Dark and Darker Playtest 5 - All We Know and When It’s Starting

Ironmace Games’ high-risk dungeon crawler Dark and Darker has now had four Playtest sessions, each showing the game’s growth in popularity. Playtest 4 was the latest alpha test during Steam’s Next Fest, but the urge for another chance to play the game has never been stronger. Here’s what we know about Playtest 5 so far.

Dark and Darker Playtest 5 set for April and other information so far

*This post has been updated with the latest information regarding playtest 5.

[Update - 4/15/2023]: Despite the legal dispute between Dark and Darker devs and Nexon, it looks like Playtest 5 is still happening and is live right now, but in the most unusual way — through torrent. Dark and Darker is still currently delisted on Steam due to the Nexon’s cease and desist, which is why they’ve gone this far to bring the game to their community.

Here’s one of the latest posts posted on their official Discord channel.

”Hi @everyone, Thank you for your patience. We apologize for the radio silence. Unfortunately, due to our current situation we must be careful. Rest assured that we are working around the clock to safeguard the continuance of Dark and Darker. Unfortunately, due to the complexities of our situation, especially across international lines, it is taking time to resolve the Steam situation. In order for us to keep our promise to our fans we’ve had to go old school this time. To participate in the Alpha #5 Playtest please download the game client through our torrent link below.”

For safety reasons, we won’t share the link, but if you do want to play the game in this manner, I highly suggest you go to their official Discord and click the link they provided and nowhere else.

It seems like the plan is still the same for Playtest 5 as it is currently set to last until April 19. There is a possibility for Ironmace to extend this playtest as based on previous tests they’ve extended each one by a day or two.

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[Update - 2/24/2023]: In the Dark and Darker official Discord, it was announced that they are indeed planning another playtest before the game enters Early Access. Playtest 5 is scheduled for April 14 - 19. No information was given at the moment as to what is to be expected in the next playtest.

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[Original Post - 2/21/2023 ]

As of this moment, Ironmace Games has not announced when Playtest 5 will go live. This might be a longer wait than usual as Playtest 4 was announced when Playtest 3 concluded. Many have speculated that Playtest 5 will happen sometime in March 2023, but there’s no hard evidence to support this. 

We also find Playtest 5 happening in March unlikely, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t happen at all. In a Q&A interview with the Dark and Darker’s, it was mentioned that the developers are working on building enough content to have the game be available through Steam’s Early Access program, and they are aiming to hopefully release either end of April or sometime in May. 

We’ll provide more information as more details surface.

Since the start of Dark and Darker’s Playtest sessions, the dungeon crawler has had nearly 2 million players trying out the game in its alpha state, which is quite impressive considering this is a game with a lot of its game systems still unavailable, like skill trees, a quest system, or a more fulfilling progression system. The addicting gameplay loop is doing all the heavy lifting.

Playtest 4 was the game’s best-performing alpha test yet as it reached a concurrent player count of over 100k, showing that everybody is keen on what they have cooking in Ironmace Games. Playtest 4 introduced new content such as the experimental Goblins cave with a Troll boss, a Karma system, a Gathering Hall, in-game voice chat, and more. 

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