Unwitting Diablo 4 hero stumbles into PvP exploit farm to ruin the day of players who almost made millions

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Blizzard has, naturally, fixed the Diablo exploit

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

A valiant Diablo 4 player has unwittingly spoiled the grind of others abusing a PvP loot exploit, leading to over 500 million Seeds of Hatred going spare. 

Games built around the pursuit of loot often lead hardcore fans to optimise the grind – no routine is too monotonous if it means a good roll on a piece of armour. The same thing befell Diablo 4 recently, with players taking advantage of a development oversight to reap the benefits (thanks, Icy Veins). 

Killing 100 players in Diablo 4’s Fields of Hatred leads to the Hatred’s Chosen buff, starting a five-minute event where you earn Seeds of Hatred on every hit. Players took advantage of those facts by forming teams to make earning those kills a breeze before equipping high-speed, low-damage weapons to maximise how much of the PvP currency could drop in that time window. You could even spread the wealth as those with the buff distribute wealth evenly to those who kill them. 

“I got a couple [of] kills at an alter, these guys were loaded.. is there something I’m missing. I have never seen such large stacks in my time,” they write on Reddit.

Naturally, someone soon came along to tell them what was happening, breaking down how they'd happened upon 500 million Seeds of Hatred. 

The exploit didn’t go unnoticed by Blizzard, who have since disabled the Hatred’s Chosen buff in Fields of Hatred. While the exploit could be used to farm vast amounts of materials that can be used to purchase PvP cosmetics, it was mainly beneficial to those looking to gamble it for high-tier loot, as you can do with Obols. 

For some players, though, the grind wasn’t worth it, thanks to one unassuming Diablo 4 player.

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

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.