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Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred is a real return to form for Blizzard. Even though I'm normally done and dusted a couple of weeks into a new season, I'm still playing nearly a month later and don't feel like putting it down anytime soon. The player retention this season has been incredible if Steam numbers are to go by, though it's obviously not an exact science since the majority of the player base is on Battle.net and Xbox.
There is still one thing that everyone continues to argue about, though, and it's the Diablo 4 shop. Now, I'm not against the cash shop at all; in fact, admitting that I use it now and again is a more controversial stance in the community than being flat-out against it. But I do see why many people have an issue with it. It has always felt a bit "ick" and quintessentially not Diablo, that store-bought cosmetics, with their flashy packaged VFX, look infinitely cooler than anything that can be found out in the wild.
With the release of Lord of Hatred, however, I think Blizzard has finally struck a balance, and it's all down to the secrets and mad goose chases they've thrown at the player base. Suddenly, I'm not wearing anything I purchased in the shop. I've replaced it all with items that tell every other player in the game that I've actually played it and put in a hell of a lot of hours to earn them.
The Myth, the Legend, the Cow Level
For the longest time for Diablo 4 fans, the Cow Level was just a whisper and a bunch of weirdly data-mined items. But with this expansion, it finally became a reality.
However, there are two routes to get there. The first being the most rewarding, and requiring a convoluted set of steps to achieve. The second being getting another player who HAS done the convoluted steps to "Moo" at you in-game.
Now, the easy route may sound appealing, and it will give you access to the level and its udderly useless Mythic Unique Cow King's Crown. But only by going through the laborious route do you unlock the ability to "Moo" via the emote wheel and earn the exclusive "Moo Moo" player title.
When I stand in town or at a World Boss and Moo at passing players, they know exactly the trials I went through to obtain the privilege.
Small confession: I only actually went through about 30% of the process myself. I got some help from players on a dedicated Cow Level Discord for the first few steps, but it encouraged a level of community participation the likes of which I haven't seen in the game since launch.
Shadows of the Pit: Choron the Lost
There's another deep endgame grind tied to a secret boss encounter in The Pit. If you pay close attention to the environment and follow a trail of cryptic slabs across different tiers, you can force a secret boss to spawn: Choron. Defeating him unlocks the titles "Choron's" and "The Lost." Naturally, I'm now running around the game with "Choron's Moo" equipped as a double humble brag.
This one is relatively straightforward to explain: you need to head into The Pit starting at tier levels 1, 6, 11, 16, and keep going up every 5 levels. On the first floor of each instance, your character will mutter, "Curse this place, I'm being followed," which indicates there is a lore slab nearby to read.
Keep clicking these all the way up to tier 96. You'll know you've finished the sequence once your player stops chuntering that annoying phrase. When Choron actually shows up as the Pit Boss is entirely random; for me, it took about three Pit runs after completing the slabs.
Surviving the Echoing Hatred
But my absolute favorite piece of earned loot right now comes from the Echoing Hatred event. Just getting the damn thing to trigger is an RNG nightmare, as the required item drop is incredibly rare. I am currently Paragon 228 and I've only managed to get one of these events to drop for myself. Thankfully, I was able to unlock the goodies through group play with a friend who got the drop.
If you manage to find one, you're thrown into a scaling horde event that pushes your character to the absolute limit. Starting at Normal and ascending through the Torment levels, you need to survive long enough and handle the shrines correctly to walk away with a gorgeous new portal skin and a tiny, hilarious "crab with a knife" pet.
Seeing that little blade-wielding crab scuttling alongside me brings me more joy than any premium shop bundle ever could.
How to Unlock theHowling Mouth of Madness Portal
In the Echoing Hatred event, activate the Shrines in the following order and during these specific tier levels:
- Tiers 1-9: Immunity Shrine
- Tiers 10-14: Artillery Shrine
- Tiers 15-19: Lethal Shrine
- Tiers 20-24: Channeling Shrine
The Crab with a Knife Pet
Securing your knife-wielding crustacean companion is a pure test of survival. You must endure the scaling difficulty all the way up to Tier 60.
That being said, it requires absolutely no specific shrine trickery. Because of this, you can either push deep to hit Tier 60 on the exact same run you trigger the portal, or comfortably split it into a separate attempt purely focused on your build's defensive capabilities.
The return of the true ARPG flex
All of these quirky secrets and convoluted questlines are exactly what Diablo 4 needed to bring back the fun factor. I've been having so much fun tracking these items down, and it really harkens back to my Diablo 3 days when we didn't have a cash shop to look cool. We just had to spend ungodly hours hunting down Rainbow Goblins and endlessly farming Whimsyshire for the tiny chance of catching some Cosmic Wings.
The thrill of the chase is what it's all about. Having these deep ingame pursuits actually makes the cash shop feel a lot less offensive, because nothing I can buy in there will ever give me as much joy as that tiny, violent crab. Shop skins just prove you have disposable income; a Moo emote proves you have dedication.
That being said, there's always more that could be done. I still think it couldn't kill Blizzard to drop a couple of full, high-quality character skins into the reward pool for completing these monumental hidden quests. The small bits and pieces we can earn from the free Reliquary just don't compare. Even so, this season has been a monumental leapquake in the right direction, and the proof is right there in the player retention.
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