We are now nearing the middle of 2025, and many of you are no doubt eager for an update on where in development Grim Dawn’s third expansion is and when you can be expected to play it. We do not want anybody holding their breath for months (that is not a lot of air), only to be let down by speculation, so here is where things are today!
Announced too soon?
Before we get into the update, we want to clear some air first, as no doubt some (understandable) frustrations have been getting aired of late.
It is a fact that we announced Fangs of Asterkarn very early in its development. This was unlike our past reveals where the expansion was already deep into production and ready to enter alpha or even beta. There are definitely detractors in the community that will say we made the announcement too soon, but we stand by our decision.
Up until the announcement, Grim Dawn was firmly in maintenance mode and (up until then), we adamantly denied that we wanted to make a third expansion. Nobody had any reason to think anything major was coming to Grim Dawn outside of a sequel announcement some years into the future.
So rather than let the community slowly go into long hibernation, we fired up the engines of industry and resumed major updates for the game alongside the big expansion reveal. This was not a decision made lightly. We were moving people around, hiring new faces, and diverting our resources to make these updates and the expansion happen. We wanted you to know that you should be expecting major things for Grim Dawn posthaste. Posthaste has of course turned out to be a matter of perspective, but I digress!
The media is not exactly jumping at the opportunity to cover major announcements from Crate, so making our intentions known through our channels is how we keep in touch with our fans. If the steady stream of development updates is irritating to you, or even spoilerish, we understand, but that is our perspective on this and why I have been writing Grim Misadventures from my first day at Crate, back in the stone age.
Just how big is it?
For starters, let us take a look at this chart from Forgotten Gods as a frame of reference…
To put things in perspective, by our current estimations, Fangs of Asterkarn will cover approximately 3.55sq. km, which makes it roughly 110% as big as Ashes of Malmouth. Kurnhold, the de-facto capital of the Kurn and the new quest hub, spans 4 zones, compared to the 1.5 that the Covenant of the Three took up in Forgotten Gods.
In all that world, there are, as of this writing, currently 47 main/side quests, and that number will likely continue to grow as we flesh out the content.
Scattered across Asterkarn are 54 new bosses, including 8 new Nemesis encounters. Mechanically, these bosses will feature some of the most advanced skill tech the game has had yet as we continue to push this aging engine to its absolute limits. If you have been keeping up with our updates, then you are already aware of the first superboss, the Dread, but another awaits you…somewhere.
From these bosses, and their minions, you will be looting over 380 new Unique items and 120 Monster Infrequents. This is not including Awakened Epic items, which is a list we are still working on and expect to grow post release, or Ascended common drops in Ascendant mode, which have 33 unique tertiary affixes found nowhere else in the game.
All this is not even including the two roguelike dungeons we have planned post-release, which will expand the world and add another two rounds of new bosses and unique loot drops.
We could keep listing off statistics, but we hope the point is clear: Fangs of Asterkarn is Grim Dawn’s largest expansion, filled with the most unique assets, animations, and new creatures than we have ever done before.
But, all this content is not ready for release yet. We are not obsessively polishing and dragging out the release date, we are still deep in implementation. When the final boss is still in t-pose while new creatures are being animated, it is fair to say that Fangs of Asterkarn is not ready to release.
When?!
When we said we were aiming for a 2024, we were admittedly a little too ambitious. This is the first time in the company’s history where we are concurrently developing 4 different projects, and we overestimated our own capabilities. As it turns out, time is finite and key developers cannot in fact be everywhere at once. So we have been much more cautious about giving you more exact time frames since then. Which brings us to our current 2025 estimate…
As of now, a late Fall/Winter 2025 release is within the realm of possibility, but as the team is still very much in “but what if we also did…” exploration mode, which predictably blows up schedules, we are reluctant to make firm promises. So I would not be surprised if we slip to Spring 2026, or even early Summer if we need more time to polish.
As I said, this is a huge expansion, and creating that much content takes time. We want to make sure we deliver the same attention to detail and creativity that has driven us for the past 2 expansions. The team is trying new things and pushing the limits of the engine. Without a publisher to set firm milestones, we have the means to take our time and get it right.
We hope the wait will be worth it, but we understand if some of you might need to step away and come back when we have a firm release date. We will still be here, busily working on new content for you, when you get back!
