The brutally hard and extremely grim phenomenon that is Darkest Dungeon may have finally received its Crimson Court DLC to add another layer of dungeon delving fun, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There are dozens, or maybe even hundreds, more hours to be had in this game through the absurd number of mods available. Due to the game's gestation in Early Access, sadly many of those mods are drastically out of date and no longer function due to a variety of updates and patches over time.
The once-necessary Curio Hints mod for instance isn't working properly anymore (that's alright though, just use our Darkest Dungeon curio guide instead). Losing the sexy time camping skills from the Darkest Desires mod, on the other hand, was a blow we simply may never recover from.
Luckily, new mods have arrived to fill that void -- and here we're rounding up the 11 best mods available at the moment that you need to be trying out for vanilla Darkest Dungeon, Radiant Mode, or the Crimson Court DLC.
Unleashing Of The Kraken
There have been plenty of mods over the last two years or so that add in new classes, but less prevalent have been whole new monsters and bosses. A series of mods from ActionJack aim to rectify that problem, taking up the noble goal of providing new creatures to messily devour your heroes (or drive them mad, of course).
The Kraken mod adds five new common aquatic-themed enemies to the Cove area, along with a brand new tentacled boss. As with most DD bosses, this one will take some strategy and forethought to avoid a total party wipe. Get ready to meet a Captain Jack Sparrow style end!
House Full Of Piggies
The Warrens version of the previously mentioned Kraken mod, this one gives you several new swine opponents to battle, and they absolutely will test your skills.
Your standard battle tactics will likely result in a hasty retreat, as the pig folk punish you for not thinking strategically and learning from your mistakes. I don't know what the human equivalent of bacon is, but the swine are sure about to find out.
More District Buildings
The District Buildings were an excellent addition to the game's base Hamlet, but sadly they are a little underutilized -- especially since you'll be building them so few and far apart due to the high costs and low number of available blueprints.
This mod adds in a whole mess of new buildings revolving around every single class, so you'll have far more constructions projects to try out in between dungeon delves.
Lone Crusade
Most Darkest Dungeon mods make the game easier... but not this one! Forget delving into the abyss with a group of four heroes to assist one another. That's all but a distant memory with the Lone Crusade mod, which has you play through the entire game with no one but the Crusader Reynauld.
Obviously tweaks are made to the enemies and bosses, since there are places where one character can't possibly win normally. But don't think this mod is doing you any favors. The difficulty is ramped up even further than normal -- and if Reynauld dies, you get to start over from the beginning.
No Invitations Required
Oh my sweet tentacled god, this is mod so, so badly needed. Are you tired of grinding away against anything that vaguely looks like a mosquito (while your whole roster of heroes contracts the Curse and dies of blood craving) and somehow still not getting the invitation you need?
To move onto the later quests of the Crimson Court DLC without the obnoxious invitation, just download this nifty little mod that cuts out the middle man (middle mosquito?).
For those who are opposed to the spirit of this particular mod and want to keep the difficulty and grinding cranked up to maximum levels, check out our full guide to finding the Crimson Court invitation.
Super Heroes
While the recently released Radiant Mode was a welcome addition to Darkest Dungeon by cutting down the dozens of hours of grind after you inevitably (and repeatedly) lose a high level group to a total party wipe, it didn't really offer an "easy" mode.
The whole point of this game is the difficulty and setbacks, of that there's no doubt, but there does reach a point somewhere around 30-40 hours in where you've had enough of relentless failure and just want to see the next boss or finally storm that final dungeon.
That's where the Super Heroes mod comes in. See those killer pixelated shade they're wearing? That's because the future is so incredibly bright after modding your heroes to be relentless powerhouses who deal obscene damage. Health loss will no longer be a concern here (although sanity can still cause you to lose all four super powered versions of your heroes, so stay vigilant).
Marco's Inventory Balance Mod
There are a bunch of inventory stacking and tweaking mods out there to ease up on the relentlessly difficult back and forth of being prepared or being out of money. This particular entry is a new Steam Worskhop version of one of the best mods from the game's earlier editions.
Where this one really shines is that it doesn't totally go off the rails, giving you limitless stacks of torches to carry or a free bag of holding that lets you return from a mission with all the gold you can imagine.
Instead, it scales the stack limits better so you can carry enough valuable objects back from a mission to actually be worthwhile at higher levels. It makes the grind a little less relentless, and helps you actually build up enough of a war chest to upgrade your facilities.
Dungeon Background Variations
I'm consistently impressed with how the modding community always steps in to resolve core issues with any given computer game. Darkest Dungeon's aesthetics are absolutely a huge draw... but the unending grind required to reach the end of the game means you will see the same hallway panels over and over and over and over.
For a varied experience that's more pleasing to the eye, this mod changes up some of the backgrounds with different colors and curio placements, adding them in randomly with the normal backgrounds.
Faster Walking
When you've seen the exact same Warren, Cove, Ruins, and Weald backgrounds a couple of thousand times, the monotony can really start to set in and weaken the game experience.
If you want to get to the next room more quickly to complete any given quest, this mod boosts the walking speed so the hallways will fly by. Just don't forget to keep an eye out for those traps!
Epic Loading Screens
I honestly don't know how it took so long for a mod like this to show up. While Darkest Dungeon just oozes a particularly dark and gritty style, the loading screens are a little lackluster.
No more though! This mod adds in epic combat scenes featuring the most common enemies from whatever area you are exploring, offering a little excitement while you wait for the Ancestor to stop yapping away.
Sunlight Warrior Man At Arms Skin
The game already takes its difficulty from Dark Souls, so why not pull some of the art as well? Praise the sun with this new set of skins for the Man-At-Arms class in all its various animations! Despite bringing in a little brightness, this mod actually makes the game a bit darker (or I guess more soulsier?).
What did you think of our mod picks here, and what new Darkest Dungeon mods would you recommend we try out? Let us know with a comment below!
If you want even more ways to tweak the Darkest Dungeon experience, be sure to also check out:
Published: Aug 14, 2017 10:44 PM UTC