Systems & Mechanics

How to Expand Your Inventory (Bags)

On top of the base 8x12 inventory, quest rewards add up to five extra bags (8x8 each). A single Normal playthrough yields four; the fifth comes from re-clearing any one of the three repeatable bag quests on Elite (Clearing the Way is the earliest). Bags cannot be purchased. Skipping difficulties with an FG Merit auto-grants the lower difficulties' bags.

How to Expand Your Stash

There are two stashes - the Personal Stash and the Transfer Stash used to pass items between characters - and each starts with a single tab. Locked tabs are bought with iron, but what you can expand depends on DLC: the base game only lets you expand the Transfer Stash, AoM unlocks Personal Stash expansion, and FG adds further tabs to both. Stash data is kept completely separate between Softcore and Hardcore - and blueprints, once learned, apply to all characters within the same mode (they never cross modes).

Blacksmiths: Angrim vs Duncan

The Act 1 quest Tale of Two Blacksmiths unlocks exactly one of Angrim or Duncan. The real difference is the pool of random crafting bonuses: Angrim leans defensive (pierce resistance, armor), Duncan leans caster (energy regeneration, Defensive Ability). Learned blueprints can be crafted at either, though each smith carries some innate recipes of his own. The choice is per difficulty - you can pick the other on the next one.

Resistances Explained: Preparing for Elite and Ultimate

The default cap is 80%. Elite applies -25% to the top row of resistances; Ultimate applies -50% total to the top row and -25% to the bottom row. Prepare gear that restores the displayed values to 80% before moving up.

Components and Augments

Components are gear-enhancement parts obtained from drops and crafting - since v1.1.6.0 the partial-component system is gone entirely, so they always arrive complete (some are crafted from blueprints bought at faction shops). Augments are extra enchants attached to gear: the weapon/accessory/armor kinds are sold by faction reputation vendors with Honored/Revered standing and a level threshold (roughly the 40-90 band), while FG's medal augments (runes) follow a separate system with options from level 1. One component plus one augment can share the same item, and Relics accept neither. Removal is handled by the Inventor - but component recovery keeps either the item or the component, never both.

Devotion Basics and Refunding

Devotion is a growth system separate from your masteries. Restore or cleanse Devotion Shrines across the world for devotion points (capped at 50 in the base game, 55 with Ashes of Malmouth), spend them on stars to build up the five Affinity colors, and unlock higher constellations. Celestial Powers (procs) only trigger once bound to one of your skills or pets. Refunds happen one point at a time at the Spirit Guide (fee plus an Aether Crystal) - but the game blocks any refund that would drop your affinity below what another maintained constellation requires.

Respec Rules: Skills, Mastery Bar, Attributes, and Devotion

Skills and Devotion points can be refunded at a Spirit Guide from the base game onward. Sahdina in Devil's Crossing becomes permanently unavailable once Act 5 begins with Ashes of Malmouth (AoM) installed - Novi at Coven's Refuge takes over afterward. Attributes need a Tonic of Reshaping (AoM-exclusive) and a full Devotion reset needs a Tonic of Clarity (available in the base game) - both are separate consumables, craftable at a Celestial Smith (special smiths encountered from Elite difficulty onward). Mastery bar points cannot be reduced in the base game, but with AoM installed they can be unlearned down to 1 point (your two mastery choices themselves can never be changed).

Attribute Points: Physique / Cunning / Spirit

Attribute points come from leveling and grant +8 to the chosen attribute each. Physique raises health and Defensive Ability (DA), Cunning raises Offensive Ability (OA) and physical/pierce/bleed damage, and Spirit raises energy and magical damage. The standard play: spend into Cunning/Spirit only to meet gear requirements, and everything else into Physique. The base game offers no respec - AoM's Tonic of Reshaping is the only full reset.

Difficulties and Merits (Difficulty Skip)

Three difficulties - Normal, Elite, Ultimate - plus a Veteran toggle that hardens Normal. Since v1.2.0.0, defeating Loghorrean, the Voice of Ch'thon (the Act 4 final boss) on Normal/Veteran unlocks both Elite AND Ultimate for that character - you no longer have to clear Elite first. With Forgotten Gods (FG - which itself requires the base game and Ashes of Malmouth) installed, a character who has reached the FG area on a higher difficulty can buy a Champion's Merit or Savior's Merit and pass it through the shared stash to a new character, unlocking that difficulty from the start - along with the lower difficulties' quest point rewards, riftgates, and all inventory bags.

OA and DA Explained

Offensive Ability (OA) and Defensive Ability (DA) are the paired stats behind hitting and critting. The attacker's OA versus the defender's DA produces a Probability To Hit (PTH): at 90 PTH and above critical hits start occurring (multiplier up to x1.5), below 70 PTH attacks graze for reduced damage. Low DA means enemies crit you constantly - a classic cause of sudden deaths. As an endgame guideline the Japanese Wiki cites roughly 2800-3000 DA (AoM onward, highest difficulty); you need far less during the campaign.

Monster Infrequents (MIs)

A Monster Infrequent (MI) is gear dropped only by a specific monster (or a specific family of monsters). Its base stats are fixed - only the prefix and suffix roll randomly. Many carry mastery-skill bonuses (+n to skills), making them irreplaceable by legendaries for some builds. Target farming - identifying the dropper and hunting it repeatedly - is a core endgame loop, and since v1.2.0.0 every boss drops its own MIs (excluding legendary-tier MIs) at 100%, so the hunt is about which affixes roll, not whether the item drops.

Normal or Veteran: Your First Difficulty Choice

Veteran is not a separate difficulty - it's a toggle that hardens Normal: tougher, more resistant enemies with more champion/hero spawns, in exchange for more loot and +10% XP. Quest progress is fully shared with Normal, and you can flip the toggle anytime from the title screen's character selection. ARPG veterans can start on Veteran; first-timers should start Normal - and since the death penalty is mild and the toggle is free, 'try it and switch if it doesn't fit' is a perfectly sound plan.

Endgame at a Glance: SR / Crucible / Nemesis

Endgame splits into five tracks: Shattered Realm (SR, part of Forgotten Gods/FG) - the layered-dungeon workhorse for gear and XP; the Crucible (separate DLC) - a wave arena; Nemesis hunting (base game) - powerful Nemesis enemies spawned at 20,000 infamy; Monster Totems (FG) - the clear-as-you-travel option; and rogue-like dungeons (3 base + 2 expansion) - Skeleton Key challenges. They differ in required DLC and entry conditions, so choose by what you own and how finished your build is.

Armor and Armor Absorption: Locational Hits and Physical Damage Mitigation

Armor mitigates Physical damage only - Pierce damage ignores armor entirely. Each physical hit randomly selects one body location (head 15%, shoulders 15%, torso 26%, arms 12%, legs 20%, feet 12%) and only that piece's armor value counts (the belt is never hit directly; its armor is distributed to the other locations). Armor Absorption defaults to 70%: damage up to your armor value is cut by 70% (30% always gets through), and anything above your armor value passes through untouched. Skip upgrading even one slot and that slot becomes your weak point.

Damage Conversion Explained: How to Read Conversion Lines on Builds

Damage Conversion reassigns a percentage of an attack's flat damage to another damage type. Processing runs once through three steps - skill-side (local) conversion, then gear-side (global) conversion, then armor piercing - and damage converted once is never converted again. Identical conversions within the same step add up, capped at 100%. The single most important practical rule: converted damage scales with the destination type's % bonuses. A conversion build therefore stacks % damage of the destination type, not the original one.

Resistance Reduction (RR): The Three Categories and How They Stack

Resistance Reduction (RR) lowers enemy resistances so your damage lands - the backbone of endgame damage. It splits into three categories with different stacking rules. Category A ('n Reduced target's Resistances for m seconds' - flat, with a duration) and Category C ('n% Reduced target's Resistances for m seconds' - percentage, with a duration) only count the single highest value per damage type, no matter how many you have. Only Category B (the '-n% Resistance' lines built into debuff skills, shown without a duration) adds up across different skills. So values within A or C never add together - combine A, B, and C, and grow the total through B. Enemy resistances go negative, and negative values increase your damage.

Damage over Time (DoT) Stacking: Understanding the Same-Source Rule

Damage over Time (DoT) deals a listed total over a duration, like '90 Bleeding damage over 3 seconds'. One rule governs everything: DoTs from different sources all stack without limit, but DoTs deemed the same source never stack their damage - only the instance with the highest damage per second ticks (the weaker ones are not removed and take over when the stronger expires). Re-casting the same skill counts as the same source, so spamming maintains a DoT but never multiplies it. To grow DoT damage, strengthen each instance, extend its duration, or add genuinely different sources.

Retaliation Damage and RatA: The Basics of Hit-Me-Back Builds

Retaliation is automatic counter-damage that triggers 100% of the time when you take a melee hit. Flat retaliation values are the base, and only '+n% ... Retaliation damage' grows them - normal +n% damage and +% All Damage do nothing. Its weakness: it only triggers against melee attacks. Forgotten Gods (FG) added the fix - Retaliation Added to Attack (RatA), which puts 'n% of Retaliation damage added to attack' on specific skills so you can deliver your retaliation offensively. Modern retaliation builds revolve around RatA, making them effectively FG-dependent.

The Two Pet Families: Which Summons 'Bonus to All Pets' Actually Helps

Grim Dawn's summons split into two families. Pet-bonus pets (the full pets whose icons line the top-left of the screen, like the Occultist's Raven or Hellhound) scale primarily with [Bonus to All Pets] modifiers, and your own +% damage never transfers (the one exception: area buffs that add flat damage to weapon attacks also feed pets standing in range). Player-scaled pets (Living Shadow, Blade Spirit, Wind Devil, and the like) do the opposite: they grow with your own damage bonuses and conversions. Before picking gear or devotions, always confirm which family your build's summons belong to. The one thing both share: your character level raises every summon's base stats.

Relics and Blueprints: The Gear Slot You Can Only Craft

A Relic is a special item worn in its own slot at the bottom-left of the character screen, and crafting at the blacksmith is the only way to get one (the sole exception: three relics from the Act 2 side quest 'The Lost Elder'). In the Japanese wiki's tiering they run from level 18/25 standard relics through level 35 transcendent ones to level 60/90 mythical ones (the upper level-90 band is exclusive to the AoM/FG expansions), and everything above the standard tier consumes lower-tier relics as materials. On completion each relic rolls one random completion bonus from its table - you cannot see it until the craft finishes. Blueprints are learned instantly by right-click, and learned recipes are shared by all your characters across difficulties (but not between Softcore and Hardcore, whose saves are separate).

Set Item Transmutation: Turning Duplicate Set Pieces into What You Need

Set item transmutation is an Inventor service added with Forgotten Gods (FG), unlocked at every campaign Inventor for that character and difficulty once you complete the Act 7 side quest 'The Tome of Eanatum' (quest progress is per character and difficulty; the Crucible's Inventor alone offers it regardless of quest progress when FG is installed). It comes in two modes: same-set conversion re-forges a duplicate into a random different piece of the same set, while cross-set conversion re-forges it into a random item from another set of comparable level. It costs iron plus rare materials, the outcome cannot be chosen, and sets with restricted acquisition are excluded. It is the standard tool for chasing the last missing piece of a set.

The Faction System at a Glance: Which Faction Gives You What

Factions run on two tracks - friendly (Reputation) and hostile (Infamy) - both visible anytime in the faction window (J key). Friendly reputation climbs Friendly, Respected, Honored, Revered, unlocking better vendor stock at each rank; the augments that finish a build cluster at Honored/Revered. The roster: four permanent base-game factions plus two choice slots, three more in AoM, and FG's three cults. The only mutually exclusive choice is Act 3's Kymon's Chosen versus Order of Death's Vigil - the side you reject turns hostile. Efficient reputation farming and augment mechanics each have their own dedicated article.

Illusions: Changing Gear Appearance with the Illusionist

Illusions change only the appearance of your gear to that of another item, handled by the Illusionist added to every hub when Ashes of Malmouth (AoM) is installed. Stats are never affected. The cost is iron per slot, scaling only with character level - never with how many times you have changed. The selectable looks are 'any item your account has ever obtained', including things you picked up and dropped or bought and refunded moments later. Head, shoulders, and medal can also be hidden outright. To undo, reselect the original appearance or use an Illusion-Be-Gone.