One of the most challenging parts of playing a new game is knowing whether or not the endgame experience will have the legs to sustain itself when measured in months instead of days. I fell prey to this particular pitfall myself after Diablo 4’s vanilla debut in 2023, when I said some things about the endgame experience that I later regretted. Sometimes an endgame experience seems like it’s great in the moment, then a couple weeks roll by and that content begins to feel thin, repetitive, or not nearly as fleshed out as you originally thought (again, my bad). I’ve generally really enjoyed the endgame activities Diablo IV has had so far, whether it’s the tree of whispers bounties from the base game or the super unique raid-like activity from Vessel of Hatred. But Diablo 4 is a game that practically begs you to play it every waking moment of your life, and each version of the endgame so far has failed to remain compelling more than a few weeks after launch, largely due to the fact that each iteration has directed you to a small number of activities that, while fun, just weren’t enough.
It’s with all this in mind that I approached the endgame of Diablo 4’s upcoming expansion, Lord of Hatred. Could Blizzard finally give us an endgame that was not only fun at launch, but also offered enough variety to keep folks engaged in the long term? After playing a few hours of it recently and talking to the developers about what they’re building, I can confirm that Blizzard appears to have received the feedback in this area, and has created an endgame structure that, at the very least, has a much better chance of keeping my attention.
After you’ve finished going to war with the Lord of Hatred himself, the main way you’ll grind for all that delicious loot is through War Plans, a structured playlist that points you to various endgame activities and removes the barriers to entry those activities might normally have. Maybe you’ll spend some time looting a Helltide event before teleporting over to a Nightmare Dungeon to find and kill the boss, then rounding it out with a trip to the good ol’ Pit for some time trial action. The specific nature of the activities you play are determined by a branching tree where you can pick from a few options before teleporting to each activity to take it down, and with six options pulled from the existing endgame activities in Diablo 4, there’s quite a bit of variety baked in.
The best part of War Plans is how quickly it gets you into the action from activity to activity. You no longer have to hunt for Nightmare Dungeon keys or figure out where on the map a Helltide is going on – once you complete one activity, you just teleport straight on over to the next activity and keep slaying. It also means that you spend less time figuring out which activity to focus on, or if you’re new or haven’t played in a while, what even are the endgame activities you’re supposed to be funnelled into if you want to continue your loot and leveling climb. This all made working my way through each new branching checklist fast, quick, rewarding, and a lot more replayable than focusing on a single activity like an uber boss or the raid from Vessel of Hatred.
Another new part of War Plans are the upgradable trees that come along with each activity, from the Tree of Whispers to Infernal Hordes, which customize each of those events, either by modifying a specific behavior within it, or allowing you to control the type of rewards you’ll earn from them. For example, in the Nightmare Dungeons tree, you can buy a perk that guarantees treasure goblins will drop a specific kind of loot when killed and in the Helltide tree, you can buy a perk that will double the rate at which your kills increase the threat level when affected by a shrine. You won’t be able to earn enough points to buy all the perks, and some are pretty explicitly mutually exclusive anyway, which means you’ll need to pick and choose which to buy depending on how you want to play and how you want to be rewarded for all your hard work.
Beyond War Plans, I also tried out the new horde mode called Echoing Hatred, where you’re thrown into an extremely challenging mode that goes on until you drop dead, offering loot equal to your level of success. This unending arena starts off at the lowest difficulty tier and ups the ante every time you’ve wiped the floor with enough enemies, throwing a boss or two every now and then and eventually a whole bunch of them at the same time. Not only must you survive, but you’re also required to continuously score kills, as the “Overwhelmed” meter fills up every time a new enemy spawns and if you don’t cut them down to size quickly, that meter will put an abrupt end to your run.
Obviously the main draw of this mode is how mindlessly straightforward it is, allowing you to simply push your build as far as it can go and engage in nonstop action for as long as you can possibly keep standing. The fact that it offers rewards equal to your effort and skill is also a pretty efficient way to level. But one of the other really cool things about this mode is that since it’s agnostic to whichever world tier you’re currently in and moves you through them as you progress, it’s an awesome way to test if you’re ready for the next world tier. After all, if you can make it through this constant onslaught in the tier after the one you’re currently playing in, it’s a pretty good sign you’re probably ready to advance to the next bracket. This is especially important since Lord of Hatred is going from a maximum world tier of Torment 4 to Torment 12, which is honestly pretty insane. With so many difficulty options to choose from, this mode feels like the perfect way to figure out where you stand with your current build.
One thing I didn’t get a chance to get a feel for in my time with Lord of Hatred’s endgame is how it feels when played with friends, as all of my time during the demo was spent solo. I’ve got some questions about how it’ll feel, specifically activities like War Plans, where your specific playlist of things to do is unlikely to match up with the other members of your crew perfectly. I was told that friends would still receive credit (and of course the rewards) for running War Plans together, but I’m curious if it might feel like being a second or third wheel when following the party leader around. I prefer to play Diablo 4 with my fellow Wanderers, so this will be a pretty important piece of the puzzle that I haven’t seen firsthand just yet.
It would be downright irresponsible of me to omit the most serious addition to the endgame coming with Lord of Hatred: fishing. Call me crazy, but an activity most common in cozy games somehow feels right at home in Diablo 4, and I spent a good chunk of time with my fishing pole visiting each region in search of fresh pools of water or lava to find new gilled friends. Seriously though, this addition is pretty much just a bit, and from my limited experience didn’t seem like there was a lot to it, with only a few different fish to find in each zone that came to me quite quickly, but still, it’s pretty amusing that they added this and I’m all for it. I do wish they’d have made the minigame for catching fish something a bit more engaging than just tapping a single button once the fish bites onto the hook, but hey, this is Diablo – I’m not expecting them to go full Animal Crossing here.
After a few hours with Lord of Hatred’s endgame, I’m more optimistic than ever that the new War Plan system will be a format that goes the distance and keeps me engaged at least a bit longer than past iterations. And anything that gives me more excuses to keep dungeon delving in this awesome ARPG sounds alright by me.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
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