Diablo 4has had some of the strangest glitches and bugs in its first month since release, and a player that racked up hundreds of hours incidentally failed to take advantage of the July 6 incident with Helltides. When it comes toDiablo 4’s endgame, characters usually have two options: Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides. Whereas Nightmare Dungeons have been a tried-and-true method of acquiring some of the most powerful items inDiablo 4, Helltide Chests comparatively lagged behind.
To that end,Diablo 4released Patch 1.0.4with the hopes of bridging the reward gap between Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons, as the most prominent change in its patch notes allowed Helltide Chests to drop Unique items. Though Legendary Aspects all fall within a similar scope of item power, not all Uniques are created equal.Diablo 4has six Chase Uniques with astronomically small chances of dropping, and prior to the July 6 incident, its number across the globe counted in the dozens.
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However, with the changes made to Helltide Chests in Patch 1.0.4, certain players could obtain the Harlequin Crest with a very generous 0.5% chance to drop, asDiablo 4classessuch as Barbarian or Sorcerer don’t have any Unique Helms in their loot pools other than the Chase Unique. Understandably, once a fairly sizable chunk of American players got flooded with Harlequin Crests overnight, Blizzard was quick to disable Chase Unique drops inDiablo 4for an indefinite amount of time. This ultimately resulted in Reddit user Thestudliestpancake never having the opportunity to capitalize on the glitch.
The abysmal drop rate, coupled with the Helltide incident from July 6, exposed the growing discontent in the community over the direction of Chase Uniques inDiablo 4. Unlike the rarest items inPath of Exile,Diablofans can only dream of getting The Grandfather through intended gameplay, as only a few players in the world have been lucky enough to obtain the super rare Unique. For most people, the Chase Uniques may as well not exist, which makes the “chase” largely pointless.
Being able to suddenly obtain these exciting items inDiablo 4for a night drove player engagement to a new level, and the bitterness from the community following the hotfix implies that the concept behind Chase Uniques could use some work. Though it remains to be seen if new Chase Uniques will be added through theSeason of the Malignant inDiablo 4, the developers have promised that six new Uniques would be making their way to the game. However, until drop rates become more favorable to players, these items will likely remain the stuff of dreams rather than the thrilling chase that their name implies.
Diablo 4is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
