Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 was up next during Xbox @ Gamescom’s livestream, with the development team providing several new details on Vessel of Hatred’s new Mercenaries, the new region of Nahantu, and more. When players start the campaign, they’ll meet Raheir, who takes them to the Merc Den to meet the others.
To unlock other Mercenaries, players must complete their story quests. Each has a unique back story and a Skill Tree, with players able to pick and choose their skills to complement their builds. As for their abilities, Raheir provides a buff that increases armor and defensive buffs. He also uses his shield as a defensive bulwark.
Varyana is a butcher who can pull enemies close and a Massacre meter that feeds off kills. Aldkin is half-human, half-demon, swapping between both forms as necessary, while Subo is a drunk archer who provides ranged damage and utility.
There’s also a mechanic called Rapport, which provides more benefits the longer you fight alongside a chosen Mercenary, leading to custom rewards. Perhaps the coolest addition is having two Mercs – a main and a Reinforcement. The latter ties to a specific Skill or a function like evade. Perform either, and they’ll jump in to execute their own attack before exiting.
As for Nahantu, first appearing in Diablo 2, it has six new areas. These include Lingering Hatred, a high treetop canopy area home to the Hollows, a new enemy type associated with Mephisto. There are also the Dregs, who have experimented with poisonous plants for psychotic rage, and the Lacuni, who return from previous games with new units.
Other new areas include the bug-infested Skittering Earth and the Field of Giants, home to giant demon corpses which humans have begun mining. As for the Dark Citadel, it’s an entirely cooperative end-game activity, playable for two players but meant for four. It sees the Khazra hordes harnessing the citadel’s power to bring their dark deity back.
As for the mechanics, one involves standing in a zone, fighting off demons while remaining inside. Another focuses on a boss with an attack that requires gathering items to reflect. Players can look forward to unique armor sets as rewards and currency for buying cosmetics. Finally, there’s the Kurast Undercity, a time attack dungeon where players can use tributes to modify and scale rewards with its difficulty.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred launches on October 8th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Stay tuned for more details shortly.
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