Diablo 4 Items

Less than a month remains until the launch of Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. Since this update is essentially version 2.0 of the game, nearly everything is changing: every build you've ever used will see major adjustments, and many new builds will emerge.

But while a lot of attention will go to the new items, the significant overhaul of the difficulty system might be overlooked by many players. And the experiments the developers ran with endgame difficulty in Season 12 suggest this could have a massive impact on how we experience the game.

Torment Tiers

First, the biggest change: Torment Tiers. Many players probably haven't heard about this yet, because it has only been confirmed in a single interview. One of the lead developers of Diablo 4 revealed that after the expansion launches, we will have 12 Torment Tiers.

Some players might not like this news, as it brings back memories of the excessive difficulty levels in Diablo III - most of which felt pointless, just raw number stacking. But in Diablo IV, this system is designed to be far more reasonable.

Currently, Diablo 4 has four Torment Tiers. These are directly tied to the difficulty of The Pit and The Tower, because they share the same scaling mechanics. Clearing a certain level of The Pit unlocks the corresponding Torment Tier.

Lord of Hatred simply extends this logic upward to Torment 12, aligning it perfectly with the highest levels of The Pit and The Tower. Right now, the four Torment Tiers correspond to roughly Pit level 55, while the 12 Torment Tiers will scale all the way to the maximum level of The Pit and The Tower.

The developers are just taking the existing difficulty system and expanding it across the entire game world, letting you play all content at those higher difficulty levels. Since The Pit and The Tower were never designed for players to reach their top levels, almost no one will actually get to Torment 12.

Choosing Difficulty in the Open World

In Season 12, once you reached Torment 4 with a strong build, most of the game became trivial. Then you'd step into The Pit, and after reaching your limit, nearly every enemy could one-shot you while you barely scratched them.

Unless you have a bugged build or something far beyond expectations, you won't clear the highest difficulty. But below that, you can make all content as challenging as you want - and with greater challenge come better rewards: more experience, more gold, and higher quality Diablo 4 items dropped by bosses and monsters.

If you have a top-tier endgame build and want to farm Helltide, you could now choose to do so at Torment 8. That way, content that used to be a mindless steamroll becomes difficult and engaging again. Many top builds barely feel different above Torment 4 - the difference only shows in The Pit and The Tower. Having more difficulty tiers gives you a much clearer sense of your build's strength.

You can think of this as the foundation layer of the difficulty system. Once you reach the endgame, the new War Plans system will add a host of extra mechanics that further deepen the endgame difficulty.

War Plans

War Plans Playlists

War Plans system consists of two core parts. The first part is War Plan itself. You choose from several different plans. After selecting a War Plan and its associated playlist, you'll see an interface where you pick five activities in sequence. Each activity has different options and comes with a randomized bonus reward.

For example, suppose you pick Helltide as one of the five activities in your War Plan playlist. After completing that Helltide, you'll get an extra reward - randomly generated when you selected the activity. And of course, this bonus is added on top of all the usual drops from Helltide.

As you complete more War Plan playlists, you'll accumulate more loot. The developers haven't said whether this will also increase the overall difficulty, but most likely the difficulty does not stack.

Activity Experience

Each time you finish an activity in the playlist, you earn activity experience for that specific endgame activity. Every endgame activity currently in the game will have its own meta-progression skill tree. That means a total of seven different skill trees, with possibly more to come.

Every time you engage with and complete something through War Plans system, you gain experience for that activity, allowing you to invest points into its skill tree. This can completely change how that activity plays and what rewards it offers.

 developers have given some examples, and some of these changes will significantly affect the actual difficulty of the activity - not in terms of numeric scaling, but through changes to mechanics and gameplay.

Other Factors Affecting Difficulty

Beyond the pure difficulty changes, the expansion's balance adjustments will also completely transform the experience. We already know that all passive skills from the skill tree will be removed. Many multiplicative damage bonuses will be moved to other systems. This should allow the development team to balance the game more precisely and reduce stat inflation overall.

At the same time, Horadric Cube and Talisman System will be added to further boost character power. You will have countless ways to craft different builds, which might push every current build 5 to 10 levels higher in The Pit.

After the expansion launches, Diablo IV will feel like a completely different game. How will these difficulty changes affect the experience? Will they accelerate the endgame journey? What will be the best difficulty level for players to choose? All of that remains to be seen.

Diablo 4 Season 12 Sanctuary has been overrun by a giant chicken. That sounds like an April Fools' joke, and indeed it was announced by the official channels on April Fools' Day - but the news is actually real.

A new world boss named Chi'Khan has descended. It brings not only new items but also unique gameplay mechanics. These new items are not mere cosmetics; they are gear pieces with special abilities, some of which still have their full potential waiting to be discovered by players.

Official Announcement

We originally thought that after Gift of the Tree event ended, the next would be March of the Goblins. But clearly, the developers had their own plans. On April Fools' Day, they released an event notice titled "A Fowl Beast Rages."

This notice didn't introduce any specific event details. It simply declared that a giant chicken would destroy everything. This is evidently a very dangerous bird of prey, because "only death awaits you," and all you can do is "run!"

This is clearly a new event, and the pleasant surprise is that they even created a new boss for it! Compared to past events that merely boosted experience points and loot drops, this April Fools' event truly deserves to be called a brand new event.

Chi'Khan

Let's talk about this new world boss, Chi'Khan. It looks like a giant chicken. Like other world bosses, it respawns every three hours, and it might even replace one of the existing world bosses.

The developers haven't specified the exact duration of this event, but based on past event lengths, April Fowl's Day should last about a week. Also, one of the achievements tied to this event is named "April Fowl's Day 2026," so if you miss it this year, it will most likely return next April Fools' Day.

Even though it's a rooster, as the announcement said, it's a massive threat. On Torment 4 difficulty, quite a few players have already been slain by this rooster - its sharp beak and claws are no joke! If you want to hunt it, the safest approach is to lower the difficulty first and get familiar with its attacks and mechanics. Otherwise, even a Barbarian will end up full of holes from its pecks!

New Unique Items

Beyond the usual loot, Chi'Khan brings several new unique items, and their effects are... special. The developers didn't design new models for these items either; they reuse generic item models, so they might only be usable during the event.

Rather than focusing on their power, players tend to treat them as amusing collectibles. No one yet knows what role they could play in builds - you can be the one to try them out.

Bow: Cluckeye

Cluckeye originates from Diablo II and has now been introduced into Diablo 4. It grants 100% critical strike damage, along with stats like Dexterity and maximum Life. Its special effect gives attacks a chance to emit three "cluck" sounds, and also a chance to shoot chickens as projectiles.

Staff: Cluckonomicon

The most eye-catching stat on Cluckonomicon is increased Shrine duration, a fairly rare affix. It also provides a new stat: Pickup Radius, which likely means automatically picking up gold, Obducite, and other Diablo 4 items. Its special ability, "Pecking loose stones grant Henlightenment," most likely refers to gaining XP.

Scythe: Eggcecutioner

Eggcecutioner provides Life on Kill and Resource on Kill, and grants bonus damage after slaying elites. Its most amusing effect is that "enemies killed have a chance to lay an egg." What exactly this egg does is still unclear - perhaps it explodes or something similar.

Polearm: Coop De Grace

Coop De Grace focuses on striking injured enemies, offering high bonus damage and critical strike chance. Its special effect grants a chance to directly execute injured non-elite enemies. In addition, it has a very quirky affix that boosts damage against poultry. Its most powerful feature: "Damaging an injured enemy has a chance to summon a flock of explosive chickens," which likely references Witch Doctor's explosive chicken build from Diablo III.

Shield: Eggis

This shield also increases damage against poultry, though not as much as Coop De Grace does. Its useful affixes include increased Barrier generation and bonus critical strike chance against feared enemies. Its special effect: upon a successful block, there is a chance to transform the attacker into a feared chicken. 

Event Rewards

After defeating the world boss Chi'Khan, you will unlock a brand new achievement: Bawk, Bawk. Additionally, free items can be claimed in the shop, including icons, nameplate templates, and various skins. From the short official video, the obtainable cosmetics include a bow, a staff, a shield, and a polearm. Even if your current class cannot use a certain weapon type, you can still get its skin.

Don't forget to visit the in-game shop, where you can claim a free title called Quake Before the Hatchling, which is also part of April Fowl's Day event.

April Fowl's event is a surprise prepared by the developers. They've only released very limited promotion for it (an announcement and a trailer, both of which are rather baffling). Many players haven't even realized that a new event has started. So how much content the developers have actually prepared remains for players to discover on their own - there might even be hidden Easter eggs.