Whether Diablo 4, Path of Exile 2, Last Epoch, or another ARPG is your current favorite, there’s no question that we’ve been spoiled for choice of late when it comes to smashing through hordes of angry monsters in search of legendary loot drops. We’re even seeing some classic favorites return; Titan Quest 2 is set for launch in 2025, and 2016’s mighty Grim Dawn is preparing to make a major comeback with new expansion Fangs of Asterkarn. In a fresh check-in, developer Crate Entertainment reveals just how big the next Grim Dawn DLC will be, and it’s pretty astonishing.
If you’ve never played Grim Dawn, its upcoming expansion is a fantastic excuse to change that. More than nine years after it first arrived, the ARPG boasts a 93%-positive Steam review score from over 84,000 user ratings, and still holds a worthy spot among our pick of the best games like Diablo in 2025. Its apocalyptic, dark-fantasy world tells a tale of humanity on the verge of extinction, with quests that offer important player choices, and ample buildcrafting through a dual-class system that lets you combine its six distinctive base roles (nine including DLC additions) into a vast range of possibilities.
First announced back in August 2023, Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn is the third expansion, and takes us up into the eponymous mountains of Asterkarn in a nordic-inspired adventure. It introduces the tenth mastery, the Berserker, bringing the total number of class combinations to a whopping 45, and will offer an extra Ascendant game mode designed to provide a worthy challenge to Grim Dawn’s most ardent and skilled faithful.
In its latest developer update, Crate Entertainment starts by addressing “some understandable frustrations” among the community about how early in development it revealed the DLC. “We stand by our decision,” it writes, “Up until the announcement, Grim Dawn was firmly in maintenance mode and (up until then), we adamantly denied that we wanted to make a third expansion.”
To ensure players didn’t gradually drift away in the meantime, it “fired up the engines of industry and resumed major updates alongside the big expansion reveal.” Since then, Crate has delivered on that promise with multiple big patches as it works on Fangs of Asterkarn. “We wanted you to know that you should be expecting major things for Grim Dawn posthaste,” it explains, although admits that “posthaste has of course turned out to be a matter of perspective.”
The big news today is a look at just how large the next DLC is compared to the base game and its two previous expansions, Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods. Clocking in at a total world size of around 3.55 square kilometers, Fangs of Asterkarn is roughly half as big as vanilla Grim Dawn, and about 10% larger than Ashes of Malmouth. Its main quest hub, Kurnhold (the de-facto capital of the local Kurn tribes) spans four zones, a far cry beyond the one and a half covered by Forgotten Gods’ Covenant of the Three.
“In all that world there are, as of this writing, currently 47 main and side quests, and that number will likely continue to grow as we flesh out the content,” Crate continues. “Scattered across Asterkarn are 54 new bosses, including eight new Nemesis encounters. From these bosses, and their minions, you will be looting over 380 new Unique items and 120 Monster Infrequents.” Compare this to the chart below and you’ll see that we’re looking at something at least half as busy as base Grim Dawn, if not even more densely packed.
“This does not include Awakened Epic items, which is a list we are still working on and expect to grow post release, or Ascended common drops in Ascendant mode, which have 33 unique tertiary affixes found nowhere else in the game,” Crate adds. On top of that, the studio is planning two extra roguelike dungeons that will arrive some time after launch, “which will expand the world and add another two rounds of new bosses and unique loot drops.”
“We could keep listing off statistics, but we hope the point is clear,” Crate says, “Fangs of Asterkarn is Grim Dawn’s largest expansion, filled with the most unique assets, animations, and new creatures that we have ever done.” Unfortunately, that means it won’t be ready for a while longer. “When we said we were aiming for 2024, we were admittedly a little too ambitious,” the developer admits. “This is the first time in our company’s history where we are concurrently developing four different projects, and we overestimated our own capabilities.
“As of now a late fall or winter 2025 release is within the realm of possibility,” it remarks, “but as the team is still very much in ‘But what if we also did…’ exploration mode, which predictably blows up schedules, we are reluctant to make firm promises. I would not be surprised if we slip to spring 2026, or even early summer if we need more time to polish. This is a huge expansion, and creating that much content takes time.
“We want to make sure we deliver the same attention to detail and creativity that has driven us for the past two expansions. Without a publisher to set firm milestones, we have the means to take our time and get it right,” Crate concludes. “We hope the wait will be worth it, but we understand if some of you might need to step away and come back when we have a firm release date. We will still be here, busily working on new content for you, when you get back.”
Don’t expect to find yourself playing Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn until at least late 2025, if not 2026, then. I’m content, however; it certainly sounds as though the wait will be well worth it.
If you need something to keep you busy in the meantime, take a look through our picks of the best RPGs on PC right now, or maybe give one of the best fantasy games a try.
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