Dark and Darker Best Cleric Builds (2024): Guide to Perks and Skills

When you play Dark and Darker, the first thing you have to do is create a character. They can be one of 8 classes. While the class' character design gives you some visual hints and a brief overview gives you a little insight into its archetype, there's still plenty to left to learn about their playstyle, weapons, and abilities. This guide focuses on the best Cleric builds.

Cleric Class Overview

Clerics wield divine power to benefit their allies and smite their enemies. The range of spells at their disposal provides them with support abilities like healing and removing debuffs from party members. They're not just relegated to being healers though. Proficiencies in blunt weaponry and heavy armor allow them to hold their own in combat. The main downsides of playing as a Cleric is their slow action and movement speed and lack of ranged physical weapons.

All Cleric Perks

Perks are passive buffs to your character stats which effect them throughout their time in the dungeon. As a starter Cleric, you can equip one perk. However, when you hit Level 20, there are four perk slots available to you.

	Advanced Healer	Increases your base magical hand by 5.
	Blunt Weapon Mastery	Increases physical attack power by 10% when attacking with a blunt weapon.
	Brewmaster	You do not exhibit the detrimental effects of drinking alcohol.
	Holy Aura	Increases the armor rating and magic resistance by yourself and all nearby party members by 15.
	Kindness	Heal yourself for 15% of the spell's total heal amount when healing another target.
	Perseverance	Reduces all types of incoming damage by 3.
	Protection from Evil	The duration of all harmful effects is reduced by 50%.
	Requiem	Resurrecting an ally revives them with 50% HP instead of a sliver of life. When reviving an ally at the Altar of Sacrifice, you do not need to sacrifice any of your own health.
	Undead Slaying	Increase your physical damage bonus by 20% when attacking undead monsters.

All Cleric Skills

Using the Q and E keys, you can activate your skills. These inflict short-term effects on your character, party, or enemies. Like other magic-using classes in Dark and Darker, the Cleric has a Spell Memory skill used to store spells.

	Divine Protection	Receive the blessing of the divine and increase physical damage defense by 30% for 4 seconds.
	Holy Purification	After channeling for 1.5 seconds, deal 100 base magic damage to all undead monsters within 7.5m around you.
	Judgment	After focusing for 0.75 seconds, immediately deals 25 magic damage to a target and reduces their movement speed bonus by 20% for 2 seconds. The spell can only be cast when the crosshair targets an enemy within 5m. Once Judgment starts casting on a target you will no longer need to continue targeting the crosshair. If the target goes out of range during casting, the casting fails.
	Smite	Deals an additional 10 magic damage to all enemies you hit within 7 seconds.
	Spell Memory	Allows you to memorize spells to use in the dungeon.

All Cleric Spells

Cleric spells are cast using knowledge. At level 0, you have 12 knowledge. Any spells you add to your loadout that exceed the limit set by your knowledge stat can't be accessed. For example, a Level 0 Cleric with Earthquake (-7), Holy Strike (-4), and Lesser Heal (-3) wouldn't be able to use Lesser Heal until they increase their knowledge stat.

	Protection	1 cost	Creates a shield that blocks 20 physical damage for 20 seconds.
	Bless	1 cost	Grants the target 3 strength, agility, and will for 30 seconds. Casts on self if no target found.
	Cleanse	2 cost	Removes all harmful magic effects from the target. Casts on self if no target found.
	Lesser Heal	3 cost	Heals a target for 15 health. Casts on self if no target found.
	Divine Strike	3 cost	Grants the target 5 additional weapon damage for 20 seconds. Casts on self if no target found.
	Bind	3 cost	Binds the target for 0.75 seconds.
	Holy Strike	4 cost	Hits all targets within range, dealing 15 damage and blinding them for 2 seconds.
	Holy Light	5 cost	Heals an ally for 30 HP or does 100 base magical damage to an undead target.
	Sanctuary	6 cost	Channel for 5 seconds, healing allies within 3.5 for 5 per second and dealing 14 spell damage per second to the undead.
	Locusts Swarm	7 cost	Concentrate for a certain period of time to summon a swarm of locusts in a specific area, dealing 2 damage per 0.1 seconds to targets within the area.
	Earthquake	7 cost	Concentrate for a fixed period of time to create an earthquake in a specific area, dealing 10 damage per step and reducing the movement speed bonus by 50% when a target moves on it.
	Resurrection	8 cost	Target an ally to resurrect them from the dead. The corpse must have a soul heart.

Beginner Cleric Build

Recommended loadout: Work on finding items with enchantments which increase your knowledge stat. This will give you a greater pool of more powerful spells to work from.

Recommended perks: Advanced Healer helps you keep your health up when in the dungeons.

Recommended skills: HolyPurification is a helpful skill for beginners who are getting used to clearing mobs of monsters. When working with 12 wisdom the best combination of spells is: Holy Light (-5), Bless (-1), Cleanse (-2), Divine Strike (-3), Protection (-1).

Advanced Cleric Build

Recommended loadout: The campfire kit is an essential item for Clerics. Unlike Wizards, Clerics don’t have a method of refilling their casts on the go. You need to rest at a campfire in order to restore your spells.

Recommended perks: Advanced Healer and Kindness make you an excellent addition to any party. Not only can you tend to your party’s wounds, you restore some of your own health by doing it. Perseverance and Protection from Evil makes for a more resilient Cleric. 

Recommended skills: EquipSmite and Spell Memory with Bless, Resurrection, Holy Light, Holy Strike, and Protection.

Solo Queue Cleric Build

Being such a support-focused class, it may seem like the Cleric isn't a viable option for braving the dungeons alone. However, there is a build that can bolster your strength as a solo Cleric. 

Recommended loadout: Equip a one-handed shield and a Flanged Mace for a solid combination of defense and hefty melee damage. High AR armor like the Templar Armor is a good choice.

Recommended perks: Brewmaster perk will allow you to drink ale in a pinch to increase your health and physical damage output without having to contend with the negative effects. Pair this with Blunt Weapon Mastery, Perseverance, and Undead Slaying for a more combat-ready Cleric.

Recommended skills: In addition to Judgement, take on Spell Memory with the following spells: Protection, Holy Strike, Earthquake, Bless, and Divine Strike.