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Although 2.3.0 PTR has ended, it is certain that all the new content that will be launched in Diablo 4 Season 9 must include two new dungeons, namely Escalating Nightmares and Horadric Strongrooms.

Among them, Escalating Nightmares can be regarded as an upgraded version of Nightmare Dungeon, one of the inherent Diablo 4 dungeons, while Horadric Strongrooms is a seasonal dungeon launched specifically for Season 9, just like S7’s Rootholds.

However, although these two new dungeons do not completely belong to the same system, they can not only all bring you a lot of Diablo 4 gold to farm, but also have connections with each other. Next, we will introduce them to you one by one.

What Are Escalating Nightmares?

As a new endgame event, this new dungeon actually connects 3 separate traditional Nightmare Dungeons in series, providing you with the opportunity to get more rewards by expanding the difficulty and scope of exploration.

How To Enter?

To enter Escalating Nightmares, you first need to obtain Escalation Sigils that unlock the first dungeon, and the second two dungeons require you to carry the affix of the previous dungeon to enter.

After you obtain Escalation Sigils, it will tell you which Escalating Nightmares dungeon you should enter first, and show you all the negative and positive affixes you will encounter.

Because just like the normal Nightmare Dungeons, all three dungeons in Escalating Nightmares have their own positive and negative dungeon affixes, and the affixes you have will stack as you progress through the clearing process.

Later, when you defeat the final boss to complete the current dungeon, a special pillar will appear on the screen, which will teleport you to the next dungeon in Escalating Nightmares.

How To Complete?

As you know, Escalating Nightmares is actually a combined advanced version of the regular nightmare dungeons, so the specific gameplay differences are not very big.

In general, you will still trigger random events or encounter various bosses in Escalating Nightmares, and defeating them will get rewards, including gear of varying quality, gold, and Obols.

How To Get Escalation Sigils?

As the key item to unlock Escalating Nightmares, the acquisition of Escalation Sigils is actually related to another new dungeon in Season 9, Horadric Strongrooms.

In fact, this is why we say that there is a connection between Escalating Nightmares and Horadric Strongrooms. You can only get this item by completing Strongrooms in Torment difficulty and opening Horadric caches.

What Is Horadric Strongroom?

As a Season 9 limited dungeon, Horadric Strongrooms is actually a small treasure room hidden in Escalating Nightmares and ordinary nightmare dungeons, bringing you new rewards and fun with additional adventures.

How To Enter?

Since the entrances to Strongrooms are randomly hidden in Escalating Nightmares and normal Nightmares, and Strongrooms must be completed to open the former, the first thing you need to do is to collect Nightmare Sigils to enter Nightmare Dungeon.

You can then utilize Wayfinder to look out for unique sounds and flashes while exploring Nightmare Dungeon, and where they are located will be Horadric Gateways.

Although the appearance of gateways is random, you can increase the probability of them appearing in other ways, including:

• Choosing a higher difficulty: The higher the difficulty of your game, the greater the chance of encountering a gateway.
• Clearing the entire dungeon: You will always encounter several gateways after searching the entire Nightmare Dungeon.
• Upgrading Wayfinder: This can be done with Season 9 exclusive currency Horadric Phials. After upgrading, Wayfinder will locate the gateway faster and more accurately.
• Farm Nightmare Sigils with the “guaranteed Horadric Strongroom” affix: This affix guarantees that Strongrooms will appear in the corresponding location.

How To Play?

After activating the gateway, you will encounter a wave of ambushed enemies. Kill them to open the gateway and enter the dungeon. Next, you need to activate Horadric Artifact Pillar and kill the enemies that appear to complete the initial ritual. Then continue to interact with the pillar to change the conditions of the final rituals.

Next, please kill new enemies according to the requirements of these conditions to summon the final boss of the current Horadric Strongroom. After killing it and confirming that all enemies in the dungeon have been cleared, the new gateway will take you back to where you were before entering Strongroom.

It is worth noting that the higher the game difficulty when entering Strongroom, the more artifact pillars you need to choose. Some of these pillars will provide buffs, while others will increase rewards and bring additional dangers due to the corruption caused by the boss Astaroth.

What Rewards Are There?

After completing Horadric Strongrooms, the first thing you get is Horadric Attunement and a cache. You can think of the former as a kind of points, because the number of rewards you get after opening the cache depends on your Attunement.

In addition to regular rewards and Escalation Sigils, if your Attunement count exceeds 2000, you may also get a rare elixir through cache.

The above is the connection between the two new dungeons in Season 9 and their respective gameplay. I hope it will be helpful for your future battles in the new season!

Playing games seems to be just one of the simplest daily entertainments, but if you want to improve your gaming experience in all aspects, there are actually many related factors.

Take Diablo 4 as an example. From the game itself, the influencing factors include the richness and rationality of the playable content, whether the style and music are attractive enough; from other perspectives, it includes the configuration of devices and the operation settings.

Therefore, when you are looking for Diablo 4 game guides, in addition to teaching you how to craft builds or how to clear dungeons to earn more Diablo 4 gold, there will also be bloggers focusing on evaluating devices and different game settings.

Recently, Diablo 4 will usher in the 2nd anniversary celebration at the end of Season 8, and then Season 9 will be launched. Based on this, we will recommend you 6 new settings suitable for immediate application to help you improve the game’s operation smoothness from the end of Season 8.

1. Advanced Tooltip Compare

This setting compares the statistics of items side by side to highlight the differences in their attributes to help you determine which items are more suitable for your character. This is very necessary for you to improve your character’s strength efficiently.

Oddly, this setting and the next advanced tooltip information are turned off by default when you first enter the game. As a result, when you compare items, the tooltip only shows the main attributes, the equipment appearance, and the temper it may have.

But if you want to see advanced gear information such as attribute range or lucky hit rate, you must turn on the advanced tooltip compare setting. Since you need to change gear frequently during different battles, more gear information that can be directly seen and compared can help you understand your gains and losses when changing or upgrading gear.

2. Advanced Tooltip Information

You can think of this setting as a supplementary reference content for tooltip compare, because even if you know all the information about the corresponding gear through tooltip compare, you may not know how to upgrade the gear in a targeted manner next.

Based on this, this setting will utilize different colors to mark the specific circumstances in which your items may gain or lose properties and other modifiers. Although this function is not very meaningful after you enter the endgame, it is very useful when you are upgrading your character in the early stage.

3. Auto Pin New Quest

The function of this setting is that when you select a quest or a destination of a quest in the game log, the system will automatically place a map marker at the corresponding location, and then your mini-map will directly show you the route to the selected destination.

On this basis, it is recommended that you combine it with your HUD compass. This will cause an arrow to appear on the screen as a guide to move forward, so you don’t have to keep staring at the minimap. You can also further set the arrow to any color you think is eye-catching to make the guidance more clear.

After selecting a quest, the arrow will point toward the quest. All you have to do is open the quest menu and click on the corresponding quest. You will find a small arrow and a small line pointing to it, and follow the instructions to explore.

4. Player Highlights

When you enter a dungeon or other special area where enemies appear in groups or the surrounding environment is dark, you will find that you may not find your character! This is undoubtedly a big negative impact on your game experience.

The game takes this into account and launches player highlights and other related settings or features. Just turn on this setting and click Save Changes. When you return to the game, you will see a glow around your character, so that you will be able to easily see where your character is in any situation.

It is worth noting that the color of the character’s highlight light can be customized, so you can change it as needed, because the background color of different dungeons or scenes should also be different. In addition, the mouse can also be set to high-contrast highlights like the character. After all, when the battle is chaotic, it is less conspicuous than the character.

5. Screen Shake

When you encounter those enemies and bosses in Diablo 4 that are huge or good at utilizing explosive skills, or your builds have features such as super fast attack speed or super high attack power, then you may find that the screen will shake with certain effects during the battle.

This is actually because your screen shake setting is turned on. This special effect can provide a certain sense of reality in your battle. But to be honest, not every Diablo 4 player likes this, and sometimes it may cause additional lag, so you can turn it on or off according to your needs.

6. Force Move

This setting is more suitable for you to enable when you utilize PC to play Diablo 4, because under normal circumstances, when you control the character through PC, you always need to click different directions with the mouse, which is not troublesome, but it will make your hands tired.

After turning on the force move setting, no matter how you operate, even if you stay in the stopped position, you will still move. In this way, as long as you adapt to this function, both fighting in the game and daily exploration will become faster, and you will feel more comfortable physiologically.

There are many adjustable settings in Diablo 4, but the above 6 settings will have the most intuitive impact on changing your gaming experience, and they should still work in Season 9!

Unknowingly, Diablo 4 has accompanied you for two years through 8 seasons. Although it has not always performed well, at least it has brought you a good Sanctuary adventure time. Now the second anniversary will come with Season 9.

Diablo 4 officially launched on June 5, 2023, and the currently confirmed release time of Season 9 is July 1 this year (PTR will end on June 3). Therefore, the two-year anniversary celebration event should actually be held at the end of Season 8.

But to be honest, as the opening work of the third year, even if the ninth season cannot participate in the two-year anniversary celebration itself, it should launch more innovative gameplay besides the content shown in the PTR before the official launch to show that the game itself still has development potential.

Based on this, we will introduce you to the events that may be held on the second anniversary, and what additional content we hope Season 9 can bring.

Known 2nd Anniversary Celebration Content

In June 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary of the game, from June 6 to June 20, Diablo 4 brought a series of celebration events including Treasure Goblin, Mother’s Blessing and more. You can get free cosmetic props and Diablo 4 gold and XP bonus opportunities by playing these content.

Although the celebration method this year has not been fully announced and may change, one thing remains unchanged, that is, everything should be based on providing rewards for you! And this year’s reward method is likely to be Reliquary.

It is expected that this celebration event will provide you with a free Reliquary, which may be a combination of a large amount of gold, new cosmetics, new theme rewards, etc. - after all, the anniversary reward cannot be set too single and simple.

What Is Reliquary?

This mechanism is a new form of battle pass launched in Season 8, divided into battle pass Reliquaries and event Reliquaries. The former is related to the daily progress of the game, while the latter is set for special events, such as the upcoming two-year anniversary celebration.

Compared with the previous battle pass, the biggest advantage of Reliquary is that you can decide the priority of obtaining rewards according to your own wishes, rather than in a fixed order. In this way, you can arrange the game progress exploration by yourself.

To be honest, although the mechanism itself is very good, it was complained by players for being too scarce when it was applied in Season 8. It seems that Diablo 4 completely regards it as a profit tool rather than a welfare mechanism.

Based on this, Reliquary provided through the anniversary celebration this time should be the product of the game after learning lessons, so both the quantity and quality of rewards should be better.

What Other Celebration Events Should Be Brought?

Rewards are one aspect, and the way to provide rewards is actually very important! It is fun to get free rewards directly, but it will be more fulfilling to earn rewards through your own efforts. Therefore, in addition to Reliquary, adding new tasks and gameplay should also be good.

To this end, the game can learn from last year’s practice and re-launch the classic Diablo 4 event Treasure Goblin, and get corresponding rewards by hunting these special creatures. In fact, this event was also held in March this year, and the response was still good.

In the past two seasons, Diablo 4 has been considered lacking innovation. Even the highly anticipated Berserk cooperation event was ultimately just another inducement to consumption. Therefore, the game can completely utilize this celebration to combine rewards with new gameplay to change its reputation.

How Should Season 9 Perform?

Although the two-year anniversary celebration should end before the launch of the season, it would be a bit ridiculous if the celebration performed better than the new season.

According to 2.3.0 PTR, the known highlights of Season 9 include the new boss Astaroth, the new power Horadric Spells (and a series of related mechanisms), as well as the update of the nightmare dungeon and the addition of Horadric Strongrooms dungeon.

Among them, the new Escalating Nightmares, as a new endgame dungeon, is actually a chain dungeon consisting of three nightmare dungeons. Each individual dungeon has stackable affixes, and the difficulty of the dungeon will increase as you explore deeper.

New Skill Effects Worth Keeping

Season 9 seasonal power Horadric Spells actually allow you to combine Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana, three abilities that each have multiple types of power, to craft the combat power that best suits you.

No matter what specific power is utilized, the ultimate goal is to kill or weaken the enemy, but in 2.3.0 PTR, you will find that if you utilize Propulsion as a Catalyst, the large-scale explosion effect it produces can be combined with Floaty Bobble Arcana to form a special teleportation effect in the arena.

On this basis, if you further combine it with Bloody Charm Arcana, you can also kill enemies with less than 20% health in the explosion and reset the skill. In other words, as long as there are enemies nearby that will be killed by the explosion, you can achieve permanent teleportation in this way!

In order to accumulate key resources such as gold and XP, you need to actively farm various dungeons after the start of Season 9, and the teleportation effect provided by this series of Horadric Spells will greatly improve your combat efficiency because your speed and accuracy have been improved.

Although Diablo 4 is always used to cancel or weaken such accidental events in the PTR in the official season, this function is completely worth retaining. Because it does not destroy the game balance too much, and also provides game fun for players.

In short, whether it is a new season or a new celebration, it is worth looking forward to. Fortunately, they are not far away!

Because of the mediocre performance of Diablo 4 in the past two seasons, which has caused complaints from players, the game has brought news of the new season faster than ever before, and opened 2.3.0 PTR on May 27.

Although this may divert your attention, no matter what, the work at hand still needs to be done! Even if you have lost interest and confidence in Season 8, completing the reward tasks will lay a solid foundation for you to enter Season 9.

In order to restore the reputation of the season as much as possible before the end, Diablo 4 Season 8 also released patch 2.2.2 on May 27. The patch does not contain many changes, but Masterworking craft-related ones should be the most concerned.

Based on this, we will focus on Masterworking and introduce you to the main content of patch 2.2.2, as well as other details worth paying attention to.

What Is Masterworking?

First of all, you need to be clear that Masterworking is actually an endgame system in the game. You can utilize it to increase the value of affixes for specific existing items to make them more powerful because the 8-12 separate upgrade levels Masterworking provides.

It should be noted that Masterworking must be performed at the blacksmith, and the relevant craft materials must be farmed in important dungeons such as Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes, and Kurast Undercity.

What Changes Have Been Made To Masterworking In Patch 2.2.2?

In recent seasons, I don’t know if you have found that even if you have enough Diablo 4 gold and Obducite, the craft materials consumed for a Masterworking are indeed too much. Many players in the game community have also reported this problem and said that it even makes them not want to utilize Masterworking anymore.

But to be honest, this system is really useful for improving your game battle win rate and experience, because the gear upgraded by Masterworking is much more powerful than before, which can effectively solve battles that you could not deal with before.

Perhaps because the players’ resentment accumulated by Season 8 could no longer be ignored, through patch 2.2.2, the game reduced the number of materials required for Masterworking (excluding gold and Obducite as supporting consumables).

This way, you can perform Masterworking more times than before, and the crafting efficiency and combat efficiency will be further improved. However, it should be noted that this “reduction” is only for the number of materials, and does not mean that the difficulty of farming them or the number of drops will change.

What Else Are Included In Patch 2.2.2?

Although you may hope that Season 8 will be more interesting with a new patch, unfortunately, apart from Masterworking changes, the other patch contents are mainly to fix bugs and improve the player experience.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the screen reader not reading the decoration details in Reliquary menu.
• Fixed the screen reader repeating the classes supported by Reliquary decoration items.
• Fixed the screen reader reading the season journey goal as a score.
• Fixed the screen reader not working properly when viewing Steam friends.

Season 8 Content Adjustments (the following issues have been fixed):

• Progression could be blocked if you left the dungeon while Slay the Ghosts’ objective was active during Buried Hope quest.
• Stronghold shrine could become un-interactive when defeating Duz-Agur in Eriman’s Pyre using Avarice’s Explosive Ore, one of the main boss powers.
• Apparition of Kirma could shake during a jump attack, causing the boss’s attacks to malfunction.
• The teleport effect of Jah rune was not working when equipped with the main power Duriel’s Burrow.

Gameplay Adjustments (the following issues have been fixed):

• Grigoire’s Hoard Chest could sometimes be opened without defeating the boss.
• Captain Willcocks, a rare monster in Hawezar, could become invincible if damaged too quickly.
• Obducite could be accidentally dropped by a player and picked up by any other player.
• Raven of the Tree no longer interacts with you after closing reward selection without selecting a reward.
• In some cases, the lair boss chest does not open properly through interaction.

User Experience Improvements:

• Tree of Whispers icons for Ked Bardu on the map.
• Fixed an issue where the season journey objectives completed before unlocking the chapter were not displayed as completed.
• Fixed an issue where the game could freeze after double-clicking the create character option in the character selection menu.
• Fixed an issue where the attack wave counter in Infernal Hordes was not updated on time.
• Fixed an issue where Devout Champion achievement sometimes did not unlock properly.
• Now the party vote will no longer time out and fail if someone leaves the party during the vote.
• Other visual, performance, and audio fixes and improvements.

Finally, I want to mention that in fact, in addition to the gameplay itself, the performance of Berserk crossover event launched in Season 8 is far from what you expect.

Originally, crossover should be a win-win activity, but the excessive emphasis on crossover item trading and the lack of novel gameplay ultimately led to the low evaluation of Diablo 4 Berserk crossover.

Honestly, if Diablo 4 wants to reverse its evaluation and performance from S9, besides improving the quality and creativity of the season, it should change the purpose of development - don’t lose the trust of players for the sake of temporary benefits.

The above is the comprehensive patch 2.2.2 information brought to you. I hope it’s helpful to you and wish you a better experience in Season 8 and PTR!