If I'm lucky, I'll amass a small handful of Dark And Darker Gold gold trinkets and miscellaneous weaponry to jam in my inventory Tetris-ed pockets. If I die I lose it all, but if I manage to worm my way through the oppressively narrow corridors, floor spike traps, and other players I have a shot at locating a glowing blue stone on the floor that will open an exit portal.
(Be aware, co-op folks; these things admit one person only, not the whole squad, which seems quite stingy for a game best played with pals.) You can also take a red glowing portal to head deeper into the dungeon for further challenges and rewards, but I've not gotten that brave yet.
Things get a bit less harrowing in a well-balanced trio of Fighter, Cleric, and Wizard, (or Barbarian, Rogue, or Ranger) but even so, death is only a couple missteps away in Dark and Darker's classically claustrophobic dungeons, which make me miss the open air of other PvPvE romps.
If I do escape, I immediately sell all my loot in the merchant menu and shove the gold coins in my stash while I take on the next run wearing only what I brought out on my back. Dark and Darker - Three players congregate to heal one another in a torchlit dungeon
This is where Dark and Darker is most similar to Escape From Tarkov; buying incrementally better gear from merchants and working towards permanent class upgrades is a familiar grind.
I'm not one to throw around the word "Sisyphean" but the threat of my loot boulder tumbling down the hill seems even greater than other extraction games. Instead, I strive towards level-gated perk slot upgrades and swapping my active skills for the Fighter and cheap Dark And Darker Gold Rogue characters I'm levelling.
The Wall