Hey Blizzard and fellow Nephalem,
I’ve been mulling over a way to keep Diablo 4 spicy for those of us who’ve conquered it. Picture this: a new challenge mode where I can start on Penitent Difficulty (the hardest option once in-game) with zero account-wide bonuses—no Renown perks, no Altar of Lilith stat boosts, nothing. A clean slate for that run, no new account needed, just pure, unadulterated struggle.
I’d call it a “Purge Run.” Strip away all those carryover rewards we’ve earned—say goodbye to +68 stats from Altars or extra skill points from Renown—and let us face Sanctuary with nothing but our skills and whatever we scrape up along the way. It’s like hitting reset as a veteran: I want to claw my way through Kyovashad with a rusty sword, no safety net, on max difficulty from the start. Self-imposed challenges are fun (Naked Runs, anyone?), but having this baked into the game would make it legit.
To really lean into the masochism, how about these twists? No mount until level 60—make us hoof it across the map, earning every inch. And ditch the free town portal—force us to buy TP scrolls as consumables, like the old days. Suddenly, every trip back to town is a choice: do I spend my gold or tough it out? It’s brutal, but that’s the point—test our mastery without the cushions we’ve built up.
Implementation could be a breeze: a “Purge Run: Disable Account-Wide Bonuses” toggle at character creation, maybe with options for the mount and scroll rules. Throw in a unique title or badge for beating the campaign this way (e.g., “Purge Survivor”), and you’ve got bragging rights. I’d love this, and I bet other challenge junkies would too. Blizzard, any shot we see this in a future patch? What do you all think—crazy enough to work?
Cheers