News Tag: Diablo 4 Season 9

Mythic Items are undoubtedly the most challenging equipment to get in Diablo 4. They offer powerful effects like significantly increasing resource regeneration or increasing all passive abilities by one, making them the ultimate solution in many builds.

However, the sheer difficulty of farming Mythic Items can be frustrating for players, with some casual players going an entire season without obtaining a single Mythic Item. While there's currently no farming cheat that can quickly obtain a Mythic Item in just a few minutes, the following methods can shorten your farming time.

Farming Goals

Besides being dropped by bosses, Mythic Uniques can also be crafted by collecting materials yourself. It's important to combine farming bosses with farming materials to more quickly get Mythic Uniques you need.

• Resplendent Spark: A key ingredient for crafting Mythic equipment.
• Runes: Used to craft specific Mythic items at The Jeweler. Different Mythic Items require different rune combinations.

Why You Need A Group?

Some people prefer to play solo and are reluctant to group, but group farming is almost always the most efficient and essential way to obtain top-tier gear, especially when pursuing Diablo 4 items like Mythic gear, which have extremely low drop rates.

Besides grouping up to kill bosses faster, a more important reason is that by sharing farming efforts in a group, you can cycle through more boss kills in the same time compared to playing solo.

You can find group members on Reddit or Discord, but make sure you have at least one player who can carry the team, and ideally, kill the boss in a few seconds.

Farming Methods

Farming Lair Boss (Most Common)

Belial has the highest chance of dropping Mythic Uniques in the game, and its mechanics are simple and highly efficient. Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, is not recommended, as its combat mechanics can easily lead to casualties and slow down efficiency.

After defeating the boss, each player must use their own materials to open the boss's chest; there's no need to rotate keys.

Method:

• First, obtain the key corresponding to the lair boss. For example, Belial requires Diablo 4 Betrayer's Husk.
• On Tormented IV difficulty, repeatedly defeat the boss and open its chest in a group.
• The drop rate for Mythic equipment is very low, around 1-2%, and even at a high rate, it can take several hours.

How To obtain Betrayer's Husk?

Farming Betrayer's Husks on your own will be very inefficient. The best method is to trade with other players. You can sell unneeded high-level equipment for Diablo 4 gold, then contact those selling Betrayer's Husks.

When farming Belial, you'll drop many valuable items. If you don't need them, sell them all and exchange them for Betrayer's Husks. This will create a cycle and save you a lot of time.

Crafting Random Mythic Items

Once you have two Resplendent Sparks and 50 million Diablo 4 gold, you can craft a Mythic item suitable for your class at a Blacksmith. This method isn't highly recommended, as not all items are useful, and some are junk, and this carries a high risk of wasting Sparks and gold.

Crafting Specific Mythic Items

Resplendent Sparks and a specific rune combination can create specific Mythic items. You'll need to find The Jeweler to craft these items. You'll need two Sparks, a specific rune combination, and 5000 Diablo 4 gold.

Note that the runes required to craft Mythic Uniques are usually Legendary runes, and this method is only available to players who own Vessel of Hatred. Players without the DLC will not receive or use the runes, and can only craft Mythic Uniques through random crafting at Blacksmith.

How To Obtain Runes?

There are two major ways to get runes: farming lair bosses and using Tribute of Harmony in Kurast Undercity dungeon. The latter method is more efficient and is the primary way to farm Legendary runes. This is because Season 9 changes have increased the value of Tribute of Harmony this season.

If farming runes is too much of a hassle, you can also trade Legendary runes you need with other players once you have two Resplendent Sparks.

How To Get Resplendent Sparks?

Resplendent Sparks are almost the most difficult of the four Diablo materials to obtain, because they never drop except through their regular methods.

Here are regular methods:

• Heretic Side Quest: Complete the questline in Sarat's Lair and reach the 18th tier reward to receive 1 Spark.
• Challenge Lilith: Defeat Lilith on Tormented difficulty to receive 1 Spark. (Note: This boss may currently be buggy.)
• Season Journey: Complete the entire Season Journey to receive 1 Spark. However, forcing this season is not recommended, as some quests require specific Infusion abilities, which can be buggy and incomplete, and the process can be tedious.
• Disenchanting Mythic Gear: As mentioned earlier, Mythic gear isn't always useful; items like Melted Heart of Selig are useless. Disenchanting Mythic gear will yield 1 Resplendent Spark.

Kurast Undercity Dungeon

Besides farming the dungeon boss, another method is to use Tribute of Ascendance (United) in Kurast Undercity dungeon. This significantly increases your team's chances of obtaining unique and ascended unique items. Four players can take turns using their own Tribute of Ascendance to challenge the game, sharing the rewards.

Tribute of Radiance (Resolute) has a similar effect to Tribute of Ascendance, but its rewards are limited to one user, making it more suitable for solo players.

In short, Mythic equipment is the rarest item in the game, requiring immense patience and extensive, repetitive farming. It's normal to go for long periods without any results, so don't get discouraged if you and your group don't find anything quickly.

In the Season 10 PTR, Companion Druid received a significant buff. It's likely to become an endgame meta build, similar to Hydra Sorcerer from Season 9, as it was already a Tier S build in Season 9.

One of the main reasons many players enjoy playing Necromancer is that it's incredibly easy. You can delegate most of the work to your army, allowing you to leisurely farm Diablo 4 items like a stroll. Companion Druid build also summons armies of minions, with a maximum of 15.

Pros And Cons

Foremost, as a summoner build, this playstyle's biggest advantage is its ease. You can choose this playstyle early on. In areas with a lot of monsters, like dungeons or wilderness, your companions will handle them on their own. Even when facing bosses, Druid's superior damage makes them easy to defeat.

The obvious downside of this build is that it doesn't offer very strong survivability. This is a common problem with summon builds because you can treat your summons as your health in some ways, which leads to your own health not much. Most of the time, you can hide behind your companions, but once you encounter tough enemies like those in The Pit, you'll feel overwhelmed. However, with top-tier gear, you can reach at least 100 The Pit, as Companion Druid in Season 9 is incredibly powerful.

Horadric Spells

Catalyst

• Celestial Surge (bound to Wolves): Periodically deals area-of-effect damage.

Infusion

• Nebulous Extract: Reduces monster damage, increasing your companion's survivability.

Arcana

• Bloody Charm: Allows Celestial Surge to decimate low-health enemies.
• Fractured Core: Disables monster resistance auras, increasing your damage.
• Gleaming Conduit: Enhances Catalyst abilities.

Horadric Jewels

• Reverie Horn: Simply grants your summons a 50% (multiplier) damage boost.
• Idol From Below: Allows you to remain unstoppable and summon additional elite monsters for you to kill.
• Scornful Light: Increases your elemental damage and can increase the poison damage of Aspect of the Rabid Bear.

Companion Druid Skills

• Maul (Rank 1): Enhanced Maul
• Shred (Rank 1): Enhanced Shred and Primal Shred
• Cyclone Armor (Rank 1)
• Blood Howl (Rank 1): Enhanced Blood Howl and Innate Blood Howl
• Wolves (Rank 5): Enhanced Wolf Pack and Brutal Wolf Pack
• Ravens (Rank 1): Enhanced Ravens and Brutal Ravens
• Grizzly Rage (Rank 5): Prime Grizzly Rage and Supreme Grizzly Rage

Wolves are your core skill in Season 9. Storm's Companion (unique pants) grants your pack the ability to use Blood Howl and increases their attack speed. Moonrage Aspect, Aspect of the Stampede, and One With Nature (passive) increase your Wolves' skill levels, summon count, and damage.

Grizzly Rage is your ultimate ability, and you'll need Dire Wolf's Aspect to transform it into a werewolf ability. Shred is used for faster movement and to trigger transformation buffs. Blood Howl heals, increases damage, and triggers other passive abilities.

There are also some passive abilities you need to pay special attention to. Call of the Wild is the most suitable damage-boosting passive for this build, increasing the damage of your allies. Envenom and Toxic Claws increase your poison damage, but overall, they're not as good as Call of the Wild.

One With Nature, mentioned earlier, is a key passive, amplifying the damage boost from Shepherd's Aspect.

Druid Spirit Boons

• Deer Spirit: Wariness
• Eagle Spirit: Avian Wrath
• Wolf Spirit: Packleader
• Snake Spirit: Overload

Skill Order

In most situations, you can let your wolves handle the enemies on their own. However, when encountering elite or difficult enemies, you should actively use your skills to increase your damage.

Your skill order is as follows:

• 1. First, alternate between Maul and Shred to stack Quickshift buff.
• 2. Then activate Grizzly Rage and use Blood Howl at least once to activate its buff.
• 3. Use Shred to move closer to elite monsters or the next wave of enemies.
• 4. Use your Wolves skill to focus fire on elite or high-health targets.
• 5. Try to avoid using your allies' destructive ground-effect skills.

Glyphs

The boosts provided by Legendary Glyph nodes are also significant, so after reaching level 60, it's best to farm The Pit to upgrade your glyphs. Since glyph resets require Diablo 4 gold, it's best to plan ahead.

Level 15 Glyph

• ‍Wilds
• ‍Headhunter
• ‍Keeper
• ‍Earth and Sky
• ‍Spirit

Level 46 Glyph

• ‍Wilds
• ‍Earth and Sky
• ‍Spirit
• ‍Keeper
• ‍Headhunter

Companion Druid Equipment

Start

• Helm: Vigorous Aspect
• Chest Armor: Spirit Bond Aspect
• Gloves: Storm's Companion
• Pants: Juggernaut's Aspect
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Alpha
• Left Ring: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Torment Difficulty (Ancestrals Items)

• Helm: Vigorous Aspect
• Chest Armor: Spirit Bond Aspect
• Gloves: Aspect of the Stampede
• Pants: Storm's Companion
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Left Ring: Moonrage Aspect
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Best Gear

• Helm: Heir of Perdition
• Chest Armor: Shroud of False Death
• Gloves: Aspect of the Stampede
• Pants: Storm's Companion
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Left Ring: Moonrage Aspect
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Most of this set's item requirements are relatively low, allowing you to build it early and save a considerable amount of Diablo 4 gold. Heir of Perdition and Shroud of False Death significantly increase your damage. If you need to fight bosses or push The Pit, you can adjust your gear details accordingly.

In addition, your first choice for runes is Nagu + Ceh, which summons more companions. Yul + Kry is also a good choice, which can help you gather monsters.

The above is the general outline of Season 9 Companion Druid build. You can familiarize yourself with its gameplay in advance. Season 10 strengthens Ravens' skills, so there may be some changes to Companion Druid skills in Season 10, but the core gameplay will not change much.

When players reach the endgame, their skill points and glyphs are nearly perfect. But when you face monsters, you'll find they're much tougher than in the campaign. If you're a Necromancer, you'll find your summoned armies of skeletons reduced to shattering skeletons.

So what's going wrong? Why isn't your build as damaging as other players'? How can you improve your damage? This requires analyzing Diablo 4's gameplay and mechanics.

1. Don't Focus On Attack

When you first enter the game, attack damage can provide a significant boost. However, once you reach Torment I, even with 60,000 attack damage, you still won't be able to destroy monsters. This is because attack damage becomes less important in the later stages.

What factors play a role in your combat? Attack speed, critical hit chance, lucky hits, and so on, and all of which are related to attack damage. If you focus solely on increasing your attack power, your damage will indeed increase, but the boost will be limited.

Suppose you have two amulets: one that increases attack power by 20% and critical hit chance and critical hit damage by 30%, and one that increases attack power by 50%. After damage testing, the first amulet will generally have higher damage. So if you constantly recharge your gear to stack attack power in the endgame, you're simply wasting your Diablo 4 gold.

Simply put, attack power is like the water in a pool. You can spray monsters for a whole day with a toy pistol, or you can just use a high-pressure water gun to cut them in half in a second.

2. Multiplicative And Additive

This brings us to Diablo IV's damage formula. In Diablo IV, addition and multiplication are the two primary ways character attributes and damage calculations are affected. Addition simply adds values together, while multiplication multiplies the base value.

Additive is typically used to stack attributes of the same type, such as multiple affixes that increase maximum health or multiple affixes that increase skill damage. The calculation method is to add the values of all additive attributes simply and then apply them to the base attribute. For example, if your character has two affixes that increase maximum health by 10%, the total maximum health increase is 20%.

Multiplicative is typically used to stack attributes of different types, such as increasing attack damage, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage. The calculation method is usually to multiply multiple multiplicative factors together and then apply them to the base attribute. For example, if a character has an affix that increases attack damage by 1.2 times and an affix that increases critical strike damage by 1.5 times, the total attack damage increase is 1.2 * 1.5 = 1.8 times.

On equipment, whether the affix is additive or multiplicative is marked with a symbol in front of the affix, making it easy to identify which affix is more effective. If you want to increase your damage, the most effective way is to focus on multiplicative affixes and maximize your specific abilities.

3. Equipment

Diablo 4 equipment is a major headache for every player. Besides equipment quality, you also need to consider its affixes. For players striving for maximum damage, the most worrying aspect is Greater Affix Gear (GA Gear). This gear tends to drop more frequently in Torment 4, and its affixes represent improved stats, allowing for higher damage. However, in most cases, a single piece of GA gear will suffice.

Horadric Knowledge

Let's first discuss how to get equipment. Your first choice in Season 9 is naturally Horadric Knowledge, which translates to Season 9 reputation. Mystery Archetype Cache provides Diablo 4 items relevant to your class, meaning everything in it is useful, even GA gear. The final Resplendent Cache provides items that allow you to craft Mythic items.

Infernal Hordes

In Infernal Hordes, besides exchanging Burning Aether for caches and obtaining Ancestral Legendary items, you can also obtain Scrolls of Restoration, which grant a chance to re-temper items that can no longer be tempered, preventing your gear from becoming bricked.

Nightmare Dungeons

Season 9's major change is Nightmare Dungeons. By completing both standard and upgraded Nightmare Dungeons, you can earn a considerable amount of Diablo 4 gold, materials, and gear. However, there's no guarantee of receiving Ancestral Unique items.

4. Build Guide

Many people prefer to experiment with their own builds rather than follow others' guides, which is certainly more fun. However, if you're looking for higher damage, referencing each season's meta builds may help you solve your problems.

The builds shared have been tested for damage and are guaranteed to deliver the desired damage. Ignore any builds that don't interest you and choose those that are close to your own builds as a reference.

5. Masterworking and Tempering

Masterworking and tempering are the final steps in upgrading your gear, each offering significant improvements. Masterworking and tempering are two separate equipment enhancement systems, independent of each other, but both significantly impact the stats and power of your gear. Masterworking primarily improves a gear's raw stats and adds additional attributes, while tempering modifies existing attributes to better suit your needs.

Masterworking requires materials such as Diablo 4 Obducite and gold, while tempering requires collecting Tempering Manuals. Collecting all the manuals is a bit tedious, and collecting and opening Whispering Tree caches to collect tempering manuals is a quicker method.

In short, to increase your character's damage, you need to understand Diablo IV damage multipliers and adjust your gear affixes and build accordingly.

Season 9 finally sees the arrival of an insane Druid build. This build lets you blink like crazy in The Pit, destroying every enemy within. The clearing speed of this build is top-notch; if you can replicate it, your only concern will be whether your computer can handle the rapid blinking.

This build has already destroyed 147 The Pit instances, and in the video, they dealt a staggering 2,957,400,000,000,000,000 damage to the boss—it'll take you a while just counting the zeros. This build relies on Horadric Spells in addition to Diablo 4 items, and let's take a look at the skills and items required for this build.

Pros And Cons

Earth Spike Druid build allows for unlimited teleportation and deals incredibly high damage, making it incredibly fast whether you're farming dungeons or Infernal Horde. This build has incredibly fast teleport speeds, much faster than Sorcerer or any other class build. If you're looking to have a good time before Season 10 arrives, you absolutely must try it.

Secondly, this build has numerous protective abilities, making it incredibly tanky and difficult to kill in most situations, making it well-suited for Hardcore mode.

This build does have some drawbacks, of course. First, its high damage is inherently unnatural; it exploits a bug, but this bug has been around for a long time and hasn't been fixed, so you can play for a while without worrying about it suddenly breaking.

You can exploit this bug to achieve a one-hit kill on bosses (few bosses can withstand such high damage, after all), but triggering the bug takes time, and if you're not able to protect yourself in time, you'll be killed by the boss.

Another drawback is its high gear requirements. Not only mythical items but also your other gear needs to upgrade by Temper and Masterworking system to get the affixes up to par, requiring a significant investment in Diablo 4 gold and affixes.

Earth Spike Druid Gear

• Helm: Vasily's Prayer (Bac and Xan)
• Chest Armor: Shroud of False Death (Igni and Qax)
• Gloves: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
• Pants: Stormshifter's Aspect (Sapphire and Sapphire)
• Boots: Hectic Aspect
• Weapon: Shard of Verathiel (Emerald)
• Amulet: Aspect of Adaptability
• Ring 1: Ring of Starless Skies (Elemental Brand)
• Ring 2: Aspect of the Rabid Bear (Luminate Eye)
• Offhand: Aspect of the Moonrise (Emerald)

This build only requires two unique items, but it's still quite difficult to obtain because you need to obtain two mythic items. Vasily's Prayer's main function is to convert your Earthquake skill into a Werebear skill, granting her the benefits of Grizzly Rage and Aspect of the Rabid Bear.

As for affixes, since you rely primarily on Earth Spike for damage rather than regular attacks, you'll want affixes like cooldown reduction and increased Earth skill damage. The better your gear, the higher your cumulative damage.

Earth Spike Druid Skills

• Debilitating Roar (Rank 1): Enchanced Debilitating Roar and Innate Debilitating Roar
• Blood Howl (Rank 1): Enchanted Blood Howl and Innate Blood Howl
• Cyclone Armor (Rank 1): Enchanted Cyclone Armor and preserving Cyclone Armor
• Grizzly Rage (Rank 5): Prime Grizzly Rage and Supreme Grizzly Rage
• Hurricane (Rank 1): Enchanted Hurricane and Savage Hurricane
• Earth Spike (Rank 5): Enchanted Earth Spike and Wild Earth Spike

Spirit Boons

• Deer: Wariness
• Eagle: Swooping Attacks and Avian Wrath
• Wolf: Energize
• Snake: Obsidian Slam

This build mainly relies on Earth Spike to trigger Catalyst skill for flash. Pulverize has higher damage, but since it requires a target to use, while Earth Spike doesn't need this, only Earth Spike allows you to frequently flash to other areas.

When paired with Horadric Spells for quick flashing, Earth Spike's damage is sufficient to kill most normal monsters. The remaining skills are primarily used during boss fights, where their primary purpose is to deal with them. Most of these skills are used to enhance survivability, making this build highly survivable.

Horadric Spells

Catalyst (Earth Spike)

• Cosmic Anomaly: Manifest up to 5 Anomalies, which emit particles that deal damage over 4 seconds. You can cluster Anomalies and implode, each explosion dealing damage. With 5 Anomalies, you become unstoppable.

Infusion

• Corrosive Vapor: Changes the damage dealt by your Cosmic Anomaly to poison damage and disables the life steal of monsters for 5 seconds.

Arcana

• Sapping Crux: Your Catalyst ability makes enemies vulnerable.
• Floaty Bobble: You can flash to the explosion created by Cosmic Anomaly and remove the debuff.
• Gleaming Conduit: Amplifies Catalyst abilities.

Horadic Spells are the core of this build. Simply cast Earth Spike to trigger Cosmic Anomaly and Floaty Bobble, allowing you to quickly teleport around the map. You can switch between the other two Arcanas based on your farming goals.

This is the most crazy Druid build that will make it easy to clear The Pit in Season 9. This build primarily exploits bugs, so some players might not like it. However, if you're looking to bid farewell to Season 9 and wait for Season 10, I recommend giving it a try before you leave, and it's a very enjoyable build.

While Diablo 4’s endgame isn’t as extensive as Path of Exile 2 and Last Epoch, it still offers a number of high-quality dungeons and activities for farming gear, materials, and leveling, such as Horadric Strongrooms, Kurast Undercity, and Infernal Horde in Season 9.

In terms of material yields like Diablo 4 Obducite, Infernal Horde falls short of the previous two, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad endgame activity. Because the Infernal Horde spawns many monsters, and leveling in Diablo 4 is based on monster counts, the Infernal Horde is an excellent leveling activity for players just reaching the endgame.

Leveling is only one aspect of Infernal Horde; don’t forget it also yields a significant amount of materials. To maximize your gains, you’ll need a good farming strategy.

Infernal Horde Guide

Infernal Horde is a wave-based survival mode where you face waves of monsters, culminating in a battle against three Corrupted Council bosses. Each wave begins with a 60-second timer. Unlike the timer in Kurast Undercity, you only need to survive for 60 seconds, not kill all the monsters within 60 seconds. Whether you survive or kill all the monsters, the wave ends.

The player’s primary goal is to earn Burning Aether by killing monsters. These are exchanged for Spoils of Hell at the end of Infernal Horde, which contain items such as Diablo IV Obducite, gold, and elixirs.

After completing each wave, players must choose one of three Infernal Offers, which affect the amount of Burning Aether earned each round, and the monsters encountered. Each Infernal Offer has both positive and negative effects. During each wave, you’ll also trigger Aether Events. Completing these events will earn you more Burning Aether.

Unlocking Infernal Horde events requires Infernal Hordes Compass, which is no longer craftable in Season 9. However, you can get it from dungeons, Helltide, and Whisper Chests.

Infernal Offers

To effectively utilize Infernal Horde, you need to understand the various Infernal Offer mechanics. Different combinations of Infernal Offers can affect Burning Aether drops, and some poorly chosen Infernal Offers can even lead to failure!

The types of Infernal Offers are as follows: 

• The Aether Rush
• The Burning Hellborne
• The Burning Rain
• The Bursting Fiends
• The Bursting Masses
• The Corrupting Spires
• The Draining Spires
• The Enfeebled Wanderer
• The Exalted Council
• The Exalted Elite
• The Exalted Hellborne
• The Exalted Hordes
• The Exalted Masses
• The Exhausted Wanderer
• The Gorging Masses
• The Insatiable Spires
• The Invigorating Hellborne
• The Stalking Devil
• The Summoned Hellborne
• The Summoned Lords
• The Surging Elite
• The Surging Hellborne
• The Teeming Masses
• The Unstoppable Elite
• The Withered Wanderer

Preparation And Strategy

Since players have multiple arsenals, in addition to dealing with The Pit, Bosses, and Nightmare Dungeons, you’ll also need a build specifically for clearing Infernal Horde.

Strategy 1: Hellborne

Hellborne offers the most generous rewards, so to maximize your Burning Aether gains, you’ll want to choose Infernal Offers that are closely tied to Burning Aether. The Surging Hellborne is the best choice, but The Invigorating Hellborne doesn’t provide any Burning Aether benefits.

You can choose from the following Infernal Offers:

• The Summoned Hellborne
• The Burning Hellborne
• The Exalted Hellborne
• The Surging Hellborne

Strategy 2: Aether Fiends

If you don’t encounter any Hellborne-related Infernal Offers, you still have other options. Aether Fiends offer quite good rewards, and if you choose The Surging Elite, your Burning Aether gains will be second only to The Surging Hellborne.

The Infernal Offers you can choose from are as follows:

• The Exalted Elite
• The Surging Elite
• The Unstoppable Elite
• The Teeming Masses
• The Summoned Lords

Strategy 3: Fixed Rewards

Sometimes you may not receive any of the above Infernal Offers. This isn’t the worst of it; you still have some options. While their rewards are average, they’re also not too difficult.

The Infernal Offers you can choose from are as follows:

• The Burning Rain
• The Enfeebled Wanderer
• The Exalted Council
• The Withered Wanderer
• The Stalking Devil

Strategy 4: Optional

If you don’t receive any of the above Infernal Offers, Infernal Offers you should choose are mainly to make the next wave less difficult.

Infernal Offers you can choose from are as follows:

• The Exalted Hordes
• Invigorating Hellborne
• The Bursting Masses
• The Exalted Masses

Strategy 5: Bad Choices

Some choices will slow down your activity, add extra events, or even cause you to die mid-game. Avoid these.

The Infernal Offers you shouldn’t choose are as follows:

• The Gorged Masses
• The Corrupting Spires
• The Insatiable Spires
• The Bursting Fiends

Infernal Horde Rewards

Infernal Horde’s main rewards are Obducite and Scroll of Restoration. Caches also contain materials and even unique weapons. However, Obducite and Scroll of Restoration come from different chests. Scroll of Restoration comes from Spoils of Greater Equipment, while Obducite comes from Spoils of Materials.

The amount of loot varies across Torment levels. Below is the amount of Diablo 4 Obducite found in Obducite Caches at each Torment difficulty level.

• Torment 1: 40 Obducite
• Torment 2: 80 Obducite
• Torment 3: 160 Obducite
• Torment 4: 320 Obducite

This concludes your Infernal Horde farming strategy. If you have extra Infernal Horde Compasses in your inventory, you can just use them all and farm for materials by Infernal Horde.

For players reaching Endgame, farming for unique and mythic gear is essential to complete your build. Unique gear is easier to farm on Torment 4 difficulty, but the drop rate for mythic gear is very low.

Aside from crafting with Resplendent Sparks and Diablo 4 Runes, farming Lair Bosses is a common method. The catch is that to get Lair Boss rewards, you must first collect Lair Boss keys.

Lair Bosses

Lair Bosses have undergone some changes in Season 8, with the addition of a new boss, Belial, and the tiers of bosses being divided into three levels: Initiate, Greater, and Exalted.

Unlike previous seasons, you no longer need Lair Boss keys to Initiate boss fights, but you will need the corresponding Boss Keys to get the rewards. If you’re playing with others, everyone needs a Boss Key to open the chest after defeating the boss, and sharing is not allowed.

The rewards for Initiate Bosses include Boss Keys for Greater Bosses. After defeating any Initiate Bosses or Greater Bosses, there’s a chance you’ll encounter Belial’s Ambush. After defeating this sudden boss, it will drop Diablo 4 Betrayer’s Husk.

Here are the required keys and drops for all lair bosses:

Initiate Boss

• Varshan: 12x Malignant Heart (Requirement), Shard of Agony or Stygian Stone (Drop)
• Grigoire: 12x Living Steel (Requirement), Shard of Agony or Stygian Stone (Drop)
• Beast in the Ice: 12x Distilled Fear (Requirement), Pincushioned Doll or Stygian Stone (Drop)
• Lord Zir: 12x Exquisite Blood (Requirement), Pincushioned Doll or Stygian Stone (Drop)
• Urivar: 12x Judicator’s Mask (Requirement), Abhorrent Heart or Stygian Stone (Drop)

Greater Boss

• Duriel: 3x Shard of Agony (Requirement)
• Andariel: 3x Pincushioned Doll (Requirement)
• Harbinger of Hatred: 3x Abhorrent Heart (Requirement)

Exalted Boss

• Belial: 2x Betrayer’s Husk (Requirement)

How To Farm Lair Boss keys?

Relying on killing bosses to get keys for other bosses is inefficient, but thankfully, there’s more to it than just that. With the exception of Betrayer’s Husk, every material has other drop sources.

Here are the farming paths for each boss material:

‍Abhorrent Heart

• 1. Undercity of Kurast (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Urivar
• 3. World Bosses

‍Betrayer’s Husk

• 1. Belial, Lord of Lies ambush encounter in Lair Boss

‍Distilled Fear

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Nightmare Dungeons
• 3. Bartering
• 4. Tree of Whispers
• 5. World Bosses

‍Exquisite Blood

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Blood Maiden (Helltide)
• 3. Bartering
• 4. Tree of Whispers
• 5. World Bosses
• 6. Legion Events

‍Judicator’s Mask

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Kurast Undercity (without ‍Tribute of Titans)
• 3. Bartering
• 4. Tree of Whispers
• 5. World Bosses

‍Living Steel

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Helltide
• 3. Bartering
• 4. Tree of Whispers
• 5. World Bosses

‍Malignant Heart

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Tree of Whispers
• 3. Bartering
• 4. World Bosses

‍Pincushioned Doll

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Beast in the Ice and Lord Zir
• 3. World Bosses

‍Shard of Agony

• 1. Kurast Undercity (‍Tribute of Titans)
• 2. Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint and Echo of Varshan
• 3. World Bosses

Kurast Undercity And Tribute

Among the above methods, Kurast Undercity is the most efficient dungeon, but it’s included in Vessel of Hatred, released in Diablo 4 season 6. This dungeon has a countdown, and you can extend the duration by killing monsters. The longer you persist, the better the rewards.

You can use Tributes in advance to change the rewards in Kurast Undercity. The rewards for different tributes are as follows:

• Tribute of Pride (magic): Legendary items
• Tribute of Mystique (magic): Magic runes
• Tribute of Titans (Rare): Boss summoning items
• Tribute of Refinement (Rare): Masterworking materials
• Tribute of Harmony (Rare): Runes
• Tribute of Radiance (Legendary): Ancestral legendary items
• Tribute of Ascendance (Unique): Several unique items, and increases the chance of receiving a Mythic unique item

Tributes can be gotten in a variety of ways, including defeating bosses and farming The Pit and Helltide. If you need to farm Obducite, replace Tribute of Titans with Tribute of Refinement. If you’ve accumulated a lot of Tribute in your inventory, use it quickly to convert it into resources.

Which Lair Bosses Are You Targeting?

The reward pools for different Lair Bosses vary. If you’re farming Mythic items, Duriel, Andariel, and Harbinger of Hatre have higher drop rates, so you can target them to collect the corresponding keys.

The highest drop rate is from Belial, but since collecting Diablo 4 Betrayer’s Husk is more difficult than with other bosses, it’s not as efficient.

This is a general guide to farming Lair Boss keys in Diablo 4 Season 9. The most recommended method is to farm Kurast Undercity. If you don’t have the DLC yet, it’s highly recommended that you unlock it. The runes, mercenaries, and other unique content included in Vessel of Hatred are key ways to increase the strength of your builds, while Kurast Undercity is one of the best dungeons in Endgame for farming various materials.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the best way to farm obducite, but with the dungeon updates in Season 9, the farming method has changed.

This material is primarily used to upgrade your Masterworking gear and is a late-game material. Therefore, the following information applies primarily to farming in Torment 4. The same method can be used in other Torment difficulty levels, though it won’t be as efficient.

1. Horadric Strongrooms

Dungeons are a must-do for many players. Whether you’re leveling, farming for gold, or anything else, you’ll spend some time in a dungeon. Diablo 4 Season 9 adds mini-treasure rooms to nightmare dungeons, known as Horadric Strongrooms. When you play a nightmare dungeon, you’ll notice a prominent Horadric Gateway on the mini-map. After activating it, you’ll need to defeat several waves of mobs before you can enter the Horadric Strongroom.

Horadric Strongrooms are small dungeons. Upon entering, you’ll need to choose your favors. Once you’ve chosen your Favors, you’ll enter a room filled with enemies and four Horadric Artifact Pillars.

You must kill mobs within a 90-second timer to refill your Horadric Attunement, similar to Kurast Undercity. When the timer reaches zero or your Horadric Attunement reaches maximum, the mobs disappear and a boss appears. Defeating the boss will drop a Grand Horadric Cache containing over 2,000 obducites. The exit will appear after you claim the rewards.

There are two choices to farm a dungeon containing Horadric Strongrooms:

Farming The Entire Dungeon

Farming the entire Nightmare Dungeon is the least efficient method. Clearing Strongroom first and then clearing the remaining Nightmare Dungeons will yield additional Obducites, but the farming time will be significantly longer. It takes about 5 minutes to earn an additional 800-1200 Obducites, while in a Strongroom, you can earn about 1200 Obducites per minute.

Farm Only Horadric Strongrooms

You should only farm and collect Nightmare dungeons with Horadric Strongrooms affix. Once you defeat the boss and claim the rewards, exit immediately. This is a relatively efficient method.

Sigil Powder can be crafted into Nightmare Sigil, which transforms a normal dungeon into a Nightmare dungeon. Using this with Sigil Powder will significantly increase your efficiency, but it will quickly deplete your Sigil Powder. Additionally, the location of Horadric Strongrooms will change with each new Nightmare dungeon, affecting your farming efficiency.

2. Kurast Undercity

Kurast Undercity is a true treasure trove. You need to use Tribute of Refinement here and then clear monsters as quickly as possible. This method yields about 1,100 Diablo 4 Obducite per minute. If you encounter Portal Pranksters (Goblins), you’ll get a bonus.

This method relies on consuming Tribute of Refinement, which drops in Nightmare dungeons and Infernal Hordes, so you can combine it with other methods. Furthermore, if you team up with three other players and enter Kurast Undercity, one Tribute of Refinement will give you all 2,000 Obducite, for a total of 8,000 Obducite, which is quite a bargain.

3. Escalating Nightmares

Escalating Nightmares are essentially three nightmare dungeons strung together, a new dungeon change for season 9. Each dungeon has affixes, and these affixes stack with the next dungeon. You can set the affixes for the first tier, but the subsequent two tiers are random. Dungeons with Strongroom affix can yield around 2,000-2,500 Obducites, while the appearance of these affixes in the other two dungeons is entirely a matter of luck.

Thus, ideally, you can earn over 10,000 Obducites per clear of Escalating Nightmare. That said, the larger the map, the more Obducites you’ll earn, but the longer it takes to complete them. Overall, this method is less efficient than the previous two methods.

4. Infernal Hordes

Infernal Hordes event has a high degree of randomness, making it the least recommended method. Furthermore, the optimal event also requires randomness. The boons you choose may not always spawn the enemies you want. On average, this method yields about 350 Obducites per minute.

However, Infernal Hordes isn’t an unwanted event, as Obducites aren’t its primary reward, and the large number of monsters makes this an excellent leveling activity. As long as you combine it with buffs like EXP Elixirs, Incense, and Mother’s Blessing, it’s even more efficient than The Pit.

5. March Of The Goblin (Limited Time)

March of the Goblin is currently ongoing. This group of goblins, each with its own unique color, offers incredible rewards. Whatever you farm, it’s likely in the bags carried by these goblins.

While their spawn rate is random, there are certain areas where they appear more frequently. You can plan a more targeted farming route to hunt these goblins. The Diablo 4 Obducite you get with this method depends entirely on your luck.

6. Masterworking Cache

The last important method is Masterworking Cache, which you can get by trading in Mercenary’s Den, and a Masterworking Cache provides approximately 1,000 Obducite.

This is how to farm Obducite in Season 9. The stronger your build, the more efficient you’ll be. If you think these methods are too time-consuming, you can also choose to trade with other players.

Recently, Diablo 4 Season 9 Patch 2.3.2 was released, which fixed some bugs and improved game balance. This patch also added March of the Goblins Event, one of the most anticipated events of the past season.

From now until August 5th, all players can participate in this event. During this event, Diablo 4’s Treasure Goblins will appear more frequently. They typically flee upon detection, making it difficult to kill them and claim their generous loot.

This March of the Goblins Event will increase the appearance rate of these highly mobile enemies, and this guide will provide you with tips to maximize your chances of defeating them and earning rewards, making your exploration much more efficient.

1. Pay Attention To The Mini-Map

Many players, while exploring Sanctuary in Diablo 4, only check the minimap when Helltide or other world events are active, and spend the rest of the time moving forward. However, this isn’t always safe; you’ll frequently be attacked and surrounded by enemies.

During these times, it’s difficult to see where Treasure Goblins spawn on the mini-map, leading to missed opportunities to kill them. Therefore, it’s important to keep an eye on the mini-map as much as possible, as these enemy icons are usually more visible on the mini-map than in the main world.

2. Actively Enter Helltides

If you had to choose a location for efficient Treasure Goblins farming, the Helltides would be the best choice. The enemy spawn intervals during this event are shorter than elsewhere in Sanctuary, and Goblins are no exception.

It’s important to note, however, that during March of the Goblins event, the number of enemies you face in Helltides is doubled, so it’s best to spend as much Diablo 4 gold as possible before embarking on your exploration to ensure your build is adequate in both defense and offense.

Additionally, PvP-filled Fields of Hatred offer a great opportunity to farm Treasure Goblins multiple times. If you’re solely focused on farming these monsters and their rewards, here’s a great way to avoid competing against other players: turn off cross-play.

3. Keep Nearby Greed Shrines Active

In addition to increasing the chances of Treasure Goblins appearing, directly increasing the rewards they drop is also a good way to optimize your gameplay experience. For example, activating every Greed Shrine you encounter can increase the bonus D4 gold awarded when an enemy dies.

Not only that, activating those Shrines also has a chance to increase the spawn rate of Treasure Goblins. Combined with the benefits provided by March of the Goblins event, this increases your chances of finding these elusive monsters greatly.

4. Identifying Treasure Goblin Colors

In Diablo 4 Season 7, Treasure Goblins underwent a major overhaul: they were divided into six different types, each with a unique color and rewards. This mechanic has been carried over to Season 9. Below is a list of their colors and the rewards they can drop.

• Odious Ector (Green) - Crafting Materials
• Gilded Baron (Yellow) - Tons Of Gold
• Glittering Prym (Diamond) - Gem Fragments, Runes, And Undercity Tributes
• Curious Murl (Purple) - A Pack With Large Amounts Murmuring Obols
• Gelatinous Syrus (Blue) - Legendary Gear, Gold, Materials For Lair Bosses, And Elixirs
• Fancy Old Fedric (Mythic Purple) - A Mythic Unique & A Resplendent Spark

By referring to this list, you can target specific colored Treasure Goblins during your exploration based on your loot needs. However, it’s important to note that Gelatinous Syrus will split into multiple goblins upon slaying, so be mindful of your combat power during the encounter.

Furthermore, the probability of these goblins appearing decreases from top to bottom. Fancy Old Fedric has a near one in a million chance of appearing, making it possible to spend over a month searching for it. Don’t confuse it with Curious Murl, because their purple colors are completely different upon closer inspection.

If you’re looking forward to quickly upgrade your build, it’s highly recommended to farm Glittering Prym, as Runes and Undercity Tributes it provides are crucial components for significantly improving your build. Curious Murl provides you with numerous Murmuring Obols, which you can save for higher-quality rewards from the Purveyor of Curiosities vendor.

Player Perceptions

When the developers launched Gift of the Tree event this season, players were already skeptical of the idea of useless rewards instead of improving the seasonal content. This sentiment hasn’t changed with March of the Goblins event.

Firstly, Season 9, Sins of the Horadrim, has been in the game for a month now, and most players are already very familiar with farming Legendary gear, even having all the gear they need. So the high-quality gear offered in both the interactive Gift of the Tree and the combat-based March of the Goblins is no longer as appealing.

Furthermore, the rewards of the former are completely random, while the latter prioritizes quantity over quantity. These issues prevent players from fully relying on them to obtain Uniques with multiple greater affixes, which can help optimize their builds and successfully explore the endgame content.

The above is a summary of Diablo 4’s latest March of the Goblins event and what players are currently thinking about it. In fact, according to the roadmap released by the developers at the beginning of the year, players are expected to enter Season 10 in September of this year.

So, it’s very likely that the next season’s PTR will launch in August. So, is this frequent release of new events a cover-up for the fact that the new season isn’t ready yet? We don’t know, we can only wait and see.

Diablo 4 launched Runeword feature in Season 6, alongside Vessel of Hatred DLC. This system is inspired by Diablo II, but bears little resemblance to Diablo II’s rune system.

Although they’re merely inlays, they play a crucial role in your build. A single Legendary Rune can elevate your build’s DPS to another level. With the sheer volume of loot in this game, finding what you want amidst this vast array of drops is a real test of your luck. So yes, this is a kind of slot machine game.

The Role Of Runes

Some new players may overlook this unassuming inlay because they don’t yet understand its purpose.

In Diablo IV, runes and gems share equipment slots. Diablo 4 runes are divided into ritual runes and prayer runes. Ritual runes generate “Offering,” while prayer runes consume “Offering.” Only when the two runes are combined into a rune word do they function; individual runes are ineffective. A player can have a maximum of two sets of runes embedded in their equipment at once.

For example, you trigger ritual runes by moving, drinking potions, or consuming mana to generate offerings. Once the offerings reach the required amount for the prayer rune, the rune’s effect is automatically unleashed, such as increasing health, increasing critical strike limit, or unleashing skills from other classes. For Diablo IV players, it’s easier to understand runes as additional Legendary Aspects.

Runes also serve as a material,and if you have some runes, two Resplendent Sparks, and 5,000 Diablo 4 gold, you can craft a Mythic item.

Here are the recipes:

• Andariel’s Visage: 6* Tam, 6* Qax, 6* Zan
• Doombringer: 6* Ahu, 6* Neo, 6* Lum
• Harlequin Crest: 6* Eom, 6* Lac, 6* Ton
• Heir of Perdition: 6* Jah, 6* Que, 6* Gar
• Melted Heart of Selig: 6* Vex, 6* Thul, 6* Tun
• Ring of Starless Skies: 6* Ohm, 6* Tzic, 6* Cem
• Shroud of False Death: 6* Bac, 6* Kry, 6* Moni
• Tyrael’s Might: 6* Lith, 6* Feo, 6* Tec
• Shattered Vow: 6* Xan, 6* Ner, 6* Teb
• Nesekem, the Herald: 6* Yul, 6* Wat, 6* Tal
• The Grandfather: 6* Xol, 6* Mot, 6* Yax
• Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander: 6* Yom, 6* Poc, 6* Cir

How To Farm Runes?

Prerequisites

While runes are a powerful and common drop, some players may find themselves without any. This isn’t a bug or bad luck; you need to confirm that you have met the following conditions:

• 1. Have you unlocked Vessel of Hatred DLC?
• 2. If you have completed Fundament of Faith campaign in the DLC, you must have completed both conditions to get runes.

Runes will only appear as drops if both conditions are met. Players who fail to complete the above requirements will not receive runes as rewards, nor will they be traded with other players.

Campaign Bosses

As new items in Vessel of Hatred DLC, runes are guaranteed to drop when you defeat the Vessel of Hatred campaign bosses for the first time each season. However, repeating the campaign do not always drop runes.

World Bosses

World bosses drop a variety of rewards, including unique items, gold, and Diablo 4 runes. Runes have a high chance of appearing. Three bosses spawn every 3.5 hours, and you need to defeat them within 15 minutes.

Kurast Undercity

If you plan to farm runes, the most reliable way is to spam monsters in Kurast Undercity. This dungeon is a race against time, and When you enter the under city, a countdown will begin, and once the countdown ends, you are teleported out. Every monster you kill here extends your time, and the longer you stay, the better the rewards.

Another way to increase your rewards is to use Tributes, which you can earn through other activities. If you only use Tributes in Kurast Undercity, your initial time will be shorter, but the rewards will be better.

There’s also a special Treasure Goblin here, Portal Pranksters, which will flee when you encounter them. Chasing down and killing them will earn you gold and runes.

March Of The Goblins

The March of the Goblins event is currently underway, with more goblins roaming Sanctuary. Killing them will earn you various rewards, including Glittering Prym, which offers gems and runes.

Jeweler

Jeweler won’t sell you any runes, but you can reforge them. If you already have a large inventory of Magic runes but are looking for Legendary runes, Jeweler might be the best option.

Jeweler’s Diablo 4 Rune Reforging service converts three runes of the same quality into another Diablo 4 Rune, with a chance of a higher quality rune.

• Reforging three Magic Runes for 4,000 gold has an 85% chance of generating one Magic Rune and a 15% chance of upgrading to a Rare Rune.
• Reforging three Rare Runes for 4,000 gold has an 85% chance of generating one Rare Rune and a 15% chance of upgrading to a Legendary Rune.
• Reforging three Legendary Runes for 4,000 gold also generates one Legendary Rune.

The ideal way to get Legendary Runes is to prepare a sufficient number of Rare Runes in advance and reforge them here. If you’re lucky, you can get quite a few Legendary Runes.

The above is the basic method of farming runes in Diablo IV Season 9. Without relying on game exploits, farming runes requires a little bit of luck and a lot of time.

The developers of Diablo 4 recently confirmed that the next major update will be delayed until Season 10 (around mid-September). Although Season 9 was not launched until early July, the development team seems to have focused resources on the future planning of the game.

Player feedback in recent seasons has been mixed, ranging from persistent technical problems to the official over-emphasis on a specific genre of play. Although new content such as Horadric Spells and upgraded Nightmare Dungeons introduced in Season 9 has partially improved the end-game experience, the community still expects future seasons to bring more substantial updates in the absence of expansion packs in 2025.

But in any case, Season 9 will not change much, and it is basically its final state at present. So now it is almost time to make a conclusion about season 9. Some players think it is a boring season, while some players think it is pretty good, so how is it?

Horadric Spells

Horadric Spells is one of the core mechanisms of Season 9. Its advantage is that it can be flexibly matched. At the same time, the combination of various catalysts and other spells increases the probability of players in cultivating dungeons and The Pit. On PTR, players have also developed infinite teleportation gameplay.

However, Horadric Spells will not become the core content of builds. Their most common role in builds is to provide shields, reduce monster resistance, or execute monsters in health points. Although the combination of Horadric Spells is very flexible, in terms of strength, players prefer to choose specific Arcanas, and the others are basically ignored. If you are a casual player, then Horadric Spells will be very interesting. Overall, Horadric Spells is somewhat similar to Witch Powers in Season 7, and is more fun than Boss Powers.

Season Quest Line

Season 9’s Season Quest Line is a very disappointing part. First of all, from the plot point of view, it mainly describes the connection between Horadrim and Astaroth, and there is basically no important part. From the gameplay point of view, it is mostly errands, running from left to right, looking for some boring Diablo 4 items, and what players want is more combat content.

Seasonal Reputation

Each season’s reputation rewards are very important. In addition to rewarding materials and unique items, its ultimate reward also includes Resplendent Spark. Resplendent Spark can be used to create Mythic items, and Mythic gear is the most powerful equipment in Diablo 4. Many top builds require two or even three Mythic equipment, but this thing is really difficult to farm.

Resplendent Spark is the core material for creating Mythic items. Of course, you have to prepare some Diablo 4 gold and runes.

To complete the Season 9 reputation progress, you need to obtain Horadric knowledge by completing seasonal tasks, killing bosses, etc. Compared with the previous season, the reputation of season 9 has become a bit complicated, or a bit slow.

Horadric Strongrooms And Dungeons

Horadric Strongrooms were a really great part of Season 9, and they were basically random rewards that randomly appeared in dungeons, and you could get some crazy rewards just by fighting through them, like tons of Diablo 4 gold or legendary items.

If you were lucky enough to get Treasure Breach affix, you could enter a nightmare dungeon full of goblins. You know how those goblins always carry treasures, and if you can scavenge them once or twice, you’ll be rich, and these were definitely the most satisfying part of Season 9.

However, they were a little too easy, and even the highest difficulty was not very challenging for players.

Classes

One of the unfortunate aspects of Season 9 was that it nerfed the strong builds from previous seasons, and classes like Barbarian and Druid were affected a lot. It was really frustrating to watch the best builds get nerfed every season.

However, the unique items in Season 9 also brought a lot of fresh and powerful meta to players. The best of them is definitely Hydra Sorcerer build. This build is powerful and interesting, and it completely changes the previous Sorcerer gameplay, and the same is true for Thorn Spiritborn build.

But for other classes, players are still playing some old meta builds, such as Bloodwave Necromancer and Mighty Throw Barbarian. In short, Diablo 4 needs more builds that can bring more changes to the gameplay.

The Pit

Another important change in Season 9 is that they weakened the strength of The Pit. Most builds can easily reach The Pit above level 80, and even The Pit level 100 is very easy. This change is to make it easier for players to get the glyph to level 100, which is a wonderful change.

In short, Season 9 may not be as good as Season 4, but it is definitely not bad. Compared to all seasons, it is about above average, and it could 6 points if the full points is 10, which is on par with season 7. Diablo 4 is developing new content, and hopefully Season 10 will bring some big changes and surprises.