What you need to know
- Today at Gamescom 2024, Blizzard released a new trailer for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, the game's first expansion, which launches on October 8.
- The trailer showed the 'Pale Hand' mercenaries, which will be a choice of 4 player support characters with their own skill trees and include a half-demon child named Aldkin.
- We'll also be hearing more about The Dark Citadel, a new endgame PvE activity later this week.
As we neared the end of the Gamescom 2024 opening night, I feared I'd hallucinated the promise of a new Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred trailer, but alas, they saved the best till later, with this new offering near the end of the show, showing the new Mercenaries mechanic and a suspiciously pointy-eared and tailed Mercenary in particular...
Mercenaries will aid our player character in the Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred expansion and are not a new concept to the franchise. We've had mercenaries in Diablo 2: Resurrected and 'followers' in Diablo 3, but what is surprising is the direction Diablo 4 seems to be going with its take on the Mercenaries. This one line in the trailer gave away something new immediately, "we were left with only our inner demons, but the return of Hatred has pulled us back into the light."
Following this, we see some of the mercenaries in action, named 'The Pale Hand.' From a tiny half demon, with the other mercenaries taking on a more traditional class role, but the premise appears to be the same: are these previously corrupted inhabitants of Sanctuary? The developers have described them as "ordinary people with extraordinary skills to help you in battle," but the new trailer seems to indicate there is a bunch of new lore to discover here.
Later the developers confirmed more details about our new Mercenaries, which will have their own individual skill trees to make them either combat or support focussed depending on the player:
- Raheir - Born to the lawless and rough streets of Gea Kul and trained by the Iron Wolves.
- Varyana – Former cannibal who left her tribe when they started dealing with darker forces; butcher by trade turned mercenary.
- Aldkin – Half-child, half-demon creature born part demonic due to the influence of the First Khazra from the Citadel performing dark rituals on his mother.
- Subo – A disgraced Archer from the mountains, shunned by the same people who had looked to him for salvation and now a bounty hunter for hire.
Mercenaries can be enlisted as reinforcements to periodically come to your aid with attacks. Your mercenary will gain Rapport the more you use them, which will unlock valuable rewards and currency. As you build Rapport with your chosen Mercenary, you'll be able to Barter and enter trade agreements for a chance at 'powerful loot'.
The Dark Citadel
Game Director Brent Gibson came on stage following the trailer to reveal more of what's to come in the new expansion, including The Dark Citadel — a new co-op PvE endgame activity to be completed by 2 to 4 players. Defeating the bosses within will require co-ordination and choosing the right path. You'll be able to communicate to other players non-verbally with a new marker system. The Dark Citadel will reward you with a weekly cache containing powerful loot and unique 'Dark Citadel cosmetics'.
Additionally, the Kurast Undercity will be an intense new activity that will challenge everything we think we know about Diablo 4 combat, running us through another gauntlet of multiplayer mechanics and puzzles in a time-attack dungeon. Players will be able to influence the outcome of this dungeon with special keys named Spirit Tributes, and defeat some all new bosses crafted for the Undercity.
Character progression is getting an overhaul
There have been a few rumors swirling about a new level cap in Diablo 4, and I can confirm that having played the Spiritborn hands on, there is mounting evidence that this will happen, though to what extent we aren't sure yet. More details on this will be revealed in a developer livestream on August 29, which will give us more inside on changes to Difficulty Tiers and the Paragon System amongst other things.
Free wings for pre-purchasing the DLC
The base edition of Vessel of Hatred costs $39.99, and for that, you unlock access right now to a new Pet, Alkor the Snow Leopard. However, this being Blizzard, there is, of course, an Ultimate Edition for $89.99, which gives you a bunch more stuff. Namely, access to another two pets, a cat mount, a bunch of armor, and some cosmetic wings, to name a few. Tonight at Gamescom, Blizzard hit us with another boon for ordering the Ultimate Edition, these Demon Wings, and a month's worth of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Is that enough to tempt you over to the dark side? Or will you be waiting for more information on Vessel of Hatred?
