The game may be freshly released, but the months of early access availability means there’s already a steady supply of mods available to tweak your experience.
With all of these mods listed below, it’s probably best to start a new game, as any of them have the possibility to break your current save. A few of these (particularly the new classes) were made for early access builds and haven’t been updated yet for the full release – they will work, but have issues.
Keep checking back on them though, as these modders have been giving regular updates and will likely have full release versions working soon.
Before diving into mods to make the game easier, be sure to also check out our guides on how to get through the base game:
Darkest Dungeon beginner’s strategy guide Darkest Dungeon party building guide Darkest Dungeon curios guide Darkest Dungeon hero class guide Darkest Dungeon combat guide
Darkest Dungeon Difficulty Modifying Mods
The difficulty is actually a main selling point of Darkest Dungeon, which is often described as a 2D Souls-like game, precisely for its steep difficulty curve. The game is balanced specifically so that it’s hard, but not unbeatable.
All those diseases, negative quirks, and mental illnesses are there specifically to make you work harder and curse bad luck. If you’ve played for awhile and want a different experience, though, these are the mods for you.
Lighter Dungeon Mod
Download it here
What’s great about this mod is that it doesn’t turn Darkest Dungeon into a cakewalk, but it does make the game less frustrating.
Lighter Dungeon just slightly tweaks elements by small amounts – slightly lowering the cost of the Sanitarium, slightly increasing the chance of positive effects from stress tests, providing a few provisions for free at the start of each quest – but doesn’t so completely change the difficulty that it ruins the point of the game.
With Lighter Dungeon you won’t run out of heroes so quickly
Pitch Black Dungeon Mod
Download it here
The exact opposite of the Lighter Dungeon mod, Pitch Black makes everything even harder for the masochistic among you. There’s more diseases, more enemy types, loads of additional enemy encounters, and corpses get even more in your way than normal!
Even if you aren’t crazy about playing the game at a higher difficulty, this mod is still worth trying out anyway, simply due to all the class balance tweaks and the addition of potions.
Less Grindy Mod
Download it here
Offering exactly what it says in the title, this mod pulls out some of the grind by increasing the amount of gold and heirlooms you get, allowing you to buy extra firewood, and lowering the level requirements before you can upgrade equipment.
The end result is that you won’t always be out of money and constantly having to decide which building you want to upgrade. As a bonus, this mod throws in a couple of extra skins for different classes as well.
Better Trinkets Mod
Download it here
A slight tweak that can have a big effect. This mod removes all negative effects from trinkets, so you’ll be more likely to use them rather than sell them.
Most trinkets have negative modifiers that severely offset their bonuses (who wants an item that makes you easier to hit and lowers your initiative order?). But with this installed you’ll probably end up equipping every trinket you come across, giving a slight but noticeable increase in your party’s abilities.
Holy Healing Water Mod
Download it here
The lack of healing potions is definitely a feature, and not a bug. But if you get overly frustrated at any particular segment of Darkest Dungeon, this minor gameplay changing mod offers a little bit of an edge to you. It simply adds a healing effect to holy water – either 5, 10, or 15 points depending on what you choose – so you have a means of healing outside of combat without having to camp.
Abomination Party Restrictions Mod
Download it here
Hate how the Abomination class can’t join a group featuring the Crusader, Vestal, or Leper? This mod does away with that flavor and balance choice, allowing for a wider range of party combo options.
I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with this guy either
Darkest Dungeon Cosmetic Mods
Red Hook absolutely nailed the color palette and atmosphere of Darkest Dungeon, but there’s always room to change a few things here and there.
Cultist Vestal Mod
Download it here
This simple mod makes the Vestal class appear more like a cultist to keep up the dark Cthulhu mythos theme.
Boba Fett Bounty Hunter Mod
Download it here
Who doesn’t want a little Star Wars in their dark fantasy/cosmic horror game? This one hilariously changes the Bounty Hunter class to look like Boba Fett. Just don’t go near any giant gaping maws with grasping tentacles…
Black Outfits Mod
Download it here
Because the game just isn’t dark enough, right? To match your new cultist-style Vestal, install this mod to make the Plague Doctor, Bounty Hunter, Highwayman, and Crusader classes all have outfits consisting of only shades of black and gray. The all-black lineup actually looks pretty killer if you have all four of those classes together at once.
Our outfits might as well fit the surroundings!
Darkest Dungeon Class Mods
There’s already a diverse and satisfying lineup of heroes for sending forth to certain, grisly death, but a few more options never hurts!
Harlot Class Mod
Download it here
Unfortunately the art for this one really doesn’t match the rest of the game, and that’s distracting, but it does add a unique element worth trying out.
Rather than always avoiding stress, this class makes stress a resource you work with and balance out. The Harlot’s skills can remove stress from the whole party, or cause stress while also healing damage or increasing the light level.
They missed an opportunity with the “preferred position” tag there…
Shield Maiden Mod
Download it here
Adding a new defensive support role, the Shield Maiden class won’t be dealing a ton of damage to any tentacled monstrosities, but she can take a ton of damage before going down and has loads of healing abilities.
Shield Maiden offers more defensive possibilities
These are the Darkest Dungeon mods we think add the most interesting changes to the game. Let us know if you’ve come across any others worth downloading!
