Diablo Immortal Gameplay Overview: Everything You Need to Know
The Technical Alpha is a small-scale, early test of Diablo Immortal that will primarily include players from Australia. You can find more details on the Technical Alpha in our Alpha Announcement blog, but even if your region isn’t part of the test, we’re not going to leave you in the dark.
Whether you’re a first-time Diablo player or a veteran of the fight against the Burning Hells, you should expect classically fast-paced, visceral gameplay from Diablo Immortal. We’re building the game to have deep and rewarding action-RPG systems for both solo and group play: gear progression, dungeon runs, rifts, gem-crafting, ranking up items, and even more still in development. Today, we’re going to detail several systems that’ll be playable in the alpha.
Welcome to Sanctuary
Diablo Immortal bridges the story between Diablo II and Diablo III. Five years after the destruction of the Worldstone, Sanctuary is thrown into despair as ancient evils gather and exploit pieces of the artifact, putting humanity in more peril than ever before.
In a moment of desperation, the archangel Tyrael destroyed the corrupted Worldstone, thinking his sacrifice would be a worthy price to end its dark influence. Yet, even in pieces, the Worldstone’s shards continue to befoul everything in their reach. New heroes are all that can stop the world from plummeting into utter chaos.
Adventurers will travel the breadth of Sanctuary to locate the Worldstone shards and finish what Tyrael started. With the help of the last Horadrim, Deckard Cain, you'll confront reawakened evils such as the Skeleton King and his Queen, cultists who worship the bloodthirsty Countess, and corrupted rogues once led by Akara. With Diablo defeated, will the other minions of Hell rise up to start their own reign of terror? Will these evils rally behind Skarn, a lieutenant of Hell?
Exploring the World
Your adventure begins in Wortham, where you’ll journey through an unholy forest to the town center. You’ll hunt the shards of the Worldstone through the undead-overrun Ashwold Cemetery, the cursed forests of the Dark Wood, and beneath the sands of the Shassar Sea. We’re including six distinctive zones in the alpha--each with unique horrors, quests, and loot. Travel to and from zones is achieved via waypoints you’ll discover as you explore.
Dungeons are prime to explore for loot and lore, as well as progressing through the main story. Dungeons in Diablo Immortal can be completed in 10-15 minutes (solo or in a party), and they are filled with monsters, gear and items. They also hold answers to some of the greatest mysteries hidden in Sanctuary’s past.
Slay Endlessly in Rifts
Rifts are one of Diablo Immortal’s most replayable endgame modes: step through one, and tackle ferociously difficult monsters in a randomly generated map on a time limit. They're a goldmine of loot and an opportunity to test yourself.
Challenge Rifts let you prove your skills and earn rewards the first time you complete each difficulty level. You’ll also acquire rewards based on your placement on the weekly Challenge Rift leaderboard.
Elder Rifts can be modified for increased variety and rewards with Crests: a stackable, Rift-specific item new to Diablo Immortal. Using Crests, random modifiers will be added to your Rift that can add positive or negative effects to your next run. Moreover, the increased effort yields greater rewards for the entire party—using a rare Crest will guarantee a Rune drop, and a Legendary Crest will guarantee that everyone receives a Legendary Gem.
Play Solo or Together
In Diablo Immortal, you can play alone or with any of the other adventurers you will encounter as you explore the world. Each zone can host dozens of other players with whom you can join forces to tackle large-scale zone events and special quests that require multiple participants. If you encounter anyone you want to adventure with, you have the option to create a party of up to 4 players to continue the fun, or to form a guild to create lasting bonds and unlock even more social activities.
Westmarch, City of the Light
As respite from your travels, you’ll often find yourself returning to the city of Westmarch, a thriving kingdom and the capital city that hosts a ton of activities in Diablo Immortal. Here, you can access your stash, trade at the market, visit vendors (including jewelcrafters and blacksmiths who’ll help optimize your equipment), adjust the difficulty of your game, recruit fellow adventurers to join you, step into Elder Rifts, and even take on challenges posted on the city’s Bounty Boards to hunt down targets all over Sanctuary.
Choosing your Destiny
In Technical Alpha, we’re rolling out four classes, all of which are returning favorites from previous Diablo games. Every class boasts a unique playstyle and devastating Ultimate abilities to unleash on your enemies when the time is right.
Each class in Diablo Immortal offers extensive versatility in skill progression. Throughout your hunt for the Worldstone shards, you’ll be able to personalize your build and fine-tune your character to play the way you want.
The four classes playable in the alpha are the Barbarian, Monk, Wizard and Demon Hunter. We're planning to release games more classes in future updates, including the Crusader and Necromancer.
Perfecting your Build with Paragon Levels
Hitting the level cap won’t be the end of your character progression. Paragon leveling returns, modified from its first iteration in Diablo III to fit the gameplay of Diablo Immortal and evolve a familiar Diablo gameplay system.
As in Diablo III, Paragon leveling unlocks upon reaching max level in Diablo Immortal. Upon unlock, you will have access to Paragon trees, each featuring several paths of powerful, learnable abilities with branching points—similar to Diablo II’s skill trees—for robust endgame build customization.
You can find more detail about the classes, skills, and paragon system in our progression blog.
Gearing up
Like in every Diablo game, diverse and build-defining loot is at the heart of Diablo Immortal. You’ll find gear dropped by monsters or purchase it from NPC vendors with gold. All your gear is found through play; rare and legendary gear can be ranked up with salvaged materials.
Legendary Gems, Runes and Charms
Gems can be added to a socketed piece of gear to increase its base stats. Normal gems provide increased stats such as strength or agility, while Legendary Gems also provide new capabilities, changing up your build and the way you play.
For more endgame progression, you can upgrade Legendary Gems by visiting a jewelcrafter in Westmarch. You'll use Runes, a drop also found in Elder Rifts, to craft Legendary Gems.
Charms are another avenue for customization in Diablo Immortal; they occupy their own gear slot and carry between one and five bonuses that increase the rank of your skills.
To find more detail on all the tantalizing loot you can acquire in Diablo Immortal, including Legendary Gems, Charms, and Runes, check out our itemization blog.
Our goal for Diablo Immortal is to offer up the dark fantasy storytelling, deep itemization, and action-RPG gameplay systems that are core to the Diablo experience. To read even more about what’s going into the game, check out our itemization and progression deep-dive blogs or return here over the coming months for updates on how the game’s coming along. Thanks for your patience as the team works hard on getting everything in Diablo Immortal just right—we’re excited to share more with you soon!