After a post on social media reported a significant issue with Helltides in Diablo 4, other players were quick to chime in with their own experiences.
For those unaware, Helltides are region-wide events that occur randomly for around 60 minutes. Demonic enemies in those areas are significantly empowered, and their level is usually higher than the player.
Taking place only in World Tier 3 or above, the quality of the rewards is increased accordingly. Additionally, players can earn cinders from defeated monsters to spend on Helltide Chests for the possibility of unique item drops.
Unfortunately, the community has begun to report an issue with Helltides. In it, earning enough cinders to open those chests is a far more difficult task.
A potential bug is slowing cinder drops to a crawl in Helltides
In a post on Reddit, a user reported that they had begun to find packs of mobs that dropped just 1-2 cinders. Far below the average amount, at that rate, players would struggle to open just one chest before the Helltide ends.
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Others began to report similar issues and telltale signs of the problem. One noted the red filter of Helltides was missing, saying: “You can notice it pretty easily, when you’re in a Helltide the zone is pretty “red-ish” if it’s not, it’s bugged and barely drop any cinders.”
Another reported that the fix could be pretty straightforward: “I just ported out of the area, then back in, and it fixed the drop rate. This only happened to me once though, so don’t know if that always works or not.
There has also been further criticism of developer Blizzard. Specifically, players stressed the comparative time taken to fix bugs that benefit the player. One said: “Oh helltide chests dropping Uber unique by accident, we put out a hotfix in 5 mins and fix it. Oh, are cinders not dropping properly and you guys are unhappy with the grind? We will see if we can fix it before season 3.”
Whether the bug will persist for long is unclear, but general management of the game has improved. Specifically, overhauls to dungeon layouts and a refreshed leveling experience have all drawn significant praise. With Diablo 4 entering a bit of a renaissance period, time will tell if Blizzard is sufficiently reactive to issues like this.