Diablo IV has been officially released for one day, and the developers have pulled the pinnacle end-game boss temporarily to resolve issues plaguing the encounter.
It’s safe to say Diablo IV has seen a successful release, with over 93 million hours of combined gameplay as of yesterday (albeit with a four-day headstart due to early access), making it the fastest-selling Blizzard title released. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues the developers have to address.
Global Community Development Director of Diablo IV, Adam Fletcher announced “The level 100 pinnacle challenge encounter has been temporarily disabled as we work to resolve a few items related to this encounter” on the official Blizzard forums today, in an unprecedented move that sees the Echo of Lilith, the true final boss of the title, pulled in the first 24 hours of (official) release.
Interestingly enough, the first-ever officially recognized Diablo IV Hardcore Mode level 100 Barbarian character and Twitch streamer Souaïb ‘cArn’ Hanaf, ran afoul of an issue with the pinnacle boss area prior to the decision to temporarily pull the encounter. The heartbreaking character wipe can be seen on cArn_’s Twitch channel.
Although cArn has met an unfair end before finishing the final encounter, Blizzard has acknowledged his prowess on being the first to reach level 100 in Diablo IV Hardcore mode, and he will likely be included on the in-game statue list that honours the first 1000 to reach level 100 in hardcore mode anyway as the terms and conditions of the achievement don’t have pinnacle boss completion as a requirement for inclusion.
While there’s no ‘official’ connection between the Diablo IV team disabling the Echo of Lilith encounter, and this unfortunate circumstance of character loss, it’s hard to not draw a bridge between the two considering how close both events happened in proximity. Fans should follow the Diablo IV forum page closely for updates, as Adam Fletcher has said “We will update the community once this has been re-enabled” regarding the Echo of Lilith encounter.
