Top 10 Mods for Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen

There’s nothing quite like Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen from Capcom. Thankfully, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is about to continue its streak as a unique RPG. For now, you’ll have to make do with the aging predecessor. As with most games showing their age, you can always breathe new life into them by using mods.

To shorten your mod shopping process and get you playing faster, we’ve compiled the best Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen mods. Most of these mods are visual overhauls since Dragon’s Dogma came out in 2012; it’s nearly as old as Skyrim. However, we’ve also included some gameplay enhancements.

10. Mod Manager

Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen is notorious for letting you keep only one save file. You can’t create other characters without deleting the first one. That’s why this mod is more or less mandatory and thank goodness for FluffyQuack’s Mod Manager. 

It’s not just for easily installing and uninstalling mods. You can also use it to manage your save files and have multiple characters. You can technically still install mods using Vortex or just manually, but do yourself a favor and grab this one instead. Seriously, the save file manager is a godsend.

9. Gransys Texture Improvement Project

You probably noticed how the textures in-game – while better than most games with a 2012 engine, are severely outdated. Your eyes needn’t suffer in low-res anymore, not if you can do something about it with the Gransys Texture Improvement Project by lati100. Contrary to the name, this mod encompasses terrain and areas outside of Gransys.

Gransys Texture Improvement Project is one of those almost mandatory mods for Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen if you want to give the game a new coat of paint, so to speak. Indeed, after downloading it, you’ll be might impressed by how much it gives the fantasy RPG that next-gen look.

8. Resonant ENB

Once you’re done with the texture overhaul, you can also do something about the rather dry and bland lighting in Dragon’s Dogma. The Resonant ENB mod or preset by roxahris not only adds more atmospheric lighting in the game but also enhances whichever texture mod you install.

Since it’s ENB, it’s not just a mere fancy palette upgrade. Certain ENB effects also add some next-gen graphical improvements such as sub-surface scattering for more realistic skin textures or a more accurate ambient occlusion behavior. Improvements differ per game. Regardless, it’s the icing on the cake if you want the full visual overhaul.

7. Greater Rewards

Moving on to gameplay improvement mods, Greater Rewards by Numenon is a mild cheat mod. It lessens your grinding and makes the world of Dragon’s Dogma appreciate your efforts better. You can even pick the multiplier of the reward from 2x all the way to 10x.

These rewards include experience and money, of course. For beginners, however, we find it best to play the game without this mod just so you can savor the game. The Greater Rewards mod is best used by those on their subsequent playthroughs.

6. Unlimited Sprint Unlimited Carry Weight Stat growth Tweaks

Speaking of rushing the game in subsequent playthroughs, you’ll mostly be slowed down by the vanilla stamina limitations. You can do away with that using the Unlimited Sprint by Mclilzee, which is also another mild cheat mod. Regardless, the ability to sprint indefinitely doesn’t really affect combat that much so you can use this guilt-free.

It merely lets you cross distances faster since the game doesn’t have mounts and fast travel is pretty limited. Again, we don’t recommend this if you’re playing the game for the first time, just so you can get a good taste of the game’s intended difficulty. If you also want unlimited carry weight, feel free to install it; the mod is modularly divided into several functions.

5. Black ReTextures and More

One of the most glaring color choices in Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen is how even the supposedly black pieces of clothing and armor appear grey and washed out. It ruins the contrast of the visuals and makes your character look like a moldy potato. 

The Black ReTextures and more mod by Akalor switches the black armor and clothing pieces to actual black. Now you can play out your edgiest RPG dreams with the Assassin or Strider Vocation, complete with a character with side-swept hair and a covered face.

4. Spell Mod Pack

Yet another mild cheat mod, the Spell Mod Pack by Signette modifies the effects of some spells. In certain cases, it introduces some tweaks and quirks in order to make either the Mage or the Sorcerer gameplay less static and flashier.

Keep in mind that this will modify the game’s balancing since some of the spells included will enlarge the radius of area nukes or lengthen the duration of certain debilitating spells. Some spells, however, were fixed or rebalanced, giving you more incentives to use them.

3. Jump

SnowyOmen’s Jump mod will turn your Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen playthrough into more of an anime game. Your characters will now be able to jump about 1.6 times higher. It’s worth noting that it’s still within the realm of plausibility, nothing too absurd. The idea is to help you explore vertically.

Still, if you’ve played much of the game, you can likely find some mild cheat applications for this mod. It will let you latch on to big monsters much easier since you don’t need to close the distance too much when trying to grab them. 

2. HD HP – Custom GUI textures and icons Overhaul

Even when it was first released, the Dragon’s Dogma’s user interface already looked a little too pixelated. Now that most monitors have higher resolution, they look outdated. Thanks to vj88 and their HD HP mod, you can enjoy Dragon’s Dogma with a sharper UI.

You can still enjoy the game without it, of course. But if you’ve already installed the texture upgrade mods and the ENB preset, you might as well fix the UI to make it more complementary. At best, the UI won’t be headache-inducing anymore due to the blurriness and the pixelation.

1. World Difficulty by Lefein

If you’re modding already, it stands to reason that you’ve played and finished the game at least once. In that case, you also might want to shake things up a bit in your subsequent playthroughs. Introduce some strategic changes with the help of the World Difficulty mod by Lefein. 

It alters enemy tactics during battle as well as enemy encounters. Some enemies were even switched up per encounter and their stats were also tweaked. Last but not least, you can also expect new bosses and challenges.