Grim Dawn's third major expansion, Fangs of Asterkarn, is set to launch on July 23 for Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. The DLC expands the world of Cairn with a brand-new region, introduces the long-awaited Berserker mastery, and delivers a broad range of gameplay additions designed to refresh both character progression and the endgame experience.
The expansion's biggest addition is Asterkarn, a vast new region west of Cairn that opens the next chapter of the game's story. Players will journey through snow-covered mountain ranges, frozen caverns, ancient forest valleys, and geothermal hot springs while investigating the corruption spreading across the once-idyllic landscape. Along the way, they'll forge alliances with the Kurn tribes, uncover the bloody legacy driving their renewed conflict, and encounter three new factions tied to the expansion's narrative.
Beyond expanding the world, Fangs of Asterkarn introduces one of the most significant gameplay updates in Grim Dawn's history. The DLC adds the Berserker as the game's tenth mastery, allowing players to shapeshift into ferocious beast forms while combining savage melee combat with frost-infused abilities inspired by the beast god Mogdrogen. Its arrival increases the total number of mastery combinations to 45, creating even more opportunities for new character builds.
Endgame progression also receives a substantial overhaul through Ascendant Mode, a new modifier layered on top of Ultimate difficulty. Designed to make the campaign a rewarding endgame activity, the mode introduces tougher enemies, Ascended item drops, enhanced treasure rewards, monster totems, and additional high-level encounters for veteran players.
The expansion further expands character progression with several new systems. Players can customize potions to provide different restorative or combat-oriented effects, while Affix Transmutation makes it possible to reroll rare and magic item affixes in pursuit of optimized gear. Hundreds of new Monster Infrequents, Epic items, and Legendary items have also been added, alongside an Epic Item Awakening system that unlocks more powerful versions of selected Epic equipment.
Additional content includes expanded Shattered Realm regions, 30 new Crucible waves for owners of the Crucible DLC, new superbosses and Nemesis bosses, five new Hero monster archetypes that appear throughout Cairn, and two roguelike dungeons planned as free post-launch updates for expansion owners.
Fangs of Asterkarn requires the base game as well as the Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods expansions and will be available for Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store beginning July 23.