Dark Knight



Dark Knight is a special Job class that appears in several games in the series.

Profile
The Dark Knight is characterized by wearing tight, sometimes enclosed black armor and wielding a sword steeped in wicked powers. Their physical stats, with exception of Defense, are usually high, but their other stats depend on the game they appear in. The typical Dark Knight ability is Souleater, also known as Darkness, which allows them to sacrifice their HP to perform stronger attacks.

However, Souleater is not exclusive to the Dark Knight class. Dark Knights may also have abilities based on Blood Equipment that allows them to absorb HP and MP from enemies. The Dark Knight is opposed by the Paladin, holy knights who protect allies and wield sacred powers. Unlike many classes, Dark Knights bear a signature weapon, the Deathbringer, which has a chance to kill certain enemies in a single blow.

Final Fantasy II
Leon marks the first appearance of the Dark Knight within the series. He serves as the Emperor's right-hand man until the Emperor's defeat and subsequent revival, at which point he joins the party.

Final Fantasy III
The Magic Knight's appearance is nearly identical to later games' Dark Knights, and in fact they were explicitly called as such in the English version of the DS remake. They can wield dark blades, and in the NES release cast low-level White Magic. In the DS release, they instead use the Souleater ability, trademark of the Dark Knight, which damages all enemies at the cost of some of one's health.

Final Fantasy IV
Cecil Harvey is the primary protagonist of the game, and serves as a Dark Knight until he becomes a Paladin. Baron is also mentioned to have a battalion of Dark Knights in their army, but due to the intense training many Dark Knights fail to master the dark sword and lose their minds in the process. A reflection of Cecil's Dark Knight is fought as a boss. The King of Baron is also a dark knight.

As a Dark Knight, Cecil can use the Darkness ability to inflict damage to all enemies at the cost of some of his HP. In the 3D remake versions, Darkness doubles his attack for three turns at the cost of 10% of his maximum HP per attack.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
As in Final Fantasy IV, Cecil's dark side is fought as a boss. Cecil is also seen as a Dark Knight in several flashbacks.

Final Fantasy X-2
The Dark Knight dressphere can be obtained in Bevelle during Chapter 2, 3, and 5. The class uses skills that cause status effects, grant status immunity, and cause high damage by sacrificing HP. Their high strength is hampered by their low speed.

Final Fantasy XI
The Dark Knight job is awarded to the player by Zeid, a Dark Knight himself. Zeid gives the player the Chaosbringer sword, and once the player uses it to kill a hundred monsters, they are given the Dark Knight Job. In addition to their usual abilities, Dark Knights can also wield low-level Black Magic, but not nearly to the same extent as Red Mages and Scholars.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning can acquire the Dark Knight garb based on the Dark Knight job by completing the sidequest To Save the Sinless. Lightning must unravel the disturbing mystery surrounding a man named Ranulph and learn the true reason why pages from his journal are missing. The garb comes with two abilities, Darkness and Ashura. Both abilities consume Lightning's HP for powerful attacks. Darkness deals area damage, while Ashura focuses devastating power on a single target. The garb also contains the Soul of the Dark Knight, which slightly increases physical attack and magic resistance.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Dark Knight has been confirmed to be one of the new jobs in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, the first expansion of the game. It will be the third Tank and will wield Greatswords as their weapon of choice. Unlike the other jobs in the game, the Dark Knight will have no base class.

Final Fantasy Tactics
The Dark Knight is a high-level Job introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Here, Darkness is not an actual skill, but a set of skills with various effects. Goffard Gaffgarion was called Dark Knight in the original version, but his class' name was changed to Fell Knight in the War of the Lions remake. Argath Thadalfus is fought as a Deathknight, a stronger variation of the Fell Knight.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Grissom, the leader of the Redwings, has a job named "Dark Knight", with a sprite and abilities as a Paladin and Blue Mage as secondary job.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
The Black Knight is a character clad in all black armor that fights wildly with a large black bladed spear. The story tells that he was once a great warrior and hero before going mad and losing his memories. Late in the game, it is revealed his true name is Leon Esla, a reference to the Final Fantasy II Dark Knight.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Dark Fencer is one of the crowns in Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Like traditional Dark Knights, Dark Fencers can sacrifice their life force to deal large amounts of damage using the Darkside ability. They also have an ability to allows them to do higher damage when their HP is low, called Eye for an Eye, and a stronger version of Darkside which attacks multiple targets, called Darkerside, and a kamikaze attack, called Amok, that allows them to repeatedly use Darkside until they have one point of health left.

Bravely Default
Alternis Dim is a Dark Knight, and the holder of the Dark Knight asterisk which grants the job to the player when obtained.

Dark Knight has numerous abilities revolving around dealing high damage at the cost of HP. They have several skills which let them sacrifice their HP, damage their party members, or inflict doom status on themselves in order to deal heavy damage to enemies or increase their own offense and defense. Other Dark Knight skills don't cost HP directly, but are only effective if the Dark Knight takes damage from enemies.

Dark Knights have an affinity with the dark element, and can learn passive abilities which improve the damage of their dark-elemental attacks or make them resistant to dark-elemental attacks from enemies. They also have the ability to charm enemy demons.

Final Fantasy Dimensions
Graham is a Dark Knight hailing from Falgabard, and he gives the Dark Warriors the Dark Knight job class.

Dark Knights have access to the Draw Attacks ability, as well as access to the Dark Sword ability list. Dark Sword attacks include Darkness, which deals improved physical damage for 1 MP at the cost of 25% of the user's maximum HP, Onyx Wave, which deals heavy damage to all enemies at the cost of 33% of the user's maximum HP, Curse, which inflicts Curse and Sap status on one enemy, Last Resort, which greatly improves the user's stats but inflicts them with Doom, Final Thrust, which deals damage equal to the Dark Knight's maximum HP and is more accurate at low HP, and Ebony Slash, which deals more damage than Darkness and costs no health, but costs 28 MP.

As Dark Knights level up, they also gain access to Absorb HP, which heals the Dark Knight by 10% of the damage they deal with a basic attack, and Backliner, which allows them to deal full damage from the back row.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Cecil appears in this game as both a Dark Knight and a Paladin, able to shift forms when attacking. His Dark Knight form specializes in slow but powerful sword attacks infused with dark magic.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Dark Knight returns as one of Cecil's forms, learning a new HP attack called Shadow Bringer.

The Dark Knight is also a job that can be selected for a character in the player's Party for Quick Battle, Friend Cards, or wireless matches. The Dark Knight job grants the character +5 ATK at a cost of -3 DEF, and is needed to unlock the Mystic Knight and Berserker jobs.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
The Dark Knight is a job in Final Fantasy: Airborne Brigade available after obtaining a level five Warrior and a level ten Black Mage. The preferred weapons for the job are swords and scythes. The job specializes in both strength and intelligence abilities.

Final Fantasy Artniks
The Dark Knight appears as a character card.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
The Dark Knight has several skills that sacrifice Chocobo's HP to damage enemies. It is unlocked by defeating Croma Shade and Croma on the thirtieth floor of Guardian of the Light.

Final Fantasy XII: International Zodiac Job System
In Final Fantasy XII International, an Uhlan is a heavy physical attacker represented by the Zodiac sign Taurus. They are differentiated from Dark Knights in that they wield polearms rather than greatswords or scythes traditionally, but still use heavy armor.

Lord of Vermilion
In the arcade-based card game Lord of Vermilion there are two cards representing the Dark Knight job.

In the sequel Lord of Vermilion II there is another appearance of the Dark Knight card.

Etymology
Dunkelritter (Beruf) Caballero Oscuro Cavaliere nero