Make Sanctuary Yours—Play Your Way in Diablo IV
Customization is a cornerstone of Diablo IV. From how your character looks, to the Skills they wield, to the appearance of their Gear and Mount, Diablo IV empowers players with a level of agency never previously offered in a Diablo game. The decision of what type of wanderer you want to play in the world of Sanctuary begins at the Class selection screen and follows you into the Endgame. It’s up to YOU to decide how your character will grow and evolve as they pursue Lilith.
Watch the latest Inside the Game developer video on player choice and continue reading for more insight into the customization available to players. Plus, learn how you can play Diablo IV from May 12–14 during Server Slam.
Codex
Watch the Newest Inside the Game Developer Video
Launch System Requirements for PC
Help Us Prepare for Launch During Server Slam
Pre-Purchase the Diablo IV Ultimate Edition
Watch the Newest Inside the Game Developer Video
Over the course of our Inside the Game video series, we’ll sit down with our resident Diablo IV experts—members of the development team—to walk you through elements of the game.
Our third video in this series is Your Class Your Way—an exploration of how player choice is infused in character creation, character builds, gear, and even how you decide to navigate the non-linear story of Diablo IV.
Join Diablo franchise general manager Rod Fergusson, lead class designer Adam Jackson, lead game producer Melissa Corning, and game director Joe Shely as they expound upon how your decisions will define your gameplay experience, and even Sanctuary itself.
Enjoyed this video and hungry for more? Stay tuned! Our next Inside the Game developer video focuses on Story and will release in mid-May. Keep an eye out on our news site or official Diablo YouTube channel for more details.
Play Your Way in Sanctuary
Throughout Diablo IV, you will be presented with choices—everything from how your character looks, what Skills they’ll use to dispatch of Hell’s blood lusting minions, and how the gear you find will enhance your character’s abilities or transform their appearance.
Let’s look further into how these elements work to promote playing Diablo IV your way.
Character Build
Skill Tree: The Skill Tree provides you with a variety of playstyles for each class through Skills, Passive Skills, Enhancements, and Key Passives as your character levels up and hones their abilities. Skill Points are earned from Leveling up and Zone Progress Rewards. Up to 5 Skill Points can be spent on each Skill to increase its rank.
Developer’s Note: Our focus is to provide enough contextual connection between Skills, Passive Skills, and Key Passives for players to understand the essential synergies of their class. By the time players reach Level 50, they’ll have a deep understanding of how their class is meant to function, preparing them for the additional depth found in the Paragon Boards and other Endgame content.
Skill Tree Nodes: Each Class has access to Basic, Core, and Ultimate Skills, as well as Key Passives and Skill types unique to that Class, such as Companion, Brawling, Subterfuge, and many more.
Basic Skills: These are the first Skills a player can access; they unlock at Level 2. Outside of character creation, this is one of the earliest decisions a player will make. Basic Skills typically provide additional effects such as increasing the effectiveness of other Skills, providing resource generation, increasing mobility, or adding utility to your character. These Skills can always be used and do not have a cooldown or resource cost to cast.
Core Skills: The older, stronger sibling of Basic Skills—they are unlocked at Level 4. Core Skills deal significantly more damage, require an amount of a Class’s resource to cast, and will often be the bread and butter of your character’s offensive combos.
Ultimate Skills: These Skills incur a cooldown after being used but you’ll be extremely grateful for having them in your arsenal. Ultimate Skills channel immense power and leave devastation in their wake.
Key Passives: Unlocked at Level 32, Key Passives dramatically affect how your other Skills operate, tweaking your playstyle towards a unified goal as you unlock them.
Paragon Boards: Unlocking upon reaching level 50, Paragon Boards are an Endgame character growth system designed to empower your wanderer. As your character continues their journey to Level 100, they will receive Paragon Points. These points can be used to unlock new Nodes, additional Paragon Boards, and even Glyphs from Nightmare Dungeons that amplify the power of the Nodes on a particular Paragon Board.
Cosmetics and Character Creation
Character Creation: Sanctuary is a diverse world with a variety of unique cultures. The Character Creator in Diablo IV echoes this sentiment with over 8 trillion appearance combinations. Each class boasts unique hairstyle selections and players can dictate their appearance down to eye color, body markings, accessories, and more.
Transmogs: Salvage loot in your inventory to unlock transmog options, allowing armor to have the visual design and color palate you prefer. Diablo IV will launch with hundreds of transmog options.
Mounts: Unlocked through completing a questline as you progress naturally through the main story campaign, Mounts have an assortment of customization options available to them, such as different types of Mounts, Armor, and Trophies. An example of this is the Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy reward that can be earned from the upcoming Server Slam. These adornments will transform your trusty ol’ steed into one hell of a warhorse. Mount Trophies can be attached to the flank or saddle of your horse. There are dozens of Trophies to be found in Sanctuary.
Once a Mount is unlocked, it can be used in all game modes for any and all characters the player creates.
Gear
Legendary Items: These powerful items possess the ability to enhance or change your Skills and lend other helpful bonuses to your character.
No Legendary left behind: If you happen to leave a Legendary Item on the ground or are disconnected before you can acquire it, don’t fret—they can be accessed through a special storage tab in your Stash. Your Stash only has so much room; remember to empty it out from time to time.
Unique Items: Unlike Legendary Items, these rarefied pieces of Gear should be coveted. The bonuses they provide cannot be transferred from one item to another through extraction (more on this below). Dozens of these high-powered, build-changing items will be available at launch, so keep your eyes peeled for the off chance that you may encounter one. Unique Items can only be acquired in Nightmare and Torment World Tiers. Also, treasures from a bygone era have been unearthed in Diablo IV—Unique Items from previous Diablo games, such as Windforce, have returned!
Skill Rank Bonuses: Most item types have a chance to contain a bonus that provides players with an increase to certain Skills while the item is equipped. These Skill Rank bonuses can not only bolster the strength of existing Skills you have unlocked, but can also unlock new Skills from your Class’s Skill Tree, giving you the ability to trial more Skills before committing to them. Skill Rank bonuses can increase the Rank of a Skill past 5, lending an added punch to them.
Extracting Legendary Bonuses: Have a Legendary Item with a bonus you adore but the other stats are too weak? Extracting allows you to take the Legendary bonus from one item and apply it to other items, enabling you to tailor your items to your specific build and have your favorite bonuses on hand.
Crafting: In Diablo IV, we’re trying to emphasize item modification. We want players to find items in the world and consider the potential they hold. Players can reroll bonuses, increase the power of items, exchange Legendary bonuses, and add gem sockets to items.
Launch System Requirements for PC
You may be prepared to storm into Sanctuary on June 6, but do you know which settings will pair best with your PC? We have provided multiple tiers of PC spec requirements based upon data from our Early Access and Open Beta weekends to ensure the settings you choose suit your playing preferences and hardware. The four spec tiers listed below will be available in both the Server Slam and launch build of Diablo IV.
Minimum Spec Requirements
Settings to run Diablo IV at 1080p native resolution/720p render resolution, low graphics settings, and 30fps.
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10 version 1909 or newer
- Processor: Intel® Core i5-2500K or AMD™ FX-8350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 or AMD Radeon™ R9 280 or Intel® Arc™ A380
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 90 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
Medium Spec Requirements
Settings to run Diablo IV at 1080p resolution, medium graphics settings, and 60fps.
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10 version 1909 or newer
- Processor: Intel® Core i5-4670K or AMD™ R3-1300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970 or AMD Radeon™ RX 470
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 90 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
High Spec Requirements
Settings to run Diablo IV at 1080p resolution, high graphics settings, and 60fps.
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10 version 1909 or newer
- Processor: Intel® Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen™ 2700X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT or Intel® Arc™ A770
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 90 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
Ultra 4K Spec Requirements
Settings to run Diablo IV at 4K resolution, ultra graphics settings, and 60fps.
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10 version 1909 or newer
- Processor: Intel® Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen™ 7 2700X
- Memory: 32 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 3080; NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 40 Series for fully supported DLSS3 or AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 90 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
*Diablo IV will attempt to run on hardware below minimum specifications, including HDDs, dual-core CPUs, and Integrated GPUs. However, the game experience may be significantly diminished.
Help Us Prepare for Launch During Server Slam
Server Slam runs from May 12, 12 p.m.–May 14, 12 p.m. PDT. Everyone can take up arms against the armies of the Burning Hells to help us test the durability of our servers on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4—along with couch co-op for consoles and cross-play and cross-progression for all platforms.
For information on the Server Slam’s contents, rewards, and how to download it early, visit our Server Slam blog.
Be Prepared to Enter Hell’s Gates
If you have not already pre-purchased the Diablo IV Ultimate Edition for your platform of choice and want up to 4 days of Early Access to launch, visit the shop.
And remember…
Hail Lilith, Blessed Mother!
-The Diablo IV Team