Diablo IV's Endgame Is Going to Keep You Captive

The developers at Blizzard are working some devilry behind the scenes, hellbent on keeping you captivated for hours on end. What better way to fuel your desire to play Diablo IV than through loot, with so many different ways to obtain it. The endgame activities in Diablo IV are numerous and varied, but they might also seem a little intimidating.

That's where we have you covered. Blizzard held an hourlong Q&A session to answer any and every question pertaining to Diablo IV's endgame content. You can also check out our article on these endgame features along with a video of several developers explaining these systems. We had the chance to speak to Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora and Lead Game Producer Kayleigh Calder to learn a bit more about what these features entail.

What Does Diablo IV's Endgame Look Like?

To dive into the type of endgame content players can expect after reaching the max level of 100 in Diablo IV, there are quite a few different activities. There's the option to increase the difficulty of the Diablo IV world -- these are called World Tiers. With higher difficulty comes more loot, operating on the same principle as Torment did in Diablo III.

Likewise, Diablo III had rifts, which incentivized players pushing higher and higher difficulties in order to obtain more loot and complete their build; in a similar vein, we now have Nightmare Dungeons. There are over 120 templates based on dungeons we will stumble across in the open world, featuring varying difficulties and objectives to keep players coming back.

Other systems include the Tree of Whispers which grants players different bounties to complete, and thus grant a currency which can be exchanged for better loot. There's a PvP-focused zone called the Fields of Hatred, which will also grant rewards based on performance and the amount of "shards" you collect -- be careful, as players might ambush you and take these for themselves. And of course, the Paragon system returns to further enhance your endgame stats. This is not an exhaustive list, but summarizes the bulk of Diablo IV's initial endgame offerings.

How Diablo IV's Battle Pass Works

But what about the battle pass? When you've finished the main story and reached max level, the battle pass will remain. With multiple battle passes planned through the life of Diablo IV -- which is, by the way, a live-service game -- you can definitely expect to grind these out along with other endgame activities.

The so-called "fuel" to drive the battle pass, as Piepiora describes it, is favor. Completing just about any activity in Diablo IV will grant said favor. There's also a "season journey" that grants favor for every pass, which has objectives similar to Diablo III's seasons. Overall, Piepiora predicts the battle pass may take up to 80 hours in order to complete it in its entirety.

"We feel the players are likely to probably finish the battle pass before they actually reach maximum level in the season," said Piepiora. "So, we think that there can be enough activities guiding the player back towards the the Battle Pass via the season journey and the other rewards they'll be earning - they'll be making natural progress as they play during that season."

What to Do in Diablo IV's Open World

While you're exploring this large, open world, you'll be completing more than just your battle pass. Many of these endgame activities take place within Diablo IV's vast, open world, though you might see some familiar locations. While other games in the series relied on a procedurally generated overworld, Diablo IV's environments outside of dungeons are set in stone. If players are going to spend hundreds of hours playing Diablo IV, Blizzard wants to make things feel fresh and lived in. Piepiora describes the overworld as a palette upon which the Diablo IV team can paint upon. Random activities will occur for players such as random werewolf attacks or stumbling upon a lost child.

"So that's what we're going to continue to play with," said Piepiora, "but right now the best way to think of it is we don't to just change the environment and just eliminate this forest and like, add this new path as part of it. That's not really the way we want to look at it -- we want to look at what are the things we can do in this space that players already know, subvert their expectations and continue to iterate and improve upon these ideas."

With that in mind, it's easy to imagine a Diablo IV world that can change dynamically with limited-time events or seasons. Like Epic Games' Fortnite or even Blizzard's World of Warcraft, this overworld described as a "palette" is ripe for limited-time events. Only time will tell if this is the direction Blizzard wishes to take with Diablo IV, though Piepora's words bring many possibilities to mind.

Of course, there are some limited-time events already implemented in this world. In fact, there's activities galore -- even world bosses to fight. This group activity will gather players all across the game world on take on a gigantic and all-powerful monster, but some players will likely take a step further and fight these world bosses by themselves. If you don't think that's possible, someone already did it in the Diablo IV beta. The player that did this in the beta surely reached the height of power available, so that begs the question: what happens when players reach level 100 and completely optimize their build? Is there a ceiling players can achieve? Rest assured, Blizzard is watching.

"We're super engaged to see what players are going to do," said Calder. "Because for all the planning and everything that we can kind of get set up once we kind of release the game, it's going to be really, really fun to see all the ways players approach the game and take all the tools we've given them and build characters and classes and things in ways that we didn't imagine they would and find really interesting combinations."

Piepiora mentions the inclusion of a "pinnacle level challenge" in Diablo IV, which should test players with even the most refined and optimized builds. As Diablo IV is considered a live-service game by Blizzard, more challenges should come throughout the life of the game and provide ample obstacles for those who reach the peak. It definitely seems as though reaching the endgame is in fact the true beginning for Diablo IV. With years worth of support planned, gamers are going to be grinding it out for a long time, indeed.