Dark Tyrant Demon King

Published August 2 2023

Updated August 4 2023

## Skill Effects

Eradication, Mark of Death, Blackout Effect, Decrease Defense-related stats, Ruler's Reign, Retrocession

## Association

"The Ruler" Tyrant Demon King has a skill that can deal greater damage the higher his Attack.

## Hero Guide

### Summary

Dark Tyrant Demon King is an exceptional choice for the Demon team in PVP. Though restricted to the Demon Team with his Unique Ability, he can deal massive amounts of damage after the first few turns while also restricting healing to the enemy team with his Debuff skill.

Due to the Buffs he receives, he can wipe the enemy team with his skills alone rather than relying on his Ultimate Move to do the job. Moreover, since he can not be one-shot, it forces the enemy team to either dedicate more resources to killing him or ignoring him in favor of other allies, allowing him time to build up his Unique Ability Buffs. Couple that with Dark Purgatory Meliodas, who wants his team to be attacked, and you have a strong combo where the enemy team is punished if they attack anyone on the team but also lose Ultimate Move Gauge if they don’t due to Meliodas’ Unique Ability. The Demon King performs well with multiple Graces, but he becomes much more difficult to kill with Red Tarmiel’s Grace, and Red Sariel’s or Mael’s grace will increase his damage heavily.

On top of it if the enemy tries to remove Retrocession with buff removal it will only increase the King’s stats more earlier for each Retrocession buff removed which can penalize buff removal heroes here.

### **Pros**

* Excellent damage when Unique Ability Buffs activate
	+ Buffs are permanent and some are grey
* Can not be one-shot due to the Ruler’s Reign effect
	+ Allows the Demon King to have more survivability, particularly in PVP
* Offers damage reduction to all Demon Allies (albeit temporarily)
* Can restrict Recovery-related stats
* Ranks up his own skills

### **Cons**

* Support is limited to Demons (Team building is limited to Demons)
* Must wait multiple turns before Buffs activate
* Ultimate becomes many times stronger with higher Ultimate Move levels
* Retrocession can be removed by buff removal
	+ Though it could actually end up helping out the Demon King increase his attack related status more early since it activates when Retrocession expires or get removed

### **Skill Review**

**Quietus** - This single-target skill deals effective damage even without the Unique Ability Buffs being active due to the massive Attack and Crit Chance increase. With the Buff, the Demon King can easily kill most enemies in PVP.
**Sword of Imprisonment** - This AOE skill is excellent at spreading Darkness on the enemy team when in use with Blue Festival Berserk Estarossa. Moreover, the ability to restrict Recovery-related stats is extremely powerful in an effort to stop other powerful units from lifestealing and stopping the effectiveness of Red Tarmiel’s Grace.
**Ultimate Move: Incursion** - Even without a higher Ultimate Move level, the Ultimate is exceptional in terms of damage. The Blackout Effect is a nice safety net in the case that any enemies survive. However, it is somewhat weak (in terms of effects) at the Level 1 Blackout Effect, but once it hits Level 2, it will seal Attack skills as opposed to only sealing Buffs and Debuffs. On top of it his Decrease Defense Related Status is a Grey Buff which means it can bypass debuff immunity.
**Unique: Ruler’s Reign** - This Unique Ability provides the Demon team with damage reduction as well increasing the stats of the Demon King after a set period of time when those damage reduction effects wears off. Moreover, it seals Commandment abilities (most notably from Blue Festival Berserk Estarossa) and benefits if an ally with a Commandment dies, meaning the Demon King has strong comeback potential if he survives long enough while ranking up his own skills.

**Gear Recommendation**

Equipment Set - Onslaught (Attack) / Congeniality (Crit Damage) OR Life (HP) / Iron Wall (Defense)

Substats:

* Bracer/Ring - Attack
* Necklace/Earring - Defense
* Belt / Rune - HP

The more offensive gear is used in the instances where you value the Demon King being good offensively even during the first turn, or you use him as your primary DPS. The defensive gear is used if you really want to utilize his damage cap ability of 50%. Using this along with Red Tarmiel’s Grace can make him much harder to kill. Plus, defensive gear offers more Combat Class, important in PVP matches in order to attack first.
**PVP** - Within PVP, the Demon King is only used in the Demon race team but that isn’t a huge issue due to the Demon team being a meta team. His main partners are generally units such as Dark Purgatory Meliodas and Blue Festival Berserk Estarossa with Blue Demon Cusack as a sub-slot unit. The idea of this team is to use an Ultimate Rushing strategy for the team with the added advantage of allowing the Demon King not to be the center of attention for attack. Using the Demon King in the leftmost slot on the team and utilizing Dodge food, you want to ideally get an extra skill for Meliodas or Estarossa and rush their Ultimates while going second. This way the enemy is essentially forced to attack the ally with their Ultimate that can wipe the team rather than trying to kill the Demon King early on. If they decide to kill the Demon King, Meliodas or Estarossa will wipe the team. Unfortunately, this strategy does require higher Ultimate Move levels to use consistently.

In some compositions, Estarossa or Meliodas can be replaced but it can prove inferior to remove them. For example, Blue Chandler can be used on the team but his Ultimate Move is too weak to wipe the enemy team. Therefore, getting his Ultimate Move early isn’t a threat and can be ignored. However, there is flexibility with the Demon Team, so please experiment until you find a team you like.

**PVE** - While not exceptional in PVE content such as Demonic Beasts or Death Matches, he can certainly be used in slower strategies. Due to his need for a few turns to pass prior to receiving his Attack buffs, he will inevitably be inferior to units who can deal great damage from the first turn. On top of it very few meta Demon units work there making his unique benefiting not many units with Demonic Beast Battles mostly running with many non-Demon units and gaining less attack buffs because of it. In Death Matches, you want the most efficient and fastest teams and the Demon King is not built for that. Demonic Beast Battles already have great units for them and the Demon King won’t topple any of the best ones.