Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Players will be able to recruit powered-up Mercenaries to fight alongside them in Diablo 4’s first expansion.
Blizzard Entertainment took to Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 to reveal a returning feature coming to Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. The expansion’s latest trailer showed off its new Mercenaries, ordinary people with powerful skills who can be recruited to fight alongside players. Blizzard also confirmed two new dungeons coming with the expansion: a multistage dungeon called the Kurast Undercity and a co-op PvE dungeon called the Dark Citadel.
Watch the trailer below:
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred gets new Mercenaries feature
Diablo 4 is bringing back a classic feature in the franchise: the Mercenaries, a team of superpowered individuals that players can call on for help in slaying the forces of hell. This time around, the Mercenaries hail from a group called the Pale Hand, and consist of four archetypes: a shieldbearer, berserker, scoundrel, and an actual full-on demon.
According to Blizzard, the Mercenaries will “grow in strength and can be customised to support your playstyle,” with each member of the Pale Hand being unique in the role they serve. This means that you’ll want to pick a specific Mercenary to help you out in battle, depending on your class and build of choice.
For example, the shieldbearer Mercenary would be a strong choice for glass cannon builds, as they can cast a wide barrier over the player to protect them from damage. One Mercenary pulls multiple enemies towards the player using a grapple, while another demonstrates a powerful AoE attack in the trailer’s brief snippets of new gameplay.
These Mercenaries will synergise with players in different ways depending on their builds, but they could end up strengthening certain builds too. A demon who inflicts fire damage on enemies could compliment a sorcerer using ice magic, and for solo players who struggle to survive in Sanctuary, this could simply make the entire game a little easier on them.
That’s not all, however. Blizzard also unveiled two new dungeons coming to Diablo 4 via the Vessel of Hatred expansion. The first of these is the Dark Citadel, a co-op PvE endgame dungeon that features a series of cooperative puzzles and mechanics that will “put everything you know about combat to the test.” The second is called the Kurast Undercity, a multistage, time-attack dungeon that gives players control over the challenge and the loot they find.
Blizzard Entertainment will reveal more information on Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred’s upcoming features during the Xbox broadcast at Gamescom, which takes place on August 21 at 6am PDT. Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred launches on October 8, 2024.