Diablo Immortal is heavily criticised for Pay2Win, a six-figure sum for a highly bred character makes headlines. How justified is the current outrage?
Diablo Immortal is on everyone’s lips right now – and divides the fans. While some are happy about a free mobile spin-off of their favourite game and just want to slaughter hordes of demons, others decry the title for downright predatory Pay2Win mechanics.
Currently, one reads again and again that one has to invest around 100,000 euros in the game in order to get a maximally upgraded hero. Of course, such sums cause massive outrage and headlines on the net. We therefore take a look at where these figures come from and whether the excitement is justified.
100,000 euros for a hero – that’s what’s behind it
The much-cited 100,000 euros come from a video of the YouTube channel Bellular News. Although you can’t buy equipment or level boosts in the in-game shop, you can buy Legendary Emblems. By the way, we break down the exact shop mechanics in detail here:
If you use these emblems when entering an Elder Portal, you will be rewarded with a Lootbox at the end, which is guaranteed to contain a legendary gem of random quality. Six of these gems can be equipped at a time.
The problem: These gems make up a large part of your power and can be upgraded up to twenty times. However, you need more legendary gems for these upgrades – and these can virtually only be found if you use the legendary emblems.
Although there are also ways to get emblems and thus legendary gems without using real money, they are severely limited.
According to the YouTubers, it would take around 10 years to upgrade all your gems to the maximum if you only rely on the free options. You can find their detailed analysis in the video starting at 16:50 minutes:
Is the excitement justified? Our assessment
100,000 euros for a strong hero – that is of course found food for all those who want to see Diablo Immortal already since its infamous announcement at Blizzcon 2018 stew in hellfire.
However, let’s take a more nuanced look at the situation: For whom does this extreme hurdle really pose a problem? And what is the point of equipping a character completely with five-star jewels anyway?
In our experience, you can basically play all the content of the Mobile Diablo without spending a single cent. Or put another way: If you want to play for one or two hours a day, you get a high-quality produced smartphone game that can also be played on the PC on the side.
Although there are occasional level restrictions, at which point the campaign is paused until you have reached a certain level. Money does not bring any advantages here, however: Paying players have to overcome this occasional grind in the same way. By the way, we’ve explained how you can do this as quickly as possible in our Leveling Guide:
Equal opportunities are also given when hunting for better equipment Free2Play players have exactly the same chance to find legendary items and set items. Those who like Diablo and the endless grind typical of the series will get a fun addition to the series – of course always in the knowledge that Diablo Immortal is a mobile game that also plays like a mobile game
Where the Pay2Win paywall really lurks
However, it becomes quite problematic for players who really take Diablo Immortal seriously, play eight or more hours every day and want to celebrate successes in the competitive areas. You want to win every game in PvP without dying? You want to reach the top of the rankings and be one of the strongest players on your server? Then you’ll have to dig deep into your pockets, because even the most persistent grind simply won’t help you here.
As already explained above, legendary gems play an essential role in strengthening your character Not only can they be upgraded, some particularly rare five-star gems are also considered the best possible option in many character builds. Getting these requires either extreme patience or the purchase of legendary emblems
But even then, it’s a case of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping for the right gem in the Lootbox Lottery. Those who only invest a few euros will most likely not be able to get the optimal jewels for their class right away. A dangerous and manipulative construct designed to take money out of the pockets of vulnerable players.
Our conclusion on the 100,000 Euro debate can be found on the next page of this article.
Editorial conclusion
In the first 30 hours, Diablo Immortal is extremely Free2Play friendly All content – campaign, dungeons, raids and more – can be successfully completed by truly anyone. There are no time limits due to an endurance system, as is common in other mobile games. If you only want to play it for a few hours a week as a time killer on the train, in the garden or on the toilet, this is the perfect game for you. Many players will certainly have put the game aside before they even come up against the hard paywall. This only really becomes noticeable in the end game, as soon as you only become stronger by finding and upgrading legendary gems.
Caution is therefore called for in the endgame and in competitive play. Ambitious players in particular, who cannot live with the fact that paying people get stronger faster, are permanently tempted to open their wallets – and may even be drawn into a kind of gambling spiral. So anyone who already knows from their own experience that they have an unhealthy relationship with Gacha Games, Lootboxes & Co. should rather avoid the game altogether.
The current outrage about Diablo Immortal is quite justified for us – but not because of the circulating sum of 100,000 euros for a strong hero. For us, it’s much worse that at some point you will reach a limit where character progress can only be achieved with real money.
Because what’s the point of playing a grindy action role-playing game like Diablo if you have no chance to progress? Looting cool stuff is a big part of the fun of the game.
I’m sure we can all agree that we would have much preferred a new Diablo without these restrictive Pay2Win mechanics. With an in-game shop full of skins, pets and other cosmetics, no one would have complained. Instead, Diablo Immortal has now become a Free2Play mobile game with Free2Play mobile game monetisation.
