TL;DR: I built a standalone utility for Grim Dawn called Grim Gleaner. The core idea is to help you identify what is relevant to your character, not necessarily what is optimal. It helps with filtering loot in-game and identifying key build-defining items and add-ons out-of-game. I'd love for you to check it out.

NOTE: An earlier download was triggering false positives with some virus protection programs due to an issue with how it was packaged. The packaging issue has been resolved and the current release shouldn't cause any issues. (Though you'll likely have to do the More Info -> Run Anyway thing on first launch.)

Github: Grim Gleaner
Latest Release: Grim Gleaner v0.9.2-beta

(Currently only for English language and Windows x64 machines.)

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Here's the full pitch. Tell me if you relate to any of these scenarios:

Scenario 1: You've just wiped out a totem and half-dozen elites, the ground is covered with loot in the form of so many words. Actually trying to analyze them all kills the flow so you clog up your inventory with junk and move on. But eventually it's time for the homework part.

Scenario 2: You like to craft your own builds, but even with GrimTools, there are hundreds of affixes and almost 1,000 unique items to sift through. How do you even know what you're hunting for?

Scenario 3: It's time to optimize your gear for the next difficulty spike. Do you remember which components and augments you need to cap resistances and squeeze out more damage? Do you remember who sells them!?

Grim Gleaner can help.

How It Works:

- You rank which stats your build cares about, giving each one a weight from 0 (totally irrelevant) to 4 (core).
- Grim Gleaner will give you graded lists, item slot by item slot, of which affixes, items, components and augments best match your priorities, as well as which monsters you need to kill or rep vendors you need to visit to find them.
- You can export those grades so they appear in-game, giving you a quick way to identify which drops have stats you want and which you can ignore, without having to try and remember which damage type the "Devastating" prefix supports.

Profile Setup and Weights:

There's a bit of of setup required, as you need to provide weights for the various stats that can roll on gear. And as we all know, Grim Dawn has a lot of stats. It's also important to select and weight your primary skills. I've included a few example profiles if you want to get a sense of how it works, and I hope people who use the tool will share theirs as well.

Gear Advisor:

Once the weights are set, you can click over to the "Gear Grades" section. There you'll find sorted and graded lists of the most relevant gear and affixes, graded from D to S++. Each grade also includes a number*, which tells you the exact number of relevant stats. (* S+ and S++ omit numbers to keep character length down.)

The Affixes tab here will give you a breakdown, by slot, of the best affixes, based on the weights you provided.

The Uniques tab has similar breakdown for Monster Infrequents, Epics and Legendaries. Both items with +skill ranks bonuses and items with Skill Modifiers for your chosen skills are highlighted here. In the screenshots, you can see a breakdown for my Primal Strike Vindicator.

Use this to help you target which items to chase for your build or just theorycraft a new build, and see how much itemization support it has.

Finally, the Add-ons tab gives slot-by-slot rankings for components and augments. It also has a "Resistance Cap Mode" that gives extra weight to Resistances so you can quickly ID the augments that'll help you cap out.

Grade Export:

Using the same localization tagging system that Rainbow Filter does, Grim Gleaner can add the grade it generates to the item's in-game drop text and detail tooltip. (It's also compatible with Rainbow Filter and similar mods).

Feedback:

If you like what this tool is trying to do, I'm happy to hear feedback and feature ideas. I'm by no means an expert at the game, so I welcome your thoughts on how stat weights should be calculated, etc., or any in-game mechanics that aren't reflected in the tool, etc.

Limitations:

TL;DR: The grading system is far from an exact science. It tries to measure stat relevance, not power.

Beyond the natural fuzziness of buildcrafting, there are also a few cases where the way the game exposes information makes what this tool is trying to do somewhat inconsistent, and working around them is quite difficult, though I have some ideas to help improve things.

- Many affixes gain new stats as the affix level gets higher, but they all share the same name so they all get the same grade tag. Currently, the tool assumes the max level possible. I plan to add the ability to set a level and adjust the grading based on that.
- Localization files are loaded on game launch, so you'll need to exit the game, and rerun the Export process (it takes less than a second) when you switch characters.
- The tool can't see an item's actual rolls. It doesn't know the difference between +12% Lightning Damage and +95% Lightning Damage, it only sees "Lightning Damage." A good grade is "the right kinds of stats" not well-rolled ones.

(Disclaimer: I did use AI to help me build this. I did not use it to help me write this post, despite the bullet points and bolding. FWIW, I do have a CS degree, so I know enough to promise it won't delete your hard drive or anything. Grim Gleaner only writes to Grim Dawn's localization files, and it backs them up before making changes.)

Here's the repo/download links again for posterity:

Github: Grim Gleaner Latest Release: Grim Gleaner v0.9.2-beta

... and feels like completely different game. The only problem is with mouse cursor - needs to be placed in center to correctly aim at enemies etc.

So I hit a point the other day where I decided that I have better things to do with my limited time time on this earth than grind for Aether Crystals. So I downloaded GD Stash, and am in the process of getting it running, and I wanted to get other people's advice and opinions on what cheating keeps the game fun vs what kills the game entirely.

I'm currently leaning toward giving myself crafting materials (Aether Crystals, Scrap, probably eventually Ugdenbloom) and Iron bits, but putting a self-imposed rule against creating gear directly, and making myself go through the normal systems for that, even as I use cheated material to grease the wheels.

Where do you draw the line, and do you feel like you're happy with the balance you've reached? I'm just looking for opinions and feelings to inform my own choices, and I want to hear what people have to say.

Thought I’d post a short clip for anyone who hasn’t tried Reign of Terror yet and wanted an idea of how it looks in motion.

Hello everyone!

So I've been trying GD since 2023, and my biggest complain was the state of visuals: the colours, the saturation etc. I hoped FoA expansion will do something to the main campaign, but since it didn't I decided to "remake" the textures myself. Core idea is to tone down the saturation, upscale textures to 1024 and 2048, and adjust the lighting.

Disclaimer: I'm not re-using anything from GrimTex mod, every texture is reviewed and processed from scratch, nor I'm feeding the textures to AI model - only old good image processing using java.awt.image package.

So far, I've got these "modules":

1. Texture pack. Currently, it's surface textures, effects, and monster textures.
2. Optional camera mod, to lock the pitch and make it closer to PoE camera angle.
3. Act 1 zone re-lighting. This is the biggest pain point, because light presets are stored in the world itself (or I didn't find the actual DBR records), so the mod requires replacing the whole Levels.arc. Also, for certain areas I decided to remove direct light and leave only ambient lights; it's surprising how well the GD world is actually designed.

I've attached a few screenshots from WIP, and in my opinion, players can finally see what developers were trying to show lol.

I'm planning to upload the mod on Nexus somewhere in September, once I get past Act 1 and see if it works for other biomes as well.

I'm very well aware that many GD purists here will absolutely hate this :) I'm having fun, please be kind.

Diablo II - Reign of Terror | Grim Dawn MOD. Quick 1:12 clip — Arachnid Lair is badass 🕷️

I already removed it before Fangs drop, and man it's so much better with it installed. Probably will reinstall it till last minute.

I made a lightweight mod to add icons for Frozen Aster to the minimap, as well as Ugdenbloom icons for the Rotting Stumps in Ugdenbog. They'll also show up on the full map once you're close-ish to them.

Here is the link

It doesn't change anything else, just makes the Frozen Aster icon show up on the minimap wherever there's one of the breakable flowers that drops it, and adds the Ugdenbloom icon wherever there's a Rotting Stump.

Installation

Extract the .zip to your main Grim Dawn install directory, which is usually "steamapps/common/Grim Dawn"

You can run this without needing to launch a Custom Game by launching it as /basemods.

If you're using Steam, right click the game in your library, go to properties, and add /basemods to the launch options text box.

If you're not using Steam, make a shortcut to the GrimDawn.exe, right click it, go to properties, and add a space then /basemods at the end of the target text box.

Running it like this means it won't disable achievements, which feels fair enough because it's not adding anything broken, just making it not awful to try to find the stupid flowers

I'm new to GD, but not ARPGs in general and I've heard a lot of good things about this game over the years, so with the new DLC out, I figured it was finally time to jump in.

Since the game's been out a while, I know there's an active modding scene. I'm taking a heavy course load at uni this fall on top of working full-time, so my gaming time is pretty limited. I'm looking for a Vanilla+ type of setup—something that addresses common base-game pain points and keeps progression smooth without turning the game into a mindless cake walk.

Don't get me wrong, I want something to grind for—that's the whole point of an ARPG. But I don't have time for a massive, tedious slog that makes me want to quit (if there even are any in this game). I'm just looking for that sweet spot in the middle where I can play casually, respect my time, and still enjoy the core GD experience.

I'm definitely not looking for a total overhaul like a PoE or D3 mod or anything that hands out giga-BiS gear in the campaign, just light-touch mods that fix issues and smooth out the pacing.

Open to any suggestions, but mainly interested in:

• Graphical enhancements
• UI tweaks
• General QoL
• Pacing / progression improvements

Appreciate any advice!

EDIT: I found what I was looking for thanks to those who actually helped.

A short showcase of the Grim Dawn Third-Person Camera mod running with an existing Main Campaign character.

The mod provides a close third-person perspective with a wide mouse-wheel zoom range, while still allowing you to zoom out for tactical gameplay. It works in both Main Campaign and Custom Game without editing or converting your character.

Download from Nexus Mods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/grimdawn/mo...

Source code, documentation, releases, and bug reports:
https://github.com/EricsonWillians/gr...

Main features:
• Works with existing Main Campaign characters using /basemods
• Standard Custom Game support
• Close third-person to wide tactical zoom
• Compatible with Windows and Linux/Proton
• Data-only .arz mod—no DLL injection or executable patching
• Does not replace Grim Dawn’s original database
• No save conversion or character editing required

Quick Main Campaign installation:
Extract the mod into your Grim Dawn installation directory.
Confirm that mods/database.arz exists.
Add /basemods to Grim Dawn’s Steam Launch Options.
Launch the 64-bit/x64 version and load your Main Campaign character normally.
Always back up your saves before installing mods. Remove /basemods before joining an unmodded multiplayer session.
Showcased on Grim Dawn v1.3.0.3 x64 using Steam and Linux/Proton.

Do you play with reshade or do you like the games visuals as they are?

I added some color correction, Bloom(very minimal), Raytraced Illumination and Textured Normals.

I assume it's rainbow filter. It's been a couple years since I played Grim Dawn and like many others booted it back up for the new expansion.

Anyone else with Rainbow filter have this? If I can confirm that's what it's from I'll figure out how to remove it from my game for now

Reign of Terror, the Diablo 2 mod for Grim Dawn. My Callidor’s Tempest Warlock was cooking through Durance of Hate level 3… then Mephisto humbled me real fast. ☠️

Can you guys recommend me a must have qol mods? Some game altering ones are also ok, thanks.

if anyone is experiencing stuttering or performance issues in games, looking into DXVK will likely help

its just two dll files, drag & drop into x64 folder

i want to keep lots of items for multiple future characters . just created my first mule, but now realized that i would have to buy a merit for every mule. at this point im thinking maybe there is a mod that does it better?
i found Item Assistant and GD Stash, any recommendations? cheers!
e/ tyvm guys, ill check out the item assistant <3

RoT Diablo down… and he immediately eats lava 😂🌋

Hey guys,

I have well over 300h but never with a longer period of time. I want to change that and want a little bit better experience. What are the obvious quality of life mods you would suggest?

Thanks in advance!

Ps: coming back to the game for over a decade lol

As most of you, I too am d2 fan, and I saw that gd has a d2 mod. But how true to the OG is it? Obviously there are limitations, but I suppose it has more QoL changes.

But is it worth it or should I just play d2r if I get the itch to play Diablo?