List of powers | Darkness powers The Darkness II Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
You unlock new darkness powers thanks to essence points, which can be earned for:
- Killing enemies;
- Executing opponents;
- Defeating bosses;
- Eating hearts of killed enemies;
- Destroying light sources (1 essence point for each such action);
- Finding relics (300 essence points for each relic).
The amount of points you receive each time depends on the action you perform. For example if you kill enemy with the firearm you'll get only 10 points, but if you hit his head then you'll receive 20 points. A similar scheme applies to all other operations, so it is worth to combine different attacks (for example using darkling to kill enemy) and use the most effective variations.
Collected essence points can be spend in Talent Shrines, and first one you'll encounter at the very beginning of the game (screen above). Information on locations of Talent Shrines can be found in above walkthrough, but you do not have to use each of shrines. So you can collect more essence points and then visit the shrine.
Darkness powers are divided into four different groups and each group is based on the talent tree. In order to unlock powers from the upper parts of the tree (for example Caustic Black Hole shown on the above screen), you have to buy all previous powers connected with this one.
Unlocking of all Darkness powers IS NOT possible during playing for the first time, even if you try hard. Fortunately after finishing the campaign you'll be able to start a new mode - New Game+ (screen above), so you can start a game again (or play selected chapters) keeping all your current talents. So it is a good way to buy all the missing talents.
A complete description of all powers is included in the table below. We omitted Eat Hearts (its purchase is required to finish the first chapter) and Relic Hunter (overview of finding secrets is included in the walkthrough, in the Relics chapters).
CATEGORY | POWER NAME | REQUIREMENTS | DESCRIPTION AND COMMENTS |
Demonic | Demonic Lift | 400 essence points | If you toss your opponent with your right tentacle, he will be held there by Darkness for a moment. To do it, slash vertically with the right tentacle. |
Demonic | Heart Health | 1000 essence points + Demonic Lift | Recover more health by eating the hearts of opponents. This is a very useful power, especially later in the game when it is increasingly difficult to effectively treat. |
Demonic | Ground Pound | 600 essence points + Demonic Lift | Slash an enemy into air and then slash him to the ground and it will result in explosion which stun close enemies. It is not very usable because during the fight you do not have always time to perform both actions correctly. |
Demonic | Air Darkling | 600 essence points + Demonic Lift | Grab the darkling with a left tentacle and throw him at enemies, so he can attack them. It is very useful, especially for distracting or making opponents easy targets. |
Demonic | Demon Blades | 800 essence points + Heart Health | Additional blades appear on the right tentacle after eating the heart of an opponent. They stay active for some time and allow you to inflict greater damage. It is quite interesting power if you mostly eat hearts instead of executions. |
Demonic | Dark Blast | 1000 essence points + Air Darkling | Objects thrown with a left tentacle will explode on impact. It is very useful power, which should be unlocked early. This also concerns throwing darkling. |
Demonic | Black Hole | 1000 essence points + Demon Blades | A chance to create a black hole instead of the heart of opponent. After throwing it, it creates a vortex which attracts all nearby objects. It is one of the most interesting powers available in the game, especially that chances to create a black hole are high. |
Demonic | Caustic Black Hole | 1250 essence points + Black Hole | Makes black holes bigger. If you like the basic attack you should buy this talent, because you'll be able to deal easily with larger groups of enemies. |
Demonic | Dark Armor | 1250 essence points + Dark Blast | Using the armor granting you increased resistance to damage. This power is especially useful if you play on higher difficulty levels. It works only in dark so when you enter the illuminated area you will lose additional defense points. |
Swarm & Channeling | Gun Channeling | 1000 essence points | Possibility of using the Gun Channeling mode for few second (the G key), when guns do not use ammo and inflict more damage. It is important to buy this power, even if you do not use firearms often in the early chapters. |
Swarm & Channeling | Swarm | 1000 essence points | A possibility to use swarm against your enemies (the F key), thanks to which they are stunned for few seconds. This is one of the best powers available in the game, so I suggest unlocking it as soon as possible. It is best to use Swarm attack during the fights with groups of enemies and bosses. |
Swarm & Channeling | Expert Channeler | 1250 essence points + Gun Channeling | Faster regeneration of Gun Channeling. You do not have to buy this in the early stage of the game but later on you use guns more often so you should think about buying it. |
Swarm & Channeling | The Destroyer's Channeling | 1250 essence points + Gun Channeling | It extends the working time of Gun Channeling. I suggest buying this talent, because this power in its basic form doesn't last long. |
Swarm & Channeling | Black Swarm | 1250 essence points + Swarm | It extends working time of Swarm. It is not extremely important to buy this power, although it can be useful during fights with tougher enemies. |
Swarm & Channeling | Expert Swarm | 1250 essence points + Swarm | Faster regeneration of Swarm power. You do not have to buy it in early stages of the game, but do not wait with unlocking it till the end. Swarm power is very useful later on during the game. |
Swarm & Channeling | Gun Kata | 1500 essence points + Expert Channeler | A possibility of automatically targeting enemies, if during activating of Gun Channeling you wield dual guns. It is very interesting purchase, especially if you like to activate Gun Channeling during fights with groups of enemies. |
Swarm & Channeling | Heart of Darkness | 1500 essence points + The Destroyer's Channeling | A possibility of targeting and killing enemies through the walls, while using Gun Channeling mode. This is very useful power but you have to remember about its limited range. |
Swarm & Channeling | Killer Swarm | 1500 essence points + Black Swarm | Increases damage inflicted to opponents attacked by a swarm. It is very useful talent, which I strongly recommend to buy. |
Swarm & Channeling | Swarms from Limbo | 1500 essence points + Expert Swarm | A possibility of attacking larger amount of enemies by a swarm. I suggest buying this power, when you use swarm mainly during fights with groups of enemies and not to eliminate single, tough opponents. |
Guns | Combat Belt | 200 essence points | Increases ammo capacity. I strongly suggest unlocking this power especially that it is very cheap. |
Guns | Active Pump | 800 essence points + Combat Belt | If you press the right mouse button after shooting with shotgun, your next hit will be more accurate. You should buy this power only if you prefer shotguns than assault rifles. |
Guns | Weapon Handling | 800 essence points + Combat Belt | Faster reloading of weapons. It is not quite important power especially that in case of using worse weapons you can get rid of this problem by dual wielding. |
Guns | Shotgun Darkness Mod | 800 essence points + Combat Belt | Extend shotguns' clip. Noteworthy is that this powers works only if Jackie stays in dark. |
Guns | Pistol Darkness Mod | 800 essence points + Combat Belt | Extend pistols' clip. Noteworthy is that this powers works only if Jackie stays in dark. |
Guns | Assault Rifle Darkness Mod | 1000 essence points + Shotgun Darkness Mod | Extend assault rifles' clip. Noteworthy is that this powers works only if Jackie stays in dark. |
Guns | SMG Darkness Mod | 1000 essence points + Pistol Darkness Mod | Extends SMG's clip. Noteworthy is that this powers works only if Jackie stays in dark. |
Guns | 2 Handed Weapons Explosive Rounds | 1250 essence points + Assault Rifle Darkness Mod | Shotguns and assault rifles shoot explosive round instead of standard ones. I do not have to add, that this is very useful power, greatly increasing effectiveness of those types of weapons. Unfortunately, unlocking it involves spending large amount of essence points on other, often less useful powers. |
Guns | Small Arms Explosive Rounds | 1250 essence points + SMG Darkness Mod | Pistols (regular and machine) shoot explosive round instead of standard ones. It is not as good power as 2 Handed Weapons Explosive Rounds, because pistols even in enhanced versions do not inflict so much damage you can expect. So you should think twice about buying this power and first decide to buy more useful talents. |
Executions | Health Executions | 400 essence points | When you press the 1 key after grabbing an enemy it will result with execution which regenerates some health. This is one of the MOST useful powers available in the game, which you should buy as fast as possible. Remember however that you are not able eat the heart of such executed enemy. |
Executions | Health Execution Upgrade | 800 essence points + Health Executions | Regenerate more health points thanks to executions performed with the 1 key. This enhancement is very useful in later stages of the game and/or if you selected one of the higher difficulty levels. |
Executions | Hitman Executions | 800 essence points + Health Executions | Pressing the 2 key after grabbing enemy results in execution which gives you some extra ammo. Such executions are less useful, but you should invest in this power anyway, because it unlocks an access to all remaining powers from this category. |
Executions | Power Executions | 1250 essence points + Hitman Executions | Pressing the 3 key after grabbing enemy results in execution which fasten the regeneration of active powers (Gun Channeling and Swarm). This power is used seldom because in most situations it is better to wait for power regeneration or use other attack types to kill enemies. |
Executions | Hitman Execution Upgrade | 800 essence points + Hitman Executions | You receive more ammo thanks to executions performed with the 2 key. It is not interesting talent, so it is better to spend essence points on something else. |
Executions | Expert Grabber | 800 essence points + Hitman Executions | Makes that stunned enemies are longer vulnerable for grabbing then with a left tentacle. This is very useful power, especially in later stages, when you have to try really hard to grab an enemy and execute him. |
Executions | Demonic Executions | 1250 essence points + Hitman Executions | Pressing the 4 key after grabbing enemy results in execution which creates the Darkness shield. I suggest buying this talent, because it is useful during completing these chapters where you can't find standard shield easily. |
Executions | Power Execution Upgrade | 1000 essence points + Power Executions | Extra regeneration of active powers thanks to executions performed by pressing the 3 key. It is not interesting talent, so it is better to spend essence points on something else. |
Executions | Demonic Execution Upgrade | 1000 essence points + Demonic Executions | It creates better Darkness shield thanks to executions performed by pressing the 4 key. If you like the basic power, then you should buy this talent, because it significantly increases its usefulness. |
Which powers should you buy as soon as possible? I recommend mainly two active powers: Gun Channeling and Swarm, because their usage doesn't involve losing health nor essence points, so the only limitation is their cooldown time. Both mentioned powers, and Swarm especially, significantly reduce the difficulty level of fights with stronger opponents and bosses.
I strongly advise not to ignore the topic of effective healing of Jackie, because there are no mechanisms of automatically regenerating his HP over the time. I recommend purchasing powers associated with both methods of healing, that is eating hearts and performing executions (the 1 key), because each of them is useful in different situations. Eating hearts is a better solution if you're under attack. And executions should be performed when you fight with single enemies or small groups of opponents on larger area, because each execution takes few seconds.
As for other powers, I suggest purchasing talents which increase the efficiency of weapons, and it is better to invest in development of assault rifles and shotgun than pistols. Another interesting propositions are Dark Blast (throwable objects explode on the impact), Dark Armor (additional armor), Expert Grabber (grabbing of stunned enemies is easier) and Black Hole. As for the latter talent it is worth to know that chances of finding black hole next to defeated enemies are quite high, because by average it is one hole for few dead enemies. This attack is also very effective itself, especially when the hole was formed near the group of enemy forces.