The release of Diablo 4 in June is imminent. All information about the release date, classes, gameplay, and crossplay can be found here on MeinMMO.
What is Diablo 4? The latest installment of the action RPG series Diablo is aimed primarily at the core community. That’s why it is also being released for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. A mobile version is not currently planned.
The game was first announced at BlizzCon 2019. Since then, there have been dozens of quarterly updates, videos, and a beta test from which we have gained a variety of new information. The bosses of the game even say that the new Diablo 4 will be better than the highly revered Diablo 2.
To keep you fully informed about Diablo 4, we have gathered all known information here.
When is Diablo 4 being released? Release date, platforms, and pre-order
Diablo 4 will be released on June 6, 2023. The release date was announced at the Game Awards. However, pre-order customers will be able to start 4 days earlier, on June 2, 2023.
For both the pre-order customers on June 2 and the regular release on June 6, the start time is at 01:00 AM German time.
Diablo 4 will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. There will be crossplay between the platforms.
At launch, no version for the Nintendo Switch is planned. However, the predecessor Diablo 3 has already been released for this console.
No, from now on, there will only be the release on June 6 and the early access from June 2. All tests have been completed.
According to initial, yet to be confirmed information, you should be able to start the preload 2 days before the respective release. Expect about 90 GB download size. You can find all the information about the preload of Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 will be available in 3 different editions:
– Diablo 4 Standard Edition – €69.99 for PC / €79.99 for PlayStation and Xbox
– Diablo 4 Digital Deluxe Edition – €89.99 for PC / €99.99 for PlayStation and Xbox
– Diablo 4 Ultimate Edition – €99.99 for PC / €109.99 for PlayStation and Xbox
Additionally, there is a Collector’s Box for €109.66, which does not contain a game version, but rare collectible items.
Incidentally, coinciding with the announcement of the release date, this beautiful trailer was released:
Beta of Diablo 4
What tests have there been and are there? From Friday, March 17, to Sunday, March 19, the pre-order beta took place. You gained access to the beta if you pre-ordered one of the editions of Diablo 4. For the more expensive editions, there was also early access for 4 days before the release. However, the beta is now over.
In May, there was an open beta for everyone. For this, you did not need special access. Additionally, a test for influencers and gaming journalists took place in May. This video comes from our editor Benedict Grothaus:
Will there be another beta? No, the last beta ended on May 14. From now on, we can only wait for the release.
However, not everything was playable in the beta yet. 6 important contents will only come into the game with the release.
The 5 classes at a glance
What classes are there? Blizzard has so far introduced five classes that will be featured in Diablo 4:
- The Barbarian – a hulking warrior who pounds enemies with melee weapons
- The Sorceress – a more classic mage who eliminates enemies from a distance using the elements
- The Druid – a nature mage who relies on shapeshifting and animal companions
- The Hunter – a ranged attacker who is supposed to combine the Rogue from Diablo 1, the Assassins from Diablo 2, and the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3
- The Necromancer – a necromancer who can summon skeletons and bone golems
Currently, there is no indication that there will be additional classes available at launch. However, the developers have already revealed that Diablo 4 will receive new content over the years and likely several expansions.
New classes could be included, like the Crusader in the Reaper of Souls expansion of Diablo 3.
If you’re unsure which class to play, we have created a decision aid for you:
What are the new class abilities? With Diablo 4, Blizzard is introducing new class mechanics to differentiate itself a bit from the old titles.
- The Barbarian, for example, can switch between weapons in the middle of a fight, utilizing up to four different sets.
- The Sorceress can also use active spells as passive abilities. Meteorites will strike around her at regular intervals instead of summoning them actively.
- The Druid must build up spirit power with normal attacks to use it for more powerful attacks. Additionally, he has access to various blessings from animal spirits that you can change at any time.
- The Hunter can commit to one of three specializations, each representing a version of the older Diablo installments. She then receives different resources and abilities. It is currently unclear whether and how you can switch through the specializations.
- With the Necromancer, you can further modify your skeletons. For skeleton warriors, for example, you determine whether they have attributes like Plankers (Damage), Defenders (more Defense), or Soul Reapers (AoE). Further upgrades allow you to create your army exactly as you wish.
In general, the battles should feel very impactful and fun even at low levels. The Barbarian’s skill “Hammer of the Ancients” should not only make the ground shake but also cause nearby trees to bend and dirt to fly in all directions.
We have compiled here some strong builds that will likely be fun to play even at launch:
Attributes, talent trees, and Paragon board
Will the attributes return? Yes. In Diablo 4, you will receive points upon leveling up that you can distribute into primary attributes. These are:
- Strength
- Intelligence
- Dexterity
- Willpower
Blizzard emphasizes that every attribute should be useful for every class. Additionally, you will unlock side effects with some skills if you have particularly high skills in an attribute.
How do the talent trees work? Diablo 4 uses a skill tree where you can find active abilities in the crown of the tree and passive abilities at the roots.
You will receive enough points to unlock 40% of the tree. Although you can redistribute talents as often as you like, you should consider in advance which skills you really need.
Starting at level 50, the Paragon board will also be introduced. Here, you can further customize your build and unlock additional new boards. The tiles on the board serve the following purposes:
- “normal tiles” provide a small stat bonus – these are apparently the “colorless, dark fields” in the image
- “magic tiles” provide various types of advantages – they are somewhat more powerful than normal tiles, but there are many of them – these are apparently the “brown” tiles in the image
- “rare tiles” provide significant advantages – these tiles also offer special advantages when a player achieves a certain value – these are apparently the few “yellow tiles” visible in the image.
- “legendary tile” – each board has only one of these tiles in the center of the respective board, which are only found in the Paragon boards that can be unlocked after the first board
Between some tiles, you will find space for glyphs. You can find these glyphs during gameplay, and they will enhance all tiles in the vicinity.
What do we know about the combat? As expected, it will be action-packed. You will hack through hordes of monsters and collect loot. New is that the damage numbers should not be as absurd as they were in Diablo 3. Instead, the developers are focusing on stronger resistances of the opponents.
Loot, Shared World, and the gameplay of Diablo 4
How does the gameplay in Diablo 4 work? As usual, you start out by playing through story chapters in Diablo 4 and then grind for the best loot in the game during endgame. The game utilizes the familiar hack-and-slash controls. Since Diablo 4 is also being released for consoles, you can also directly play it with a controller on PC.
Notably, the newest installment features a deeper character editor. While there are no sliders to adjust details too much like in Black Desert, there are various face types, hair colors, eye colors, and tattoos with which you can create your desired character.
New in this installment is the feature “Strongholds”. Here, you will have to free areas from evil in specific missions. In a preliminary test, you had to drive out a vampire clan from an occupied fortress or save a burning village from a succubus cult.
How does the open world function? For the first time, Sanctuary is not divided into small zones but offers an open game world that you can explore. This world will also be shared with other players, much like in Destiny 2. You will constantly encounter other players outside of dungeons and story missions.
Scattered throughout the world will also be camps where monsters have taken up residence. When these are liberated by you or other players, new waypoints or marketplaces will emerge. This is intended to make the game world feel dynamic.
As in Diablo 2, you will again receive ears from the players you defeat in PvP.
Is there crossplay?
Yes. You can play in the open world and also in coop with players from all platforms (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S). Thanks to cross-save, you can easily continue your progress from PC on a console.
In the story, you will encounter Lilith – but is she the villain?
Who is Lilith? The demon Lilith will play an important role in Diablo 4. She has many names and titles, including:
- Queen of the Succubi
- Daughter of Hatred
- Mother of Deception
- Mistress of Betrayal
Lilith is the daughter of Mephisto, Lord of Hatred and leader of the three Prime Evils. She also had a brother, Lucion, to whom she was very close. However, she disagreed with the leadership style of the two.
Together with the archangel Inarius, who also saw the war as pointless, she created a completely new world, hidden from demons and angels: Sanctuary. Lilith and Inarius gave birth to children, now known as Nephalem, a mix of angel and demon.
However, the Nephalem were too powerful, and some feared they could wipe out demons and angels. Some proposed that the Nephalem be destroyed. This drove Lilith into a rage. Inarius stood in Lilith’s way and defeated her. Instead of killing her, he only banished her.
It is from this banishment that Lilith returns now, and she is angry. Whether she is truly our enemy or wants to help us remains unclear. However, early testers describe her as an antagonist who appears frequently in cutscenes or at shrines and is thus very present. You can find more about the story of Diablo in general here:
Do I need to have played the previous Diablo installments to understand the story? Kind of. The story of Diablo 4 will function independently. However, you may not understand some story details and possible nostalgia elements. However, this should not detract from the overall gaming experience.
What else do we know about the campaign? Joe Shely, the director of Diablo 4, revealed that the campaign will last approximately 35 hours and you will reach around level 45 by completion.
You can watch the latest story trailer here:
Is there a shop in Diablo 4?
Yes. According to the developers, this shop will only offer cosmetic items. Boosters or gems like in Diablo Immortal are not planned. After all, Diablo 4 will be a full-price title with planned expansions.
Season passes are also planned. These will include a free and a paid version. However, the latter is only supposed to contain cosmetic items. You can find out more about the topic here: Diablo 4 clearly addresses Pay2Win: How the shop and season pass work.
System requirements for Diablo 4
The current system requirements for the open beta of Diablo 4 are as follows:
Diablo 4, minimum requirements:
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500L or AMD FX-8100
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB
Diablo 4, recommended settings:
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 370
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB
What exactly this means and what kind of PC you will need is summarized here: How much does a PC cost if I want to play Diablo 4 well?
What do you think about Diablo 4? Does the new game from Blizzard appeal to you? What content do you like and what do you like less? Feel free to write it in the comments.
To prevent travel times from being too long, mounts will also be introduced. This is another novelty for Diablo.
What can we expect from loot? All items in Diablo 4 will differ in quality:
- Gray items are common
- Blue and yellow items are rarer
- The legendary items are orange
- At the top are the unique items
Additionally, according to a leak, there are some interesting features to better sort the inventory, including marking items as “trash” for quick selling to the merchant. In addition, fans have found tabs that allow sorting the inventory by gear, consumables, quest items, and essences.
By the way, when acquiring new gear, you won’t have to give up the appearance of your old items. Because in Diablo 4, there is a transmog system:
What makes legendary and unique items special? The two items with the highest rarity not only have stronger stats, but also additional affixes.
In the case of unique items, all attributes and affixes are preset and are not randomly generated, unlike the legendary items.
Are there set items? This is still unclear. Sets played a significant role in Diablo 3, but have not yet been announced for Diablo 4.
Will there be mercenaries? In Diablo 2, there was a mercenary system where you could hire and equip NPCs. A popular system for solo players who didn’t have to traverse the dark world alone.
In Diablo 4, only a few NPCs have been announced who will accompany you in the campaign. However, a developer has hinted that more could come:
What to expect in the endgame
In the endgame, Diablo 4 forgoes the familiar Rifts and instead relies on key dungeons. These should offer more diverse and flexible challenges. Their specific content will be determined by the respective key.
However, initial tests did not receive good feedback for the dungeons. Critics noted that the design and puzzles tend to repeat.
What is the max level? The max level in Diablo 4 is level 100. After that, you will unlock new endgame content such as the Nightmare Dungeons and the bounty system “Tree of Whispers”.
Further details on the endgame can be found here:
Diablo 4: How multiplayer works
How does coop work? In addition to the shared world, where you can encounter other players, there is also a classic coop. You can team up with friends to form a group and explore dungeons together.
While there are no special coop abilities, some classes should be able to complement each other in gameplay.
Is there PvP? In Diablo 4, there will be dedicated PvP areas in the game world. In these areas, the hatred of Mephisto is said to surface and make the heroes more aggressive.
Through PvP, you should be able to earn hatred shards, a special currency. However, these must be purified before you can keep them permanently. Unpurified hatred shards can be stolen from you in PvP at any time.
However, if you kill too many other players, you will eventually become a vessel of hatred. A bounty will be placed on this player, and they will become visible to everyone else. The same applies if you cleanse your shards. In such case, you will also be made visible to everyone. If you survive the bounty phase or the cleansing, large rewards will await you.
As in Diablo 2, you will again receive ears from the players you defeat in PvP.
Is there crossplay?
Yes. You can play in the open world and also in coop with players from all platforms (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S). Thanks to cross-save, you can easily continue your progress from PC on a console.
In the story, you will encounter Lilith – but is she the villain?
Who is Lilith? The demon Lilith will play an important role in Diablo 4. She has many names and titles, including:
- Queen of the Succubi
- Daughter of Hatred
- Mother of Deception
- Mistress of Betrayal
Lilith is the daughter of Mephisto, Lord of Hatred and leader of the three Prime Evils. She also had a brother, Lucion, to whom she was very close. However, she disagreed with the leadership style of the two.
Together with the archangel Inarius, who also saw the war as pointless, she created a completely new world, hidden from demons and angels: Sanctuary. Lilith and Inarius gave birth to children, now known as Nephalem, a mix of angel and demon.
However, the Nephalem were too powerful, and some feared they could wipe out demons and angels. Some proposed that the Nephalem be destroyed. This drove Lilith into a rage. Inarius stood in Lilith’s way and defeated her. Instead of killing her, he only banished her.
It is from this banishment that Lilith returns now, and she is angry. Whether she is truly our enemy or wants to help us remains unclear. However, early testers describe her as an antagonist who appears frequently in cutscenes or at shrines and is thus very present. You can find more about the story of Diablo in general here:
Do I need to have played the previous Diablo installments to understand the story? Kind of. The story of Diablo 4 will function independently. However, you may not understand some story details and possible nostalgia elements. However, this should not detract from the overall gaming experience.
What else do we know about the campaign? Joe Shely, the director of Diablo 4, revealed that the campaign will last approximately 35 hours and you will reach around level 45 by completion.
You can watch the latest story trailer here:
Is there a shop in Diablo 4?
Yes. According to the developers, this shop will only offer cosmetic items. Boosters or gems like in Diablo Immortal are not planned. After all, Diablo 4 will be a full-price title with planned expansions.
Season passes are also planned. These will include a free and a paid version. However, the latter is only supposed to contain cosmetic items. You can find out more about the topic here: Diablo 4 clearly addresses Pay2Win: How the shop and season pass work.
System requirements for Diablo 4
The current system requirements for the open beta of Diablo 4 are as follows:
Diablo 4, minimum requirements:
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500L or AMD FX-8100
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB
Diablo 4, recommended settings:
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 370
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB
What exactly this means and what kind of PC you will need is summarized here: How much does a PC cost if I want to play Diablo 4 well?
What do you think about Diablo 4? Does the new game from Blizzard appeal to you? What content do you like and what do you like less? Feel free to write it in the comments.
