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Players discover ‘hidden’ Diablo Immortal loot box crests

Players discover a ‘hidden’ Diablo Immortal loot box crest nuance which gives players buying microtransactions a distinct advantage over free-to-play players

Diablo Immortal 'hidden' legendary crest uncovered

Another controversy has surfaced among Diablo Immortal players, as several people have uncovered a ‘hidden’ Diablo Immortal loot box nuance to the legendary crests system that gives a distinct advantage to those buying microtransactions in the fantasy game. Content creators Josh Strife Hayes and Darth Microtransaction both highlighted the discrepancy between paid legendary crests and ones earned for free, which greatly restricts the potential for players hoping to play the free-to-play game, well, for free.

As noted in videos by both Josh Strife Hayes and Darth Microtransaction, Diablo Immortal presents two types of crest to the player – rare crests, which increase your chance of getting rune drops, and legendary crests, which guarantee you a legendary gem drop. The latter are very useful, because Diablo Immortal gems are a big part of its endgame grind.

Crucially, though, there is actually a second type of legendary crest – one which, at a glance, is almost indistinguishable from the other. Eternal legendary crests, which must be purchased in the cash shop with eternal orbs, have an almost identical visual design to the regular legendary crests. However, while gems dropped from the free legendary crests are bound to your character and cannot be traded or sold on the marketplace, eternal legendary crests guarantee “a legendary gem that can be sold on the market.”

This distinction, say Hayes and Darth, is incredibly significant. “I need to be able to trade my gems, and as free-to-play you definitely need to be able to trade your gems,” says Darth. “This has got to be changed.” Hayes elaborates: “Every single legendary gem listed on the market came from an eternal legendary crest – which was paid for with orbs, which can only be bought for real money.”

Update, 15th June: Activision Blizzard has reached out to clarify the above point. Their statement in full:

“Not all legendary gems on the market are obtained through eternal legendary crests. Every player, F2P or otherwise, can earn ‘Fa runes’ through normal gameplay which can be used to craft random unbound legendary gems. These crafted unbound gems can be placed on the market the same as gems earned through eternal legendary crests.” 

Rolling for a chance at the best five-star gems costs 22 Fa runes, which requires a total of 396 fading embers (which have a weekly limit of 320 earned if your team uses a crest, or 200 without), though players can get lower-tier gems for a smaller Fa rune cost.

“There is simply no way for a non-paying player to get eternal legendary crests,” Hayes continues. It gets worse, he explains – several of the bundles offered on Diablo Immortal’s marketplace include standard legendary crests, not the eternal ones. “If you did buy the time-limited dungeon packs, or the unpowered battle pass, or the prodigy’s path membership, or the boon of plenty, because you wanted legendary gem drops to sell on the market, you are buying the wrong type of legendary crests.”

Hayes says he believes this design is deliberately confusing – not only are the names and designs extremely close, with both being an almost identical purple shade, but the rift screen only displays two slots for rare and legendary crests, and does not highlight the eternal legendary crests as a separate item. This discussion comes as a job listing reveals Diablo 4 will have an in-game store.

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This news follows on from the discovery of Diablo Immortal loot caps, after the game was blocked from sale in two European countries. None of this has prevented the Diablo Immortal player count from skyrocketing to what Blizzard has described as the biggest launch in series history. If you haven’t been put off yet, check out the best Diablo Immortal builds and our Diablo Immortal tier list to give you the best chance of success in the new action-RPG game, whether you’re looking to spend money or not.