Modding is pretty hard if you don't know how anything works! That's fine since a lot of stuff for Horizon's Gate isn't hardcoded, meaning that you can going through the game files, especially class actions and support abilities, will help you get good. Additionally, you can copy paste existing abilities and modify them to work in many imaginable ways.
The game's files are stored in
In order to be able to refresh mods and access the build menu, you will need to enable debug mode. To do this, open the command console by pressing Shift + `, type in dm, and press Enter.
If this does not work for you, go to ...\AppData\Roaming\BoatTactics, open up config.ini, and change debugMode=False; to debugMode=True;.

Two programs that I use for editing png files are Paint Dot Net[www.getpaint.net] and GraphicsGale[graphicsgale.com]. If you have a program that you are more comfortable with, it will probably work too.

There is an official basic modding guide that can be found here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2059418137

Being simply a passionate gamer, I am sadly not an omniscient modding expert. However, there is an official discord server you can join which also has a modding channel:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/1224290/discussions/0/1753528528117772103/

1 Make your modded class folder with a text file for the actorClass, abilities, and passives.

1.1 (Optional) Make a class template or download it from
here so you don't have to set up class files again when creating new classes.

2. Make 5 abilities and 2-4 passives for your class. It is recommended to use existing abilities as a reference or template. Passive (support abilities) templates can be found in

3. Make icons and sprites for your class abilities, passives, and armor sprites.

4. Configure the actorClass text file to have a unique ID, the IDs for all the abilities and passives, skills, etc.

5. Test your class to see if it works correctly.

5.1 (Optional) Balance your class through extensive testing.

6. Upload to Workshop.

Planning out a class is technically optional but encouraged.

Use something like Notepad to write down your class concept, its five abilities, and what passives they might have. As you create your class, you can amend your concept as you see fit.


What is the purpose of your class? Is it a weapon-specialized fighter with abilities revolving around certain elements or perhaps an all-rounder support that buffs your allies through unique ways. Alternatively, you can grab (or be inspired by) some cool concepts and classes from other sources and translate them over! The possibilities are endless...


All classes have a total of five abilities.

While writing up abilities, you should phrase it as if it were the description of the ability. Not only do you now have the description for your ability, you can find similar, existing abilities that functions similar to what you have planned.

Additionally, there is no format in what balance of ability types you should have, so you can simply have all support-based abilities, half support and half offensive abilities, all simple or all complex, etc. Simple abilities are easier to make and should likely work well with other classes without many worries for balancing. Complex abilities are more difficult to work with and balance around, but they do tend to be more awesome and epic! Personally, I stick towards this style of ability sets, but it isn't a requirement to follow this format:

• Simple/Main - A super simple ability or the ability that the class is based around.
  
• Effect/AoE - A debuff ability, AoE ability, ranged ability, and/or buff ability, etc.
  
• Effect/AoE - Same as above but preferably a different ability type.
  
• Self/Req - The ability that leads to ULT or ability that inflicts an effect on self.
  
• Ultimate - The expensive but epic and (over)powerful ability that beats people up.

Alternatively, you can brainstorm a large list of abilities before choosing five that you would decide to wrap up in a single class mod.

Generally, classes have between two and four passives.

These passives can be anything, from as a counter or start-of-combat effect to a requirement or overhaul for your class and its abilities!


Alternatively, you can skip doing any of this if planning things out isn't your strong suit.

Now that you've planned out your class, it's time to layout the folders and text files where all the coding shenanigans go!

But if you want to skip all the tedious setups, go subscribe to this mod
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422138719
Copy the folder
and paste it in
Rename folders, text files, and AV/actorClass/etc IDs accordingly. After copy and pasting the folder, you can unsubscribe from the mod (unless you really like it... and in that case you can keep it subscribed).

If you hate organizing your mod, then you can skip this step.

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If you would rather setup from scratch, then do this:
1. Create a new folder in
1.1 In that folder, create two folders (Armor and Icons), three text files (Actions, ActorClass, and Passives), and a 512x512 PNG image with the same name as your folder name.
2. Go to
3. Open up actorClasses.txt, copy an ActorClass, and paste it into a new text file in the folder in your mods folder.
4. Respectively copy the icon_default, emptyPassiveSlot, and classIcon_none from
and paste it in your Icons folder.
5. Rename all the IDs and things. Super important.

Congrats! You've finished setting up the minimal folder for your class mod!

The ActorClass is the main def for your class. In it, you specify the abilities and passives it contains. You will also specify what skills the class will modify when equipped as primary and what skills you can raise with * stat points.
The JournalEntry is the def for a journal entry (wow!).

That's pretty much it.

Here is a quick and messy rundown of the ActorClass and JournalEntry and their components.

The ActorClass is basically the main def for your class. You should set the ID to a unique ID as having the same IDs will cause overwrites.



The JournalEntry for the actorClass is relatively straightforward.

First, open up your actions text file. This is where all of your actions defs are gonna go:
Then, you open up the folder of the game's existing actions:

Afterwards, find the ability that is mechanically similar to what you had in mind.

For example, if I wanted to make an action ability that inflicts poison on the target and then push them back, I would copy the action def of Warrior's Bash and the poison AvAffecter and AvAffecterAoE from Rogue's Poison Tip and paste them together in the mod's actions text file.

Afterwards, the IDs will all be changed to a new unique ID used by the modded class. The action will be executed from top to bottom (if not, use FXOnTile=delay; to delay a certain AvAffecter), so the poison AvAffecter and AoE must come before the Push AvAffecter and AoE.

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Below are the rundowns of the components:


The ActionAoE acts as the area of target for your action (where you can select and target with your cursor).

• cloneFrom My favorite thing to use. Specifies AoE and makes it easy as well. Outside of Actions, can be used to copy existing values of other defs and be used to perform soft overwrites.
  
• shape The AoE shape of the action. Here is a list of shapes provided by Eldiran (Rad Codex) himself!
  
  plusShape = 0, //ignores move cost walkpathShape = 1, //accounts for move cost walkpathShape_straightLinesPlus2 = 111, //accounts for move cost lineShape = 2, wideLineShape = 3, //exactly like a line, except also includes adjacent tiles. Probably laggy if used on large AoEs. player = 5, playerParty = 6, allButPlayerParty = 66, allActors = 7, allTiles = 8, caster = 9, allActors_nonIncapped = 17, useWeaponAoE = 10, useWeaponAVAoE = 11, diagonalX = 25,
• needsLoS Line of Sight
  
• needsLoE Line of Effect
  
• minRange Minimum range (min is 1) that your action or center point can target. Should only be specified when making ranged actions.
  
• maxRange Maximum range that your action or center point can target. Should only be specified when making ranged actions.
  
• maxRangeBonus Bonus added to range depending on specified formula
  
• canSelectActors Boolean - if the action or avaffecter can select actors or not (usually for movement abilities or aesthetic FXs)
  
• canSelectAllies Boolean - if the action or avaffecter can select allies
  
• canSelectEnemies Boolean - if the action or avaffecter can select enemies
  
• aoeCasterAsOrigin Boolean - if the action or avaffecter's center point is on the caster
  
• There are more AoE defs but I've reached the character limit

The AvAffecter is where all the effects and mechanics are performed. They are succeeded by an AvAffecterAoE that specifies an AoE for the given AvAffecter. AvAffecters are executing in order from top to bottom.

• visibleMiss boolean - if the Miss appears when the effect misses
  
• visibleEvaluations boolean - if the percentages and effects are displayed in the pre-attack tooltip.
  
• harmful boolean - if the effect is harmful. Required to be true when inflicting negative magnitude against HP and MP actorValues.
  
• weaponAvAffecter boolean - if the action also utilizes the actor's held weapon's avaffecters.
  
• showWeaponAvAffecterFX boolean - if action also displays FX made by the weapon's avaffecters
  
• actorValue The specified effect or condition to inflict or modify on a target.
  
• magnitude Power or change in the actorValue.
  
• chance Accuracy of the effect. All chances use the same roll unless specified.
  
• useSeparateChanceRoll Specifies that the AvAffecter uses a different roll than the roll before. Its use can be found most prominent in Brawler's Pummel.
  
• duration The specified duration of the effect. -2 is permanent. -1 is indefinite. Anything >= 0 is defined in TTA (Time to Act). -3 is until the start of the actor's next turn. -4 is until the end of the actor's next turn. -5 is until the end of the actor's turn after the next turn, etc.
  
• element The element that defines the effect. Used to trigger passive and environmental reactions, etc
  
• FXOnHit Effect that plays when you hit the target
  
• FXOnTile Effects that plays on the selected tile(s) when the ability is casted
  
• FXOnHitColor/FXOnTileColor Color (XNA/C#) of the preceeding effect. Search up for XNA color chart to find all the available colors.

The same thing as ActionAoE but also overrides ActionAoE and only affects the preceeding AvAffecter.

Want to add custom sounds to your actions? Make your guy say some edgy catchphrase before doing an epic attack?

It's simple.

First download your song or SFX or whatever. If it isn't in .wav format then convert it. Length of the song or SFX too long? Trim it somehow (preferably at most down to 10 seconds if you're making a minstrel-like ability).

Afterwards, toss your finely trimmed .wav file into your mod folder. The example sfx I will use here is So_Good.wav.

Now make a random [drawOrderFX] and toss it in a text file somewhere!

Here's the [drawOrderFX] I have:
* This is LITERALLY the megapop draw order from the ModSamples folder but just has the ID called nothingFX and doesn't have [drawOrderFXLight] (I tried using the megapop drawOrder as well as no particleFX ID but both will result in a crash. If you find any vanilla drawOrder that works then uh please comment it :^) ).

Alright now you gotta make your [FXData]. Pretty simple work:

Now toss your new SFX into your action!

So good. You now know how to commit custom sound effects!

If you haven't already, grab the sample SupportAbility from and paste it into the passive text file in your class mod folder then edit it from there.

Passives were formerly hardcoded, so the only template available is in the ModSamples folder. It's best to look at other existing class mods or ask others on the discord if you need help with them.

Below are the rundowns for it I guess:

• ID Self explanatory at this point.
  
• name Displayed name of the passive
  
• icon Specified PNG file to be used as the passive icon
  
• tooltip Displayed description when hovering over passive
  
• XPCostUnlock The XP requirement to unlock the passive
  
• supportAbilsToReplace Basically what other passives this passive cannot be used with

The basic indefinite stat change passives. Super simple and easy to add.

• actorValue Specifies what AV is being modified
  
• magnitude amount changed by. Positive to increase, negative to decrease.
  
• duration should always be -1

Passive that reacts to certain effects through multipliers or an action reaction.

• actorValue Specifies the effect that is causing the reaction. Otherwise if it is an element, use element instead.
  
• element Specifies the element that is causing the reaction.
  
• damageMultiplier multiplies the damage (for attacks) and accuracy (for status effects and conditions) by specified multiplier.
  
• action The action that is executed when the specified effect or element is inflicted on the actor.

Exact same format as an action ability, but with some additions to make it work as a passive reaction. The following is an example of an action for a SupportAbilityReaction:

It is ideally required that you have all the defined specials in your SupportAbilityReaction's action. The ID for the action should also be the same as the one specified in your SupportAbilityReaction. It is also recommended that you use the visibleMiss boolean to avoid Miss spams.

Use your image editing software to create the icons for your class and its abilities and passives then rename them to match the names you specified for icons in your actorClass, actions, and passives text files.

I recommend grabbing the blank icons, recoloring them, then duplicating them to make the process less tedious.

Class Icon:
Ability Icon:
Passive Icon:


For uniformity, it is highly recommended that you use the same or similar selection of color combinations for all of your icons. For instance, if your action ability's icon has a blue background, the class's palette, support ability icons, and probably also the class icon should have blue as the dominant color. Of course, you don't have to abide to this. It's your mod so do what you want!

Here's an example where red is the main color and green is the secondary color.





Armor sprites... The bane of my existence...

You can grab existing sprites that you can then edit from here:

Copy and paste 1-2 arm(s), a torso, and 1-2 shoulder(s) into the armor folder in your mods folder. If you are planning to make custom sprites, rename the newly pasted sprites and change the bodyPart names in your actorClass text file to match the names for your PNG sprites. Afterwards, draw up and modify the sprites. Sprites use the RGB palette, so grab the colors from the game's other RGB sprites using the eyedropper if you need to.

Here is a general rundown of what each color supposedly does:
Violet: Transparent
Red: Color palette from worn armor (Armor color)
Blue: Color palette from actor's clothing (Clothing color)
Green: Color palette from actor's skin (Skin color)
Black: Outline of sprite (or just black)
White: Just white

Helpful Tip:
While in debug mode, enter build mode by pressing B and press CTRL + R to refresh your mods which also adds changes you make to your sprite. This makes it easier to do trial and error pixel spriting especially when using pdn or graphics gale :)

However, your game can crash or you might get warnings and errors if you refresh with other mods enabled, so it is best to use mod refresh for solely trial-and-error spriting. Although you can refresh abilities and passives this way, I would recommend restarting the game instead.

Alternatively instead of creating new sprites, you can just use the existing ones as is or even mix-and-match.

If you have additional mod dependencies, such as relating to new status effects or items, either include them in the mod or make a requirement on the workshop for a separate mod dependency.

Make sure to rapidly test your class to see if it works. If there's a game crashing bug or something, identify the cause based on the error log and go in and fix up the most likely typo. Testing your class for formula scale problems and gamebreaking errors is a required phase that can take some time. Basically, make sure your class mod works! If some things slip through, then try to fix it as soon as possible once you find it or when someone reports it.

For balancing, I would recommend doing a few runs on Ruin difficulty or so. If you cannot do that (I can't either), then get someone else to playtest it for you. Although balancing is extremely recommended, you can also skip the whole balancing thing. You can continue balancing the mod after public release, after all.

1. Make sure your class mod folder is in the HG mod folder

2. Launch Horizon's Gate


3. Select Mods and go down to where your mod is at.


4. Click the Upload button and enter the Class tag.


5. Upload and go edit your workshop page.




And there you go. Class mod. Yay.