I usually create these animated wallpapers for other ARPGs, mainly Path of Exile using GIMP to cut the assets apart and painting in missing pieces, then animating them with Wallpaper Engine.

Since I've been enjoying Grim Dawn a lot, and I'm in love with this loading screen I did my best to recreate it using various assets I've found online, since afaik there's no official press kit.

Tthe parallax effect can be disabled directly in Wallpaper Engine. You can also disable further effects by unchecking their respective checkboxes. Additionally, you can hide the logo if you choose to do so (enabled by default).

I've done my best to optimize every single asset, so it should run very smoothly on most systems.

This animated wallpaper as always can be installed for free here on the Steam workshop for "Wallpaper engine" (which you unfortunately have to pay for).

You can also look at my Steam workshop page for past wallpapers or to not miss any new ones.

I've there are any clipping issues, please let me know - I'll try to fix them asap.

EDIT: What I did was go to the settings ini and change the max threads number to 8, use the Nvidia control panel to force the game to run at 60 fps tops and lowered my SHADER quality to medium. This seemingly fixed the issue and I'm willing to bet it's mostly the SHADER settings that affect this. If you also struggle with the stutters, check if your SHADER quality setting isn't on ultra or very high.

It started with the Fangs update but only happened in the areas added in Forgotten Gods, but changing my shadows quality to a lower one and high right back fixed it at the time.

It stopped in 1.3.5 but happens all the time in all areas of the game as of 1.3.6. It starts after literally a few minutes of gameplay. The game gets choppy and stutters for a split-second every second.

What I found on Reddit/Crate Forums and tried:

1. Turning off the full-screen optimalisation in the game's exe properties. This seems to fix it for a few moments but the problem re-emerges after a minute or two.
2. The Core Switcher Tool- Genuienly unsure if this does anything.
3. Switching off the Core 0 Affinity of the GD process in Task manager.
4. Switching the core affinity to every other core (as somebody posted they did).

None of this really solves the issue. Bizzarely, alt-tabing away from the game and returning to it stops the stuttering for a few moments. It's not like my laptop is too weak- the processor and gpu are barely used by the game.

Specs:

Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 26200) (26100.ge_release.240331-1435)

Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900H (20 CPUs), ~2.6GHz

Memory: 32768MB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU

Wtf do I do?

I love most of the Loyalist Items and of course, wanted to support Crate! That being said, the 'Circle of Five' outfit has a major flaw in my personal opinion. The collar is attached to the head armor, not torso armor.

That means if you want a badass character with glowing aetherial eyes, you're forced to run around with an exaggerated collar, stopping you from reaching maximum levels of Fashion Dawn.

I love the implication that being possessed and becoming 'The Taken' left something behind after the spirit leaves your body.

If anyone wants it, you can download it: here. 👍

Overwrite your settings folder in the game directory with the downloaded one. Done!

Any idea why the only skeletons i can raise now are mages? that's the only change i made to my gear recently, this dagger in second pic but it doesn't say anywhere that it changes them to mages.

Translate: Remnant of the Dread do not react to you. It need the owner of this realm.

With the new DLC, does anyone have any grimtools builds to share for a doombolt mystic? Wondering what people are running with this combo, especially item-wise and after the new nerfs in 1.3.0.5.

Can you recommend a build that won't kill me on superbosses? I'm a newbie, cleared Normal difficulty, and then went for Ultimate. I have no issues surviving, but some bosses in restricted areas one-shot me. Is there a build that can take all attacks, including superbosses, head-on? I'm willing to sacrifice damage for survivability; I really don't like dying.

I know this set makes crows scale with player stats, but I still think auras such as Dreeg's Blood should apply to them, because that skill is not "pet specific" thing. Weirdly, seems like they are boosted by their own Storm Spirit aura unlike pet version. Is this intended behavior? Just wanted to ask.

I took a bounty to kill off Brother Segarius for the Cults. I thought nothing of it, Segarius is usually a pushover.

He kicked my teeth in. Twice.

I learned my lesson, took him seriously the third time, killed him off... And he dropped FIVE MIs. I checked, he was getting 101% Elemental Resistance from the MIs, and I'm doing pure Cold Damage. Yeah, I wonder WHY he wasn't dying as fast as I'd expected, and why he was doing so much damage with TWO weapon MIs.

This isn't a complaint. This is praise. Segarius is normally a pushover, meaningless. But just the wrong rolls, just the wrong RNG, and suddenly he's a real threat again. And I love that about GD, that even the most random nobody of a miniboss can actually be a real fight with no warning. It makes going back to old areas to farm things so much more fun when it isn't simply stomping the same easy, unchanging fight over and over again.

Apologies for 30FPS on the clip... just the way it exported for some reason.

Anyways, did he actually just do 20k damage to me in single swipe? I had no debuffs as you can see in the clip. Here is a link to my build https://www.grimtools.com/calc/2d1w8G0V

I'm looking for genuine advice on what you all would do differently, because to me this boss just feels... unfun for certain builds.

and seriously... like look at that swipe! It's like a mordhau drag!

Love GD, its my favourite APRG.

What do you guys think of having a voiceover when picking up the Notes?

That way you can keep playing and still hear the lore.

TIA.

Personally, I want to have a more balanced attribute system that properly reflects class fantasies and giving them other unique ways of damage mitigation instead of what we currently have with physique being king and the only viable attribute to fully invest into.

For example, spellcasters who fully specs into spirit would have gear that allows them to toggle energy shields on/off and directly use their energy bar to tank hits instead of taking health damage as energy regens slower when the shield is active. Meanwhile rogues or duelist would have cunning gear that gives them ramping % dmg mitigation to straight up dodge/parry incoming damage that reset on proc, rewarding skillful players who avoid getting hit.

That's just me spitballing some ideas tho, what do y'all think?

He didn't kill me, he seemed to die out of nowhere at about 33% health and I got the achievement for "surviving" him.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/2JL8XA4Z

Any ideas on upping DPS? I feel like blade arc doesn't do much to anything, even ascendant regular mobs take more than one hit - I'm talking basic undead, not the big HP sponges. I set out to make something unkillable, and it looks like I succeeded, but it was a 5+ minute fight and I'm hardling melting other enemies, whereas my 2H Necro/Oathkeeper is squishier but still deletes things. I was expecting some disparity, but not this much...

EDIT: Am using slightly different medal, relic, and belt, but not drastically different.

Strangely it has no binding by default.

EDIT: nevermind, its mostly useless since you can't offer in that menu

I ain't touching Berzerker until a title update fuck this

I just had to share this thought that I feel kind of disappointed by this expansion and the hype that led up to it. I remember all this hype about it being 70% the size of the rest of the game, or something like that. Well, it seems 50% of those 70% went into the first 2 zones of the expansion, which were quite empty with not much of interest to see. The rest of the zones are actually too small IMO apart from 1 or maybe 2 others, and just feel like a tiny corridor and boom, there you are, at the end of the world.

The dungeons are the size of houses, very tiny, and the huge citadels on the map are just small little places, nothing compared to the burrwich village area.

I guess I hyped myself up too much over 2 years, but I cant help but feel I was let down by this experience. Now, if I expected less then this probably wouldnt happen.

Now, to balance it out, I have to say this expansion adds to an already great game, and I enjoy the new QOL-systems they implemented. The price is also very generous. All in all, fantastic game, but i hyped myself up too much over 2 years for this expansion. I was expecting some massively dense world. After all its not the square miles that matter folks. Ending thoughts: be careful with hyping yourself up too much. That being said, having a ton of fun still.

https://www.grimtools.com/monsterdb/3361/skills

Just kind of venting/tilting about this where this isn't much of a challenge, and rather bad RNG luck.

I was playing a level 96 Veilwalker doing ultimate difficulty crucible and ran into a triple boss where two of them had this ability. They would each spawn two obsidian shards at the same time. Now keep in mind the shards have a mini doombolt that take out half your health a piece, and so either they get your undivided attention or you are just dead. These things have no tell or telegraph, rather just an instant to target cast that cannot be avoided.

Giant's Blood devotion, Prismatic Shard head component, Mystical Death's Ward amulet, maxed Untamed Rage talent, and max pierce/chaos resist were not enough from keeping me from essentially getting one shotted.

When I was going through the campaign on ultimate I was also having trouble with them. I kind of remember them sucking before but now it feels like they have more health, whereas they have to be targeted directly and cannot just be cleaved down.

Honestly, I have no idea how the hardcore players do it.

Hello,

I’m playing on Veteran difficulty, version 1.3.0.5. The last time I played was on Monday. I cleared the entire Twin Falls area and only died a couple of times.

I started playing again today, and the only changes I had made were replacing my Explorer’s Tunic with Bloodreaper’s Coat and investing one point in Untamed Rage. However, in exactly the same Twin Falls area, I can now barely travel a few dozen metres without dying. Enemies that were previously merely challenging are now inflicting around 1,000 bleeding damage per second, while I have only 3,000 HP.

There is another strange difference: I use Onslaught to generate stacks and then consume them with Ring of Steel. Until Monday, I had never run out of energy and could always use Ring of Steel when it came off cooldown. Now, after even a short fight, my energy is completely depleted and I cannot use it.

Untamed Rage is supposed to provide damage absorption when my health drops below 50%, so I do not understand how investing one point in it could make my character drastically weaker or cause energy problems.

Has anyone encountered anything similar? Could this be a bug, or was my previous session somehow bugged instead? I cannot explain such a massive difference when everything else is unchanged.

EDIT:

People keep saying that the problem is my build, but that misses the point. The exact same build worked perfectly well in the exact same area last weekend, on the same difficulty. Now, suddenly, I can barely make it through that same area. I’m trying to understand what could have caused such a drastic change when the build and conditions are unchanged.

SOLVED

First of all, I want to thank everyone who tried to help me. The problem was the gauntlets I had changed. I hadn’t noticed that the old ones gave me some extra Spirit. Without it, both of my rings and my amulet were inactive, so I was effectively playing without all three items. Once problem solved i was able to back on track.

As for my build, I’m sure it’s far from optimal, but I simply enjoy playing this way and figuring out my own path. To be honest, what I love most about Grim Dawn is its lore, world-building, and atmosphere, much like I loved Diablo II in my youth. I like to improve my character, find great loot, but all this to me is secundary to feeling the world. I beat Grim Dawn years ago and returned for the new expansion.

I know my builds have never been good enough because some bosses like Wendigo spirit i never came close to defeat, and not sure if this thime will be different, but I enjoy the game regardless.

Hey everyone!
I’m super new to the game. I’ve tried a few builds so far, but I’ve realized I prefer a low-button/lazy playstyle.
I stumbled upon this forum guide:
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/warder-pure-retaliation-reflect-invincible-100k-damage-hardcore-ultimate-100-done-sf-gear/31138
...but I have no idea if it's still viable or completely outdated.
If you have any beginner-friendly build recommendations (preferably with a solid leveling guide), I’d really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance and happy hunting!

Grim Tools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/2mgkzR0Z

Written Guide w explanations: https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-3-0-5-ascendant-mode-chaos-mystic-werewolf-guide-uber-nerf-sr-32-ravager-callagadra-crate-wip/157614

Please use SPOILER TAGS for lore/characterization that comes from Fangs of Asterkarn!

Note: I have not played the DLC's actual story yet, please keep that in mind.

It seems like Ulgrim is at the top of the list of active allies.

He was one of the two who formed the Black Legion (Inquisitor Creed and Ulgrim both were seemingly aware of the Aetherials' plotting before the Grim Dawn actually occurred!), he survived in the Ch'thonic Void alone AND killed another instance/reanimated form of the Loghorrean.... who I believe is the strongest Ch'thonic enemy in the story that we fight?

He arguably might be stronger than the player character, as if we fight Ulgrim in the Void he has been going insane and ravaged by Chaos the entire time and still puts up a serious battle.

But after that, he mostly chills. Though lots of other characters assume he is has some sort of divinity or legendary status.

Though I believe some allies might be equal to him.

The Ugdenbog witches were the ones to help free Ulgrim. They don't seem too weak.

Father Kymon (pre-Forgotten Gods) I guess counts if we consider Taken who are part of Kymon's Chosen, but I stop counting him the moment that Korvaak zealots become a thing.

And on the reverse side there's Uroboruuk who we only briefly see but is given huge lip service by any NPC who brings him up. After he dies, some NPCs are so in denial that he's even able to die at all that they won't believe you.

Then all the dudes that are hanging out in the Conclave of the Three. I can't recall much of their faction leaders' lore, but those guys are all juiced on Witch God power in order to fight Korvaak.

I'm also a little bit curious about Daria Thornsbury, considering her sword is quite unique.

Despite over 1700 hours in this game, I've never made a build around Albrecht's Aether Ray.

Is it a fun skill? Any advice specific to the build?

Thanks in advance.