“Fresh Meat!” The well-known battle cry of the Butcher reverberates through the catacombs of Tristram Cathedral. Since 2017, Diablo 3’s annual tradition has been to be where it all began.
In the course of the limited-time event “The Darkness in Tristram”, players can once again travel with their hero via the portal to the destroyed town and enter the retro dungeon there. Here it goes in pixel look through the levels known from the first Diablo until you finally meet the Lord of Secrets himself.
In this article we reveal all the framework conditions for the annual event.
Everything about the start times
As in previous years, the event is again divided into two parts. First you have to fight some cultists in the pre-event, then you travel to Tristram and master the dungeon. Both sections start at different times:
- Start des Pre-Events: It starts on January 1st at 1:00 a.m.
- Start des Events: It continues on January 4th at 1:00 a.m.
- Ende Events: On February 1st at 1:00 a.m. everything is over again
So you have exactly 28 days to reminisce and pick up unique rewards. After that you have to wait another year before the 2021/22 event is repeated.
What exactly is the event about?
On December 31, 1996, Diablo saw the light of day and not only founded a series of games that is still popular (albeit heavily discussed), but also laid the foundation for all action role-playing games that followed. But before we give you a far too short outline of how Diablo came about, take a look at our extensive report on the making of:
more on the subject
Making of Diablo – Part 1: The click that changed everything
In order to celebrate the anniversary anew every year, the Finsternis-in-Tristram-Event was launched in Diablo 3. Here all players can either reminisce about times gone by or relive the events of a game they may be too young for themselves.
The anniversary dungeon was created for this, which is structured exactly as in the first Diablo. So you slaughter your way through a total of 16 levels, which are divided into four different regions. In the original it was the cathedral, the catacombs, the caves and hell. However, these areas were all recreated with the environment graphics from Diablo 3.
The actual gameplay of Diablo 3 does not change anything. So you can continue to use all the effective abilities of modern Diablo classes. A classic overlay and a pixel filter provide the necessary retro flair.
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Diablo 3: The Darkness in Tristram – This is how you find all the secrets
This is how you get into the dungeon
Getting to Tristram and entering the retro dungeon is not difficult. But you have to go after some cultists who spawn in Sanctuary on January 1st. All of these cultists can be found in Adventure Mode! If you take out the cultists, you will discover clues to a portal to Tristram.
The portal then appears in the old ruins in the first act. With the portal you will be sent into the tristram from the first game, where you will be greeted by a well-known melody. However, the city is destroyed and the NPCs are all dead – but not useless.
What’s new?
In the retro dungeon, you can encounter a few classic bosses and many unique enemy types. There are also special items from Diablo 1 to be looted. Well-known boss opponents include:
- Der Butcher
- The Skeleton King
- Arch-Bishop Lazarus
- The Dark Lord (Diablo)
Special items include the King’s Sword, the Undead Crown, Griswold’s Edge or the Ring of Truth.
What are the rewards?
If you really get involved during the event and overcome various challenges, you can bag a wide variety of rewards. The main unique rewards are:
- Two new pets: The butcher and the crown calf
- Two new portrait frames: The classic angel and the classic demon
- Two new banner decorations: Ogdens Schild and Ogdens Bräu
- Three new transmogrifications: The red splinter of the soul, the butcher’s cleaver, the host’s leg
You can also enter a secret cow level during the event, which of course is more of an homage to Diablo 2. How you get these rewards exactly and get to the cow level, we have broken down for you in a separate article:
more on the subject
The Darkness in Tristram – All Pets and Secrets
Instead, you can also watch the video that we have installed for you a little further above. By the way, if you’d rather catch up with the real Diablo, you’ve been able to do that for some time. The original has been available again on Gog since 2019.
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