PvP in Diablo 4 is optional. Those who participate at the release and are good at killing other players can buy mounts, armor, and weapons. We show you how PvP works and what challenges you can expect.
What’s new? During BlizzCon 2021, Blizzard talked about the open world and PvP in Diablo 4. The developers revealed the rewards for participating in optional PvP.
You play PvP in areas called Fields of Hatred. You can find these fields in the middle of the open world and enter them directly. When someone enters one of these areas, Mephisto gains influence over them, and they develop hatred towards their fellow players, Blizzard explains. Suddenly, every character is left to fend for themselves.
For kills in the PvP area, you receive shards. If you exchange these, you can use them to buy weapons, mounts, and armor. However, it’s not easy to earn the shards.
Anyone wanting to use PvP shards must complete the challenge
This is the goal: In the Fields of Hatred, you can farm shards, the Shards of Hatred. This is a rarer resource that you earn for killing other players or monsters in the PvP area. You also receive them for completing events or opening chests. However, as long as the shards are not purified, anyone can steal them from you if you die.
You must go to an altar in the PvP area with the unpurified shards to purify them. Only then will they become bound to you as a currency and cannot be taken from you by other players.
This is the challenge: When you start the purification ritual, nearby players will be notified. They will know: Someone is trying to convert their shards. If you take them down before the ritual is completed, we will get all their shards.
- Additionally, there’s a kind of bounty. If you are currently gathering a lot of Shards of Hatred, it will be displayed to players in a large radius around you. If enemies kill you, they receive a large bonus for it.
- If you survive this bounty phase, which lasts for a certain period of time, you can expect a “really big bonus,” Blizzard explains. However, if you flee with the bounty status or use a town portal, that does not count.
This concept might sound familiar: Readers of MeinMMO will likely immediately think of The Division when describing this concept. There, players collect contaminated gear in the “PvE/PvP” area “Dark Zone” that they can smuggle out of the zone through an “Extraction” process with a helicopter.
In The Division, other players are also informed that someone wants to escape with their loot and can attempt to prevent the player from escaping and rob them.
What can you buy for shards in Diablo 4? Especially for the PvP shards, there are vendors in the Fields of Hatred. They want to buy your shards and offer you special armor, new mounts, weapons, and other content in exchange.
Blizzard emphasizes that these exchangeable contents are not really stronger than items you can find elsewhere in the game. However, the purchasable items are meant to appeal to PvP players.
And what about the ears? Those who have seen the trailer for the new Hunter class in Diablo 4 will not have missed the ears. The Hunter had collected a lot of them and apparently kept them as trophies. According to Blizzard, the ears of your opponents will play a role in the PvP of Diablo 4 again. It is unclear whether they will simply remain trophies, can be sold for gold, or if a better use can be found for them.
What do you think of the look into the PvP of Diablo 4? Do you find it good and want to try it out, or is it not for you?
Feel free to share your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments and discuss the pros and cons of the currency and whether the purification ritual of the shards is a good idea.
