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The Dark Mark is a status effect in Tales of Arise, achieved by cooking the Roasted Chicken recipe at a campsite.
Upon doing so, the effect will become active once the party leaves said campsite.
Its function is to basically improve the eyesight of every enemy around you, expanding their field of view and making it easier for them to see you. Subsequently, they will attack you a lot more frequently.
Its primary use will be for speeding up the process to reach a level 5 battle chain.
How To Unlock Dark Mark
Enemies are pursuing Alphen from a greater distance upon using Dark Mark.
To use the Dark Mark effect, the only prerequisite is unlocking the Roasted Chicken Recipe.
To obtain the Roasted Chicken recipe, you’ll need to complete a side quest entitled City Renewal, which is available in the city of Niez during the Mahag Saar portion of the main story.
Finishing the ‘City Renewal’ side quest.
To complete this quest you’ll have to go back to the Mountain Trail you used to get to Niez from Viscint and farm some Rioter Claws to acquire three Demihuman Muscles.
Note: If you’ve been batting down enemies as you go, odds are you’ll have already acquired the items you need for this quest.
Once the quest is complete, you’ll be able to cook the Roasted Chicken – and with it, reap the benefits of the Dark Mark.
How To Use Dark Mark
Selecting the Roasted Chicken, which activates Dark Mark.
Once you’ve unlocked the Roasted Chicken recipe, you’ll be able to cook it at a campsite like any other recipe in the game.
After doing this you’ll have the Dark Mark effect activated upon leaving the campsite, which lasts for six minutes.
Cooking this meal with Alphen will boost the potency of the effect.
The Dark Mark itself somewhat functions as the opposite of the Holy Water in the Dragon Quest series, as it’s likely to get you far more aggro from nearby enemies, which brings us to the primary use of the Dark Mark:
It increases the range where enemies will spot you and come after you, making it much harder to avoid battles as you traverse the world.
The in-game description of the Dark Mark.
You’ll want to use this if you’re trying to farm more battles in a shorter amount of time, perhaps to increase your battle chain or simply acquire more EXP and loot in a much more efficient manner.
Longtime fans of the Tales Of series may recognize the Dark Mark as the evolution of the Dark Bottle, an item that appeared in many previous games such as Berseria or Graces f, which makes enemies behave in much the same way.
Note: It’s possible to see what each recipe’s effect does in greater detail from within the game itself. While you have a recipe selected, simply press the key binding assigned to ‘Cooking Effect Details’. On PC, it’s TAB. On controllers, it tends to be Start. This is particularly useful for effects such as the Dark Mark because the name itself isn’t particularly descriptive.
Cooking Roasted Chicken with Alphen boosts the effect even further.
Based in Wales, Chris is a fervent writer, avid synthwave listener, and long-time video game enthusiast. His preferred video game genres are JRPGs, strategy games, and arcade racers. He has been known to tear himself away from the controller on occasion, primarily to enjoy a good book by Terry Pratchett, or for an episode of Star Trek or Community.
