Diablo Immortal is a brand new mobile spin on the classic Diablo series. Blizzard has decided to take the free-to-play route of monetization with this title. As expected, it comes with some “optional in-app purchases”.
So today, we try to answer the question: Diablo Immortal: Is It P2W?
Disclaimer: Things can, and probably will change at some point.
Want to know which class to pick at launch? Check out our Diablo Immortal class tier list guide.
Legendary Gems
Legendary Gems are a core mechanic of the game and can provide a very significant power difference between players. They can be obtained via completing Elder Rifts. However, they only drop if the rift is “empowered” by either a Crest or Legendary Crest item.
Crests can be farmed in-game for free. You can get around 5 per day.
Legendary Crests are mainly bought from the shop for real money. You can earn a small amount for free (around 10 per month), but it’s pretty minimal. On the flip side, you can purchase as many Legendary Crests as you want from the shop.
Legendary Gem Drop Rates
Crest Drop Rates:
- 1/1 ⭐ – 10%
- 2/2 ⭐⭐ – 2.5%
If you’re wondering what the 3-Star and above drop rates are, they’re 0. That’s because you can only obtain up to 2-Star gems from a Crest. Considering that’s the main way to obtain them, that is not a good sign.
Legendary Crest Drop Rates:
- 1/1 ⭐ – 75%
- 2/2 ⭐⭐ – 20%
- 2/5 ⭐⭐ – 3.75%
- 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐- 1.00%
- 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 0.20%
- 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 0.05%
There is a pity system in place, you’re guaranteed to receive one 5-Star (?/5 Stars) Legendary Gem for everyone 50 crests you buy.
The drop rate for a 5-Star gem is 1/2000, so it’s still going to be quite hard to obtain them even while spending money.
Gem Resonance
Resonance allows players to ‘Awaken’ a Legendary Gem by consuming another specific Rank 10 Legendary Gem. Awakening an item will unlock additional stats for it.
Note: Rank is the “level” of the gem, and the star is the “Rarity”.
Each Legendary Gem has a certain amount of sockets for resonance, depending on their star level.
- 1⭐Gem – 2 Sockets
- 2⭐Gem – 3 Sockets
- 5⭐Gem – 5 Sockets
In order to absolutely max out your gear, you would need 36 Rank 10 Legendary Gems to use for Resonance. Not only that, but some require specific gems to work.
This starts to get pretty crazy once you start to socket 5⭐ gems into other 5⭐gems as resonance. The amount of stats you gain from that is much higher than if it was a 1⭐gem. And you can do this for every single Legendary Gem that you’ve slotted into your gear.
When you consider how a single Legendary Gem is acquired, you can start to paint a pretty grim picture of how things are going to work in Diablo Immortal. The gap between a giga-whale and a F2P player will be very large.
Gem Resonance Cosmetics
As a side note, gem resonance also unlocks cosmetic changes to your character. There is not much known about this as of yet though.
There is a pretty big difference in the appearance. We’re not 100% what the requirements are yet though.
Gear Awakening
Resonance also allows players to ‘Awaken’ Legendary Items as well. Like Gem Resonance, you’ll need to consume a Rank 10 Legendary Gem Awakening an item will unlock an additional Legendary Affix for it.
This is not quite as insane as the Gem Resonance, but still creates a gap between F2P and whales.
How to Awaken Legendary Items?
You’ll need 3 items:
- 1x Legendary Item (World drop).
- 1x Rank 10 Legendary Gem (From Empowered Elder Rifts).
- Dawning Echo (Bought from the shop for real money).
Diablo Immortal: Is It P2W
Conclusion: Yes, Diablo Immortal is extremely P2W in its current state.
Interested in more Diablo Immortal content? Check out these guides: