Against non-demonic enemies, Darklight is a fairly weak weapon with bonuses marginally better than that of a steel longsword with a lower strength bonus and a small, additional Magic Defence bonus. When used against demonic monsters, however, Darklight provides a 60% increase in accuracy and damage.[1] Some demons have modified demonbane effectiveness, which can either reduce or increase this bonus. For example, Duke Sucellus has 70% demonbane effectiveness, reducing the bonus to 42% accuracy and damage. Darklight also counts as a piece of silver weaponry, and can therefore damage tier 2 vampyres, while gaining a 10% damage bonus against tier 1 vampyres.
Special attack
A player performing the darklight's special attack, Weaken.
Darklight has a special attack, Weaken, which consumes 50% of the player's special attack energy and lowers the opponent's Strength, Attack, and Defence levels by 5% (10% for demons) of their base level + 1.[2]
The accuracy roll for Weaken is made against an opponent's stab defence,[3] and its drain effect only applies to successful hits.
Weaken will stack additively upon successful hits unlike the dragon warhammer, which stacks multiplicatively. Two successful special attacks thus reduce an opponent's Strength, Attack and Defence by 10% + 2, or 20% + 2 against demonic targets.
Upgrading
Darklight can be upgraded into Arclight by bringing three ancient shards and using either the ancient shards or Darklight on the Altar in the centre of the Catacombs of Kourend. Doing so further increases the effectiveness against demonic monsters and changes the attack speed from 5 to 4 ticks. Attempting to use ancient shards on Darklight while not being at the altar results in the message You require additional power from the catacombs altar to create Arclight..
Arclight has 1000 charges upon creation and gains an additional 1000 charges for every 3 shards added, and can hold a maximum of 10,000 charges. If all charges are consumed, it will become inactive, with the same stats as Darklight.
The animation of Darklight's special attack no longer disrupts player movement as badly.
References
^Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 15 February 2019. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Mod Ash: "[Whats the damage increase against demons on the silver light exactly?] Treat your max hit as though it's 60% higher than it is."
^Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 3 January 2018. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Mod Ash: "[It seems like the Darklight special attack actually drains by 5%/10% + 1. Is that true or just an inconsistency I'm seeing?] It's got a +1 in there, yes. Possibly to ensure it always does something, even if a stat is already low."
^Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 31 October 2016. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Mod Ash: "[Against what defensive style bonus does the special attack of the darklight/arclight roll against? The dds always uses slash.] Stab."
Attack bonuses
Defence bonuses
Other bonuses
.gif){kind=link}