Our Vision for Solo and Duo Players

I've seen many players express concerns and frustration about the removal of dedicated solo and duo queues. I understand why, and I'd like to clarify our intentions. Removing dedicated solo and duo queues does not mean we're abandoning solo and duo players. Our goal is to eliminate rigidly separated matchmaking pools, not to force everyone into trios or make solo players constantly fight coordinated three-player teams. In fact, I believe we should create an environment where solo adventurers can make up the majority of players in a dungeon.

Matchmaking Within a Unified Pool

We are considering preference-based matchmaking with flexible constraints within a single unified pool. For example, we could prioritize matching solo players with other solos, premade teams with similarly sized premade teams, and randomly assembled teams with other randomly assembled teams. However, these systems will not be available immediately. We first want to observe how the unified matchmaking pool performs and gather real gameplay data before deciding what adjustments are necessary. We also understand that these systems are not perfect. We do not want to effectively fragment the matchmaking pool again, so any preferences we introduce must remain flexible and adapt to player population and queue times. We plan to continuously experiment with and refine these approaches on the backend, using actual matchmaking data to guide our decisions.

Balancing the Dungeon, Not Just Matchmaking

Matchmaking alone cannot solve everything. Our dungeon rules are also being designed around the different strengths and weaknesses of each party size. Trios will naturally have advantages in combat and dungeon exploration, but those advantages should not necessarily extend to escaping. Larger parties should face their own risks and limitations, while solo and duo players should have opportunities to succeed through flexibility, decision-making, and different strategies. A solo player should not have to defeat a trio to have a successful adventure. Our goal is to make it possible for different party sizes to survive, find valuable loot, and escape in their own ways.

Preserving Heroic Moments

At the same time, I believe overcoming overwhelming odds is part of what makes Dark and Darker special. A skilled solo player defeating a trio should still be possible. It should be difficult, dangerous, and memorable. But it should never be something every solo player is expected to do just to enjoy the game.

Our Commitment

I understand that repeated changes in the past have damaged your trust in our direction. I also know that words alone won't restore that trust. We need to prove our intentions through the game itself. This is not a promise that everything will work perfectly from the beginning. We will observe the results, learn from the data, and continue improving both matchmaking and dungeon design. I should have explained more of this during Tavern Table, but my limited English and lack of experience with live broadcasts prevented me from communicating everything clearly. I apologize for the confusion and concern that caused. I know many of you love playing alone or with just one friend. I do not want to take that experience away from you. I want to build a dungeon where solos, duos, and trios can all find their own ways to survive, take risks, and achieve something meaningful. It won't be easy, but we will keep working toward that goal. Thank you for continuing to share your concerns and feedback.

I just return to the game and decide to farm Wyvern but two barbarians (not naming their region btw), sit across and map and hurl frannies (in solo btw), breaking my ice and getting me killed?

Are we serious?

Make people have to actually be on the platform to interrupt your fight.

I've played two games this morning and I kid you not, every single other person in my match was a lightning sorcerer that felt AWFUL to play into lol.

Before you guys crucify me, hear me out.

I come from games like Dark and Darker / Tarkov, where at release, there were utterly BUSTED classes. Like there was NO DOUBT what the OP class/weapons were and some weapons were completely useless.

In this game (on release day), my gut reaction was quickly like “SS is really strong” but as I’ve developed as a player, I have learned how to abuse the strengths and play around the weaknesses of my class. I’ve also seen multiple complaint post about every class (maybe except WK).

When I started the game, I was expecting absolutely awful balance as most new games (especially in the PVPVE genre) have awful balance.

Props to the devs! I feel like despite how toxic this Reddit is, that you’ve done a fantastic job!

And as a little side note to Reddit/Discord; these types of games will always have a meta or strong class. The developers balance around 3v3 so of course at least 1-2 classes are going to be dominate in solos. If you can’t learn to adapt and overcome, you will ALWAYS be here complaining about balance as you’re not developing yourself as a player and becoming better overall! My biggest piece of advice is to record your games! Realize where you went wrong, and improve!

Good luck!

I am addicted to this game but I CRAVE the duo experience this game has to offer.

Please devs, I am begging with my life.

Edit: queue times do not matter. I promise you this game will lose players due to no duos way before it loses players due to higher queue times.

Edit #2: no I mean like really, please upvote and share the post. I don’t give a flying poop about karma, I want this on the front page so devs see it.

Edit #3: in mistfall discord on the #support-hub channel, make a suggestion for duo queues. Make our voice heard amongst the devs in discord!

It was the same way in Dark and Darker.

Solos: Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Trios: A cluster of a mess. So much happening it can be hard to keep up with.

Duos is such a sweet spot between the counters of solos, and the absolute chaos of trios. It will do nothing but benefit this game.

-4k hour Dark and Darker player. I know that this game isn't Dark and Darker, but they're both PVPVE games and duos is absolutely considered Dark and Darkers best gamemode :)

https://preview.redd.it/wsa8pz4yz4gh1.png?width=1128&format=png&auto=webp&s=96cc2f405625b233e9b5242f71146bda2ee849eb

Why whenever I drop a piece of gear under a dead skeleton on the ground, does it just vanish into the void because the skeleton hitbox is so large?

Seems like a basic feature that we should have by now!

So excited to finally have a good way to spoof on IOS!

haha, just kidding. did i get you guys?

It feels like a solid 50% of the game I play on frozen mountain when I go down to boss, is SWARMING with teamers/cheaters hitting piles together and swarming the boss together to kill you (with names from a region that I will not mention).

Please reintroduce region lock.

Look, I know the player base cannot support tons of lobbies and queues, I get it, I’m just reminiscing.

Epic capped HR was when me and my friends had the most fun in this game. It allowed you to build a kit for semi cheap, but also remain competitive and put a cap to how overpowered someone can be with gear.

It was really fun. You had purple min-maxers, but you could also throw on base poop rolled purples and remain competitive because the gear gap wasn’t that large.

I know it’s kinda against the idea of high roller being the big gear game mode, but man was it fun.