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  1. Games
  2. Action RPGs
  3. Diablo

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred revives the action-RPG series' 24-year-old tradition of letting you hire mercenaries to fight alongside you

News
By Iain Harris published 20 August 2024

The Pale Hand is here to help you loot hell

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Diablo 4's new merc using his shield to help someone
(Image credit: Blizzard)
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Thanks to a mercenary gang known as the Pale Hand, you're getting some help when Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion releases. But only if you fancy it.

As revealed during Opening Night Light, Blizzard is re-introducing a series-favorite feature to Diablo 4 when the DLC launches that lets you call upon a group of mercenaries to help with the dirty work.

Details are light right now, though we've seen mercenaries in previous Diablo games, so I imagine we're getting a similar deal. As we see from the trailer, the Pale Hand comprises a shield bearer, a scoundrel, a berserker, and a wee demon. You can tap them up to help you loot hell to your heart's content. Each has its own strengths, though which is best for you likely depends on the class you're rolling with. Using a glass cannon build? Let the shield bearer help you out. 

Article continues below
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  • Key art for Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred showing Mephisto, a spiky and angular demon, against a red, lightning backdrop, arm and claw raised menancingly, cropped to show more of him, and with the GamesRadar+ Big in 2026 branding frame Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred gives its devs "a chance to just get really horrible, and I say that the best way possible"
  • Key art for Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred showing Mephisto, a spiky and angular demon, against a red, lightning backdrop, arm and claw raised menancingly, cropped to show more of him Diablo 4's Lord of Hatred DLC adds at least one "basically useless" item just for the new Horadric Cube
  • Diablo 4 Diablo 4 is bringing back killstreaks in run-up to season 12, with special bloodied items to help you unleash hell

It remains to be seen how Blizzard is improving what we've seen in Diablo before, but it'll fun to find out. Diablo 3 had followers you could toss your old gear to, which is handy as it keeps them alive longer and allows you to ignore that loot-hoarding habit more so.

Elsewhere in the trailer, we found out that Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is also getting a new PvE co-op dungeon that sounds like a full-blown raid. Game director Brent Gibson describes it as a "multi-layered dungeon" that sounds like we're getting control over how it plays out and the sorts of loot we'll get.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred launched on October 8.

Check out our Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 coverage right here.

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Iain Harris
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I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.

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