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

The two tracks: friendly and hostile

Every faction is either one you earn Reputation with - or one that racks up Infamy against you.

• ▸Friendly factions accrue Reputation from quests, bounties, and kills of monsters hostile to them, tracked per character and per faction.
• ▸Ranks run Friendly (from 1,501), Respected (5,001), Honored (10,001), Revered (25,000), each unlocking the next tier (1-4) of the faction shop.
• ▸Hostile factions accrue Infamy. The downside is minor, and at 20,000 Infamy that faction's Nemesis starts spawning (see the legendary farming article).
• ▸Both tracks are visible in the faction window on the J key.
• ▸Higher difficulties grant more reputation, and the Writ/Mandate boosters accelerate it - the farming procedure lives in the reputation farming article.

The roster: base game, AoM, FG

Which expansion adds which faction - your map of who sells what.

• ▸Base-game permanents: Devil's Crossing, the Rovers, Homestead, and the Black Legion.
• ▸Base-game choices: Act 3 picks between Kymon's Chosen and the Order of Death's Vigil (mutually exclusive), and Act 4 decides whether the Outcast becomes friend or foe.
• ▸AoM (Acts 5-6): Barrowholm (friend-or-foe choice), the Malmouth Resistance, and the Coven of Ugdenbog.
• ▸FG (Act 7): the Cults of Bysmiel, Dreeg, and Solael - all three stay friendly; you simply pick that difficulty's main cult, and nothing turns hostile.
• ▸Principal hostile factions: Aetherials, Chthonians, Cronley's Gang, the Arkovian Undead, and Beasts - with the Aetherial Vanguard added by AoM and the Eldritch Horrors by FG.
• ▸FoA (Asterkarn): centred on the Kurn, whose settlement Kurnhold anchors the region. The official guide frames FoA as parleying with the Kurn tribes and helping them rekindle old alliances. Their faction vendor carries a belt blueprint. A second faction, the Noktukari, handles the Runed Orb used to awaken equipment plus some relic blueprints. The Noktukari are reached only through a hidden area, so a normal playthrough can miss them entirely.
• ▸Caveat: as of 2026-08-01 the official guide's Factions page still says 'eleven Factions' and has not been updated for FoA. Of the above, only the existence of the Kurn and of Kurnhold is documented officially (the FoA overview and Ascendant Mode pages). The Noktukari's role, unlock path, Runed Orb and relic blueprint - and the claim that the Kurn vendor carries a belt blueprint - all rest on a single community build guide. Augment listings for the FoA factions are likewise missing, because the Japanese wiki's comparison tables are still on the v1.2 line - the same limitation is disclosed in our resistance reverse-lookup article.

What the choice factions actually change

• ▸Only Kymon's Chosen vs the Order of Death's Vigil is truly exclusive: the chosen side befriends you, the rejected side automatically turns hostile, and the available Nemesis changes with it.
• ▸The Outcast and Barrowholm are friend-or-foe choices that never affect your standing with anyone else.
• ▸Factions whose hostility depends on a story choice can have the relationship and accrued value reset by choosing differently on another difficulty (permanently hostile factions' Infamy never decreases).
• ▸FG's three cults never turn on you regardless of the pick - you can even choose a different cult per difficulty and grow all three in parallel.
• ▸How much the exclusive choice's reward differences (gear, augments, blueprints) matter depends on your build - check your build page's gear section when torn.

What you are actually unlocking

• ▸Augments top the list: the classic build-finishing tool for the last few resistance percent, unlocked at Honored/Revered plus a per-augment level requirement (mechanics in the components-and-augments article).
• ▸Blueprints: some component and item recipes are faction-shop exclusives - buy once, learn, and every character in the same mode (Softcore or Hardcore) benefits; the other mode needs its own copy.
• ▸Faction gear and consumables: practical leveling equipment and race-slayer consumables line the shelves.
• ▸Boosters: the Writ at Honored, the Mandate at Revered - the Mandate in particular transforms alt leveling (see the reputation farming article).
• ▸Priorities depend on the build, but the default rule stands: raise the faction that sells the resistance augments you are missing.

1. Grim Dawn Japanese Wiki: Factions — Confirms the two tracks and the J-key faction window, rank thresholds with shop-tier unlocks, the faction roster (base/AoM/FG), the Act 3 exclusive choice (rejected side turning hostile), the Outcast/Barrowholm friend-or-foe choices leaving others unaffected, FG's three never-hostile cults, and the hostile-faction roster.
2. Grim Dawn Japanese Wiki: Glossary (Nemesis) — Confirms Nemesis spawns unlocking at 20,000 Infamy.
3. Official Grim Dawn Guide: Fangs of Asterkarn — Confirms that FoA centres on parleying with the Kurn tribes and rekindling their old alliances, and that it requires the base game plus AoM and FG.
4. Official Grim Dawn Guide: Ascendant Mode — Confirms that the Kurn settlement of Kurnhold houses the Ascension Altar and the Runekeeper who handles equipment ascension.
5. Crate Forum (community post): Beginner build guide Cold Caster Evoker (GIJW, thread 156827) — A community build guide - primary in the sense of first-hand play, but not official. It is the basis for the Noktukari being FoA's second faction, reachable only via a hidden area, handling the Runed Orb for awakening equipment and the Permafrost relic blueprint, and for the Kurn vendor carrying a belt blueprint. Because the official Factions page has not been updated for FoA, the article states explicitly that this portion rests on a lower tier of sourcing. Note also that the thread titles itself '1.3.0.3'; the official patch line ends at v1.3.0.2 as verified here, and we do not adopt that version string.
6. Official Crate Forum: Grim Dawn Version V1.3.0.0 + Hotfixes — Official patch notes for the verified version; the latest as of 2026-08-01 is V1.3.0.2 Hotfix 2.