‘Diablo Immortal’ has hidden punishing mechanics for free players

A dedicated group of players have discovered grinding caps present in Diablo Immortal that the game neglects to ever tell you about.

Diablo Immortal officially launched on June 2, and the consensus seems to be that while the game can be engaging and fun, the built-in paid elements are too egregious to ignore.

This has caused the interesting dichotomy of the game being Blizzard’s biggest ever launch while simultaneously holding its lowest ever rating on Metacritic. In fact, Diablo Immortal now holds the dubious honour of having the lowest Metacritic user score ever.

The concerns of players are chiefly with the microtransaction elements of the game, and rightfully so. As reported by Forbes, a dedicated Diablo Immortal player known as echohack and his fellow players discovered yet more features designed to punish free-to-play players. There are hidden caps present in the game which are designed to hinder players who are grinding without spending money.

Diablo Immortal never tells you that these caps are in place but echohack’s investigation has turned up some troubling findings. Firstly, after obtaining six legendary drops in one day, the drop rate for future drops sharply decreases. Side quests, purple bosses and random map events stop giving rewards after completing five of each in a day.

Library of Zoltan Kule treasure rooms are also limited to five per day. Lastly, hidden lair dungeons stop giving gem rewards after the first six are dropped. You can find more information in echohack’s video below:

While it’s particularly abhorrent that Diablo is punishing the very base of players the game markets itself to (grinders), the situation is made even worse by these caps being hidden. The least the game could do is keep track of the number of drops you’ve received so you know when you’ve begun wasting your time.

Naturally, these hidden caps do not apply to the paid aspects of Diablo Immortal. You can pay for Legendary Crests to your heart’s content.

In other news, the UK’s competition authority is investigating Google and Apple over their control of the cloud gaming market on mobile.