Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 announced (Update)

Race through Hell to become immortal

Blizzard has revealed a Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 via the official Diablo Twitter. As part of the race, the first 1000 players to reach the max level of 100 on Hardcore mode—with proof—will be declared the winners. The stakes for the race are as real as they get. Winners of the race will have their Battle.net BattleTag engraved on a physical Lilith statue, immortalizing their victory forever.

This race is certainly not for the faint of heart. In Diablo 4‘s Hardcore mode, death results in the permanent deletion of the character. This means in order to win the race you will have to level up all the way to the max level without dying a single time. Permanent death occurs in both PvE and PvP, so Hardcore players looking to win the race should stay away from the Fields of Hatred PvP designated zones.

Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 drama

The announcement of the Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 has created some controversy of its own. For starters, players have complained that the race realistically requires contestants to purchase the Deluxe or Ultimate Edition to obtain four day early access. The race itself will begin when the early access servers go live one June 2 at 7PM EST. While it’s technically possible for someone with the Standard Edition to win, they would be starting four days behind, making it highly unlikely.

But that’s not the only drama around the race. Shortly after the reveal, Diablo 4 executive producer Rod Fergusson tweeted out reminding reviewers that their access to the full version of the game was coming to an end and that their character and progress would be deleted.

To all the #DiabloIV reviewers who's play time is up, and your characters and progress deleted – sorry!

But can't wait to see you on launch day!

Only 6 days till Early Access! pic.twitter.com/PgxU3b3ChP

— Rod Fergusson (@RodFergusson) May 26, 2023

Consequently fans started questioning the fairness of the contest. The follow-up response from Fergusson has been viewed as somewhat out of touch. While yes, everyone will be starting over at the same time from level one, you can’t argue that having two weeks of access to the full game doesn’t create an unfair advantage. Everyone had access to the open beta and Server Slam beta, but only Act I and level 25 were available.

How does deleting all their progress and making them start at the same time as everyone else give them an unfair advantage?

— Rod Fergusson (@RodFergusson) May 26, 2023

At the end of the day, I have to agree with questioning the fairness of the event. For hardcore long-term Diablo veterans that is two weeks to iron out the best leveling route. Two weeks to theory-craft the best leveling builds. Some prominent Diablo creators have already announced they will not claim victory in the race due to fairness. It’s great to see Blizzard creating a fun event for fans to get excited about. But hopefully future events are more well thought out to be as fair as possible.

[Update: It has been confirmed via the official Diablo Twitter account that those who had access to the review build will not be eligible to claim victory in the Race to 100. While a bummer for those who opted to play the early build without knowing it would disqualify them from the contest, this is overall the right move in terms of fairness.]