Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals – Dread Ducky Guide

How to be successful with Dread Ducky in Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals.

How-To: Duck

Note: Credit goes to Ketchup

Context

Oooooh boy. This is gonna be a fun one, considering the controversy around this character.

We’ll be discussing the ugly duckling. You haven’t forgot about it, have you? Good, because today’s topic is over Dread Ducky. A fan favorite of Dark Deception, the very first character to turn into a marketable plushie, the best dancer ever seen, and the icon of AngeloPlays’ channel, Dread Ducky has quite a fanbase surrounding it. Its signature dancing has even become meme-worthy among the DD community. However, in Dark Deception, it’s level, Stranger Sewers, was a pushover thanks to the introduction of Telepathy essentially bodying it’s mechanic; blending in. However, in Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals, Dread Ducky is, no pun intended, one of the most dreadful characters to play against thanks to having a ton of good traits. In my opinion, Dread Ducky is the second best Monster in the game behind Brute. Why is that, you ask? Well, let’s dive in and explain that.

Background Info

Dread Ducky belongs to the Balanced class. This means it is a generalist when it comes to collecting soul shards, chasing Mortals, engaging in PvP, among others. However, unlike other Balanced characters, Dread Ducky takes the generalist approach to the extreme! Its light attack is likely the best light attack in the game, as it has a good amount of range behind it and is incredibly spammable. The range isn’t anywhere near the absurdity of Cybil’s heavy attack, but it can go a fair distance. This means Dread Ducky is able to camp other players well, as it can hit them, but it can’t be hit back. This also means he can struggle in close range scenarios at times, as his heavy hit is average like most other Monsters’ heavy hits are, but this is hardly a downside. In fact, the heavy hit can be useful if you don’t feel like playing ranged or as a finisher when the target is weak enough. As a result of these traits, Dread Ducky is very good at playing offensively and defensively. It has a good heavy attack to use for finishing off opponents without the kill button (details below), a good light attack to chip opponents running away from it from a distance, and the ability to use said light attack to attack players trying to kill it while it’s on the run. However, players with good ears are able to figure out Dread Ducky’s movements and position rather easily since it’s footsteps are fairly loud. On top of this, it isn’t hard to hit since it’s tall, so killing it after you’ve successfully closed in isn’t too awful bad. However, there is a risk in doing this. A massive risk, you could say. So risky, that most keep their distance around Dread Ducky even though its light attack is ranged. What is this risk? Lemme tell you in the next section, saying it here will ruin the “surprise.”

Ultimate: Ducky Surprise

If you’ve been paying attention to this game’s community, you would’ve definitely heard Dread Ducky’s name be brought up in regard to who needs to get nerfed. This Ult is the reason.

Dread Ducky’s Ult is referred as multiple aliases; “Ducky Surprise,” “Kill Button,” “Uncounterable Ult,” these are all a few I’ve heard. Ducky Surprise is the Ult’s official name, and many players fear it. Upon use, Dread Ducky launches its inner mouth at the target. If it successfully hits, the target is stunned and pulled to it, dealing 25 damage per bite for 3 seconds. However, the Ult’s final damage cap is 325, meaning it ONE SHOTS EVERYONE IN THE GAME EXCEPT POWER MONSTERS!!! Sure, Invincibility and select Ults such as Seal of Metatron can allow the victim to survive, but that’s the problem here. Invincibility is a relatively rare item, and you’re relying on Heather most other times. As stated above, Power Monsters are able to survive if above 325 hp. However, the remaining hp can be drained by one heavy attack from the Duck, meaning you might as well write off Gold Watcher, Malak, and Brute as counters. One of its few weaknesses, however, is that Dread Ducky only has one chance to use it, meaning if it misses, the Ult is wasted.

Overall, this Ult is absurdly strong, and is the reason behind Dread Ducky’s controversy in this game. This is also the reason a lot of players hesitate to engage against a Dread Ducky, as there’s always the chance of Ducky Surprise occurring and outright killing you. Thus, the best way to fight a Dread Ducky is to confirm it doesn’t have this ready, either by using Ultimate Drain, baiting it, or playing defensive until it uses it, providing it misses.

I just now realized it, but why does the Ducky Surprise logo look like a “poggers” face when you tilt the image?

Maze Escape

In Maze Escape, Dread Ducky is extremely good at its role as the hunter. Due to its status as a Balanced Monster, it outruns all Mortals except Support class characters and PenPen, who it has to ambush because of the speed difference. However, its ambushes against healthier Mortals tend to go better in its favor since it has more reach with the light attack. As a result, it can get a few heavy hits in, then begin spamming light attacks to likely finish off whoever it’s targeting. However, despite the brokenness of Ducky Surprise, the Mortal team does have ways to defend themselves from Dread Ducky, provided the right characters got picked. What’s ironic is that the Mortals are more prepared for Dread Ducky than other Monsters are, but we’ll come back to that in the Shard Mayhem section.

In terms of maps, Dread Ducky is a pain in the ass to play against in Elementary Evil since it has fake portals and fake letters to make killing even easier, as well as locations to attempt an ambush. The map is also very narrow, meaning Ducky Surprise is essentially guaranteed to land unless the Ducky player is bad at judging distance. Monkey Business and Deadly Decadence are almost the same way, but with a few differences; Monkey Business and Deadly Decadence have lackluster traps to help Dread Ducky out, and Deadly Decadence in particular is more open, allowing room to try dodging Ducky Surprise. Monstrum Madness is chaotic as hell and is a great map for Dread Ducky overall, but the steam and Super Brutes are able to backfire against it if a fireball happens to hit him on accident or if the Dready Ducky player is careless. Stranger Sewers and Silent Sacrifice offer a ton of space and few places to ambush, but with a character as good as Dread Ducky, it’s still serviceable in these maps if you insist on playing it. Overall, Dread Ducky’s good on all maps, but as usual, some maps are better than others.

PvP Matchups:

• Performs Well Against: Doug, Bierce, Borisov, Dawko, Nikson, SuperHorrorBro, PenPen
• Performs Decently Against: Cybil, Evans, 8-BitRyan
• Performs Poorly Against: Heather, Vince

Cybil performs well against a Dread Ducky without Ducky Surprise, as her heavy attack outranges Ducky’s light attack, she can also remove Ducky Surprise with Incapacitate. Evans can stun the duck back and provide a good amount of damage, but if Dread Ducky wasn’t crippled already or isn’t being ganged up on, the Dread Ducky will usually win that matchup even without Ducky Surprise. The big ones are Heather and Vince. Heather can provide Seal of Metatron to the entire team, making them all much more likely to survive Ducky Surprise, while Vince can make Dread Ducky kill itself if it hooks Vince while “You’ll See” is active, resulting in Vince being the only Mortal that is unsafe to let Ducky Surprise rip on.

Shard Mayhem

You know it’s sad when the Mortals are better at taking on Dread Ducky than the Monsters.

In terms of the Shard Mayhem meta, Agatha may be the best character for this mode due to her speed and Hello Friend! allowing her to passively damage and kill Monsters. However, in terms of PvP, Dread Ducky writes everyone’s eulogy and nae-nae’s on their graves. There is not a single consistent counter to Dread Ducky in Shard Mayhem PvP; Power Monsters and Balanced Monsters get outranged and farmed down with light attacks, Speed Monsters get pounded by heavy hits and light hit spammed while running away, and while Nurse has one of the best overall matchups against Dread Ducky thanks to Fear Cuts Deep neutering its damage while buffing hers, it does nothing to Ducky Surprise, so if she fails to scout it first, she’ll get bodied like everyone else…

…thankfully, this is not a PvP centered mode, and Dread Ducky’s speed is average, meaning it may have to resort to homicide at times to help it catch up to the shard counts that Nurse, Agatha, and Fiend can reach. Not only that, but it now has to fear bosses, as well as Phantom Malak since Phantom Malak can outrun Dread Ducky.

Maps are the same as usual.

So for the PvP Matchups, we’ll be doing something different. Because the Monsters are not at all equipped to handle Dread Ducky, I’ll be removing Ducky Surprise from matchup factorization. That way I can at least explain who does well against it should Ducky Surprise be successfully baited or it missed.

PvP Matchups:

• Performs Well Against: Murder Monkey, Agatha, Gold Watcher, Malak, Fiend, Robbie
• Performs Decently Against: Dread Ducky (himself), The Brute, Nurse
• Performs Poorly Against: Clown Gremlin

Without Ducky Surprise available, Dread Ducky has a good PvP chart overall. Clown Gremlin gives it problems thanks to being small and having a ranged heavy attack, as well as annoying Clown Clones anywhere on the map (that can potentially cause a reflexive reaction that can waste Ducky Surprise if one isn’t paying attention. I’ve done it and it’s embarrassing). Nurse outruns it and can cripple the duck for an easy kill, provided Nurse is healthy.

Closing

Dread Ducky may be simple in design and a pushover in base Dark Deception, but it is an absolute monster in Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals. In both gamemodes it’s allowed in, Dread Ducky would already be a common sight with its traits on they’re own, but Ducky Surprise is what pushes Dread Ducky over the edge, especially in Shard Mayhem. With all these traits combined, Dread Ducky is a very annoying character to play against, and is easily the second best Monster in the game behind Brute. Why I think Brute’s better is detailed in the “How To: Brute” guide, but also because Dread Ducky only has one chance to land Ducky Surprise, whereas Brute can cause havoc with Magma Charge, even if he misses, giving him more versatility. Overall, if you really hate people or you like engaging in combat, but don’t want to use a Power character, I definitely recommend Dread Ducky.