March Size boosts.
- King Noctis: Increases Hospital Capacity, Merc March Size, and then decreases Hospital healing time.
- Gladio: More Dark Troop March Size increases.
- Ignis: Dark Elemental March Size increase (did you expect anything else?)
- Prompto: Dark Mercenary March Size increase.
Queens
- Updates to the Power of Queens’ Mirror Hero stats for each Power of Queens upgrade level.
- March Size increases in each Queen’s tree, plus a major increase in Dark Troop Capacity (9T each Queen, which is significant at the time of this release).
- Update to the Offering of the Hexatheon chest drops with Power of Queens level 60’s release.
Veterans
- Each hero has their own March Size increase type. Veteran Prompto: Dark Elemental, Veteran Gladio: Dark March Size/Rally, and Veteran Ignis: Dark Mercenary.
Challengers
- If you wondered how other people are hitting harder than you in the Guild Adventure Hall, look at increasing the skills for these heroes Power of Challengers Dark Dungeon skill.
- Updates to the Power of Challengers Mirror Heroes boosts.
The Wild
- Even more Dark Dungeon bonuses here, so get your Guild Adventure Hall attack and kill those monsters!
- Unlocks even more Limit Breaks that you can activate in the Arcanaeum. Each hero has their own Enchantments to unlock.
- Updates to Umbra and Pryna Mirror heroes. Why not Carbuncle? Maybe MP Regeneration isn’t good enough for us…
Most of these skills are combat-related, but when released they are pretty significant. Upgrade these ASAP to get the most use out of them. Although, if you don’t, then you can use the Magitek Chests to upgrade them to be ready for the next release!
More Secrets to Come
As each hero gets new levels, we uncover even more skeletons in their closet. But, these aren’t the scary ones, and only serve to help us along our journey. This guide will be periodically updated to reflect new tips, so keep it bookmarked! You never know when you will be a hero when someone asks for help on getting a certain type of reduction or march size increase!
What Secrets Do You Know?
If I missed anything here that you believe should be added, by all means, add me on Line (tylianna) or Discord (Tylianna#9474) and let me know! Our objective is to help players of all types and I would love to hear your feedback as well.
What to Read Next
I have an original Hero Secrets guide which has a lot of tips from before the Dark World dropped. Many of them are still relevant today!
To get more information about the Powers that be, check out the Powers of Kings, Queens, Veterans, and Challengers Guide as well as the Powers of the Wild Guide.
If you need something to do during the Thanksgiving Holidays, check out xAlyKatx’s Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt and win a prize!
Secrets Coming Soon
Cor Leonis Guide to 200?
