Are Diablo 4 Players Okay?

Diablo 4 has been out for a month now, and as players work their way through the campaign or the endgame with characters either at or approaching the level cap, the community is digging into the detail of how Blizzard’s action role-playing game actually works. But there are some rabbit holes players perhaps need not go down.

This week, some Diablo 4 players convinced themselves the game’s rats lead players to better loot. In a sort of reverse Pied Piper situation, redditor zerger45 took to the Diablo 4 sub to declare: “FOLLOW THE RATS.”

“Okay this is going to sound really bizarre, but you need to follow the rats for good loot,” zerger45 claimed in the post, which has 8,400 upvotes.

“Don’t follow the predetermined path in any dungeon, instead, just follow the rats. The rats smell the cheese! I’m telling you it’s real and I feel like I’m crazy but I found multiple legendaries doing this within a span of maybe 10 minutes. The rats will tell you which pack of enemies to kill, and then they wander towards where you need to go! It’s real I’m not crazy! FOLLOW THE RATS.”

"I'm telling you it's real and I feel like I'm crazy but..."

Inspired by this post, redditor iloveobjects took to the Diablo 4 sub to say “I followed the rats” alongside an image of the coveted Ring of Mendeln unique. That post, currently on 5,300 upvotes, also set the community going. “I’ve seriously been grinding for this ring for two days of Nightmare runs, ring-focused loot boxes, Helltide chests, and I read that rats post and followed some rats and this dropped on about the 15th mob,” iloveobjects claimed.

It’s not just rats, either. Some Diablo 4 players think other harmless animals you see in the game’s dungeons, such as snakes, help you sniff out better loot. But there’s no proof of a link. Is this some secret mechanic? Blizzard has yet to say. Perhaps it will address the Diablo 4 rats rumour during this week’s hotly anticipated Season 1 reveal.

The Great Diablo 4 rat race isn’t the only… passionate, potentially pointless pursuit players are fussing over. As IGN has reported, a sub-community of fans are devoting their time and energy to the discovery of a secret cow level Blizzard has already insisted does not exist.

And then there’s Diablo 4 player MrFrodoBeggins, who said they ran through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”. The data reveals a shockingly low spawn rate for the game’s infamous The Butcher enemy. The Butcher, for the uninitiated, seemingly spawns at random to scare the life out of players and, invariably, kill them. Blizzard has yet to confirm its spawn rate, and it probably won’t given the social media virality that has emerged as a result of its surprise appearances. For MrFrodoBeggins, The Butcher appeared just three times in 1,270 cellar runs.

This is just a snippet of some of the out there stuff Diablo 4 players are getting up to amid the never-ending grind for higher power. Last week, IGN reported on how high-level Hardcore characters were getting one-shotted by Treasure Goblins, an enemy that can't even attack. Now players are convinced the Goblin is bugged, but Blizzard hasn't said either way.

And let’s not forget the hunt for Diablo 4’s super rare uniques, which caused some players to theorise focusing on specific monster families speeds things up. All six super rare unique items currently in the game are now confirmed to have been found by the community, but the chances of a drop are still miniscule.

Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.

Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.