Diablo IV Closed Beta Will Focus on End-Game, Release Later This Year

Earlier today, Blizzard released a brand new Diablo IV developer update about the game’s upcoming closed beta. The biggest news from the video is that the closed beta taking place later this year will mainly focus on end-game content for the game.

While it’s common for game betas to drop a player into the game at some point other than the beginning, having players start out with end-game content is certainly not the norm. However, the explanation for why the Diablo IV closed beta is skipping past the end of the main story is to keep players from encountering any story spoilers.

It was also stated in the dev update blog post that, “…we want to ensure it feels satisfying, and with no shortage of challenging variety to experience across many, many demon-slaying gaming sessions.” As a part of this variety, there will be five major offerings available to players selected for the closed beta. They are Helltide, Nightmare Dungeons, Whispers of the Dead, Fields of Hatred, and Paragon Boards.

Helltide is a region-wide event that is available to players who are World Tier Three: Nightmare difficulty. Extremely difficult enemies will appear in the region where a Helltide is occurring and will drop Cinders when defeated. These Cinders are a currency that can be used to open Helltide chests which hold tons of valuable loot. Dying will cause you to drop all of your Cinders, however, they can be reclaimed.

Nightmare Dungeons are a highly difficult type of dungeon that are unlocked after finding your first Nightmare Sigil. Finding additional sigils will make enemies in the dungeons more difficult while raising the quality of the loot enemies in these dungeons drop.

Whisper of the Dead is a type of mission system where the player can see multiple Whispers around the map. Locating them and completing the associated missions gifts players with Gold and items known as Grim Favors. 10 Grim Favors can be exchanged at the Tree of Whispers for loot and experience.

Fields of Hatred are PvP zones where you can collect Seeds of hatred that can be ground into Red Dust. This Dust can then be used at the PvP shop to buy cosmetic items. The blog post suggests grinding the Seeds into Dust as soon as possible since the Seeds can be dropped if killed in PvP combat, but Dust is kept in your inventory.

Last but not least are the Paragon Boards. Once you get a character to level 50, players will be able to unlock this new character growth system. Along with earning experience, characters above 50 will receive Paragon points as well that can be used to unlock additional tiles, sockets, and more Paragon Boards to further strengthen your characters.

As for who will have access to the Diablo IV closed beta, the development team will select from a list of players who have recently played a long amount of time in Diablo III or the Diablo II remake. If that sounds like you, then check out our guide on how to sign up for the Diablo IV beta. Keep in mind that sign-up for the beta ends October 11.

At the end of the blog post, it was mentioned that the final beta invites will be sent out on Nov. 18 and that public testing of the game will go live sometime early next year.

The Diablo IV closed end game beta developer update video can be found down below. It contains the same information mentioned above but in video format.