Lightweight Mod for Speeding Up the Leveling Process

Latest update: 26th Nov 2023

A lightweight mod that is intended to speed up the leveling a bit.

I wanted to keep this mod very simple, so it does not change anything within the base game, but only adds a few new things on top of it.


List of Features —

  • Sam, the dog
    • Joining a game session adds a new default skill that lets you summon him
    • He can grant you a buff — Blessing of Doggo
      • Lasts for the entire session or until death
      • Applies to pets
      • Every 20 Character Levels the blessing loses some of its power
      • It grants the following bonuses
        • 20%/20%/10%/5%/0% more Damage
        • 20%/15%/12%/10%/5% more Run Speed
        • 50%/45%/30%/15%/15% more Experience Points
  • Beutekugeln
    • These are Loot Spheres that work similar to Hero/Boss Spheres, with the difference that you can hold them inside your inventory
    • They can drop from everything and everywhere
    • You can pop them wherever you are
    • You can pop them as stacks
    • There are overall 13 different ones
      • Common
      • Components Common
      • Uncommon
      • Components Uncommon
      • Valuable
      • Components Valuable
      • Random (1 to 60 Item(s))
      • Monster Infrequents
      • Magical (High chance of containing multiple Blueprints)
      • Legendary
      • Divine (High chance of containing additional Beutekugeln)
      • Special Materials
      • Iron Bits
  • Tomes of Knowledge
    • Increases the Experience Points you gain for a certain time
    • Very low chance to replace a Component drop
    • There are 3 different ones
      • 25% more Experience Points for 30 minutes
      • 75% more Experience Points for 20 minutes
      • 200% more Experience Points for 10 minutes
  • Iron Potions
    • Grants either 15 000 or 50 000 Iron Bits
    • Very low chance to replace a Component drop
  • Cosmetic Pets
    • You are granted one free cosmetic pet per difficulty to accompany you

Drop Chances are not easy to calculate, but to get an idea, here are my rough estimations:

  • 4% chance to replace an Equipment drop with a Beutekugel
  • 14% chance to replace an Epic Unique drop with a Beutekugel
    • 2,3% chance to replace it with a guaranteed valuable Beutekugel instead
  • 12% chance to replace a Legendary Unique drop with a guaranteed valuable Beutekugel
  • 3% chance to replace a Component with a Beutekugel
  • 2% chance to replace a Component with either an Experience Scroll or an Iron Potion

More valuable Beutekugeln are weighted more than less valuable ones the higher your Character Level is. Higher difficulties increase the amount of loot a Beutekugel can hold.


These changes are completely optional and only appear in the second version — Non Lightweight. There are already many great mods that do similar things and are probably more tested, but I wanted to offer these changes nonetheless.

List of Intrusive Features —

It is recommended to start playing this version (with a new or existing character) on Ultimate, as most of these features, such as the Mystic River and the God Events, are only available there!

  • Personal Hideout
    • All relevant services in one place, including all faction merchants and blacksmiths
    • Read the Update Notes to learn more about it
  • 3 new large Rogue-Like Dungeons
    • Mystic River
      • Scales endlessly until you are overwhelmed
      • Read the Update Notes to learn more about it
    • Abandoned Farm House
      • Fight through a spacious mansion, including a scaled up room inspired by the Counter-Strike map Rats
      • Read the Update Notes to learn more about it
    • Nightmare
      • A dream that feel quite real
      • Read the Update Notes to learn more about it
  • 4 new small Rogue-Like Dungeons
    • Dunnart Swamp, a swamp and a tower defense mini-game
    • Noitalacse Island, an arena with non-stop escalating enemies
    • Yeci Island, a vastly different crucible with random events
    • Where the Time Goes, where you have to survive for six minutes
    • Read the Update Notes to learn more about it
  • Crate
    • Crate …
  • Blessings & Corruption
    • Start playing on Ultimate right away and use powerful Blessings to compensate your shortcomings
    • Using Blessings corrupts you over time
  • God Events & Favor of the Gods
    • These are either good or bad random events that can happen anytime and everywhere
      • There are overall 4 good events and 5 bad events that can occur, such as loot explosions or enemies appearing around you
    • These events are influenced through Favor of the Gods (determines chance) and your current Corruption Level (scales the event)
  • Faction Tokens
    • You sometimes drop tokens that can be used to gain a certain amount of Faction Reputation
  • Soul Vessels & Binding Stones
    • You can acquire the soul of each Nemesis through opening Soul Vessels
    • Binding the soul to a Binding Stone and then destroying it summons the attached Nemesis to your aid
  • Increased Max Level & Pahr Gon Levels
    • The Maximum Level you can reach is increased to 125
      • Character Levels 101 to 125 do not grant any additional Skill Points
      • Enemies scale with you
    • The Devotion Cap is increased to 68
    • Note: Patch is included in the download that increases the Maximum Level to 200 and the Devotion Cap to 75
    • For each level above 100 you are now granted one Pahr Gon Level
      • Can be exchanged for either
        • 1 Skill Point
        • 2 Attribute Points
        • 1 Beutekugel (Divine)
  • Increased Enemy Level Scaling
    • Enemies scale with averagePlayerLevel/15 in addition to the formula of the base game
      • For example, with Character Level
        • 20, enemies get +1 level
        • 100, enemies get +6 levels
        • 150, enemies get +10 levels
  • Attribute & Skill Potions
    • Grants either an Attribute or a Skill Point
    • Extremely low chance to replace a Component drop
  • Recycling
    • Lets you recycle all items the moment they drop
  • Honck the Shady Merchant
    • Sells several items such as Mandates or Potion of Clarity

This is not intended to be a balanced experience.


Released Updates

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Final Update (Part 1)

Patch 1

Patch 2

Patch 3

Patch 4

Final Update (Part 2)

Final Update (Part 3)

Final Update (Part 4)

Patch 5


DOWNLOAD SECTION


[Custom Game | Both Versions Included]


Extract the downloaded archive and put the ‘mods’ folder into your Grim Dawn installation directory. Delete the version inside the ‘mods’ folder you don’t want afterwards, for exampleFaster Leveling (L)’.

Translation Files.zip (141.2 KB)Up-to-date


If you don’t want to fully start over by playing Custom Game, consider doing what is explained in this comment. Note: You have to download and use the Custom Game version listed above, not the one below.


Grim UI is already included inside the download — I strongly recommend to use it. The X-Mod Strategist version is pre-installed for the Faster Leveling (N) version.

Affixes for Uniques mod is included in the download. Must be installed as instructed in the linked post. The one included has a low chance (20% to 30%) for affixes to appear on uniques and also includes normal affixes. Don’t use with Dawn of Masteries.


Compatibility for Dawn of Masteries.

Patch can be found here


Alternative Website to Download

NEXUS


I recommend you to start playing on Ultimate right away should you use the Faster Leveling (N) version.

The expansions Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods are required, as well as the Crucible DLC.

Multiplayer does not work.

19 Likes

Got two of the white spheres but how do I pop them? Cant seem to figure it out. right click, ctl + left & right, alt right & left, shift left & right all no good.

You destroy them, literally.

Can the Sam the dog item not be used outside of “town”? I used a 75%xp boost scroll and then rifted to burwitch outskirts but forgot to summon sam, and when I tried summoning him in burwitch outskirts it did not work and the item disappeared, so I had to exit and enter the game again. Wasted that 75% xp scroll :frowning:

You should be able to summon him everywhere, try it once for yourself next time you log in by teleporting somewhere and then using it.

Did you maybe try to put the item into your stash before? This summons him once, but does not remove the item, and next time you use it in the current game session, it won’t work. There can only be one dog. I will fix this eventually!

If you are playing Custom Game, you could use the console to give you the scroll back, if want so. Command is game.give “records\__mod\scrolls\experience_scroll_m.dbr”.

1 Like

Oh I’m dumb, I must not have seen him inside the portal lmao. Yea tried it again and it works.

1 Like

Made an oathkeeper to check out after reading comment on nexus. Hes right it doesnt work when you choose this class its all blank skills with little red xs.

Gonna release an update soon that improves quite a few things, and also adds a new mechanic. I will fix this then, although I don’t even know how this bug is possible, did not change much …

Thanks for letting me know!

EDIT: Already found the reason. Fixed with the next update.

Hey, great mod!

I was wondering if you could maybe release a version without Sam, the dog?

Also, is there any way to make the loot changes apply to crucible too?

Thank you.

Sure, do you want him replaced with a normal NPC, or want him completely gone? You need some NPC to receive the buff and to take the Pahr Gon Levels, so these would be removed.

Should be possible for me to do.

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I want the buff completely gone, so no need to replace the dog with an NPC.

All I want are the loot related non-intrusive features (Beutekugeln, experience scrolls and iron potions). I would also greatly appreciate if the loot related features were present in the Crucible.

Also, I understand if it is too demanding to do. Thank you anyway :slight_smile:

Why don’t you just not use the dog ?

2 Likes

Here you go, Dog Away Version (Patch 1). I only needed to change one line of code, so no trouble at all, although you could have indeed just ignored the dog, since he does nothing besides granting the buff?

EDIT: Fixed the uploaded version. Download (fixed) patch 1, replace the files.

Patch 1

Changes

  • Fixed Beutekugeln not always popping
  • Sam, the dog, now appears near instead of under the player
  • Sam, the dog, now won’t appear when the Stone of Doggo is put into the stash
  • Added the Crucible to the Non Custom Game version

This patch is only for the Lightweight Version! The Non Lightweight Version will get another update soon with some more features.

Enjoy.


Follow the instructions from the Opening Post!

Ok made a char to try out. Oathkeeper still fubered. necro ok. Dog appears next to you like you say but I actually didnt get a dog. I got the little green pointer and could interact with dog but no visual.

Looking forward to other version looking forward to going beyond 100.

1 Like

Oh shit, completely forgot about that! Actually such a simple fix … Thanks for reminding me!

I see, this did not happen to me since I overwrote the base files, so I did not notice. Horrible QA from me …

Alright, I fixed both issues, the links are updated.

The update did not make it to the non-custom light weight version on the mega site. The nexus download does include the update.

Also, thanks for this mod. Boost to leveling, which the faction exp potion already does, plus extra loot.

Wondering if you’re open to making an “extreme” version of your mode? Like making writs and xp pots available in early game, 2-pt devotion rewards, etc. to extremely speed up the leveling process ;D And am curious what you think of making a vendor that sells the good monster infrequents, and have them spawn deep in challenge dungeons that require skeleton keys to access; so it will cost 1 skeleton key per vendor inventory roll.

Just tested oathkeeper now working proper & doggo is visible. Cool now THE OTHER Version pretty please.

Question if I start a char in this lightweight version can I switch over to other when you get it up w/o any problems. Or like most mods start a fresh char?

I dont want an extreme version myself. But maybe make more options on doggo then a person can choose.