Darkest Days: Beginner Tips and Guide

Darkest Days is not as difficult a survival online game as Once Human or Undawn, but it still contains many interesting mechanics. The tips from this guide will help you progress faster, especially in the early stages of the game.

TIP #1: Level Up Your Residents and Take Them with You

In Darkest Days, you have Residents (Esc → Residents). They are friendly NPCs who live in your Shelter. The thing is, you can take one of them into your party, and he will help you in combat. Residents are extremely helpful when it comes to killing mobs, but you should first level them up using Combat Manuals and equip them with weapons and armor of the corresponding levels. You can get these items when looting crates in Unsafe Areas (houses) or buy them in the Shop for gold (Milla) or Red Diamonds.

The higher the level of your Resident, the higher the level of equipment available to him. Do not underestimate the difference between levels of equipment, because even one level increases damage dealt significantly. Choose one of your Residents, make sure he has as high a level as possible, give him a good weapon, and he will easily kill any normal, epic, or elite mobs for you.

TIP #2: Grind Elite Zombies (Red Houses)

In Sand Creek, there is at least one red Unsafe Area in each region. This is the place where you can find an Elite mob. It is hard to kill, but you are guaranteed to get an item of “green” quality: weapon or equipment. To kill Elite zombies easily, take one of your Residents with a high-level weapon.

Grinding Elite zombies is probably the easiest way to earn Milla (golden) coins, because items of “green” quality can be sold for a good price to Merchants. For example, level 15 weapons cost around 1800 Milla. This means that if you quickly clear Red Houses in Mukara, Meteore, Millepond Valley, and Low Hills, you will earn about 7-8k golden coins in just 10 minutes.

Also, you can use these dropped items if they fit you. In this way, you can obtain weapons that cannot be crafted — for example, the SPR 12 marksman rifle. Locations in Sand Creek reset quite quickly, so you should keep an eye on the red Unsafe Areas of your level and farm them as often as possible.

TIP #3: Clear Unsafe Areas of Your Level or Lower

If the level of mobs is higher than the level of your character and his weapon, your damage will be reduced, and you will get fewer rewards. For this reason, you should only grind mobs of your level or lower.

When clearing Unsafe Areas, you get XP not only for killing zombies but also for each house you clear. For example, once you kill all the zombies in a level 18 house, you will get an extra 171 XP. This is a good way to level up fast in Darkest Days, because clearing each house takes about 1 minute, and you can earn 200-500 XP in that time.

TIP #4: Where to Find Any Materials

If you open the map, you can see 2-3 resource types next to the title of each region. This means that only these resources can be found when looting crates in that particular region. For example, in Hilltop, you can find Proof of Research, Low-grade Iron, and Steel.

Besides resources, though, you will also find weapon and equipment pieces that can be dismantled using the Forge in your Shelter, so in fact, the variety of materials you can find in every single region is much wider.

Also, every resource has a “Locations” button in its description. By pressing it, you can see an interactive list of the locations where the resource can be found. Use this feature to quickly find out how to get any material you need.

TIP #5: Do the Quests

At some stages of the game, it might seem that missions bring you too few rewards, but you should do them anyway. Some of the Story Missions give you thousands of XP and Milla coins, as well as good equipment.

By doing daily missions, you can earn Trinity Coins, which are needed to buy rare vehicles and advanced Residents. Community quests give you Community XP, which is needed to increase the friendship level with communities.

TIP #6: Increase Friendship Level with the Communities

This is important because the higher the friendship level, the better items you can buy from the community Merchants. The list of items for sale updates every midnight by in-game time, and you can always see the current time of day in the trading interface.

When your friendship level is high, rare items will start appearing in the shop. For example, you will be able to buy rare (R-class, green) and epic (SR-class, purple) resources, as well as Combat Manuals and other useful stuff.

Sometimes, community merchants offer you the chance to give them a certain number of resources they need in exchange for community XP. This is an easy way to level up friendship with merchants because those resources are usually easy to get, and most likely you already have them in your Locker.

TIP #7: Sell Equipment for Red Diamonds

Red Diamonds in Darkest Days can be earned in a free-to-play way by selling weapons and equipment to other players using the “Exchange” feature (unlocks upon reaching level 16). Not every item can be sold, though. The items that can be sold are marked with the corresponding icon. When you receive such items, you shouldn’t sell them to merchants for Milla coins. Instead, you should put them on sale for Red Diamonds.

Note that it’s almost useless to sell items of grey quality (N grade), but you can quite successfully sell “green” items and higher.

TIP #8: Register Residents for Explorations

You can send your Residents to explore the Sand Creek regions. For this, open your Shelter menu and go to Facility → Exploration Storage → Resident Exploration. Exploration might take 4, 8, 12, or 20 hours. When it’s done, you will be able to claim random resource rewards. In addition, the assigned Resident will earn XP.

On the map, you must select a region and assign a Resident of the corresponding level. This is one of the reasons why you should level up all your Residents: the higher their level, the higher the level of regions they can explore.

Note that Residents assigned for exploration will not disappear. They will still be available in the Shelter, and you will be able to form a party with them. Send your Residents for explorations as often as possible to get extra resources and speed up your progress.

TIP #9: Use TAS to Get Resources

This is especially useful in the beginning, when you still don’t have a lot of materials in your Locker. Every hour, you can use the TAS feature to call a drone for golden (Milla) coins. The drone will immediately deliver a Material Box with low-grade resources.

The more Exploration Towers you activate, the more boxes of different types you can summon. At the moment, there are 5 boxes available: N-Grade Material Box, R-Grade Material Box, Consumable Weapon Box, Armor Box, Ranged Weapon Box.

TIP #10: Load the Trunk of Your Car Properly

The inventory in Darkest Days is quite limited, which is a problem. That’s why it’s logical not to carry unnecessary items with you. Fortunately, any of your cars has a trunk in which you can store:

• Gas Tanks
• Vehicle Repair Tool
• Defibrillator (to revive Residents)
• Infection Cure Shots
• Other situational items

This way, you will have more free space in your inventory. But remember that trunks are different for each of your cars. If you put something in the trunk of one car, it won’t be available from the trunk of another.

TIP #11: Do Not Waste Trinity Coins

Trinity Coins are relatively easy to obtain in the beginning, but much harder later. It’s a bad idea to spend them on loot box tickets or similar stuff. Instead, you should spend Trinity Coins to buy better Residents and new vehicles in the Shop (F7).

TIP #12: Collect Cents

Cents can be earned in Conflict Zones, like Bielli Island. In the beginning of the game, they are useless, but later you will be able to buy various items with them. For example, there is a Black Market in the Downtown region (Sand Creek), where you can buy various boxes with valuable content.