It was only a matter of time until Days Gone’s newfound PC audience began to tear out its insides and refashion them into something gnarlier, and now that day has arrived. A new mod ups freaker (aka zombie) horde sizes to the point where they basically blot out your whole screen.
Modder Aigmir created the “Massive Hordes” mod because they clicked over to Days Gone’s Mod Nexus page looking for a mod like it, and there wasn’t one. So, like any good modder, they decided how to learn the ins and outs of a whole new game to make it, which took “many hours,” according to the mod’s description.
It does basically what it says on the tin: Where regular zombie hordes can range from 25 to 500 (largely on the lower end of that scale), “Massive Hordes” ups the ante with a range of 280 to 600. In other words, anytime you encounter a horde, count on it to be terrifyingly enormous.
That said, Aigmir didn’t want to break the game; they just wanted to make it more challenging. So they made sure that specific hordes maintain their proportional size relative to the vanilla version of Days Gone. For example, with the mod installed, the early Cascade region of the game contains hordes of 280 zombies, and you don’t start getting into 600 territory until you hit the late-game Crater Lake region. For a real challenge, the Mt. Bailey area contains a boss horde of 670 freakers, which is so many angry hairless people that you’d think you were on an incel forum.
To run the mod, Aigmir advises starting a new game, though it apparently does still work on previously undiscovered hordes in games that are already in progress. “No need to start a new game if you’re in early stages or maybe even midway,” they wrote.
Next, they’re hoping to increase wolf pack sizes and the number of enemies in camps, meaning that the world of Days Gone isn’t about to get any friendlier, but at least you won’t be lonely.