If you’ve had your fill of Diablo 4 Season 4 and are waiting patiently for the Vessel of Hatred DLC or the launch of Last Epoch’s second cycle, now is a great time to check in on their dark fantasy rival Grim Dawn. A fantastic apocalyptic ARPG packed with creative character building and choice-driven story quests, it well earns its top-notch 93% Steam rating, which comes from more than 77,000 satisfied players. Now, developer Crate Entertainment has released a massive Grim Dawn update packed with improvements and tweaks.
Touted as Grim Dawn‘s “second longest changelog ever,” the hefty 1.2.1 patch is nothing to sniff at. It sees plenty of big upgrades for one of the best games like Diablo, so it’s a perfect reason to log back in if you’re already a fan, or to dive in for the first time if you’ve never tried it before, ahead of the planned Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn expansion.
If you’re a fan of fighting alongside a companion or two, this Grim Dawn update is a very easy sell, thanks to its “vastly expanded build options” for pet builds. “Some of these changes might seem alarming in a vacuum,” Crate Entertainment warns, “but the net result is a significant boost for pet builds with fewer keybinds required. In summary, pets are going to be attacking slower, but their special attacks are more powerful.” You’ll also find yourself a lot less reliant than before on item sets to make a viable pet build.
Another big change affects Nemesis boss spawns. These especially powerful foes no longer have fixed spawn locations, but instead will show up randomly in close proximity to you when you defeat monsters of their faction, with the effect more pronounced in challenge areas. You’ll still only be able to encounter each Nemesis enemy once per session, as before.
Physical resistance has also been dramatically rebalanced, in an attempt to somewhat narrow the gap between builds that can overload with huge percentage-based physical resistance and those that struggle to get it at all. Now, you’ll find it more often across more restricted gear slots, but in smaller amounts. Enemies, meanwhile, will deal less physical damage in general, which should result in a more consistent experience.
Elsewhere, two-handed melee weapons have been given an overhaul, with new move sets featuring updated and improved animations. Alongside this, two-handed spears have been reclassified to act as spears, meaning their move sets should be more fitting than before. Consumables have been sorted into three categories: Elixirs, Oils, and Tinctures. You can now only have one of each type active at a time, with cooldowns shared across them.
Item tooltips have been tweaked and will now show much less information by default, with detailed descriptions for the likes of components, augments, and skills now only appearing if you hold down the ‘detailed tooltips’ key (Ctrl if you’ve not changed it). There’s also a toggle in the menus to turn on these detailed tooltips by default if you’re someone who prefers to just see absolutely everything at all times and doesn’t mind the clutter.
That’s the majority of the big changes, although it’s far from the full set of details, which you can read courtesy of Crate Entertainment if you’re curious to dive into the numbers. Grim Dawn patch 1.2.1 is out now on Steam.
Looking for more magical worlds to explore? Here are the best fantasy games on PC right now, perfect for just that. Or if character building calls to you, the best RPGs are the ideal place to go.
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