Diablo 4 unfolds in a shared open world. There are not always other players in the game, such as during major story quests, but you don't have a choice in that (I wrote about how shared worlds work a year ago). Also, if you don't want to participate in PvP, you don't have to; the main part of Diablo 4's world will be safe with or without the endless war between angels and demons, and PvP will be contained within clearly marked zones.

That said, you might be tempted to cross that boundary. Because the loot is up for grabs.

Before BlizzCon began this week, Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga and art director John Mueller gave us a brief overview of how this PvP system will work. of BlizzCon. stream following the opening ceremonies also revealed some details (you can watch a little over two hours here).

The PvP zone is called Fields of Hatred. In it, players can naturally attack each other, but it is not just an arena to fight other players. There are PvE activities in the fields, including events and bosses, which players can tackle together as long as they do not antagonize each other.

The rewards for adventuring to Fields are earned as a currency called Shards of Hatred. These Shards can be obtained by killing monsters in PvP areas, completing events, killing players, and opening chests. Before you can use them, however, you must purify them at an altar, and during that ritual, you are marked as an adversary, allowing non-hostile players to attack you without earning the tag themselves. Simply put, you become one of the area's prime targets.

Once purified, "hate shards" are safe and will not be lost if you subsequently die, and can be used for items from special vendors such as costumes, weapons, and mounts. According to system designer Joe Piepiora, these items will not necessarily be better than other items in the game, but will "satisfy your needs as a PvP player. (That would mean items that make you look tough and cool.)

The key to Diablo 4's PvP, says Piepiora, is that it is not balanced; there is no arena mode in Diablo 4, where players face off on the same playing field. Rather, you might be ambushed at the worst possible moment while fighting monsters in the "Fields of Hatred. Such is the way it is, so you have to adapt to the situation and maybe even run away. But in other circumstances, he suggests, you might be able to fight to your advantage.

Mueller likes the items he can buy at Shards, but he wants to avoid PvP, so he sneaks into Fields of Hatred, fights in PvE, and sneaks out before running into other players. A bit like the Dark Zone in Division 2.

For players who really like PvP for PvP's sake, there is also a King of the Hill-type system called Vessel of Hatred, which advertises the location of the most notorious player-killer in the PvP area, with targets drawn Players who defeat Vessel of Hatred are awarded a bonus (presumably Shards of Hatred will be added).

If a player is killed in the Field of Hatred, he loses the unpurified Shards of Hatred he had, but it is not a very severe penalty since all he lost was the currency he collected in that zone.

"It's pretty casual fun in normal mode.

"That said, I found it to be a point of pride-injury, much like losing an ear in Diablo 2. You don't lose any major items, but there's something that sticks in your chest and makes you feel vengeful."

In case you didn't know, in Diablo 2 you could collect other players' ears as PvP trophies, and in Diablo 4 that will return in some form. However, aside from the possibility of having your pride hurt by losing your shard and one ear to another player, open-world PvP in Diablo 4 will most likely not be a major risk.

There are a few exceptions. One is the possibility of being killed immediately after gaining a large number of Shards.

"Shard losses can be quite significant," Barriga says. "If you get lucky and kill someone who has been a 'vessel of hate' for a while, you might get 1,000 Shards."

Another exception is if you are playing a hardcore character. If a hardcore character dies in a PvP zone or anywhere else in Diablo 4, they die and are gone forever; there is no exception in Diablo 4's permadeath mode.

While I wouldn't dare take my hardcore character into a PvP zone, I like the sound of this system so far. For the average player, it might add a kind of dangerous mystique to some of the exploration, even if you don't actively seek out fights with other players while wandering around Fields of Hatred.

During the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2021, Blizzard also announced that the Rogue class will be one of the classes available at launch alongside the Barbarian, Druid and Sorceress. We'll be updating our guide with all the latest information about Diablo 4 throughout the event.

Diablo 4 was announced at BlizzCon 2019 and now has no release date. At the time, Blizzard said it might be a while before release, but we know it won't be released this year; 2022 maybe, but 2023 or 2024 might be closer to what Blizzard had in mind when it cautioned that "we need to wait a bit."