Diablo 4 players swear dungeon rats are leading them to the rarest loot in the game

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Diablo 4 players are feverishly speculating that rats will lead you to the rarest loot in the game.

As first shared in a Reddit thread that has similar energy to that Charlie Day meme (you know the one), the rats you'll occasionally find scurrying around towns and dungeons in Diablo 4 seem to be more than mere set dressing. 

"Okay this is going to sound really bizarre, but you need to follow the rats for good loot," says Redditor zerger45. "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."

Now, if this were just a single isolated post it probably wouldn't pass the smell test for most folks, but I've now read through a ton of reports from players who've tested the theory themselves and have found success. And it seems like this isn't limited to dungeon rats; there are also players saying they've bagged loot simply by following rats around towns including Kyovashad.

"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," says another believer.

For what it's worth, I hopped on Diablo 4 in an attempt to verify whether there's any substance to this whole rat hole, and I was disappointed. I followed rats for a frankly unsavory amount of time through various towns and dungeons and didn't notice a change in the amount of legendary loot that was dropped.

I hesitate to say my single experience debunks the theory, but I'm definitely not 100% convinced. After all, there's always the chance that this is all a big troll job orchestrated by bored Diablo 4 players, who would undoubtedly be thrilled to see reports from not just GamesRadar+, but also Kotaku and PC Gamer.

I've reached out to Blizzard to see if I can get an answer straight from the source, and I'll update this article if I hear back.

Elsewhere, a Diablo 4 player has deemed Cellars completely useless after grinding more than a thousand of them.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.