10 Things Diablo 4 Doesn't Tell You - Diablo 4 Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's page containing information in Diablo 4 that you may not know about! These tips are helpful for new players and returning players who are looking to get more out of the game casually or explore the endgame content.

If you're looking for more Tips and Tricks in Diablo 4, be sure to check out our Tips and Tricks page!

How to Track Specific Quests

Between Main Story Quests in multiple Acts, Priority Quests, local Events, and the many Side Quests you'll run into all over the place, it can be difficult to track down exactly where you need to go next and what's expected of you. Luckily, the tools to track quests are hiding on the map -- if you know where to look.

1. Open your Map and open the quest menu with "Q" or the Left D-Pad button
2. select the quest you want to track and press "Track" or "Untrack"
3. You can see the designated location by zooming out on the map

When Can You Get a Mount

As soon as you finish the Prologue tutorial and arrive in the main city of Kyovashad, you try to interact with the stables where Lorath got a horse, only to find you aren’t able to purchase one as well. Even if you’ve bought special editions of the game or purchased cosmetics from the in-game store, you still won’t be able to have a mount of your own just yet.

Instead, you’ll need to progress through the Main Story’s multiple Acts for quite a bit of time. Though you’re welcome to undertake Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 in any order you like, all of them must be completed before you can start Act 4 — where completing the second main mission, A Master’s Touch, will finally unlock a Priority Quest to visit the stable for your very own horse.

Mounts in Diablo 4 will allow you to traverse large expansive regions at a much quicker pace, and can be customized with various cosmetics that can either be unlocked in game or bought as microtransactions. You can’t exactly attack while mounted, but you can perform a leaping special move to dive straight into combat!

Always Open "Caches" to Gain Materials

Upon completing quests, opening certain chests, and even defeating some monsters, you may gain Caches of items. These caches must be clicked on in your inventory to open them, or they will just sit in your inventory. Once you click on them, you pick up the items on the ground. Monsters will also drop other various caches that you must open from your inventory. They come in different types:

• Herb Caches contain herbs used to craft potions at the Alchemist
• Potion Caches contain various potions that increase your stats and experienced gained
• Salvage Caches often contain rare materials needed to upgrade or create Legendary weapon

How to Decide What to Salvage at the Blacksmith

The materials you get from salvaging items of various rarity are extremely important for gear enhancement and crafting while leveling and for endgame content. If you’re just starting out and want to know which reserves to build up first, you definitely want to start filling your pockets with the magical materials you earn by destroying your gear at the blacksmith in town.

1. Comb through your inventory and sort through what improvements you can make to your current gear. This is easily done by comparing the gear in your inventory to what is already equipped on your character. If the item is highlighted in green, it is an improvement to what is currently equipped, and you should consider replacing your currently equipped item.
2. After you've equipped any improved gear, speak to the Blacksmith in town and open the Salvage tab (the first tab).
3. Click Common first and Accept, then Magic, and finally Rare items. Any Salvaged Materials will show in the Blacksmith's menu on the lower left in the Salvage menu box.

Tldr; If you can't use it, salvage it. Also, when items are salvaged, you can use the Wardrobe to customize salvaged gear into a new look, called "skins". This is a very fancy mechanic that allows you to customize and create an image over your pre-existing armor. This was called "Enchanting" in Diablo 3 and is now referred to as Transmog in Diablo 4.

However, if you find yourself low on Gold needed to buy certain items or services, you may want to instead sell your Common and Magic items for currency, and save Salvaging for Rares and eventually Legendaries.

Be sure to check out IGN's Item Crafting Guide to learn all about Salvaging, Repairs, and Upgrading at the Blacksmith!

How Gems and Socketing Work

Once you reach level 15, you'll start finding various types of gems that appear like normal items, but they actually serve a very specific purpose.

You'll also start finding various types of gear that has one or two sockets in them, which the gems you find can be placed in to provide certain bonuses, depending on the type of gear you're slotting the gem in. Even though you'll start to find more gems than you'll have sockets for (especially when opening up ore veins), they are worth hanging onto.

Once you reach higher levels, you can talk to the Jeweler in town to start upgrading a gem with multiple of the same type to create a higher quality gem of that same kind. You'll also be able to remove gems from gear you've already placed them in (for a price), which is useful for re-inserting them into new gear you find, or taking them out to upgrade them.

Building Your Codex of Power

Essentially, The Codex is a list of Legendary Aspects (added ability bonuses that are attached to a Legendary item) that can be imprinted on to a rare item to create the equivalent Legendary item. These Aspects are special because you can get them from dungeons as a reward for completion (each Dungeon has a different Aspect, often for a specific class), and you can use them to imprint on as many of your items as you like, so long as you have the upgrade materials. See the Full List of Codex of Power Aspects Here.

You can also extract an Aspect from a Legendary Item to receive it's Aspect at the Occultist, which will be stored in your inventory as a one-time use item to imprint onto a different piece of gear.

Difficulty Can Be Changed at World Tier Statues

The overall difficulty of your experience in Diablo 4 is tied to your current World Tier, and may be changed at any time form the Character Select Screen or from the World Tier Statue in Kyovashad. This increases your game difficulty and impacts character deaths and overall battle mechanic difficulty.

Changing your World Tier will terminate all active portals, reset all incomplete Whispers, and will close any active Nightmare Dungeon (available on the World Tier: Nightmare mode only).

Weapons Degrade When You Die

There aren't many drawbacks to death in Sanctuary (unless you're playing Hardcore mode or higher). However, it's important to note that every time your character dies, the penalty is weapons and armor degrade slightly.

To repair any degraded weapons or armor, be sure to visit the Blacksmith who will patch it up for you!

Refunding Your Skill Tree

The Diablo 4 skill tree is merciful enough to allow players to reset their entire skill tree for at a low cost up to level 15. It's an easy way to gauge what works for you and your play style or match an opponents weaknesses by making a few quick adjustments.

After level 15, any adjustments made to the skill tree will require a larger payment. Thankfully, the cost isn't expensive and gold is incredibly easy to come by in Sanctuary!

Stuff That Will Carry Over On A New Character

Since you can make multiple characters on a server, it may seem daunting to have to do everything over each time you play a new Class. Luckily, there are many things that carry over to your other character and are shared between them regardless of when you create your other characters.

Certain features that are shared or carry over include:

1. Purchased Mount Skins
2. Altars of Lilith
3. Money earned
4. Codex's used at the Occultist in town
5. Crafting materials (this is listed on your character page by selecting "Materials & Stats" and clicking the treasure chest tab)

As you earn Renown in each region of the game, you can unlock rewards that benefit both your current Character, as well as bonuses for other Characters you create.