Tragedy has struck the first Diablo 4 max level player in hardcore. Diablo 4 Twitch streamer Souaïb ‘cArn’ Hanaf was recognized by Blizzard as the first person to reach level 100 in the RPG game while playing on the permadeath ‘hardcore’ mode. Unfortunately, not long after hitting the milestone, while preparing to take on the ultimate pinnacle boss fight in Diablo 4, a sudden disconnect left cArn’s character dead.
Like many of the most tragic moments, it happens at an otherwise normal, innocent time. cArn, who was able to snag the level 100 hardcore milestone ahead of potential rivals thanks to the use of group play to maximize his experience gains, is exploring the Diablo 4 map as he aimed to gear up to take on the game’s hardest challenge fight.
He’s carving through packs as normal with the best Barbarian build, with Whirlwind remaining a very viable tool despite rather heavy-handed opening week nerfs, when suddenly his on-screen character begins behaving very oddly, stuttering to take out his weapons while nearby enemies jitter in place. The screen then freezes, and cuts to black.
“Hello? Are you kidding me?” His terrified exclamations are plain to hear, as the chat speeds with viewers spamming panic emotes and saying “not like this.” Opening the game back up, cArn initially isn’t even able to log back in. However, when he does, he’s greeted with the most heart-wrenching character creation screen. Because your character is lost permanently upon death in hardcore, the appearance of the five Diablo 4 classes sitting around a fire can mean only one thing – cArn has no active characters available.
Creating a new character and hopping back in, cArn confirms the tragic news – his beloved Barbarian, 82 hours deep and geared close to the maximum, is now confined to the Hall of Fallen Heroes, where your lost hardcore characters are memorialized forever. “Slain by vampire bat” reads the on-screen text. A defeated sigh escapes his lips, and we’re doubtful even the promise of a Diablo 4 eulogy from Megan Fox could offer any salve. He stops short of sending his clip in response to the post, however, hopeful that his progress can be restored.
It’s less the character progress that bothers him. “I don’t care about my level 100, I care about my gear.” While the grind to max level is real, getting those perfect rolls and tracking down perfect Diablo 4 unique items is where the devilish RNG kicks in, so losing your luckiest loot hurts most of all.
Despite having many scrolls of escape on his character, a hardcore-only item that can be used to get out of deadly situations, they don’t offer any salvation if you’re unable to use them. Typically, Blizzard doesn’t provide any recourse for players to reclaim a character lost to internet or server troubles either, so it’s likely gone for good. Our condolences to cArn, and best of luck on the grind – he’s already back at it, but this time working on a Rogue build.
Check out our Diablo 4 leveling guide to get XP as fast as possible, and read up on how the Diablo 4 battle pass works ahead of the launch of the Diablo 4 season 1 start date to get ahead of the pack.