Dark Tuner monsters (ダークチューナーモンスター Dāku Chūnā Monsutā), or Dark Tuners (ダークチューナー Dāku Chūnā) for short, are a monster type that appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
Dark Tuners are used by Dark Signers and their servants to perform a Dark Synchro Summon, where the Summoned monster is a Dark Synchro Monster whose Level must be equal to the result of subtracting the Level of the Dark Tuner from the total Levels of the non-Tuners. That Level can (and, in every known case, does) fall below 0, resulting in a negative Level. Unlike most Tuner monsters of the 5D's era, Dark Tuners generally have high Levels to facilitate achieving those negative values.
No Dark Tuners were released until 2026, more than 17 years after their debut; however, they were playable in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force series from 5D's Tag Force 4 onwards, where they act as a subtype of regular Tuner monsters, as any card effect that affects or involves Tuners also interacts with Dark Tuners normally. In the OCG/TCG, they become proper Tuners, but are given an effect that allows them to Tribute themselves and a face-up non-Tuner with a lower Level to Special Summon any Synchro Monster from the Extra Deck whose Level is equal to the difference between the Tributed monsters'.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's manga, "Wicked Priest Chilam Sabak" and "Super-Harmonized Duality" allowed monsters to be treated as "Minus Tuner monsters" (マイナス・チューナーモンスター Mainasu Chūnā Monsutā), which acted very similarly to Dark Tuners by also Summoning based on the difference between the materials' Levels; however, their user Rex Goodwin actually called those Synchro Summons.
ListEdit
| Name | Japanese name | Primary type | Attribute | Type | Level | ATK | DEF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Tuner Catastrogue | Effect Monster | DARK | Fiend | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dark Tuner Chaos Rogue | Effect Monster | DARK | Fiend | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dark Tuner Dark Ape | Effect Monster | DARK | Beast | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dark Tuner Dark Goddess Witaka | Effect Monster | DARK | Spellcaster | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dark Tuner Doom Submarine | Effect Monster | DARK | Machine | 9 | 0 | 300 | |
| Dark Tuner Nightmare Hand | Effect Monster | DARK | Warrior | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dark Tuner Spider Cocoon | Effect Monster | DARK | Insect | 5 | 0 | 0 |
In other languagesEdit
| Language | Name | Romanized |
|---|---|---|
| French | (monstre) Syntoniseur Sombre | — |
| Italian | (mostro) Tuner Oscuro | — |
| Portuguese | (monstro) Afinador Negro | — |
| Spanish | (monstruo) Afinador Oscuro | — |
| Japanese | ダークチューナー（モンスター） | Dāku Chūnā (Monsutā) |