Diablo Immortal players get to change classes, keep progression

Diablo Immortal, the mobile adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s dungeon-crawling franchise, will allow players to change their character classes while maintaining their overall progression, developers said in an announcement on Monday.

The idea behind Class Change is to allow players to explore all classes without having each class start from scratch. Blizzard says when players switch classes, they’ll retain their overall XP progress, “receive a new set of equipped items appropriate to your new class,” and the old ones will be held in reserve.

“We didn’t want to force our players into the hard choice of giving up progress on their main character to support an alt,” Blizzard said. “We also didn’t want anyone to feel obligated to keep a roster of alt characters to gather rewards and resources, or to match the shifting demands of […] other competitive systems.”

That said, Class Change appears to support another mobile-specific — and therefore, monetized — feature: cosmetics and other customizations. In the same post on Monday, Blizzard said it planned “to roll out a new cosmetic set for all classes each month,” which matched that month’s Battle Pass theme. Battle Pass players will get the ability to unlock all the classes’ gear themes. Additional items can be purchased through the in-game store.

Blizzard’s also hoping that a “pre-order” campaign for the free-to-play game will stoke interest in its cosmetics. iOS users are able to register now for the app and download it immediately. Android players can now pre-register through either the Google Play Store or the internet. If 30 million do so before Diablo Immortal’s (unnanounced) launch date, then Blizzard will give everyone a free set of skins, the “Horadrim Cosmetic set,” which is based on the in-world Brotherhood of the Horadrim.

“We want your original class selection to be a meaningful choice, so we’re discussing limits to [the Class Change] system that still give you freedom to try out something new,” Blizzard said. “Because the process of collecting Legendary affixes is time-consuming, we expect players who focus on a single class will have some advantages, like a broader selection of available character builds. But the fun of freely exploring each class should tempt a lot of people into changing things up over time, like it has many of us on the team.”

Diablo Immortal Blizzard stated that the entire game is completely free and all gear can easily be earned by regularly playing the game. But, for players looking to get more of the latest bling, there will be in-app purchases.

Cosmetics allow players to alter their appearance and stats without having to modify their gear. It’s a bit like an MMO. Blizzard said it will make free cosmetic sets for factions that unlock as that faction’s players raise its overall Dominance stat. Their cosmetics will also become more intricate and unique as they gain Legendary Gems with a higher Resonance attribute.

“Like any living game, we want Diablo Immortal’s visual identity to evolve and grow over time,” Blizzard wrote. “We also want you to be able to keep varying your character’s look as you play, rather than being stuck in one spot.”

Diablo Immortal BlizzCon 2018 was the first time that it was announced. Blizzard, NetEase and NetEase are co-developing this game. Blizzard conducted a technical alpha testing. Diablo Immortal Endgame alpha testing began in April 2021, after the game was released at the close of 2020. Blizzard declared that the game would be delayed until 2022, in response to players’ feedback. They also announced changes to PvP content and controller support.