The Dark Crusader, the poster child of Lords of the Fallen, is a gothic paladin-type class, using the powers of Umbral and Radiance to defend Axiom from the horrors of Adyr’s Rhogar demons, and the Umbral undead alike. If you want to play that Paladin and martial Knight, then the Dark Crusader is the class for you. In this guide, expect to find information on Dark Crusader Builds, along with starting stats and tips for playing the class.

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Here is a guide on Dark Crusader Builds and Tips in Lords of the Fallen. Image via Hexworks / CI Games.

Dark Crusader Starting Stats and Items¶

The starting stats of the Dark Crusader are as follows:

Strength	Agility	Endurance	Vitality	Radiance	Inferno
12	8	14	14	11	8

As you can see, the class has a fair few decent starting stats, having high Strength, Vitality and Endurance for a starting class. It makes it very strong.

The class also comes with Parchment, a type of equipment you can use to heal and damage enemies. It also comes with the Dark Crusader armor and the Dark Crusader great sword, scaling off strength and agility. The longsword can also dish out some powerful sweeping strikes to clear enemies, making the early game very strong for the class.

Remember, you can only start as this class if you unlocked the Dark Crusader.

• Read More: Best Starter Classes in Lords of the Fallen

Dark Crusader Builds in Lords of the Fallen¶

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The Dark Crusader benefits a lot from heavy armor, great weapons, and a bit of Radiance thrown into the mix.

For the most part, you’re best abusing the Dark Crusader as a very heavily armored class, capable of utilizing a two-handed weapon. To fulfill this fantasy, we recommend putting a heavy focus on strength, endurance, and Vitality. Vitality will increase your carrying weight capacity, shifting the needle to what weights are now considered low, medium, or heavy. Keeping yourself out of the Heavy Encumbrance as you unlock armor is important, not to mention a bigger health pool with big armor makes you rather strong.

In terms of weaponry, you’re largely looking for two-handed weapons with lots of Strength on them, and to some extent Agility. Some of these weapons will have some Inferno or Radiance scaling, so we do recommend spending some points to satisfy a really good weapon that catches your eye. You’ll find plenty of potential Strength weapons that take your eye as you play through the game, with no real standout outside of the Faithful Bludgeon. You can get this two-handed mace from traversing the parkour gap from the Pilgrim’s Perch, located to the right of the sanctuary’s main entrance. You’ll need to follow the path right, go down the ladder, then parkour the jumping puzzle. Follow the path, go up the elevator, then continue going until you see an item on a platform below, which you need to cross by using the Umbral Lamp to acquire it.

As for your throwable, we recommend you take a mixture of parchments, which you gradually unlock while exploring the main areas. Depending on personal preference, you can also use grenades, throwing axes, or javelins in your build. That way, you get some extra ranged poke when needed, especially against annoying archers, crossbowmen, or knock the armor off dogs in later levels.

However, to keep your options open, we do recommend using the Radiance build, which we will go into more detail below.

Lastly, when you reach the Tower of Penance, you can get the final tablet for the Blacksmith’s quest. If you give the tablet to Gerlinde, then she expands her runes for sale. One of them is the Crafter’s Essence, which reduces an item’s carrying or strength capacity to 0. This is huge if you want to dual-wield two-handed weapons while still wielding heavy armor. This will turn you into a hench monster, dishing out two slow yet powerful attacks, with a devastating combo move. This is a game changer when you reach the mid-game.

If you need assistance finding the tablet locations in Lords of the Fallen, we have you covered in a separate guide.

Dark Crusader Radiance Build¶

If you opt to do a Radiance playstyle, then that works too. Note that you will sacrifice your secondary weapon slot to a Radiance Catalyst, and you’ll want to use a variety of Radiance spells. For the most part, you’ll likely want supportive Radiance spells, such as Aura of Tenacity, Barbed, and Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a spell you can get in the Safe Hub tower near where you beat Pietra. Aura of Tenacity is available in a book in the living quarters area of the Safe Hub in Skyrest, and Barbed you get from the Manse of Hallowed Brothers. You can also get a spell that summons swords by defeating the optional boss in the manse in the garden area, found on the roof of that round building near the locked doors.

These are the type of spells you want to use, as they make you more durable, thanks to status effect cleanses, heals, physical resistance buffs, and swords that can mirror attacks. Holy weapon, which is purchased from the OIrion Preacher in the Skyrest is also handy for some more damage buffs to your weapon, turning you into that Paladin playstyle.

In terms of weapons, you are likely stuck with the Dark Crusader’s starting sword for a long time, upgrading only if you come across better strength scaling two-handers, like the Faithful Bludgeon, which we mentioned how to get above.

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The Ebonlight Sword has C- scaling for both Strength and Radiance, offering players a really good scaling sword in the mid-game they can later upgrade.

The other weapons that you’ll want to consider are the Ebonlight, Abiding Sword, which is a great sword that you get as a reward for defeating the optional bosses in the Manse, which is a mid-game item. You will need 29 Strength and Radiance to equip it, but that’s fine if you’re running a heavy Radiance build anyway. You will make your way to the Manse after clearing the Fief, which unlocks after Calrath City. In addition, defeating Tancred, the boss in the Tower of Penance, connected to the Manse, offers the player a decent radiance spear if that’s something you’re interested in using. The other option is the Bloody Glory, which requires 20 Strength and 32 Radiance, and unlocks at a similar point as the Abiding Sword. This adds Bleed status to the weapon, and does similar damage to Ebonlight. So, the choice is there on a potential alternative style of Two handed swords. There’s a few more weapons, but those are entering spoiler territory, so we will leave them out, as its to do with potential ending thematic storylines.

This concludes the Dark Crusader build guide in Lords of the Fallen. Hopefully, you have a better idea of how to play the class, consider the two varying playstyles that give this class the fantasy it deserves, while still building and speccing your class effectively.