When I began playing Dark Hunting Grounds, I had no idea how much depth was hiding behind the loot and skill menus. It looked like a typical ARPG at first, but after restarting four separate characters and clearing White Skull multiple times, I realized most players get slowed down by the same few mistakes: hoarding gear, ignoring skill power scaling, and undervaluing XP rewards.
Dark Hunting Grounds Beginner Guide – Skills, Slates
If you’re just starting out, this Dark Hunting Grounds Beginner Guide will help you understand what to prioritize, what to ignore, and how to get to the “fun part” of the game much faster.
Choose Any Skill
Pick whatever skill looks fun. Seriously. You’re not locked into anything, and all builds are viable for White Skull if you know how to scale them. That said, understanding what affects your damage is much more important than which skill you pick.
Every skill in this game has a base damage value that scales directly with something called Skill Power. It doesn’t matter if you’re throwing fireballs or swinging swords — the game always checks how much Skill Power you’ve stacked.
So, how do you increase that?
Equip Slates Immediately
Slates are modifiers you attach to skills. Even the worst white-quality slate adds Skill Power, which boosts base damage significantly.
Here’s the rule I follow:
- If you have a skill, put a slate in it. Any slate. Doesn’t matter what it does at first.
- As soon as you can afford to unlock extra slate slots for your main skill, do it. Each one is a flat power spike.
You’ll quickly unlock stronger slates with additional effects — like extra elemental damage (Magma, Lightning, Cold) or attack speed increases (Fast, Multi-Hit). But early on, focus on quantity: more slates = more damage.
Prioritize XP and Breath
After each hunt, you’ll get to choose a reward: XP, Breath, or Materials. Here’s how to think about it:
- Always take XP if it’s the highest rarity (green/purple).
- Choose Breath when you’re trying to unlock slate/relic slots or level up skills.
- Ignore Materials for now. You’ll get more than enough by dismantling gear you’re not using.
This alone speeds up early progression dramatically.
Talent Points
When you level up, you get talent points. All five talent trees are available from the start. Here’s a basic path that works for any character:
- Dump your first few points into generic damage nodes. They’re usually right in the middle of each tree.
- Once your damage feels stable, pick up some skill-type bonuses like Melee Damage or Projectile Damage (depending on your main skill).
- Around level 10–15, grab a few skill speed nodes. Faster attacks = more damage applied = faster clear speed.
You can respec at any time by right-clicking a node, so don’t stress about perfecting your path yet.
Relics
You’ll start finding relics early in White Skull. Most new players ignore them or equip random ones without reading the effects. Don’t do that.
The best early relics:
- Single-path bonus (e.g., +20% damage if you’re only using Warrior path skills)
- Proximity damage (deals more damage the closer you are)
- Defense reduction on elites (helps you burst tougher enemies faster)
Avoid stacking relics with the same “Unique” effect — they don’t stack and just waste a slot.
Dismantle Gear
You’ll get flooded with gear — most of which you’ll never use. Learn to dismantle early and often. There’s a batch-dismantle button that lets you quickly break down everything not locked or equipped.
Only keep:
- Anything currently equipped
- Rare/purple slates that match your skill path
- Elemental converters or support slates you might want later
If you’re not using projectile skills, get rid of all projectile gear. Don’t hesitate.
White Skull Difficulty Tips
Each time the difficulty increases (Skull I → II → III), enemies get stronger — mostly in HP and occasionally in damage output. You’ll barely notice the spike if you’re keeping up with:
- Slate upgrades
- Relic slots
- XP-based talent progression
Here are a few extra tips for handling difficulty jumps:
- If you’re melee, try to unlock a gap-closer skill as soon as possible (usually has a “flag” icon).
- If you’re ranged, add mana regen to prevent running dry. One node in the spirit tree is often enough.
- Learn boss patterns instead of tanking. Strafing avoids most line attacks.
Elemental Slates
You’ll get slates like Magma, Lightning, or Cold, which convert your skill’s damage and/or add bonus hits.
Important: only equip one of these per skill.
Why? Because these effects don’t stack if you slot two of the same kind (e.g., double Lightning). You just waste a slot. Use one elemental converter + one support slate (like Fast or Multi-Hit) for maximum efficiency.
Final Boss
If you’re doing the following, the final boss won’t give you much trouble:
- Your main skill has 2–3 slates (ideally green or better).
- You’ve invested at least 15–20 talent points (mostly into damage/speed).
- You have one or two relics actually doing something useful.
- You aren’t running out of mana mid-fight.
- You know how to sidestep mechanics and not face-tank everything.
If something feels off — damage is low, you’re dying often — just double-check your slate sockets and make sure you’re not sitting on a pile of unused breath or XP.
What surprised me most about Dark Hunting Grounds is how tight its early-game systems are. You don’t need hours of grinding — you just need to understand the scaling flow: XP → Talents → Slates → Relics. As long as you’re spending wisely and dismantling what you don’t need, the game rewards fast decision-making.