Hyper Light Drifter Wiki
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“ A common enemy, of average strength and intelligence. ”

Dirks are basic enemies that can be found in all areas of the map. They are around as tall as the Drifter and green with small pointy ears.

Behavior[]

Dirks are capable of making slight dodges to avoid projectiles and make exaggerated attack motions, raising their arms above their head before lunging forward to strike. Occasionally when a group of Dirks is killed and one remains, he will run around avoiding the Drifter and sweating. When a Dirk Gunman is near a group of Dirks, it occasionally points its sword and directs all nearby Dirks to immediately attack the player.

Strategy[]

Dirks are best dealt with in groups of one or two, so try an isolate them from the group. Since they only have 3 HP, dirks can easily be eliminated with a simple three strike Sword combo. This method is is only usable either as soon as you encounter them, or directly after they try to lunge at you.

Using the Upgrade Phantom Strike you can attack them dealing 2 DMG, then turn around and use a normal slash to finish them of. This method can work with groups of them. Simply use Phantom Strike to hit 2 or 3 of them, then turn around, making sure all of them are within range of your sword, then attack.

Be careful however, because if you get surrounded by a group of them them and they begin to hit you, their attacks will interrupt yours and you will quickly get stun-locked and be unable to escape.

Lore[]

In the underground labs of the Wastes to the south, some Dirks can be found inside of a row of test tubes/vats, with the first one instead containing a member of the Blu and each vat showing a Dirk having been formed more and more until fully formed, showing that they are mutated from soldiers of the Blu species.

In Heart Machine's 2025 game, Hyper Light Breaker, which takes place some decades before Drifter in-between the war and cataclysm 100 years ago and the events of Difter, an enemy type called the Melee Wretch appear, which is supposed to be the common Dirks of Drifter. This is evident by two things. In a December 18, 2024 Twitter post on the official Hyper Light Breaker Twitter profile which introduces one of the game's minibosses, the boss is called "the Dirk Elite"<ref name=elite>Twitter post by Heart Machine on the official Hyper Light Breaker profile showing the "Dirk Elite" and it is clearly a stronger and bigger form of the Melee Wretch; furthermore, a June 2, 2022 tumblr post by Heart Machine introducing the green kind of Melee Wretch, showing the concept art by Alx Preston and the in-game 3D model created by John Deriggi, states that "Wretches are a [sic] monstrous mutated soldiers." referencing the origin of the green Dirks shown in Drifter. In Breaker, the Dirks seem to serve a new master that is not Judgement, known as the Abyss King, though it is unknown if Dirks even serve Judgement during the events of Breaker or if they are simply left over from the war for which they were likely made.

Achievements[]

Achievement-dummy

The achievement Dummy is unlocked by tricking a Dirk to jump off a ledge.

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Hyper Light Drifter Enemies
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