Part 145: Let's Learn Jobs: Dark Knight

Let's Learn Jobs: Dark Knight



Ready to fill your heart with self-destructive rage and hide your true self behind a mask? Check out Dark Knight! They hit hard, they hit fast, and with some method of healing, they can destroy the opponent. Without proper healing, however, they're more likely to destroy themselves first.

Dark Knights haven't changed much from their roots in FF3. They are one of the ultimate physical offensive units, their gimmick being that their powerful attacks are partly fueled by their own health. FF4 has this as a main plot point when protagonist Cecil undergoes a journey to find himself, ultimately giving up Dark Knight for Paladin so he can protect instead of destroy.




Dark Knights have two main features: a full suit of black armor and a blade. For max aesthetic points, the blade should be black or red, the color of darkness or you and your opponent's blood.



Dark Knights are masters of both eastern and western swords. Their stat focus is solely on physical offense, though they do have proficiency in armor for some added protection.



Blue are support abilities, red are skill abilities.

Level 1 - Dark Bane: Deal 125% dark physical damage to single target at cost of 20% max HP.
Level 2 - Abate Dark: Halves dark damage. (Cost: 1)
Level 3 - Adversity: Allows other jobs to equip the dark knight specialty. (Cost: 1)
Level 4 - Demon Master: Attempt to charm demonkind enemy. (6 MP)
Level 5 - See You in Hell: When K.O.'d, deal 400% damage to all enemies. Does not work with Reraise applied. (Cost: 1)
Level 6 - Minus Strike: Deal damage equal to max HP minus current HP. (16 MP)
Level 7 - Helm Lore: Allows other jobs to have S-proficiency with helms. (Cost: 1)
Level 8 - Black Bane: Deal 150% dark physical damage to all enemies at cost of 30% max HP.
Level 9 - Gloom: Dark attacks deal 125% damage. (Cost: 1)
Level 10 - Absorb Magic: During entire turn, nullify and absorb magic attack damage.
Level 11 - Dark Nebula: Deal 400% dark damage to all allies and enemies at cost of 20% max HP.
Level 12 - Physical Attack 30% Up (Cost: 3)
Level 13 - Life or Death: Physical and Magical Attack and Defense raised 50% each turn for 4 turns, but enter Doom state.
Level 14 - Rage: Dark Bane used up to 5 times or until HP falls to 1. (2 BP)

Dark Knight abilities are straightforward except for the whole dealing damage to the user/party, so the main question when using the job is how to mitigate or nullify damage to yourself and possibly the rest of your team. The job's support abilities focus on wracking damage up even higher.



This support is complementary to the masochistic playstyle of a Dark Knight, but probably won't be worthwhile for other jobs.


Dark Knights wear their signature suit of black armor embellished with gold, lending a grim but regal look. Joints and other open areas are obscured by some sort of black underwear and/or the power of darkness.

As usual, the suits differ between men and women, with the women's having a longer skirt and lacking upper chest coverage while the men lack upper thigh coverage. Both men and women's suits also have convenient holes for stabbing the guts. Maybe the darkness underwear is some sort of protective mesh. Interestingly, the woman's helms only cover part of their faces, but the exposed area is still obscured by shadow. Very thorough!