Multi-Area AF-Assist Illuminator, built in to select Speedlights, can be used with all focus-areas of cameras compatible with the Nikon Creative Lighting System to give you autofocus shooting capability in extremely dim lighting.
If light in a scene is so low that the camera's AF system cannot "see" the subject, and thus cannot focus on it, turning on the Speedlight's AF Assist Illuminator will project a patterned beam of light on the subject; the AF system can then achieve autofocus by focusing on that pattern.