Diablo IV: Hardcore Mode

Another day; another crypto crash!

And what better way to ignore my diminishing bags by ignoring it completely and continuing on this absurd video game binge session! Reminds me of the "good" old days for sure! I've reached a certain point of burnout where hopefully I can get back to the regularly scheduled programming here soon™, but for now there is still a surprising amount to say about this game.

First off, I got a taste of hardcore mode today.

Booted up a new character and died before even hitting level 10 after attempting a single dungeon. I got killed on a werewolf boss trying to farm an aspect for my account... and died from running out of potions... which is actually insane.

Why is it insane to die from running out of potions at level 8? Because I've never died that way or even gotten close to dying that way on my "normal" mode character after 52 levels. Of course if you ask me "normal" mode should be called "practice" mode and "hardcore" should be the "normal" version of the game. Too many mechanics in this game revolve around hardcore mode to ignore this distinction.

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Step 1: Difficulty settings.

At at the center of town there is a downright offensive fountain/statue of the anti-hero angel of the story that allows us to change the difficulty.

As an extremely seasoned Diablo player, I can't seem to stay away from the "veteran" setting, even on hardcore mode. This is almost certainly the reason why I died... that combined with the fact that I was attempting a fire build and still very low level with very little in terms of defensive abilities and zero gear. Also it just kind of seemed like the game just didn't feel like dropping health potions for me during that fight. It was a bit strange honestly and took me quite off guard. However, much better to get a taste of a hardcore death immediately than after playing a hardcore character for a good chunk of time only to be left with nothing.

Step 2: But are you really left with nothing?

My gold and Obol currencies carried on to the rest of my account. The only assets you lose when you die in hardcore are your character, everything your character was wearing, and all the items in your inventory. Anything you saved in the "stash" is safe and can be used by other characters.

I've seen a lot of people complain about losing level 40 hardcore characters (just jumping directly into the hellfire aren't they?). Diving head first into hardcore isn't the greatest idea for a couple of reasons. First of all, you should be farming up items for alts and assume you're going to die because staying alive is quite difficult. You should always have several alts going with a nice set of gear to power level them up in the wake of the main character's death. Not planning for this inevitable outcome is quite suicidal in terms of the account's progression.
 

Step: 3: The account progression

Diablo 4 has several impressive upgrades to the system for hardcore mode. Dying in D4 isn't the end, and more than just gold and obols and items within the stash progress to the next attempt. Three other key elements carry over as well.

• Altars of Lilith
• Codex legendary enchantements
• Renown bonuses.
   
  

Altars of Lilith

According to the renown infographic there are over 100 altars of Lilith scattered throughout Sanctuary. Each one gives PERMANANT bonuses to the stats of all players on the account, even if they are level one. If you find a bunch of Altars on your main account you'll find that all those stats also apply to new characters you make later... which gives leveling up a new character after dying a bit more of a silver lining to the sick taste of defeat.

Codex dungeons

Whenever you complete a codex dungeon that codex becomes unlocked forever, allowing lower level characters access to very powerful abilities. Once enough of these upgrades are unlocked on an account I'm sure "Veteran" mode is much easier to survive than it was for my unsuspecting level 8 fire mage.

Renown

Renown is an absolutely insane bonus. There are 5 zones in this version of Sanctuary, and each one of them provides the above bonuses. Rather than rushing through the storyline and trying to beat the game as fast as possible, if you're a completionist like me you'll end up getting some very serious permanent rewards for your characters.

Earning enough renown in a particular zone first unlocks +1 skill points to all your characters... then after that you get +1 potion capacity (which is huge), and then after that you get another +1 skill. If you're able to get all these bonuses in every zone on hardcore mode... well then you'll go from being able to carry 4 potions to being able to carry 9 at a time, and you'll have 10 levels worth of skillpoints to spend right at level one... which again is crazy good.

Renown can be earned in a variety of ways: which are shown on the tooltip.

• Finding a waypoint
• Defeating a stronghold (biggest reward of +100 renown)
• Side Quests (which give good xp and rewards anyway)
• Discovering Areas
• Side dungeons (which also give Codexes)
• Finding altars (which also give perma stat points)

Basically everything in the game you would avoid if you were doing a speed run will give you renown, which I find to be a pretty nice way of doing it with unbelievable permanent bonuses.
 

A note about the necromancer

After dying with my level 8 boondoggle I created a necro against my better judgement... actually more like against my worst judgment because I hate mindless pets following me around.

Necro is actually pretty cool.

Not only did they fix the Necro spell resource (called "essence" instead of "mana") but also there are a ton of really nice options to choose from. In fact we can see in the screenshot above that you can completely sacrifice your ability to summon skeletons and trade it in for a big attack bonus (like 5% crit). Very cool... it's like they read my mind. It looks like necromancers can also do other cool things like create a thorns build and minions end up inheriting the stats that you're avatar has.

I bring up the necro because it is probably hands down the safest class to start with on hardcore mode... but again don't be an idiot masochist like me and demand to play veteran mode. It's so dangerous when you have no bonuses and gear... then again I love the thrill so I'll probably keep banging my head into a wall and see what happens.

Salvage materials and herbs

Another thing I forgot to mention that doesn't get lost are salvage and herbs. In fact even though my last post on crafting was 2000+ words long I still managed to forget to mention the entire flask system. Long story long only one flask can be used at a time, they last for 30 minutes, and they all provide +5% XP. I suggest crafting a bunch of something neutrally good like +attack speed that any character will benefit from. Of course there are some really nice +20% damage bonuses if you happen to be farming a certain type of mob (like humanoids/beasts/undead)
 

 

Step 4: Don't do it!

There are many reasons to not play hardcore right now. There are still some bugs to work out... and early access ends... basically right now. The floodgates to hell are going to open and the chance of getting merked by technical difficulty is high. It's bad enough dying and losing everything when it's your own damn fault let alone it being a technical error. Of course I've played hardcore mode on a 56k modem (and did PKK PvP) so my rage knows no bounds on that front.

There's also a weird lag bug that seemingly doesn't allow you to use any of your spells but you can still use potions... also watch out for accidentally opening the chat window which also breaks hotkeys until it gets closed.

Step 5: Overall Hardcore strategy:

• Play the easiest difficulty unless you have gear and renown/altar bonuses.
• Play a character that's less likely to die (like necro).
      * or
• Get survival skills and survival gear and make it a priority.
     * Glass cannons end up dead.
         * Mages literally have an passive called glass cannon (don't get it)
• Play more of a completionist strategy and try to find altars and get renown in the area until you get those +2 skills and +1 potion.
   

Gear

So much gear drops in this game... and on "normal" mode you basically just salvage all of it. With hardcore mode it actually makes sense to be a lot more discerning and actually use all that stash space they give us (50 items per slot). Twinking out characters is a time-honored tradition in the Diablo series, especially in hardcore mode when you never know what day will be your main's last within this unforgiving world.
 

Farming obols on low level accounts.

Another very good strategy for hardcore mode would be to farm Obols are lower level alts and spend them on a higher level character. That way the items that get rolled cost the same amount of Obols but have a much higher level requirement and chance of being permanently useful (until you die wearing the item). Again it seems like there's around a 25% chance to roll a legendary item with Obols so it's an extremely good currency, even if just used for salvage or ripping aspects from them.

Buy from vendors

NPC vendors also make a lot more sense on hardcore. Because all your gold transfers over, your level 1 alt character might have access to a million gold from your dead main. This makes it a lot more worth it to check vendors to see if they are actually selling anything good. It's possible you find a good generic item that helps you level up a dozen different avatars down the road.

Conclusion

Whelp, by the time I publish this D4 will be officially launched and everyone that didn't get early access will be able to play. Hopefully there are no bottleneck problems on that front, but their literally always are with Blizzard games no matter what so who am I kidding?

I somewhat wish I had never started my "eternal" character to begin with. Of course I've died like 5 times already so I'd be pretty enraged by now but still the thrill of hardcore mode can not be overstated. The adrenaline rush you can get from almost dying as you teeter on the edge is quite the thing. Even dying and losing it all ends up being part of the experience. Without risk this game becomes extremely boring. Anyone can play normal mode and get to max level no matter how good or bad they are at the game: it's just a grind. Hardcore takes actual skill, and every mechanic in the game seems to be tailored to it.

Without the ability to take risk the game becomes stale extremely quickly. There is basically no penalty from dying in the "normal" version of the game. It's not even a slap on the wrist. You just respawn and keep playing right where you left off. PATHETIC! I miss hardcore mode for sure and will try to jump back into it after I know the servers are going to get decimated. Fun times. Very nostalgic for sure.