One of Diablo 4’s main endgame activities, Nightmare dungeons, will be permanently changed come Season 9, as Blizzard looks to make them both more challenging and surprising going forward.
As detailed in a new blog post, when Season 9 launches July 1, Nightmare dungeons will receive some major updates. Most notably, there will be a new activity within them called Horadric Strongrooms. Described as a “potent micro-dungeon,” strongrooms will be found more frequently on higher Torment difficulties and can also be reliably found by using a Nightmare dungeon sigil that guarantees the appearance of a strongroom.
Once players are inside the dungeon, players can discover a portal that will take them to the strongroom. In a system somewhat similar to Diablo 4’s Infernal Hordes activity, players will be able to select from a number of statues that add modifiers to the strongroom, increasing the challenge but also the rewards.
Players will then need to attune themselves with the strongroom by slaying enemies within the vicinity of Horadric Pillars within a time limit. Those who complete the attunement process will be transported to the micro-dungeon’s final boss that when defeated will reward a Grand Horadric cache that scales its rewards based on the amount of attunement players earned. These caches will include Obducite as a reward, an endgame material needed to Masterwork weapons and armor. Completing the strongroom will also grant a buff that lasts for the remainder of the Nightmare dungeon, which a chance to receive more XP from monsters, increased reputation gains, increased Obducite drops, 25% more gold, or Horadric Phial drops (a seasonal item that is used to make Horadric Jewels).
There will, however, be another new way to experience Nightmare dungeons–Escalating Nightmares. This new endgame activity is a sequence of three Nightmare dungeons that see dungeon affixes stack from one to the next, with monster difficulty additionally increasing for each subsequent dungeon.
To access an Escalating Nightmare, players will need to find Escalation Sigils from completing Horadric Strongrooms. In pre-Torment difficulties, completing all three dungeons will finish the Escalating Nightmare. However, those playing on Torment difficulties will instead be transported to a boss fight, where players will take on a new version of Astaroth from the Diablo 4 main campaign. Players will need to defeat both Astaroth and his steed, which will become separate bosses over the course of the fight. Defeating Astaroth’s mount first will see it go into a resurrection state, after which it will rejoin the fight if players can’t defeat Astaroth in time. Astaroth can also be modified by Nightmare dungeon affixes, making the boss fight even more challenging.
A look at everything coming as part of Diablo 4 Season 9.
Last but not least, Nightmare dungeons will receive new affixes. Each Nightmare sigil will sport both a positive and negative affix. New positive affixes include the guaranteed appearance of specific shrines, increased XP gains, the appearance of Treasure Goblins, a guaranteed strongroom, equipment rewards, and currency drops.
While the Nightmare dungeon changes will be permanent additions to Diablo 4, Season 9 will additionally introduce new seasonal mechanics for a limited-time. Players will be able to create and modify Horadric Spells to compliment their builds, and can further augment them using new Horadric Jewels that can be slotted into amulets and rings. One Horadric teleport spell in particular might be
Updates to Nightmare dungeons are just the latest permanent changes to come as part of a Diablo 4 season. Season 8 overhauled the game’s endgame boss ladder, while previous seasons, like Loot Reborn, reworked Diablo 4’s entire gear progression system. Diablo 4 Season 9 is not, however, bringing changes to the game’s new (and unpopular) Reliquary battle pass system, though Blizzard has stated it is listening to player feedback.
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