Elder rifts are a big part of the Diablo Immortal leveling process, and a key way to net yourself those delicious endgame legendary gems that help to build out your character in the RPG game. Following the discovery that these gem drops can be affected by a ‘hidden’ premium currency, one streamer discovered that even your fancy endgame gear doesn’t seem to matter in the dungeons.
During his latest stream, Diablo Immortal player Quin69 runs an endgame elder rift at max level completely naked, and finds that not only is he able to complete it but it is almost as fast as running rifts in his full endgame gear set with 3,000 resonance. Resonance is an endgame stat that improves the bonus on your legendary gems – and Quin69 has a lot of it, having spent almost $24,000 NZD on rolling for gems without ever receiving a 5-star drop.
In the clip, Quin69 finishes the elder rift in just shy of three minutes, which is a fairly standard time to clear one of these endgame challenges – if anything, it’s on the quicker side. He even says that the mobs that appeared were some of his least favourite to deal with, yet he managed to fly through the rift wearing absolutely nothing. “What am I even playing?” he queries, “I’m playing a game where gear doesn’t matter.”
Users on the game’s subreddit don’t seem too surprised. One poster, unexpectedreboots, says that “Elder rifts aren’t about challenge or skill. They are simply in the game to be a thin veil for loot boxes.” This consensus is repeated across the board: “Elder rifts are loot boxes that take four minutes to open,” responds hauntedbutt. Others note that gear does matter for server ratings and PvP, and seem largely unfazed by the fact that elder rifts provide minimal challenge.
Quin69, for his part, isn’t happy about this revelation. “This is such an abomination. How can they tie the Diablo name to this?” However, with his already hefty monetary contribution going towards the $24 million USD made by Diablo Immortal microtransactions in the past two weeks, perhaps this realisation might have come too late.
Meanwhile, we’ve been hearing all about the Diablo 4 level cap and campaign length in the run-up to the Diablo 4 release date, alongside information on the new Necromancer class. Blizzard says the next numbered entry in the action-RPG series will be a full-priced game “anchored around optional cosmetic items and full, story-driven expansions.”