Item Set: switch whole content packs off
Item Set is a free 1.2.0.0 feature: it switches entire content packs from expansions and free updates on or off, straight from the character selection menu. Turning everything off gives a vanilla-feeling run; you can also drop Paws and Claws and keep the rest.
Item Set is the free half of launch day, and it is the feature that will matter most to players who never buy the DLC. It shipped with update 1.2.0.0 on 2 November 2026, alongside Primal Dread, and it costs nothing.
The official description: "In this menu, you can activate or deactivate the entire content from extensions and free updates." The examples given are direct: want a vanilla feeling, deactivate everything; want to remove the Pets and keep the rest, deactivate Paws and Claws and play with the other content.
And the convenience detail that makes it usable: you can do it from the character selection menu.
Pack-level, not item-level
Item Set is not a per-item toggle. It is a pack-level switch. Each expansion or free update appears as a set, and turning the set off removes its content from the run: its items, its characters' access to that content, its mechanics.
That is a bigger lever than it sounds. Brotato has accumulated content across a base game, two paid DLCs and several free updates, and until 1.2 there was no supported way to play a run without the accumulated additions. Item Set is that way.
| What you want | What to toggle | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| The original feel | Deactivate everything | A run with only base-game content |
| Base game plus the new DLC | Deactivate older packs, keep Primal Dread | Jungle content without the older additions |
| No pets | Deactivate Paws and Claws | Pets out, everything else in |
| Testing a build without DLC items | Deactivate Primal Dread | The Jungle and its 40 items are gone from the pool |
| A clean comparison run | Deactivate everything, then add one pack | Isolates what a single pack changes |
The last row is the underrated use. Item Set turns the game into a controlled experiment: if you want to know whether a run is failing because of DLC content, switch it off and run the same character again.
Where the menu lives
The character selection screen. That is deliberate: the developers' note says "no time wasted in menus, more time playing Brotato", and putting a content toggle one screen away from the start button is the difference between a feature people use and a feature people forget.
Practically, this means the decision is made per run rather than per save. You are not locking your account into a configuration; you are choosing what this run contains.
Four player scenarios
Four scenarios cover most players.
You bought Primal Dread and want the full game. Leave everything on. Item Set is invisible to you unless you go looking.
You bought Primal Dread and want a base-game run. Turn Primal Dread off. The Jungle, the Evolution stat and the forty items leave the pool, and you get a run that behaves like the pre-DLC game.
You did not buy Primal Dread. Item Set still applies to you, because it covers free updates as well as extensions. You can switch off the free additions and play a leaner version of the game.
You are testing a mod. This is the interesting one. Item Set changes content, not code, so it is not a mod manager. But it does let you isolate whether a problem is content-related before you start disabling Workshop items.
Not an item filter
It is not an item filter, despite the name. It does not let you remove individual items from the pool, and it does not let you ban a specific weapon.
It is also not a difficulty setting. Turning off content changes what you can find, not how hard the enemies hit. If you want the difficulty changes, those are in the same 1.2.0.0 update but on a different axis: the Nightmare rebalance is covered on its own page.
And it is not a replacement for turning mods off. The launch post is explicit that outdated mods conflict with the update and should be deactivated. Item Set switches content packs the developers shipped; it does not know anything about your Workshop subscriptions. See the mods page for that.
Why it shipped free
The pattern is consistent with how Blobfish has handled Brotato: the paid DLC adds content, the free update adds quality of life and balance. 1.2.0.0 is a free update with three parts, and Item Set is the quality-of-life part:
- Item Set, a content toggle from character select.
- Nightmare balancing, mostly nerfs to difficulty spikes.
- Character buffs, eight older characters improved.
None of those require the DLC, and all of them shipped on the same day. If you are deciding whether to buy Primal Dread, it is worth separating the two: the free update is already yours, and the four-dollar question is only about the Jungle.
For the paid half, see what the DLC adds. For the balance half, see what 1.2 did to Nightmare.
A note on naming
The feature is called Item Set, but nothing about it is per-item. It is a set of content, in the mathematical sense: a pack that is either in the run or out of it. Once you read the name that way, the menu makes sense immediately, and the temptation to look for an item filter disappears.
Checked 2026-11-04 against the 1.2.0.1 build.