Diablo 4 has revealed a glimpse of its endgame in a video. Only the smallest bits of information were really new. However, for MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider, they showed enough to recognize a trend. He likes the direction, but there are risks.
What’s new about the endgame? Not much, really. There were only a few minor details about the mechanics already known.
What was really new was the information about “Capstone Dungeons”. These special dungeons are completed at the end of a campaign to unlock the next difficulty level.
Additionally, I found a shown scene about the Paragon boards exciting. You move across square boards with your earned Paragon points, and before you move to the next board, you can rotate it and choose from four different starting points.
You can find more about what was shown here: Diablo 4 secretly smuggles boring MMO content into the endgame, disguising it as something else
However, the presentation hid a small hint that made me smile. Because exactly this information is what I was waiting for: more signs of “Targeted Loot”.
You can watch the video of the presentation here:
“Targeted Loot” – Chance and Risk for Diablo 4
In an interview with chief developers of Diablo 4, an exciting sentence about the endgame was mentioned: “Everything revolves around finding your desired equipment in a targeted manner”.
After that, we talked about the “Hell Tides Events” in the open world, which allow me to know beforehand what kind of item I’ll get for completion. At that point, I realized: There is indeed “Targeted Loot” in Diablo 4.
Such a loot system is very powerful.
It gives me greater control over my loot. But it also takes away my control over which activities are worthwhile for me. A double-edged sword. I noticed this back then in the loot shooter The Division 2 as well.
I found the system to be absolutely fantastic. In a specific mission, the drop chances for “gloves” were significantly increased. If I was hunting for gloves, I ground that mission out or a specific area of the open world that day.
A daily rotation ensured that I could tackle a different mission the next day if I was still after gloves. It fit perfectly for me; I never paid too much attention to the mission designs anyway. I just wanted to shoot.
The big ‘but’ is, however, the grinding.
If you want to play “efficiently”, that is to gather the best equipment as quickly as possible, nothing beats the activities with “Targeted Loot”.
It’s not yet clear how this will work in Diablo 4. However, after the video, we already know 3 types of “Targeted Loot” in the game:
- Open World: Hell Tide Events
- Chest with specific equipment type
- Bounties: The Whispering Tree
- Choice of specific equipment type upon completion
- PvP: Fields of Hatred
- Currency to purchase self-chosen equipment types
What if I don’t enjoy a specific activity or the task for a particular loot piece is just annoying? For the first few weeks, I’ll struggle through certain activities because the game is new and exciting.
But Diablo 4 is a service game aiming to retain players for the long term. It’s about those small efficiency advantages, which eventually determine how to “play Diablo 4 right”.
Experience has often shown: players do what benefits them the most, not necessarily what they enjoy the most. “Targeted Loot” can help mitigate this circumstance. But it can also make everything worse.
I think highly of a “Targeted Loot” system. It can significantly improve loot-based games, allowing developers to steer player activities a bit. But it can also go wrong a lot and ultimately create more frustration than joy.
If you also have an opinion on this or questions about the system, feel free to leave me a comment.
If you would rather like to inform yourself more about Diablo 4 as a whole, check out our large information hub about the game: Diablo 4: Release, Beta, Classes, Gameplay, and Pre-order overview
