Darkest Dungeon 2 is getting official mod support

Red Hook Studios’ Darkest Dungeon 2 had an early access stint over at the Epic Games Store, only to come out in 1.0 on both the EGS and Steam in May 2023. Now, almost exactly a year after its release, Darkest Dungeon 2 confirms that its modding tools are coming.

As per Red Hook’s recent announcement on Steam, the studio is “happy to announce that PC modding support for Darkest Dungeon 2 is nearing its first deployment.” What this means, in practice, is that Red Hook Studios aims to release Darkest Dungeon 2‘s full modding capabilities incrementally, with subsequent modding tool updates unlocking more and more features for the community to toy around with. The developer explains that this is due to the game’s adoption of a new engine, which meant enabling modding and mod support “quite a bit more complicated” compared to the first Darkest Dungeon.

Mod support is coming to Darkest Dungeon 2 before the end of June

The current plan for Darkest Dungeon 2‘s mod support is, quite simply, to get an initial version of the modding tools out before the end of June. This initial release of the game’s mod kit will include all of the following features:

• editing of exposed .csv files, which alter the gameplay loop’s numerical values
• creation of all-new custom items from scratch (e.g. trinkets, combat items, inn items, stagecoach equipment)
• creation of new Hero color palettes

These community-made tweaks will also be shareable via the Steam Workshop, as was the case with the original Darkest Dungeon. All things considered, this first version of the mod kit is fairly powerful in its own right, which means subsequent updates and releases should be even more intriguing when all is said and done.

“We believe getting access to some modding capabilities sooner is better than waiting for a fully finished modding experience that would take significantly longer to deliver,” says Red Hook Studios’ recent blog post on Steam. “This staged work will allow our team to receive feedback that will help determine direction of future mod support initiatives, while also allowing us to balance the effort to our other key releases coming later this year, specifically consoles and Kingdoms!”

As per Red Hook, the plan is for Darkest Dungeon 2‘s full mod kit to allow mod creators to create entirely custom characters. “It will simply take some time to get there,” explains the blog. This is great news for those who are looking to enjoy Darkest Dungeon 2 for times to come, even if we disregard official releases such as the aforementioned Kingdoms DLC, which will be free for all owners of the base game. Exciting stuff all around, that’s for sure.