Darkest Dungeon might just be one of the most difficult games to get into.
The magic of Darkest Dungeon is similar to Souls games, where the intense difficulty and inevitable learning through repetition might turn you off at first. But nothing really beats the satisfaction of taking a win.
Well at some point you’ll probably turn your head towards modding.
There’s actually a lot out there, so here are some mods you might want to check out to keep you glued to the screen.
Another great mod that beginner players might want to check out would be Galex’s Gold Mod.
Even without taken grindy-ness into consideration, the game is already pretty difficult.
Now having to go through all the trouble to go on raids and get back out alive, just to find that you barely got any gold out of it… just isn’t worth it for some players.
The Gold Mod solves that, allowing you to increase gold drops from dungeon runs by 2x, 10x, or even 100x.
Going on dungeon runs takes its toll on your heroes.
And you’re going to have to give them some time off to recover before sending them out again.
That also means you’re going to have backup heroes to keep you busy while your main guys are resting up, and having more options is always welcome.
The game’s default max roster count is set at 28. But it’s important to keep in mind that permadeath is also a thing in Darkest Dungeon – and you’ll be losing heroes left and right, especially while you’re still learning the ropes.
Having the ability to keep more heroes at the ready is a huge deal. And the Roster Size Increase mod allows you to do exactly that – increasing the roster cap to 50.
Another mechanic that makes the game more challenging is how trinkets work.
Anything good will have a tradeoff in Darkest Dungeons. And while trinkets usually have enticing buffs that could prove useful in your next run, there’s usually an accompanying debuff to balance it out.
Another way you could make your first playthrough a bit easier would be to get rid of those completely, and for that you’re going to need the Better Trinkets mod.
It essentially removes all negative buffs from trinkets, so you get nothing but the good stuff.
Now that everything’s moving along nicely, you might find things getting just a bit tedious.
Well Darkest Dungeon is a dungeon crawler, so things are bound to get repetitive.
With the Faster Walking mod, you’ll be able to avoid having to literally crawl your way through those dungeons.
The mod doesn’t really do anything to alter the game’s difficulty level. But it increases both your party’s forward and reverse movement speed, to make getting around just a bit quicker.
It becomes evident pretty quickly that Darkest Dungeon is all about the grind.
You’re going to be doing reruns of dungeons hunting for drops or leveling your heroes, and once you reach that point, you’re going to want to get things moving much quicker.
The “Faster Walking” mod does help with that. But pairing it with Faster Combat is especially effective.
This mod simply speeds up combat animations to make things move along, well… faster.
Throughout your dungeon crawling, you’re going to come across curios every now and again.
For those who aren’t familiar, curios are items of interest that can be found around the map. And interacting with them could have either a positive or negative effect.
Considering that Darkest Dungeon is all about rolling the dice, and it often feels as though the dice aren’t usually in your favour… this can get pretty tricky.
This mod simply alters the curio animations to show whether or not interacting with a curio will give a positive result, as well as what items you’ll need to use on it.
Inventory management is usually an important part of any RPG, and Darkest Dungeon is no different.
The game makes inventory management a bit more complicated, making it doubly important to ensure you have enough slots to pick items up.
Well this mod simply tweaks stack values in your inventory, making it so that a stack of any sellable item will be more valuable than one full stack of gold.
This should make deciding what to keep and what to ditch much easier.
Other than both being notorious for their level of difficulty, there aren’t really any other similarities between Darkest Dungeon and Soulsborne games.
Cool video game crossovers are always interesting though. And modding has made it possible with Darkest Dungeon.
This brings Dark Souls’ Dragonslayer to the game in the form of a skin for Hellion, completely replacing his textures and combat animations.
Modder Willydamn has pitched in as well, this time bringing Bloodborne to the world of Darkest Dungeon.
His mod reskins the Highwayman with that of the Hunter from Bloodborne, having him wield a gun in one hand and a blade in the other, just like the original.
Both skins completely match Dark Dungeon’s art style as well, so they fit right into the game.
One modder took it a step further here, creating a completely new class for Dark Souls’ Abysswalker.
The mod lets you add the Abysswalker to your roster, and he’ll have his own unique set of skills and traits to differentiate him from the vanilla classes.
He comes in two forms: Pure and Corrupted, each making different skillsets available in combat.
Another major feature of the class is that every 25 points of stress you gain above 100, increases his damage. Which should make for some interesting strategic decisions.
Don’t underestimate a good change of scenery. It could have a huge impact on how tedious things might feel.
The game’s repetitive nature might make the grind seem tougher than it actually is, and switching things up is a great way to remedy that.
There are only a number of different dungeons you go through across a playthrough. And while things many things within the dungeons are randomized, the visuals don’t really seem to change much.
This next mod adds 3 new backgrounds to all vanilla dungeons, which is great for adding some variety to the environments you see so often in the game.
If we’re being honest, the crushing difficulty of these games isn’t really for everyone.
There’s really nothing wrong with that, as some gamers just want to enjoy a game for the story or gameplay, without the pain of having to die and lose all progress.
Much of the game’s unpredictability can be attributed to RNG. And True Heroes is the best way to avoid leaving things to luck.
This mod switches the game’s focus towards rewarding tactics and strategy, rather than relying on dice rolls.
This is accomplished through a variety of tweaks to rebalance everything from hero stats, improved healing skills, and stat increases between levels.
For the more advanced Darkest Dungeon players, exploring new classes is always a fun way to keep the game interesting.
Especially for a brand new playthrough.
There are tons to choose from, but maintaining a balanced roster is especially important if you want to build a successful team.
You’re definitely going to need a healer at one point or another. And the Cataphract Class Mod works great for that. Try it out and see what you think!
Of course, support heroes aren’t usually the first class gamers gravitate towards when trying out something new.
If you’re looking for a beefier option, S-Purple’s Slayer Class Mod works great as a frontline tanker.
The Slayer is a shotgun-wielding knight class, which makes him a great offensive hero. So if you’re looking for someone to take care of your damage output, go ahead and give the Slayer a try.
Both the Slayer and Cataphract class mods were created by modder S-Purple, who has become well known in the Darkest Dungeon community. So I recommend checking out his other class mods as well.
The Librarian is another interesting option if you’re looking for a new class with an odd curveball.
Instead of your typical brawler/knight class, the Librarian mainly uses knowledge to contribute towards the team’s success.
Her skills include the ability to pinpoint enemy weak points to help the team take them out more efficiently, as well as one to instantly reduce a party member’s stress level.
Up next we have another class for yet another playstyle with Exaelus’ Revenant Class Mod.
As explained by the modder himself, the Revenant was heavily inspired by games like Dragon Age, Warcraft, and Darkness.
Primarily a tank class, the Revenant has a few additional skills that will come in useful on your runs. Like his life steal skill Siphon Life and his high chances to inflict bleed.
Despite the game being a dungeon crawler, not all the fun has to happen down in the depths of dungeons.
You’re most likely going to be spending just as much time in the Hamlet making preparations for your next runs, going through your inventory and upgrades to make sure your team is 100% prepared.
Expanded Town Events aims to keep your time in the Hamlet even more interesting by adding a lot more town events.
The mod adds a total of 23 new events to the game, 12 of which are positive town events, 2 neutral, and 9 negative.
The Scarlet Ruins is absolutely worth looking into.
The mod actually aims to extend the game’s base content by adding in new questlines to play through, as well as 3 new bosses to take down.
The modder did his best to keep everything as close to vanilla as possible. So nothing should feel out of place, and even added in some new quirks to make things even more interesting.
Cool new items are always a nice addition. And aside from the 75 already included in the Trinket Overhaul Project, the Rare Bloodsucker Ring Trinket can be worth a try.
The ring can be found as loot during runs and when equipped will give the wearer a +25% Damage buff against Bloodsuckers.
The tradeoff is that you get a -8 Dodge debuff along with it.
What’s great about this one specifically is that many fans of the game have mentioned that it fits right in, and feels like it was intended to be part of the original.
Modders have gotten much more creative with their class mods, bringing in completely unrelated characters from other video games.
This one makes an iconic JRPG protagonist a completely playable class, adding in Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy 7.
What’s even better is that her move set reflects the same skills she has in her original game, adding more of a nostalgia bonus to having her on your roster.
If for whatever reason you find that the game has become too easy, you can probably categorize yourself in “hardcore Darkest Dungeon” territory.
Well if you’re looking for a challenge, Pitch Black Dungeon is your best bet.
The mod overhauls the game by adding in tons of new content like new enemies, additional lore, new items, dungeons, and plenty of new quests, among other things.
This should keep you busy for at least a few days (or months).
