For those who haven’t followed this game’s development, Grim Dawn may look like just another Diablo clone in a sea of repetitive mediocrity. But for those in the know, it’s one of those beautiful Kickstarter success stories that renews hope in gaming, and in humanity.
Released as an Early Access title back in 2013, then as a full game in 2016, Grim Dawn takes the classic Diablo-like ARPG formula and injects it with its own Victorian-era style with unique lore.
Developer Crate Entertainment took pointers from both fans and the greats in the genre, such as Path of Exile and Titan Quest, to realize their vision of the perfect ARPG.
Whether they succeeded or not is up for debate. But the game certainly has its own charm, and there’s a lot of fun to be had within its dark universe… especially if you pump it full of mods.
For those looking to freshen up the Grim Dawn experience before you delve back into Cairn, have a look at my picks for the coolest mods below.
When scouring the Internet for immersion mods for games, you’ll find hundreds of options to make everything smaller and less “obstructive”.
The HUD, locations on your map, quest markers, and of course, your cursor.
This QoL-enhancing mod by creator Dreadmoth does the opposite.
It takes your cursors in Grim Dawn from a diminutive 32×32 size to a glorious 64×64, effectively doubling its size.
Not only can this keep you from straining your eyes in long play sessions, but it’s also a bit of a must when playing at the highest resolutions possible.
While many people enjoy grindy games because they enjoy putting in the effort, others just don’t have the time.
I mean, I love seeing those levels go up. But I can’t spend four hours trying to get some decent equips every couple levels.
With Faster Loot by user Mugwumpshasnoliver, the game is made friendlier for time-strained gamers by increasing the drop rate for Epic and Legendary equipment.
Being four times as likely to get Legendaries virtually guarantees you’ll get a couple every time you sit down to play. So you’ll get to experience more of the game, even if you don’t have that much free time.
It’s always time to celebrate when a PC game has competent gamepad support.
It seems easy enough to achieve on consoles, so why not go the extra mile and just give people what they want?
Well, Crate Entertainment did! It took them a while, but the game is now fully playable with a gamepad with almost no hiccups. Except it doesn’t really differentiate between DualShock, Xbox, or generic controllers, showing the same prompts on screen for all gamepads.
As you probably figured out, this mod by NexusMods user Dreadmoth replaces all prompts for DualShock-friendly ones that keep the same artistic style as the vanilla icons.
Another excellent option for gamers who’d rather have a smoother – and faster – experience playing Grim Dawn.
The mod Better Levels by KalAeon just makes progression faster.
You’ll get over double the experience from killing monsters, which you’ll need if you want to reach the new level cap of 250.
Not only that, but with each level you’ll get three attribute points to distribute among your stats, giving you even more control over your character’s build.
Devotion cap is also increased to 200 too. Plus level requirement for equipment have been abolished, and the overall experience has been streamlined.
Now this next entry was also made with streamlining the Grim Dawn experience in mind. But it has a broader scope than Better Levels – enough to give it a higher spot on the list.
Made by modder Stedman420, Not So Grim introduces a bunch of QoL-improving features that also make the game a little easier.
Items are now picked up automatically, and you’ll get access to larger stashes to store them. Vendors now have more extensive selections of items as well, to the point where everything in the game can be bought somewhere.
Hell, you can even raise your levels or buy new difficulties at vendors now. Nifty!
If instead of such a big change to the game’s leveling system, you’d rather just speed things up a little bit, consider Grim Dawn Speedrun by Nonmisai.
This big collection of tweaks can considerably increase your running speed. And it doubles the speed of your pets so they can keep up with you on your murderous spree.
It also increases Devotion’s cap to 166 to make hunting down every shrine worth it.
And did I mention you’ll get ten times as many faction points from killing enemies? This makes dealing with factions far less time-consuming.
Despite its name clearly stating “Classes”, this mod goes far beyond adding Necromancer or Demon Hunter as Masteries to Grim Dawn.
Created by Grimerino, this massive mod ports dozens of amazing equipment sets from Diablo III, such as the Aegis of Valor and Trag’Oul’s Avatar… all-in-all totaling over 300 new items.
There’s also new bosses from the Diablo franchise here, plus new cosmetics and two-handed weapons for the Crusader mastery.
We’ve already covered a couple mods that make the Grim Dawn experience a lot less grim in terms of leveling and equipment-hunting.
But none is as widely-recognized as Smash-N-Grab by Moordhuis.
It removes the grind from Grim Dawn almost entirely by modifying each avenue of progression other than the actual campaign.
You’ll level faster, Epic and Legendary equipment is a dime a dozen, and you’ll get all five bag slots early on. This way you don’t have to go back to town so often.
If you want to turn your game into a thinly-veiled power fantasy, this is a must.
I love mods that endeavor to completely overhaul gaming experiences.
One of the best in Grim Dawn’s roster is Apocalypse, made by creator 3ijou. It adds five entirely new masteries, along with tweaks the game’s leveling and skill systems for a better experience.
It also adds new equipment to loot and craft so there’s a lot to dive into here.
Apocalypse is still a bit of a work in progress. And more content will be added from time to time.
If you’re looking for something just like this but more complete, try out Cataclysm It happens to be this mod’s previous iteration, also made by 3ijou.
Most overhaul mods for Grim Dawn seek to port content from other similar games, but Grim Dawn Reborn focuses on making the base game the best it can be.
Creator Ddem1 came up with new ways for each of the available classes to be played. Mostly by expanding build options, making skills look cooler, and introducing some new ones for each mastery.
The overhaul also touches itemization, and more importantly, monsters.
With it, every time you down an enemy, there’s a chance of a powered-up “Remnant” version of them may spawn.
Defeat it and you can get an item that lets you keep the beasts as pets. It’s a lot of fun, seriously.
In contrast with many other games in the genre(such as Diablo III) Grim Dawn is pretty slow-paced.
This mod by Kanjineo tweaks a couple of things like player speed cap, cooldown times, and mob density to make the game a more intense experience. Similar to Path of Exile.
It also adds some PoE skills that go well with the adjusted pacing.
Item Assistant by Slippery Pete is one of those mods that should just be a base feature of the vanilla game.
I mean, it does give you unlimited storing space. Which you could argue against from a “difficulty” perspective. But it also lets you sort items based on damage type, defensive stats, or whatever else you want.
Why didn’t vanilla Grim Dawn just feature that from the start? This is basic stuff, people!
Sure, you could install Cataclysm, Diablo 3 Classes, or Grim Quest to get more masteries… but what if you could get them all in one mod?
Dawn of Masteries by Gdstash is more of a compilation than an original mod.
It features the best masteries from the most popular and well-made mods in the Grim Dawn modding scene, along with some minor cosmetic additions. Then it serves all this to you on a silver platter.
The variety you’ll find in this mod is simply insane.
If you felt restricted by the game’s base masteries, this will change your mind.
As if we didn’t have enough soulslike games coming out every month, this mod by creator Holcomb completely changes the combat and skill system to work just like Dark Souls.
Of course, the camera will now follow your character from an over-the-shoulder perspective, which is nice.
You’ll also experience roguelike penalties like losing all of your experience points upon death. Which will happen a lot.
I know the game is called Grim Dawn, but does it really have to look so dark and murky at all times?
Creator ThreshProductions had the same question. So they developed this wonderful ReShade preset that saturates colors, sharpens textures, and enhances the overall look of the game with appealing visual FX and a vivid palette.
If there’s a single mod everyone should try, it’s this one. Gameplay is unscathed too.
One of the first and most popular mods for Grim Dawn, Grim Legion, shines for its clear mission statement: to make the game more challenging without changing its essence.
That said, it does make the game a bit more fast-paced and action-packed by increasing mob density. As well as tweaking boss spawning and even adding some more superbosses.
You’ll notice these changes as an increased amount of stronger enemies start showing up. And they don’t act like cannon fodder.
Masteries have also been reworked for a more engaging experience, the level cap raised, and all Devotion Shrines are active in every difficulty.
Just keep in mind that they’re all Corrupted spawners now, so come prepared.
Now if you’re anything like me, extra stuff doesn’t mean a whole lot if there isn’t more content to explore.
But now thanks to modder VanHouck, there is!
Presented as an expansion to the base game, this stand-alone campaign mod features over seven hours of new gameplay.
In it you’ll explore the entirely new region of Nydiamar, filled to the brim with new lore, quests to undertake, and enemies to massacre.
It even has its own custom-made soundtrack!
Increased experience and drop rates make building a new character in this expansion much faster too, so you can quickly go toe-to-toe against the most challenging bosses in the campaign and experience everything Nydiamar offers.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
