One Diablo 4 player lost a level 92 character due to a costly mistake that ended his Hardcore run in a merciless fashion. The disaster happened just as Diablo 4 disabled its hardest challenge, thus temporarily removing the incentive for trying to reach level 100 in its Hardcore mode as fast as possible.Much like the previous two mainline installments in Blizzard's ARPG series, Diablo 4 features Hardcore mode, the ultimate challenge for veteran players that deletes their characters once they're killed. This permadeath option is mostly included for bragging rights, although the game does reward several unique titles for killing select bosses in Hardcore mode.The challenge itself is not for the faint of heart, as even some highly experienced players are finding it difficult to maintain focus once the game starts throwing everything it has at them at higher levels. Team Liquid's Max "Maximum" Smith recently demonstrated as much, having lost his level 92 character during Hardcore race due to a brief lapse of concentration. "No, no, no, I'm so stupid," he uttered in disbelief after realizing what had transpired, all the while his Twitch chat was exploding with reactions to the unfortunate end of his Hardcore campaign.
And while many other Diablo 4 streamers saw their Hardcore runs end in disaster by now, Maximum's unsuccessful attempt at tackling the game's hardest challenge wasn't his first such tragic run. Less than a week ago, when Diablo 4 was still in beta, the streamer lost a level 52 Sorceress in an even more heartbreaking fashion after his character froze due to a glitch. The bug rendered the Sorceress unable to move or heal with anything but potions, which proved to be fatal within seconds.
Maximum later revealed that it took him 18 hours to get that character to level 52, and while he also said he's not eager to tackle the level 100 pinnacle challenge again following that frustrating experience, he soon did so anyway. It's unclear how much time he invested in his recently killed level 92 character, but based on how long it takes to hit level 100 in Diablo 4, it's likely that his latest failed run lasted for around 70 hours.
Blizzard previously pledged to engrave the names of the first 1,000 Diablo 4 players to reach level 100 in Hardcore mode on a statue of Lilith, but the pinnacle challenge has been suspended as of June 6. The developers said the move was prompted by a desire to iron out some of the issues reported by the player community and deliver a more polished experience before resuming the game's hardest challenge.
Diablo 4 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
