DarkSwitch is a survival city builder where you have to keep the fear levels of your settlers in check as they’re surrounded by the mysterious fog. In the prologue, Etnarch Tessen unleashed the Apparatus on the Great Tree to fight against the shroudsurge, but that ended up destroying the entire settlement. Now, Valfidis, an ex-Archon, has made his way to the settlement, hoping to revive it.
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Table of contents
Revival
After Valfidis arrives, you’ll have to help him figure out what happened at Elaran. You won’t be able to build anything right away before repairing the Council Hall. Open the Council Hall and click on the hammer and wrench icon to start repairing it.
Once the Council Hall is repaired, you’ll have to gather wood. You can’t build a Lumberjack’s Hut yet, but you can still gather wood from all the structures you build during the prologue, which have now turned into burned buildings.
You’ll also need a stable food supply. Send some settlers to work at the Fungus Colonies and set up a Cooking House. Around 12:00 on Day 1, you’ll get a new quest to repair the top platform so Valfidis can reach the crown of the Great Tree.
This quest is of utmost importance because if you don’t, the game will be over in a few days. Zoom out and click on the broken top platform to repair it. Similar to the Council Hall, select the structure and click on the repair icon.
Surveying The Surroundings
As you continue to clear out the burned buildings, you’ll have to set up new production buildings, warehouses, and forest houses.
On Day 2, Valfidis will discover the Sun Seed in the Great Tree’s crown. Now, you need to build a platform on the Great Tree. Build a lower platform near the ground so you can place warehouses on it.
After that, you’ll have to click on the Sunburst, the skywalker/airship, on the main platform to hire a scout team. Send the scout team below on the ground to investigate the pillar of lights.
Your next task will be to gather resources to build an Engineerium. After that, continue to build more houses and set up a Healing Quarters for the ill.
Letter From Sorago
At 19:00 on Day 2, you’ll receive a letter from Sorago, branding everyone on Elaran a traitor. You have three choices here. I picked the option to stall for time by writing a letter back to the council.
On Day 3, Sunburst will try to take off with Captain Nigel on board without letting Valfidis know. However, shortly after taking off from Elaran, the skywalker catches fire and crashes near the Great Tree.
Now, you’ll have to set up a scout base to gather a scouting squad to check out the wreckage of the Sunburst. You can find the building in the Research category of the build menu.
Once the Scout Base is built, gather a scout team and send them to the Sunburst’s wreckage. After the scouting mission is complete, you may find some survivors.
By now, you should be researching the Greater Engineerium. You should also build some more cooking houses because you’ll be needing a ton of rations later on, as well as forest houses. Set up a Metal Collector’s base on the ground as well to stock up on metal.
Growing The Settlement
From now on, you have plenty of days to grow your settlement and set up structures for streamlining the production process for essential resources. You should also always be researching something at the Engineerium.
Keep sending your scouts all over the map. You only have one scout team for now, but you can do more research and unlock a second scouting team, which will make these scouting skirmishes a lot easier.
To build on the ground, you’ll have to place a Flameguard and build around in its range. The Flameguard will prevent the buildings in its range from getting corrupted by the fog.
On Day 6, you’ll hear the reports of a singing lady at night. You can find a scouting spot near the river called Strange Voice. When your scouts search the area, you’ll find out that the lady is actually a monster called Lullaby.
To fight this monster, you can also send your scouting squad, but the quest requires you to research Fortified Watchtowers and Bolt Thrower structures. Once both of these are researched, you can upgrade your regular watchtowers into Fortified Watchtowers with Bolt Throwers.
Headquarters
Heroes are special characters with leadership qualities. They are different from regular settlers, and they’ll need a separate residence. You can research the headquarters from the Engineerium.
Once the headquarters have been researched, you can upgrade the Council Hall and add the headquarters to it. After that, you’ll get the hero’s icon on the council. From there, you can assign heroes, and they’ll bring their own unique abilities with them.
Around the end of Day 7, you’ll hear the reports that the shroud is getting stronger. You’ll then have to research Large Flameguards.
After researching, you can upgrade some of the regular Flameguards into Large Flameguards, which will increase their range.
Preserving The Peace
On Day 8, a skywalker will arrive from Sorago. This skywalker demands a bribe for peace. There are several options here, but since I had the resources, I picked the option to give them the resources and preserve the peace.
The skywalker will require 150 units of wood and 100 units of metal in the course of 2 days. Once you’ve gathered enough, you can press the button in front of the quest to deliver the materials to the skywalker.
On Day 9, you’ll get the option to research the Sun Seed. Open the Engineerium tree, and you’ll find the Sun Seed in the defense tab.
The Untouchable Ghost
On Day 10, you’ll encounter a mysterious ghost from the fog. This wraith cannot be damaged by physical attacks, and the watchtowers or the flameguards are useless against it.
To develop the tools to fight against the ghost, you’ll have to research and build a Scriptorium, which is an upgrade for the Engineerium.
I was able to finish building the Scriptorium by Day 12, and that’s when you’ll get the next quest to establish Skywalker Production.
Here, you have to research a Vapor Station and a Skywalker Dock. The Vapor Station is built near gas deposits. You’ll be able to spot this area by green-colored smoke on the map.
Producing Skywalkers
By now, your need for wood and metal has increased as well, so you can research the upgrades for them, as well as the Forest Houses. You’ll also need Solar, so set up some extractors on the trunk.
Once the Skywalker Dock has been researched, you’ll have to build it. You can only build it at a specific place on the trunk, and it’s one of a kind. You’ll be able to upgrade it further later.
After the Dock has been built, click on the exploration button, and you’ll be able to see the skywalkers that you can build here. There are a total of three types of skywalkers, each for a different purpose.
Right now, you need to build exploration skywalkers, but later, you’ll be able to build cargo and combat skywalkers. Click on the hammer icon to build an exploration skywalker.
Once the construction of your first skywalker is complete, it will unlock a cutscene where it flies off to a distance, marking the end of the first chapter.
This concludes the walkthrough for Chapter One of DarkSwitch.
Please visit the game’s main hub here for more walkthroughs. You may also like the following pages:
- Into Indie Games Homepage
- The Occultist – Complete Walkthrough Hub
- Crown Of Greed – Walkthrough Hub
- Life Is Strange: Reunion – Walkthrough Hub
- Project Songbird Complete Walkthrough
Fahad Suleman is an avid fan of fighting games who spends most of his time writing walkthroughs and reviews for cozy indie titles or mashing around in Tekken. If he’s not writing or playing any games, you’ll often find him watching historical videos on YouTube for hours.
