Diablo V Director Says the Right Build Should Beat Any Challenge

How much of an action game should Diablo actually be?

It sounds like a slightly ridiculous question about a series built around hitting demons until increasingly colourful objects fall out of them, but it has become one of the more interesting debates surrounding Diablo V. Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson recently questioned whether modern Diablo has drifted too far toward reflexes and moment-to-moment execution, and now Diablo V Senior Game Director Joe Shely has provided a surprisingly clear answer about where Blizzard wants the next game to sit.

Yes, Diablo V will require some player skill.

But the build is supposed to win the fight.

Diablo V Will Be More INT and STR Than DEX

Shely describes Diablo V's combat philosophy using traditional RPG attributes. There will still be what he calls DEX mechanics, meaning positioning, timing and moment-to-moment execution. But overall, Blizzard wants Diablo V to behave more like an INT/STR game, where planning, investment and character construction matter more.

Most importantly, Shely says Blizzard is designing around a fundamental ARPG principle: any challenge should be beatable with the right build.

That matters because Chris Wilson's surprisingly hopeful reaction to Diablo V came with one major reservation. He believes Diablo combat has become increasingly "arcadey" since Diablo III, shifting some of the emphasis away from character preparation and toward the player's ability to dodge, position and react quickly.

There is nothing inherently wrong with action-heavy combat. Diablo IV can feel excellent when movement, attacks and enemy mechanics all click together. The concern is what happens when mechanical execution becomes more important than the collection of skills, equipment and terrible statistical decisions you have spent 80 hours assembling.

Your Build Is Supposed to Be the Solution

Shely's answer suggests Blizzard understands the distinction.

A difficult boss may still require you to move out of something glowing ominously on the floor. You will probably still have to aim attacks, react to enemies and occasionally discover that standing directly underneath a giant demon's axe was not an advanced strategy.

But Diablo V wants character building to remain the actual solution.

That philosophy fits neatly with several other systems Blizzard has already discussed. We know Diablo V wants loot to borrow more ideas from Diablo II, including meaningful stat requirements and stronger item identity. Blizzard is also building a more procedural version of Sanctuary, where revisiting an area may not produce exactly the same layout or situation every time.

Then there is the enormous class roster. Diablo V is planned to launch with more classes than any previous Diablo game has ever contained, which only works if those classes support genuinely different ways of solving problems rather than simply providing different animations for the same dodge-and-attack rhythm.

This Does Not Mean Diablo V Is Becoming Diablo II Again

It is worth keeping expectations under control.

Diablo V is still targeting a Spring 2029 release, and Blizzard has repeatedly stressed that many systems remain early in development. Shely has not revealed how bosses work, how severe movement mechanics will become or whether Diablo V will reduce the sort of level scaling that Wilson has also criticised.

What we have is a design principle rather than a finished combat system.

Still, it is a useful principle.

Diablo has always been at its best when the answer to an impossible encounter is not simply "press dodge better."

Sometimes the answer should be finding a ridiculous sword, rebuilding half your character, discovering an interaction nobody sane would have predicted and returning twenty minutes later to turn the monster into soup.

According to Joe Shely, Diablo V still believes that is what an action RPG should be.

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Diablo 4 Accidentally Gave Players Free Cosmetics, and Blizzard Says Keep Them

Diablo IV bugs have deleted rewards, broken quests, confused wardrobes and occasionally sent bosses wandering somewhere they were very clearly not supposed to be.

For once, though, a bug worked in the player's favour.

Shortly after Patch 3.2.2 went live on September 30, some Diablo IV players logged in and discovered cosmetics appearing on their accounts that they had never actually earned or purchased. Blizzard investigated, discovered that the items were being granted unintentionally, fixed the problem and then made the rarest possible live-service decision.

You can keep them.

Blizzard Says the Accidental Cosmetics Will Not Be Removed

Community Manager filthierich confirmed that the problem appeared around the launch of Patch 3.2.2 and caused certain cosmetics to be automatically awarded when affected players logged into Diablo IV. Blizzard has since stopped additional items from being granted, but anyone fortunate enough to receive something before the fix will retain it permanently.

So if you logged in after the patch and wondered why your wardrobe suddenly contained something unfamiliar, congratulations. Sanctuary has finally experienced a loot bug where the appropriate response is not opening a support ticket.

Blizzard's official clarification does not specify exactly which cosmetics were affected, how many players received them or whether every affected account received the same items. The important part is considerably simpler: the grants were accidental, the bug has been fixed, and Blizzard has no plans to claw the cosmetics back.

Diablo 4 Has Been Giving Away Quite a Lot of Clothing Lately

The timing makes the whole thing slightly funnier because Diablo IV has already spent the last few months distributing cosmetics through almost every method imaginable.

In August, players began finding random free cosmetics inside Diablo IV's personalized shop, although those legitimate gifts did not appear for everyone. One player might find a free wand, another a bow, while somebody else received the traditional Blizzard reward of absolutely nothing.

More recently, Game Pass subscribers were offered more than 50 Diablo IV cosmetics after connecting their subscription to Battle.net. Blizzard has also continued filling seasonal tracks, events and promotions with armour sets, weapons, portals and enough decorative skulls to suggest Sanctuary employs an entire department devoted exclusively to accessories.

The Patch 3.2.2 cosmetics are different because nobody was supposed to receive them this way at all.

This Is Probably the Best Kind of Diablo Bug

Patch 3.2.2 itself was mostly a repair job. Blizzard fixed problems with the Season of Hell's Legacy questline, Chamber of Bone rewards, Nihlathak teleporting outside his arena, several Rune interactions and various Tower and UI issues. None of those changes mentioned a surprise wardrobe lottery.

Then players logged in and discovered one anyway.

There is also a sensible reason for Blizzard not to remove the items. Taking cosmetics away from players after they appeared automatically would create considerably more frustration than simply allowing the lucky accounts to keep them, especially when players did nothing to exploit the issue.

It is a refreshingly simple solution.

The bug happened.

Blizzard fixed it.

The people who got free stuff keep the free stuff.

Check Your Wardrobe

Additional accidental grants have now stopped, so repeatedly logging in and out is unlikely to summon free armour through sheer optimism. But if you played around the release of Patch 3.2.2, checking your cosmetic collection may still be worthwhile.

Diablo IV players have spent years arguing about cosmetic prices, Battle Pass rewards and whether older seasonal cosmetics should eventually return.

This time Blizzard found an entirely new distribution model.

Make a mistake.

Give players cosmetics.

And, remarkably, leave everyone happier than before.

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Diablo 3 Season 40 Starts Today: Light’s Calling and Angelic Crucibles Return

Diablo III is thirteen years old, has been replaced by Diablo IV, has another sequel officially waiting in 2029, and apparently has absolutely no intention of going quietly.

Season 40 begins today, October 2, at 5:00 PM CEST, bringing back the Light’s Calling seasonal theme and its wonderfully excessive Angelic Crucibles. At this point Diablo III is less a retired game and more that one Nephalem who keeps turning up for work despite nobody being entirely certain who is still paying them.

And honestly, there are worse problems to have.

Angelic Crucibles Are Back

Light’s Calling originally appeared in Season 27, and its central mechanic remains Angelic Crucibles. These consumable items allow players to Sanctify any equippable Legendary item, transforming it into Ancient-level quality while also giving it one of three special class-specific Sanctified Powers at random.

That makes Season 40 considerably more interesting than a simple numerical reset. Sanctified Powers can fundamentally change how familiar builds behave, and they encourage exactly the sort of ridiculous experimentation Diablo III has become very good at during its later life.

Blizzard is no longer pretending these recurring seasons represent enormous new chapters for the game. Diablo III is firmly in its rotating-season era, something we discussed when asking whether Diablo III is still worth playing in 2026. What keeps the system working is that some of those old themes were genuinely fun, and Light’s Calling belongs near the top of that pile.

Season 40 Haedrig’s Gift Sets

As always, completing Chapters II, III and IV of the Season Journey rewards Haedrig’s Gifts containing pieces of a class set. You only get one complete set this way per season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so opening everything on the character you actually want to play remains highly recommended.

• Barbarian: Horde of the Ninety Savages
• Crusader: Aegis of Valor
• Demon Hunter: Gears of Dreadlands
• Monk: Patterns of Justice
• Witch Doctor: Mundunugu’s Regalia
• Wizard: Typhon’s Veil
• Necromancer: Masquerade of the Burning Carnival

The seasonal Conquests also rotate again, including Speed Demon, Boss Mode, Curses!, Years of War and the challenge to level three Legendary Gems to 65.

Diablo III Somehow Reached Season 40

The number itself deserves a moment.

Season 40.

When Season 38 launched earlier this year, Diablo III already felt like a fascinating survivor from another era of Blizzard. Six months later, we are starting Season 40 while Diablo IV is deep into its own seasonal cycle and Diablo V is officially scheduled for Spring 2029.

Blizzard has increasingly described Diablo as a franchise where older games do not necessarily disappear when the next one arrives. We have already seen that philosophy applied to Diablo IV, with the studio confirming that Diablo IV seasons are expected to continue after Diablo V launches as long as players remain interested.

Diablo III is the evidence that this can actually work.

It no longer receives giant expansions or completely new endgame systems. Instead, Blizzard rotates some of its strongest seasonal ideas back into circulation and gives players another excuse to create a fresh character, rediscover an old build and spend a weekend turning Greater Rifts into brightly coloured particle soup.

Season 40 Begins Today

Blizzard’s official Season 40 preview confirms that Light’s Calling begins today, October 2, with Angelic Crucibles, returning seasonal rewards and the latest Haedrig’s Gift rotation.

There is a new Diablo game coming in three years. Diablo IV is still receiving major seasonal content. Sanctuary currently has considerably more modern ways to consume your free time.

And yet somewhere this evening, thousands of people are going to create another level-one Diablo III character.

Season 40 has arrived.

Apparently Hell still has monsters left.

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Diablo 4 Season 15: How to Turbo Farm Soul Splinters, Runes and Gems

Kurast Undercity has a merchant that can turn spare Gold and crafting materials into one of Season 15’s fastest shortcuts for socketable power.

Diablo 4 Season 15 has created a familiar endgame problem: the game gives you several excellent new toys, then quietly asks whether you have enough time to farm all of them. Soul Splinters are central to the seasonal buildcrafting, Runes matter more than ever, and high-tier Gems can devour resources at a rate normally associated with small infrastructure projects.

There is, however, a remarkably direct shortcut hiding inside Kurast Undercity. With the right War Plan nodes, a Portal Prankster can unlock the Cabochon Merchant after the District Boss. The node description says this merchant sells Runes and Gems for Gold. That is true, but it undersells the interesting part: the current shop can also stock Soul Splinters, and the inventory can be refreshed. If your account already has a healthy pile of Gold and crafting materials, this becomes less of a normal farming route and more of a controlled shopping spree.

The Cabochon Merchant can stock Soul Splinters alongside Runes and Gems. Lesser Soul Splinters shown here cost 400,000 Gold each.

1. Unlock the two War Plan nodes that make the farm possible

The loop starts in the Undercity War Plan tree. You want Gutter Filth and Bauble Day. Season 15 finally made War Plan progression much friendlier for alt-heavy accounts, and our guide to the account-wide War Plans change explains how that progression is shared. The important thing here is that the character you are using still needs the correct Undercity setup.

Gutter Filth gives every Beacon activation inside the Undercity a small chance to summon a Portal Prankster. That means Beacons are no longer merely part of the Attunement route. They are lottery tickets with legs. Hit as many as you reasonably can, and when the goblin appears, stop pretending the timer is your biggest problem and kill it before it escapes.

Gutter Filth gives Beacon activations a chance to summon a Portal Prankster. This is the node that creates the opportunity.

Bauble Day is the second half of the machine. If you kill a Portal Prankster during the run, the Cabochon Merchant appears after the District Boss. That merchant sells Runes and Gems for Gold. We have already covered how War Plans can turn Kurast Undercity into a loot machine, but for this route the merchant is the real prize.

Bauble Day makes the Cabochon Merchant appear after the District Boss when a Portal Prankster has been killed during the run.

2. Run the Undercity for Beacons, not sightseeing

Once the two nodes are active, the actual run is simple. Enter Kurast Undercity, keep moving, activate Beacons, and watch for a Portal Prankster. The goblin behaves like a Treasure Goblin with an advanced degree in being irritating: it can move through portals and waste precious seconds if your build lacks burst damage or mobility. A fast speed-farming setup is therefore ideal. You do not need to kill every demon that expresses an interest in your personal space. You need enough time, enough Attunement to make the run worthwhile, and the goblin dead.

After killing the Portal Prankster, finish the District Boss. The Cabochon Merchant will then be available, and that is when the run changes from dungeon farming into economics. If the Prankster never appears, there is no merchant trigger to cash in at the end, so the whole method is naturally streaky. The advantage is that each successful appearance can be squeezed for far more than one purchase.

3. Buy Soul Splinters first when the price is absurdly good

The most striking item in the shop is the Soul Splinter. The current inventory shown during testing offered Lesser Splinters for just 400,000 Gold each. For an established endgame character, that is barely money. It is especially attractive when you need several copies for upgrading or simply want to test different seasonal trade-offs without farming the exact drop again.

That matters because Season 15’s Splinters are not generic stat sticks. Some completely change how a build behaves, and the choice of Diablo, Baal or Mephisto and their associated seasonal paths can push you toward different endgame activities. The Cabochon Merchant does not replace the entire seasonal progression system, but it is an excellent way to fill gaps in the socketable part of your setup.

Do not assume every merchant inventory will look identical. Stock is randomized, and that is precisely why refreshes matter. The useful rule is simple: when a Splinter you actually want appears for pocket-change Gold, buy it. Diablo has offered considerably worse investment opportunities.

4. Use Rune prices as a target farm, not an excuse to buy everything

Runes occupy the middle ground between wonderfully cheap and 'perhaps we should consult the accountant.' Current merchant stock demonstrates several price bands: some Runes appear at around 500,000 Gold, others at 5 million, and high-end examples can reach 50 million. The exact value depends on what the shop rolls, so the best use of the merchant is targeted purchasing rather than clearing the shelves because they are there.

Rune prices can vary dramatically by tier. This stock shows examples at 500,000, 5 million and 50 million Gold.

Season 15 also gave Runes a second life through the hidden Diablo II-style recipes inside the Horadric Cube. If you are hunting a specific combination, the merchant can save an enormous amount of random drop farming. Our guide to Season 15’s hidden Diablo II Runewords covers why familiar names such as Tal, Eth and Jah suddenly matter in a very different way.

5. Gems are the Gold sink, so buy with a purpose

Gems are where the Cabochon Merchant stops pretending to be charitable. The current pricing ladder shown in the shop is brutally clear: a Flawless Gem can cost around 5 million Gold, Royal Gems around 50 million, and Grand Gems around 500 million. That is not a farming method for a fresh seasonal character. It is a conversion tool for accounts sitting on billions and wondering what the pile is actually for.

The Gem ladder gets expensive quickly: Flawless examples at 5 million Gold, Royal Gems at 50 million and Grand Gems at 500 million.

Still, there are situations where that price makes sense. High-end Gems have become a major part of character power, and we have already looked at how filling top-end Gem slots can become its own endgame grind. If the only thing separating your build from the next upgrade is one Gem and your Gold reserve resembles a telephone number, buying the problem away is perfectly rational.

The wrong approach is buying expensive Gems merely because the merchant finally appeared. The right approach is arriving with a shopping list. Know the Gem type and tier you need before you start rerolling. Sanctuary already contains enough gambling without turning grocery shopping into another one.

6. The first refresh is cheap. The next ones are paid in Forgotten Souls

The merchant’s inventory can be refreshed. The first refresh is the pleasant one: you get a free reroll of the stock. After that, additional restocks cost 666 Forgotten Souls each. At that point the bottleneck stops being Gold and becomes one of Diablo 4’s most useful crafting materials.

This is why the farm can feel spectacular for a well-stocked account and terrible for a character still trying to fund basic enchanting. Forgotten Souls are used elsewhere, so repeatedly throwing 666 of them at the merchant is not free just because no Gold leaves the wallet. Use the free refresh every time. Use paid refreshes only when you are actively targeting something valuable enough to justify them.

7. Convert Baleful Fragments into Forgotten Souls when you need more rerolls

There is one useful pressure valve. At the Alchemist, Baleful Fragments can be transmuted into Forgotten Souls. The current recipe converts 100 Baleful Fragments into 10 Forgotten Souls and charges 250,000 Gold. This lets you turn a large stockpile of Baleful Fragments into more merchant refreshes instead of simply waiting for Souls to accumulate naturally.

At the Alchemist, 100 Baleful Fragments can be converted into 10 Forgotten Souls for 250,000 Gold.

The numbers also show why you should not treat paid rerolls casually. Starting from zero Forgotten Souls, one 666-Soul merchant refresh requires 67 transmutations to get at least 666 Souls. That consumes roughly 6,700 Baleful Fragments and 16.75 million Gold before you have bought a single item from the new stock. It is a useful conversion, not a licence to mash the Restock button until your materials file for bankruptcy.

8. Farm Forgotten Souls from the activities you already run

The better long-term plan is to collect Forgotten Souls as part of normal endgame play and reserve conversion for emergencies. The material tooltip itself lists several sources: salvaging Ancestral equipment, Salvage Spoils from War Plans, Legion Events, Tortured Gifts in Helltides, Tree of Whispers caches, Infernal Hordes and Kurast Undercity. In other words, you do not need a separate full-time career in Forgotten Soul production.

Forgotten Souls come from multiple endgame sources, including salvaging Ancestral gear, War Plans, Helltides, Whispers, Infernal Hordes and Kurast Undercity.

That makes this merchant route fit naturally into the broader endgame instead of replacing it. Diablo 4 now has so many overlapping activities that almost every endgame road eventually feeds another progression system. Here, the elegant loop is to earn Souls and Baleful Fragments while doing the things you already wanted to do, then spend those reserves only when the Cabochon Merchant gives you a genuine shortcut.

9. The best farming loop

For most endgame players, the efficient version looks like this: set the Undercity War Plan to include Gutter Filth and Bauble Day, enter with a fast build, activate Beacons aggressively, kill the Portal Prankster when it appears, finish the District Boss, buy any useful Soul Splinters, Runes or Gems, use the free stock refresh, and only then decide whether a 666-Forgotten-Soul reroll is worth the price. When Souls run low, rebuild them through normal endgame play or convert excess Baleful Fragments at the Alchemist.

1. Unlock Gutter Filth in the Undercity War Plan.

2. Unlock Bauble Day so a killed Portal Prankster can summon the Cabochon Merchant after the boss.

3. Activate as many Beacons as practical during the run.

4. Kill the Portal Prankster before it escapes.

5. Defeat the District Boss and open the merchant.

6. Prioritize cheap Soul Splinters and specific Runes you actually need.

7. Treat high-tier Gems as deliberate Gold sinks, not impulse purchases.

8. Always use the free stock refresh.

9. Spend 666 Forgotten Souls on extra restocks only when the target is worth it.

10. Convert 100 Baleful Fragments into 10 Forgotten Souls at the Alchemist when necessary.

The real trick is knowing when to stop

This farm is powerful because it converts resources you can control into rewards that are normally random. Gold becomes Runes and Gems. Gold plus Forgotten Souls becomes repeated chances at better shop stock. Baleful Fragments can become more Forgotten Souls. The whole thing is very Diablo: kill monsters, collect several currencies, feed them into increasingly suspicious machines, and eventually emerge with the exact purple rock you wanted.

But the farm is at its best when used surgically. If you need one Rune, a handful of Soul Splinters, or a specific high-tier Gem, the Cabochon Merchant can be one of Season 15’s fastest shortcuts. If you are simply refreshing because the button exists, the merchant will happily convert a week of crafting materials into a valuable lesson about self-control.

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Two Weeks Into Diablo 4 Season 15, Warlock Still Rules the Tower

Two weeks ago, Diablo 4 Season 15 launched with one fairly obvious question hanging over it.

Did Blizzard actually fix the Warlock?

During the PTR, the class was producing numbers that looked less like damage and more like somebody had accidentally pasted a bank account into the combat log. We covered Warlock builds reportedly hitting 80,000 trillion damage, and by early September we were already asking whether Warlock might completely dominate Season 15.

At the time, there was an important disclaimer: it was the PTR. Numbers could change. Bugs could be fixed. Blizzard still had time to adjust the class before millions of players were allowed near it.

Well, we have live data now.

The Warlock is still ridiculous.

1,000 Warlocks Have Already Cleared Tower 150

The current Tower leaderboard paints a fairly brutal picture. All 1,000 players displayed on the Warlock leaderboard have cleared Tower Tier 150. That means clearing the highest listed Tower tier is no longer enough to make you unusual among serious Warlock players. It is effectively the entry requirement for appearing on the leaderboard at all.

Blazing Scream is the main culprit. The build that looked terrifying during testing has survived into the live season as the defining Warlock setup, combining enormous damage with enough consistency to make Tower 150 look considerably less frightening than Blizzard probably intended.

This is not completely surprising. Our Season 15 PTR review already highlighted the enormous gap between competitive builds, and Warlock was the clearest example. What is surprising is how much of that gap survived the journey from test server to live game.

Paladin Is Still Looking Up at Tier 150

Then there is Paladin.

At the time of the latest leaderboard review, Paladin remained the only class without a Tower 150 clear. The top three Paladins had reached Tier 148, and every single top-20 clear was using Shield of Retribution.

That last part may actually be the more worrying statistic.

We already looked at Blizzard's attempts to improve the class when Judgement received double single-target damage for Season 15. Paladin also received broader scaling improvements, yet the live leaderboard suggests those changes have not produced the same range of competitive endgame options enjoyed by some other classes.

Season 15 even removed some possibilities before launch, including Paladin's ability to use X'Fal's Corroded Signet, which becomes particularly interesting now that Damage over Time has become one of the season's defining mechanics.

Season 15 Is Becoming the Season of Damage Over Time

Warlock is not the only class telling us something interesting about the current meta.

Sorcerer has dozens of Tower 150 clears, with Firewall and Burning effects playing a major role. Druid's strongest pushes revolve heavily around Rabies. Rogue's Penetrating Shot builds are using Poison Imbuement. Spiritborn's leading Stinger setups are also built around Poison.

The common language is Damage over Time.

Season 15 introduced new ways for DoT effects to scale, including Deadly Strike mechanics and powerful interactions with seasonal systems. The result is a leaderboard where poison, burning and other lingering damage effects keep appearing wherever players are pushing the absolute limit.

Warlock simply appears to have received the largest flamethrower.

The PTR Warning Was Correct

This is the interesting part.

Back in August, it would have been easy to dismiss Warlock's absurd PTR numbers as exactly what a test realm is supposed to uncover. Players find broken interactions, Blizzard collects the data, numbers are adjusted and everyone starts again on launch day.

Except the basic prediction survived.

Warlock entered Season 15 enormously powerful. Blazing Scream became the dominant build. Tower 150 clears multiplied until the entire visible Warlock leaderboard was filled with them, while Paladin still had not crossed the same finish line.

Blizzard did not necessarily need every class to perform identically. Diablo has never worked that way, and perfect balance would probably be considerably less entertaining than players imagine.

But there is a difference between having a strongest class and having 1,000 Warlocks sitting at Tower 150 while another class is still trying to reach it once.

We asked before launch whether Season 15 would become the season of Warlock.

Two weeks later, the Tower has supplied its answer.

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Diablo Immortal Is Under EU Consumer Protection Scrutiny Over Virtual Currency and Game Design

Diablo Immortal has spent four years developing increasingly elaborate ways to separate demons from their limbs and players from their Eternal Orbs. Now some of those systems are receiving attention from European consumer authorities. The EU's Consumer Protection Cooperation Network has confirmed that it launched a coordinated action against Microsoft and Activision Blizzard earlier in 2026 covering both Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile.

This is not a fine, a court ruling or a declaration that Diablo Immortal has broken EU law. The process is still at the dialogue stage. But the list of practices being examined is broad enough to make this considerably more interesting than another argument about whether one cosmetic costs too much.

Virtual Currency Is Only Part of the Investigation

The CPC Network says its concerns include the use and sale of in-game virtual currencies, collection of consumer data, potentially addictive game design, preselected parental-control settings, direct exhortations to children, insufficient information before purchases and unilateral blocking of gaming accounts.

That is an unusually wide net. Diablo Immortal's economy has always relied heavily on virtual currencies, bundles and layered purchasing systems, but European authorities are not looking only at the price of Eternal Orbs. They are examining how players are presented with purchases, how vulnerable consumers are treated and whether the structure surrounding those transactions complies with EU consumer law.

The timing is particularly interesting because Diablo Immortal has just launched its large Spawn collaboration. As we covered in our look at the divide between the Spawn event's free content and premium cosmetics, much of the actual crossover is free while the full Crimson Cloak cosmetic sits inside a Phantom Market and Lil' Violator appears in a separate bundle.

That does not automatically make either system illegal.

It does make the broader discussion about how games communicate prices considerably less theoretical.

The EU Wants Virtual Currency Prices to Be Clearer

The CPC Network has already published broader principles for virtual currencies in games. Its position is that players should receive clear and transparent pricing information, including information that makes the real-world cost of digital content understandable before a purchase is made.

That sounds simple until you remember how many games place an intermediate currency between your credit card and the object you actually want. A skin does not cost €17. It costs 1,700 Shiny Demon Coins, which arrive in bundles of 1,250 or 2,600 because apparently arithmetic is now part of the endgame.

The EU's principles specifically warn against practices that obscure the cost of digital content or effectively force consumers to purchase more virtual currency than they need.

Diablo Immortal is hardly alone here. The CPC Network announced new coordinated actions against several other game companies on September 30, covering titles including Minecraft, Valorant, Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga. The wider message is therefore aimed at the industry rather than Diablo specifically.

Children and Addictive Design Are Also Part of the Conversation

The investigation becomes more serious once it moves beyond price presentation. The CPC Network's Diablo Immortal action also lists potentially addictive design and practices affecting children among its concerns.

European regulators have increasingly focused on systems that use urgency, repeated prompts, reward loops or other design techniques capable of influencing spending behaviour, particularly when younger players are involved. The EU's broader consumer policy work now treats those questions as part of digital fairness rather than simply leaving them to parental judgement.

Again, that does not mean the CPC Network has concluded Diablo Immortal deliberately exploits players. It means those systems are among the issues being discussed with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

Diablo Immortal Has Also Been Improving Its Less Commercial Systems

It would be equally misleading to reduce

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Diablo 5 Says the Right Build Should Beat Any Challenge, Not Just Fast Reflexes

Diablo V is going to have dodging, positioning and all the other moment-to-moment decisions modern action RPGs have taught us to expect. But Blizzard has now drawn a surprisingly clear line around what it does not want the game to become. According to Senior Game Director Joe Shely, Diablo V should fundamentally be a game where planning your character, investing in the right systems and building intelligently matter more than possessing the reflexes of a caffeinated teenager.

Shely described Diablo V as having some “DEX” mechanics, meaning moment-to-moment execution, but said the game will ultimately be much more of an “INT/STR game” built around planning and investment. More importantly, he spelled out what Blizzard considers a core rule for the genre: any challenge should be beatable with the right build.

That is one sentence, but it tells us an awful lot about what Blizzard thinks Diablo V is supposed to be.

Diablo V Is Not Supposed to Be a Reflex Test

The timing is particularly interesting because Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson recently raised almost exactly this concern. Wilson said he was cautiously optimistic about Diablo V, but worried that the series had increasingly moved toward a more arcade-like style where player dexterity mattered more than the RPG machinery underneath. We covered Wilson's surprisingly hopeful reaction to Diablo V, including his enthusiasm for the game's darker presentation and more traditional inventory ideas.

Shely did not directly name Wilson in his statement, so this should not be treated as an official back-and-forth between the two developers. But the design philosophy he described addresses the same question almost perfectly.

You should still need to move out of the fire.

You just should not need to become Elden Lord before Diablo lets you finish the campaign.

The Build Is Supposed to Be the Answer

The important part is not that Diablo V will contain less action. It is that Blizzard apparently wants character construction to remain the primary way players solve problems. If a boss is destroying you, the answer might be better resistances, different skill interactions, another weapon, a redesigned passive setup or simply more investment into the character.

That fits remarkably well with what Blizzard has already revealed about Diablo V's attempt to make loot feel more like Diablo II. Items are supposed to have stronger visual and mechanical identities, Sets and Runewords are returning, and Blizzard has even experimented with old-fashioned stat requirements. None of those systems matter very much if every difficult encounter ultimately boils down to whether the player can press dodge at precisely the correct millisecond.

The RPG needs to be allowed to win occasionally.

That Does Not Mean Standing Still and Holding One Button

There is an obvious opposite danger here. Diablo II fans sometimes romanticize older combat to the point where one could imagine Diablo V consisting entirely of spreadsheet preparation followed by a character standing in one spot while Hell politely explodes around them.

That is not what Shely said either.

Diablo V will still contain those DEX elements. Positioning, reacting to enemy attacks and making decisions during combat remain part of the formula. The difference appears to be one of balance. Execution can improve how well you perform, but Blizzard does not want execution to replace the character-building game underneath it.

That distinction could become particularly important if Diablo V really does succeed in making character progression feel meaningful again. A world only feels dangerous if your decisions about equipment, skills and preparation visibly change how dangerous it is.

This Is Starting to Look Like a Pattern

Individually, Blizzard's Diablo V comments can look like disconnected design notes. Put them together, however, and a fairly coherent picture is beginning to appear.

We have a game where the world itself is supposed to tell stories through its ruins and survivors. We have loot moving back toward stronger identities. We have progression being reconsidered. We have more playable classes planned than any previous Diablo game. And now Blizzard is saying that the correct build should be capable of overcoming every challenge.

None of this guarantees Diablo V will suddenly become Diablo II wearing a very expensive 2029 coat. The game is still years away, and design philosophies have a habit of encountering production schedules, balance patches and millions of players doing things developers never anticipated.

But the language matters.

Blizzard is not describing Diablo V as an action game with some RPG systems attached. It is describing an ARPG where the build remains the machine at the center of everything.

You can still dodge the demon.

But apparently, the real victory

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Diablo 4’s Annihilus Mystery Is Finally Cracked: Uber Diablo Walks the Earth

For almost two weeks, Diablo IV players have known that Annihilus exists somewhere inside Season 15. We found the item in the data. We found a hidden Stone of Jordan salvage counter. We found references to Uber Diablo and the wonderfully familiar warning “Diablo Walks the Earth.” What nobody could do was make the thing actually happen. That changed on September 30. Players are now encountering Uber Diablo immediately after World Boss kills, and when the Lord of Terror goes down, he drops the long-missing Annihilus.

The Season 15 mystery is therefore half solved in the most Diablo II way imaginable.

We finally know who has Annihilus.

We still do not know what makes him show up.

“Diablo Walks the Earth” Is Finally Happening in the Live Game

The first wave of confirmed reports arrived after World Boss encounters on September 30. Players defeated bosses such as Azmodan, received the message “Diablo Walks the Earth”, and then watched Uber Diablo appear directly afterward.

Killing him produced Annihilus as a Unique Seal.

More reports quickly followed. One player initially failed to get Uber Diablo after a World Boss, then successfully spawned him after a later kill. Others reported Annihilus dropping on different Torment levels, including Torment VII, which tells us this is not simply a Torment XII reward reserved for the absolute top end.

That finally confirms the central theory behind our original Annihilus investigation. The Season 15 item was not unused data or an unfinished reward waiting for some future patch.

Uber Diablo really was standing behind the curtain.

World Bosses Are Involved, but They Are Not the Whole Trigger

This is where things remain interesting.

A World Boss kill appears to provide the opportunity for Uber Diablo to spawn, but it does not guarantee him. Several players have killed the same World Boss during the same general period and received nothing unusual afterward. Others immediately saw “Diablo Walks the Earth.”

So the recipe is not simply:

Kill World Boss. Receive Diablo. Collect Annihilus.

Something else appears to determine whether the Uber Diablo event fires.

And that brings us straight back to the biggest clue we found last week.

The Stone of Jordan Counter Is Suddenly Even More Suspicious

Datamining previously revealed that Diablo IV secretly records how many Stones of Jordan an individual character has salvaged. That was already almost impossible to ignore because Diablo II tied Uber Diablo directly to players sacrificing Stones of Jordan.

Now we know Uber Diablo genuinely exists in the live game.

That makes the hidden counter considerably more interesting.

We still cannot say that salvaging Stone of Jordan triggers him. Players have encountered Uber Diablo without being able to identify anything unusual they personally did beforehand, and some reports suggest another player in the World Boss group may have satisfied whatever requirement matters.

One player even said they were wearing Stone of Jordan “just to be safe,” which is excellent Diablo science but unfortunately not yet peer-reviewed.

The possibility of a shared trigger also fits the old Diablo II joke rather nicely. Diablo Clone was never purely an individual event. Enough Stone of Jordan sales across the relevant server eventually caused him to invade games and announce that Diablo walked the earth.

Season 15 may be doing something spiritually similar without copying the original mechanic exactly.

Annihilus Is Exactly as Ridiculous as We Expected

The reward explains why people have been chasing this secret so aggressively.

Annihilus is not merely a nostalgia trophy. Diablo IV's version is a Unique Horadric Seal capable of rolling enormous universal bonuses, including up to +10 to All Skills, alongside All Stats, resistance and bonus experience.

Those bonuses echo the original Diablo II Annihilus while translating the item into Season 15's Talisman system.

In practical terms, it is the kind of drop that causes a build planner to stop whatever it was doing and quietly open another spreadsheet.

Players are already discovering the next layer of the problem: Annihilus can roll with Set bonuses that may not match the build you are actually playing. So even after solving one of Season 15's largest mysteries, Diablo has thoughtfully preserved the traditional endgame question:

Excellent item.

Wrong version.

The September 30 Patch May Have Enabled the Encounter

The timing is difficult to ignore. Confirmed Annihilus drops began appearing after the September 30 update, and players on Blizzard's forums immediately wondered whether the patch silently enabled Uber Diablo.

There is no Annihilus or Uber Diablo line in the published Patch 3.2.2 notes.

That does not mean nothing changed server-side. Season 15 has already relied heavily on hidden content, undisclosed triggers and systems Blizzard deliberately chose not to explain. Quietly enabling the final major anniversary secret would be entirely consistent with the season's philosophy.

For now, the safest wording is that Annihilus began dropping after the update.

Whether the patch itself unlocked the encounter has not been officially confirmed.

Season 15’s Secret Checklist Just Lost Its Biggest Question Mark

Our Season 15 secret checklist has spent most of September accumulating increasingly strange discoveries. Hidden Runewords led to Diablo II equipment. Wirt's Lucky Coin opened Uber Tristram. Ogden handed out a guaranteed Harlequin Crest. Mefishto required fishing equipment because apparently somebody at Blizzard had been waiting thirty years to make that joke.

Annihilus remained the big unresolved item.

Not anymore.

We now know the final step of the chain:

Uber Diablo drops Annihilus.

What remains is discovering how Season 15 decides when Uber Diablo gets invited to the World Boss afterparty.

Do Not Salvage Your Entire Stone of Jordan Collection Yet

That warning from our previous article still stands.

The hidden SoJ salvage counter is more suspicious than ever, but nobody has yet demonstrated a reproducible sequence such as “salvage ten Stones of Jordan, kill the next World Boss and Uber Diablo appears.”

Until somebody can repeat the process deliberately, destroying valuable rings remains an experiment rather than a guide.

We finally have Annihilus.

We finally have Uber Diablo.

We finally have “Diablo Walks the Earth” appearing in actual live games rather than datamined text.

Now Season 15 has one last trick left to explain.

What, exactly, makes Diablo start walking?

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Save 38% on Diablo: Sword of Justice – A Trip Back Into Sanctuary

Diablo's 30th anniversary has understandably put most of the attention on Season 15, Diablo V and the various demons currently finding new ways to ruin Sanctuary. But if all the anniversary nostalgia has left you wanting something from the older corners of Diablo lore, Amazon currently has Diablo: Sword of Justice at 38% off. It is a 128-page hardcover graphic novel collecting the complete five-issue comic series, and unlike another evening spent farming Prime Ribs, this one can actually sit on a shelf when you are finished.

Check the current Diablo: Sword of Justice deal on Amazon

As always with Amazon discounts, prices can change without warning, so the 38% saving reflects the deal available when we spotted it.

A Diablo Story From Before Diablo III

Sword of Justice originally appeared as a five-part comic series beginning in 2011, before Diablo III had even launched. Written by Aaron Williams and illustrated by Joseph Lacroix, it follows a young man named Jacob who has fled his northern homeland after being accused of murder. Unfortunately for Jacob, Sanctuary has never been particularly good at allowing people to simply move somewhere quiet and reconsider their life choices.

Jacob begins receiving visions connected to an ancient prophecy and eventually finds himself drawn toward a weapon considerably more important than the average rusty sword lying outside Tristram: the sword of the Archangel Tyrael.

The result is one of those Diablo stories that works particularly well away from the games. Instead of beginning with a hero capable of destroying several hundred demons before lunch, it focuses on somebody being dragged into the larger mythology of Sanctuary one unpleasant revelation at a time.

Tyrael Makes This Particularly Interesting for Lore Fans

The Tyrael connection is the obvious attraction. Few Diablo characters have been involved in more of Sanctuary's history, from the destruction of the Worldstone through Diablo III and the rebuilding of the Horadrim. We have recently spent plenty of time talking about how Diablo V wants its ruined world to tell the history of what happened before, but Sword of Justice comes from an era when Blizzard and its partners were filling some of those gaps through novels and comics instead.

That also makes it a nice companion piece to Diablo's current 30th anniversary. Season 15 has spent weeks digging through the franchise's past, bringing back old bosses, Runewords and pieces of Diablo history. Sword of Justice represents another layer of that history, created long before anyone knew what Diablo IV, Lilith or the current version of Sanctuary would eventually look like.

This Is the Hardcover Collection

The Amazon listing is for Blizzard Entertainment's later hardcover edition, published in 2021. It collects the complete story in one 128-page volume rather than asking you to hunt down five individual comic issues from more than a decade ago.

That is probably the best way to approach it today. Original Diablo comics can become collector hunting projects of their own, and there are already enough Diablo systems asking us to search for obscure objects.

The hardcover gives you the entire Jacob story, Lacroix's dark Sanctuary artwork and one of the more unusual pieces of Diablo's expanded universe in a single book.

A Nice Pickup While Diablo Lore Is Everywhere Again

The timing is also unusually good. Blizzard has just announced an animated Diablo series for Netflix, Diablo V is building an entirely new era of Sanctuary, and Season 15 is essentially one enormous history lesson disguised as an ARPG season.

If that has sent you back toward the books, comics and lore that exist between the games, Sword of Justice is an easy place to start. It is self-contained, short enough to read without committing to an entire novel series and connected to one of Diablo's most important characters.

And at 38% off, it is currently cheaper than discovering you suddenly need another cosmetic from a Phantom Market.

Diablo: Sword of Justice – see the current Amazon price and discount

Sanctuary has never been especially kind to Jacob.

Amazon, for the moment, is being slightly more generous to us.

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Blizzard Says Diablo 4’s Switch 2 Compromises Are “Barely Noticeable”

Putting Diablo IV on a handheld was always going to require compromises. Sanctuary was originally built for considerably larger boxes, stronger graphics hardware and people sitting close enough to a television or monitor to appreciate every miserable corpse Blizzard carefully placed beside the road. Nintendo Switch 2 has less power to work with, yet Diablo IV Game Director Brent Gibson says the concessions Blizzard had to make are “barely noticeable.” After years of wanting Diablo IV on Nintendo hardware, his reaction to the finished version is rather simple: it was about time.

Speaking to TechRadar following BlizzCon 2026, Gibson described the Switch 2 version as something the team had wanted for a long time. The challenge was never whether Diablo made sense on a portable machine. Diablo III had already demonstrated that remarkably well on the original Switch. The problem was squeezing a much larger, more technically demanding Diablo IV onto Nintendo hardware without making it feel like the version you bought because no other version was available.

There Are Compromises. Blizzard Is Not Pretending Otherwise

We already went through the technical details in our Diablo IV Switch 2 performance breakdown, and there is no magic happening here. Performance Mode targets 40 FPS at 1080p in handheld mode. Docked Performance Mode also targets 40 FPS at 1080p, although Blizzard requires a compatible 120 Hz display. Quality Mode runs at 30 FPS, with 1080p handheld output and up to 1440p while docked.

There is no 60 FPS option.

Textures, effects and other rendering details inevitably have to fit inside a smaller performance budget than they do on a powerful PC, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. Blizzard has not discovered a secret Horadric recipe that turns Switch 2 into an RTX graphics card.

Gibson's argument is different. The compromises exist, but during actual play he believes they fade into the background quickly enough that the game still feels like Diablo IV.

Forty Frames Per Second May Be the Smart Compromise

The 40 FPS target initially looked slightly odd because console discussions normally revolve around 30 or 60. On a display capable of supporting the appropriate refresh rate, however, 40 FPS sits in a useful middle ground. It provides smoother frame pacing and more responsive combat than 30 FPS without requiring the severe visual reductions often needed to chase 60 on portable hardware.

Diablo IV is also unusually well suited to that compromise because its combat does not depend on twitch aiming or frame-perfect competitive inputs. Smoothness matters, especially when twenty demons, six explosions and half a Necromancer's extended family occupy the screen simultaneously, but a stable presentation matters more than winning a specification-sheet contest.

Early Switch 2 players have echoed some of that sentiment. Blizzard's own forums contain players praising the handheld 40 FPS mode while still reporting occasional frame pacing issues during especially busy scenes. That sounds considerably less dramatic than the sort of performance disaster people understandably feared when Diablo IV on Nintendo hardware was still only a rumor.

The Portable Format Makes Almost Too Much Sense for Diablo

The more important question is whether Diablo IV benefits from being portable enough to justify the compromises.

It does.

A surprising amount of modern Diablo consists of self-contained twenty-minute tasks. Run a Nightmare Dungeon. Finish several Whispers. Clear a few Waking Nightmares. Progress a War Plan. Farm Prime Ribs from demonic cattle for reasons that would require far too much explanation to anyone watching over your shoulder.

That structure fits handheld play extremely well. Diablo does not always require a four-hour evening with headphones and the curtains closed. Sometimes you want to clear one dungeon while sitting on a sofa and discover that the one dungeon has somehow become six.

Cross-progression makes that considerably more useful. Characters, progression and most account content can move with you between Switch 2 and other supported platforms. The handheld therefore does not need to become your new primary Diablo machine. It can simply become another door into the same account.

Touchscreen Support Is More Useful Than It Sounds

Blizzard has also done more than simply shrink the console version onto a smaller display. Switch 2 supports touchscreen navigation through most menus, the map and inventory. That sounds like a small feature until you remember how much time Diablo players spend moving through precisely those screens.

Inventory management has always been one of the slightly awkward parts of translating a mouse-driven action RPG to a controller. Diablo IV's controller interface is already good, but tapping directly on the map or inventory makes more sense on a handheld than repeatedly moving focus boxes around with an analog stick.

USB mouse and keyboard support is available too, which creates the slightly strange possibility of turning Nintendo's portable console into a tiny Diablo PC.

One feature is conspicuously absent: Joy-Con 2 mouse functionality is not supported. Blizzard confirmed that before launch, despite the feature looking like a natural fit for Diablo's PC heritage.

The Biggest Portable Compromise Has Nothing to Do With Graphics

Ironically, the Switch 2 limitation that may matter most is not the one Gibson was discussing.

Diablo IV remains an always-online game.

That requirement is much easier to ignore when playing on a desktop PC connected to home broadband. It becomes considerably more noticeable when the game is running on something designed to leave the house.

Want to play on a train? You need a connection.

Want to clear a dungeon during a flight without Wi-Fi? Sanctuary is closed.

Want to suspend the console, put it in a bag and resume hours later? Diablo IV's server connection may have other opinions.

Some Switch 2 players have already pointed out that this undermines one of the traditional advantages of owning a portable version. Blizzard can optimize shadows, texture quality and frame pacing. It cannot optimize the railway tunnel currently blocking your mobile signal.

This Is Still the Full Modern Diablo IV

What Switch 2 does not feel like is an archival version of Diablo IV arriving several years late. The Age of Hatred Collection includes the base game alongside Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred, which means Nintendo players are entering the same modern Diablo IV ecosystem as everyone else rather than beginning with the version released back in 2023.

That distinction matters even more after Blizzard confirmed that Diablo IV seasons are expected to continue even after Diablo V launches. Switch 2 is not receiving Diablo IV near the end of its useful life. Blizzard expects the game to remain active for years.

Season of Hell's Legacy is already available there, and future classes, seasonal stories and systems are intended to arrive as part of the same ongoing game.

“Barely Noticeable” Is Probably the Right Goal

A Switch 2 port was never going to become the technically definitive version of Diablo IV. Anyone expecting 4K, ray tracing and 120 FPS on a handheld was probably setting both Nintendo and mathematics an unfair challenge.

The more realistic goal is exactly what Gibson describes.

Make the compromises disappear once you actually start playing.

If you stop thinking about texture resolution halfway through a dungeon, the port has done its job. If 40 FPS feels smooth enough that you notice the monsters rather than the frame counter, the compromise worked. If cross-progression means you can put the console down and continue the same character elsewhere that evening, the Switch 2 version has justified its existence.

Diablo IV is not at its prettiest on Nintendo's handheld.

It may be at its most convenient.

And for a game built around saying “one more dungeon” far too many times, convenience can be a dangerous feature.

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Diablo Immortal’s Spawn Event Has a Big Divide Between Free Rewards and Premium Cosmetics

Spawn has officially arrived in Diablo Immortal, and Blizzard has done something slightly more interesting than simply placing a famous comic-book character inside the shop. The actual crossover contains a surprising amount of playable content that costs nothing extra: a Spawn-themed version of Survivor's Bane, six Hellspawn abilities, a Malebolgia boss fight, an event reward track, ten weapon skins and a new Legendary Gem. If you want to actually look like Spawn, however, Sanctuary suddenly remembers that it is Diablo Immortal.

The iconic Crimson Cloak lives inside a limited-time Phantom Market. Lil' Violator is attached to a separate shop bundle. Blizzard has even created an Empowered upgrade for the Spawn cosmetic with classic color variations, enhanced weapon effects and unique finisher effects.

So the collaboration has developed a remarkably clean dividing line.

Playing Spawn content is largely free.

Becoming Spawn is where the wallet enters the story.

The Free Side of the Event Is Actually Substantial

That distinction matters because it would be unfair to describe the crossover as nothing but a cosmetic sale. Blizzard's official Spawn event breakdown includes several real activities running through November 1.

Hellspawn's Bane transforms Survivor's Bane into a Spawn-themed mode with six new temporary abilities inspired by the character. Players can attack with Hell Chains, surround themselves with the K7-Leetha Cloak, fire Necroplasm, open a Hell Rift, use Spiritual Manipulation and throw Agony through groups of enemies.

A timer eventually drags the player into another version of Hell to fight Heap before returning them to the main survival arena with a temporary buff.

Then there is The Eighth Circle, where groups can fight Malebolgia himself. Blizzard has built weekly time targets and rank-based rewards around the boss, while players who earn MVP four times in team battles with at least three people can unlock an additional cosmetic reward.

That is considerably more effort than “log in, see Spawn, open shop.”

The Reward Track Gives Away Ten Spawn Weapon Skins

Hellspawn's Vengeance provides the main event progression. Completing weekly objectives across activities such as Hellspawn's Bane and The Eighth Circle earns Vengeance Marks, which advance the reward track.

Blizzard lists the rewards as including:

• 10 Hellspawn's Guise weapon skins
• 6 Spawn-themed emojis
• Hellspawned Dominion Avatar Frame
• Necroplasmic Totem Legendary Gem
• Legendary Crests
• Legendary Gear
• Set Items

The weapon skins are explicitly described by Blizzard as free Spawn-inspired weapons earned by progressing through Hellspawn's Vengeance.

That is worth emphasizing because the collaboration is not withholding every recognizable piece of Spawn behind a purchase. A player can participate in the event, use his powers, fight his villains and walk away with visible crossover gear without buying the main cosmetic.

The problem begins when you look at the cape.

The Crimson Cloak Is in the Phantom Market

Spawn without the Crimson Cloak is a little like Diablo without horns. Technically possible, perhaps, but somebody has misunderstood the assignment.

Blizzard knows this.

Hellspawn's Guise, the full Spawn-themed cosmetic featuring the legendary Crimson Cloak, is being sold through a limited-time Phantom Market rather than the event reward track. Blizzard does not present the cloak as an earnable reward from Hellspawn's Vengeance. It sits on the premium side of the collaboration.

And this time there is another layer.

Players can purchase an Empowered upgrade offering classic Spawn colorways, enhanced weapon effects and additional finisher effects. The base cosmetic therefore is not necessarily the visual endpoint. The flashiest version has its own upgrade path.

Community reaction was predictable. Diablo Immortal players are already debating the value of another Phantom Market cosmetic with additional paid enhancements, with several comments specifically objecting to the idea of paying again to complete or improve an already premium appearance.

Lil’ Violator Lives in a Separate Bundle

The Crimson Cloak is not the only famous Spawn cosmetic outside the free reward track.

Lil' Violator turns a Familiar into Violator, one of Malebolgia's most recognizable servants. It is exactly the kind of wonderfully stupid companion Diablo Immortal players are likely to enjoy seeing run beside them through Westmarch.

It is also sold separately.

Blizzard says the Violator Familiar transmog comes from the limited-time Hellbound Leash Bundle, which also contains Eternal Orbs, Legendary Crests and Gem Fragments. The bundle is available from September 29 through November 1.

There is also a separate Boon of the Hellspawn Login Bundle containing Eternal Orbs, Necroplasmic Totem, a random 2-Star Legendary Gem Selection Chest and Legendary Crests.

So the collaboration does not have one premium door.

It has several.

Necroplasmic Totem Exists on Both Sides of the Economy

The new 2-Star Necroplasmic Totem Legendary Gem is an interesting example because it crosses the divide.

The Gem appears as a reward in Hellspawn's Vengeance, but Blizzard has also added it to Legendary Gem drop pools and includes another copy inside the paid Boon of the Hellspawn bundle. Its effect surrounds the player with Necroplasm after dealing damage, increases outgoing damage temporarily and can consume a harmful periodic effect to launch an explosive Necroplasmic Bolt.

That means the gameplay item itself is not simply locked behind payment. Players participating in the collaboration can obtain it through the event, while spenders have additional acquisition paths.

That distinction matters in Diablo Immortal, where the line between cosmetic monetization and character progression has never exactly been invisible.

This Is a Better Crossover Than the Monetization Makes It Look

We already covered the full Spawn event reveal, and mechanically this remains one of Diablo Immortal's more ambitious collaborations. Players are not simply wearing Spawn clothes while running ordinary Elder Rifts. Blizzard built themed powers, a special survival activity and an actual encounter with Malebolgia.

The collaboration even brings Heap into Hellspawn's Bane and gives Violator a presence beyond another player costume.

There is obvious affection for the source material here.

Which may be exactly why the premium cosmetics sting more for Spawn fans.

The people most excited about this crossover are also the people most likely to want the cape.

Diablo Immortal Knows Exactly Which Part of Spawn You Want

That is ultimately the clever part of the monetization structure.

Blizzard gives players enough free Spawn content that the crossover feels like a real event. You can use Hell Chains. You can fire Necroplasm. You can fight Malebolgia. You can earn ten weapon skins. You can obtain Necroplasmic Totem.

Then the game places Spawn's most recognizable visual feature somewhere else.

Not his axe.

Not one of the weapon skins.

The cloak.

The enormous, living, impossible-to-ignore red cape that has been part of the character's silhouette since 1992.

Diablo Immortal did not accidentally choose the least important cosmetic for the Phantom Market.

The Divide Is Clearer Than Ever

There is something almost refreshing about how obvious the arrangement is.

The free side says: come play the crossover.

The premium side says: now look like the crossover.

Players can decide for themselves whether the Crimson Cloak, Empowered effects or Lil' Violator are worth whatever the shop ultimately asks from their account. The important thing is that none of those purchases are required to fight Malebolgia or participate in Hellspawn's Bane.

That makes the Spawn event simultaneously easier to praise and easier to criticize.

Blizzard built real crossover content instead of disguising a shop refresh as an event.

It also looked at Spawn's most iconic visual feature and knew exactly where to put it.

Hell may be free to visit.

The cape shop is on the way in.

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Diablo 5’s World Is Telling Three Stories at the Same Time

Diablo games have always been good at putting skeletons in ruined buildings and trusting the player to understand that something unfortunate happened there. Diablo V wants to take environmental storytelling considerably further. Blizzard says Sanctuary is being designed to tell three stories at the same time: the past, showing the world Diablo destroyed; the present, where humanity is desperately trying to survive his rule; and the future, revealed through areas being physically transformed into something closer to Hell. The interesting part is that these stories are not simply delivered through dialogue. They are supposed to exist in the landscape itself.

That makes Diablo V's procedural world more than a way of rearranging caves and putting the treasure chest somewhere different on Tuesday. Blizzard wants the same region to communicate where Sanctuary came from, what Diablo is doing to it now and what will happen if nobody stops the monsters currently redecorating the neighborhood.

The Past Is Written in Sanctuary’s Ruins

Diablo V begins roughly a century after Diablo IV in a world where Diablo has already won. Westmarch has fallen, Sanctuary's greatest heroes are gone and humanity survives in scattered groups rather than comfortably waiting behind city walls for adventurers to arrive.

That means much of the Western Continent is effectively an archaeological site.

Game Director Joe Shely describes the first of Diablo V's three stories as the story of the past: how Diablo conquered Sanctuary and what happened to the civilizations that lived there. Ruined castles, broken settlements and abandoned roads are supposed to tell that history before an NPC needs to explain it in a twelve-minute conversation.

Blizzard's own description puts it neatly: the ruins tell the story of what was lost.

That is important because Diablo V does not begin with the apocalypse approaching. The apocalypse already happened. You are walking through the evidence.

The Present Is About the People Still Living There

The second story belongs to the survivors. This is where Diablo V's caravan becomes more than a replacement for Kyovashad with wheels.

Traditional safe towns are largely gone. Instead, the player travels with a growing group of merchants, companions and refugees trying to survive in territory controlled by Diablo. Blizzard has already introduced examples including a former Sister of the Sightless Eye and, wonderfully, a Treasure Goblin attempting to discover what greed means when civilization has collapsed.

The caravan represents Sanctuary's present tense. These people are not legendary heroes from an ancient war. They are the ones currently living with the consequences.

That also fits Blizzard's ambition to give Diablo V what it internally calls its “best campaign ever”. The story is supposed to become more personal, with companions who travel alongside the player rather than existing as stationary quest dispensers beside a waypoint.

If the ruins tell us what Diablo destroyed, the caravan tells us what remains.

The Future Depends on Who Controls the Land

The third story is where things become considerably more Diablo.

Dread Commanders can physically reshape parts of Sanctuary through a system Blizzard calls terror-forming. These corrupted human champions serve Diablo but retain enough personality that their individual nature changes what happens to the regions they control.

A biome under one Dread Commander may not look or play exactly like the same biome under another. Terrain can change. Points of interest can move or transform. Monster populations and rewards can shift. Hell gradually pushes further into Sanctuary.

Narrative Director Jennifer Hepler says locations can therefore evolve over time, either because a Dread Commander takes control or because humanity manages to reclaim territory.

That is the future layer.

You are not only seeing the world Diablo created. You are watching what it may become next.

Procedural Generation Is Doing Narrative Work

This may be the most interesting difference between Diablo V and Diablo IV's open world. Diablo IV built an enormous Sanctuary, but once you learned the map, Scosglen remained Scosglen. The road was still there. The village was still there. The dungeon entrance had not moved because a demon woke up feeling architectural.

Diablo V wants to restore what Blizzard calls a sense of constant discovery. The overworld itself becomes more procedural, borrowing an idea from older Diablo games but applying it to a much larger space.

That means procedural generation is no longer just responsible for making two dungeon layouts slightly different. It can support the story. A changed landscape becomes evidence that something happened while you were away.

This also helps explain why Blizzard is taking a different approach to progression and level scaling. If the world keeps changing, revisiting old territory needs to feel useful without making every return trip feel identical.

Diablo Is Supposed to Be Everywhere Without Standing Everywhere

There is another clever part to the three-story idea. Blizzard has made Diablo the central villain from the beginning, but the Lord of Terror cannot physically stand behind every tree waiting to remind you that he won.

The landscape can do that instead.

A ruined fortress tells you what his victory cost.

A starving caravan tells you what his reign means today.

A Dread Commander twisting a region into something increasingly infernal tells you where the world is heading.

Diablo becomes present even when he is not on screen.

That may ultimately matter more than giving him another enormous boss entrance.

The World Has to Remember What Happened

Diablo V is still nearly three years away, and Blizzard has deliberately revealed the game early so these systems can change through testing and feedback. We covered that unusual strategy when Blizzard explained why it announced Diablo V so far ahead of launch.

So “three stories” is currently a design philosophy, not a guarantee that every ruined mill will contain a beautifully constructed historical narrative about the farmer who once owned it.

But the idea is strong.

Diablo has conquered Sanctuary.

The important question is not simply what the world looks like afterward.

It is whether the world remembers how it got there, shows what survival looks like now and makes you worry about what it will look like tomorrow.

Diablo V wants the answer written directly into the ground beneath your feet.

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