Dark Side Unit Analysis Extra: Initiative Tiers and Damage Types

For the final time... Initiative tiers and damage type distribution.

Note that I haven't listed the Dark versions of Light units, nor the female Priest clone. There'd be no point, since in every case the versions are identical in these stats. As such, if you're wanting to, for example, know what a Wizard's position is, you need to look for where Archmages are.

Initiative: 8
Speed 9: Archdemons

Initiative: 7
Speed 5: Ancient Vampires (Bat form), Horsemen, Lake Fairies, Unicorns, Amazons

Speed 3: Devilfish, Ice Minions

Speed 2: Necromancers, Foremen, Sea Dogs, Metamorphs

Initiative: 6
Speed 8: Black Dragons

Speed 7: Bone Dragons, Red Dragons, Ice Dragons, Dragon Riders

Speed 6: Royal Griffins

Speed 5: Angelic Guard, Warrior Maidens

Speed 4: Cursed Ghosts, Vampires (Bat form), Lake Dragonflies

Speed 3: Veteran Orcs, Scoffer Imps, Fire Spiders, Royal Snakes, Guard Droids, Undead Spiders, Hyenas, Thorn Warriors, Assassins, Berserkers, Axe Throwers, Furious Goblins, Raging Barbarians

Speed 2: Ancient Vampires (Human form), Rangers, Demonesses, Marauders, Archmages, Demonologists, Blood Priestesses, Female Vampires

Initiative: 5
Speed 6: Emerald Green Dragons

Speed 5: Griffins

Speed 4: Forest Fairies, Werewolf Elves (Wolf form), Cerberi, Imps, Fauns

Speed 3: Shaman, Wolves, Pirates, Beholders, Witch Hunters, Vikings, Skald, Orc Scouts, Fire Dragonflies, Barbarians

Speed 2: Vampires (Human form), Inquisitors, Alchemists, Werewolf Elves (Elf form), Elves, Snakes, Knights, Engineers, Executioners, Black Knights, Soothsayers, Jotun, Flame Elementals

Speed 1: Giants

Initiative: 4
Speed 5: Repair Droids

Speed 4: Ghosts

Speed 3: Guardsmen, Dryads, Demons, Venomous Spiders, Pirate Ghosts, Evil Beholders, Jarls, Ice Spiders

Speed 2: Skeleton Archers, Robbers, Bowmen, Priests, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins With Catapults, Polar Bears, Swamp Snakes, Orc Chieftains, Trolls, Slingers, Ogres, Goblins, Spirit Talkers

Initiative: 3
Speed 3: Swordsmen, Spy (Little girl form)

Speed 2: Skeletons, Peasants, Miners, Ancient Bears, Paladins, Cannoneers, Spy (Normal form)

Initiative: 2
Speed 3: Cave Spiders, Thorn Hunters

Speed 2: Zombies, Ents, Druids, Bears

Initiative: 1
Speed 3: Cyclops

Speed 2: Decaying Zombies

Speed 1: Ancient Ents, Royal Thorns

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Overall, Dark Side doesn't affect Speed/Initiative tiers very much. It doesn't have very many non-clone units, and it mostly doesn't change the statlines of old units. This is essentially reasonable, as Armored Princess already did a lot to fine-tune Speed/Initiative tiers and Warriors of the North did a little more tuning; it doesn't need a ton of tuning.

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As with the previous games, I'll be covering units by primary damage type. Note that I'm not throwing in the Dark portrait of a Light unit where applicable, as it's just redundant and would massively increase the length of this for no benefit.

Physical (86)

Magic (15)

Poison (8)






Fire (7)





Ice (8)

Astral (0)

No unit can inflict Astral damage on a consistent basis in Dark Side, There are some that can inflict it at all, like Black Knights, but not turn after turn without significant support, if at all. Goblin Shaman are gone, for one, and even Blood Shaman as a pseudo-case are gone. Actually, most units capable of Astral damage previously are gone or no longer have access to Astral damage, and almost no new units have it to replace them.

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And... that's it! Truly, fully, finally done with Dark Side and the entire King's Bounty series.

I may be taking a bit of a break from posting while I work out what happens next and make preparations. Probably shouldn't be longer than two weeks, and may be much less than that. We'll see.

See you then.