The World
The world of Sanctuary is never the same twice. That’s because parts of Diablo III's environments (excepting towns, cities and some landmarks) are randomized. Like puzzle pieces, they fit together to form mazes and dungeons that can be different each time you play through the game.
Every time you start up a new game or load an existing character, the world changes. You'll find unfamiliar foes and unopened treasure chests in new places. What’s more, the physical layout of areas can shift; locations of caves and ruins can move around, and the well-trod path you took earlier might be covered with monsters. Even quest objectives can move around!
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Contents
- 1 Camp & Waypoints
- 2 Quests
- 3 Events
- 4 Randomization
- 5 Map
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6
Monsters
- 6.1 Monster Power
- 7 Monster Affixes
Camp & Waypoints
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Your allies will gather in your camp.
Not all parts of the world will shift under your feet. Safe areas—like camps and towns—will remain unchanged. In these places, you’ll find merchants to trade with and repair your gear. You'll also find your followers and other key NPCs (non-player characters) here. Click on any of them to initiate a dialogue and ask for advice or learn about their histories.
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Use waypoints for quick travel.
In towns, you’ll also see a magical emblem etched into the ground; identical emblems can be found elsewhere in the world. These are waypoints, arcane circles of teleportation scattered throughout Sanctuary, and you can use them to move between areas. When you discover a new waypoint, you’ll be able to return there from any other waypoint you’ve previously unlocked.
Clicking on a waypoint will open the Waypoint menu, which displays each location you've discovered. The waypoint closest to your current quest objective will have a chalice next to it; when you’re ready to progress the story, travel there.
Quests
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Quests begin with exclamation marks.
Quests are the story of Diablo III and your battle against the Burning Hells.
You'll be able to see a full description of your current quest—including your objectives and where you should go next—in your quest log (accessible with the “J” key). Your journal will also keep a record of your journey—a bestiary of the enemies you’ve encountered, and a collection of books of lore you’ve collected.
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Complete your quests, and prosper.
Quests provide rewards of gold, experience, and items. Some quests have bonus objectives, optional tasks that can be worth extra experience and gold.
More often than not, quests will be given to you by your closest allies, but on occasion, you’ll find that the world itself presents you with a path to tread, a foe to slay, or other…opportunities.
Events
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Expect to be taken by surprise.
As you travel the world of Sanctuary, you’ll also come across events—small pieces of gameplay like miniature quests. When you encounter an event, the name of the event will appear on your screen along with its objectives.
Events are the demonic rituals, enemy ambushes, caves full of starved prisoners and other random occurrences that challenge you on your way through Diablo III’s main storyline. They can offer different rewards, present different foes and even change their conditions from playthrough to playthrough.
Once you’ve reached maximum level, successfully completing an event will provide you with one stack of the Nephalem Valor buff. Most events also offer rewards — a basic treasure, as well as the potential for bonus treasures (one for each stack of Nephalem Valor you currently have active).
The Infernal Machine
New unique monsters have been sighted throughout the world of Sanctuary. Defeat these creatures while you’re empowered with five stacks of Nephalem Valor and you may earn keys that — when used together — unlock a passage to a hidden pocket of the Burning Hells.
Rumors hint that the Hells’ most fiendish champions are cooperating in these tiny realms. When you invade their refuge and stand in triumph over these monstrosities, you may be able to harvest the fell pieces of their bodies, necrotic organs that can be used to forge legendary items of unparalleled power.
Randomization
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Checkpoints are often associated with new areas or quest objectives.
Diablo III’s randomization supports replayability, but it also means that saving your progress is handled in a unique manner.
You don’t have to manually save your game in order to pick up where you left off. Your game state (including experience you’ve gained, loot you’ve acquired, and quests you’ve completed) will be automatically saved as you progress and reach checkpoints. Your game is also saved when you’re done playing and choose the "Leave Game" or "Exit Diablo III" options from the Game Menu.
If you ended your game in the middle of a dungeon or wilderness, you won’t reappear there when you load your character. Instead, you’ll appear at your last checkpoint, or in the closest safe location: usually a nearby town or camp. In order to return to the site of your last battle, you can run back, retracing your steps, or use a waypoint. Once you’ve reached a waypoint in a particular Act, you can then return to that area at any time, so they’re very important anchors to your progress through the game.
You have the opportunity to explore as much or as little as you’d like to, but you should always search carefully and find waypoints to ensure that you can move efficiently through the game world.
Map
When you enter a new area, you’ll see a greyed-out, incomplete map of that space. As you travel through the area, you’ll begin to fill in that map.
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Your map displays quests, allies, waypoints, dungeons and other areas. Explore to fill it out!
If you're lost, you can open your map (default keys “M” or "TAB") to get a rough idea of your surroundings. Areas you haven’t yet reached are blacked out until you explore them, at which point they’ll fill in and you’ll see the boundaries of the area in greater detail. If you see a pulsing circle on your map, head towards it; it indicates the location and direction of your current quest target.
You can also see the minimap, a smaller, zoomed-in version of your map, in the upper right corner of your screen. This minimap is useful for quick navigation when you don’t want to open your map.
Monsters
Many different monsters lurk in Sanctuary, and they will try to kill you in diverse ways. Some will spit acid or beat hurricanes at you from afar; others will lunge, hoping to knock you back and rip you apart before you can react.
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Suffer no demon to live in your sight.
In addition to the massive variety of "normal" monsters roaming the land, you’ll regularly come face-to-face with special monsters.
Champion monsters have their names displayed in blue. They travel in packs and are more powerful than regular monsters: they take more hits to kill, do more damage, and have abilities called affixes, which enable them to do things like teleport away from your attacks or unleash bolts of lightning when they’re struck.
Rare monsters have their names displayed in yellow. Rare monsters have more Life than normal for their type, possess a special affix, and are usually surrounded by a pack of three to four minions who are weaker but possess similar abilities.
Unique monsters have their names displayed in purple. They’re usually more powerful than champions: they have more health, do more damage, and often have multiple abilities.
Champion, rare and unique monsters give rewards commensurate to their increased difficulty: bigger health globes with greater healing power, more gold, and more (and often better) items.
At certain points in the game, you’ll find yourself faced with truly frightening boss monsters: massive or otherwise extremely dangerous foes that overshadow all others. You will have to use all of your skill and cunning to defeat these monstrosities, and, if you’re able to dispatch them, you’ll earn tremendous rewards.
Monster Power
Survive enough confrontations with the horrible denizens of the Burning Hells, and you might start to feel confident in your abilities… or even feel that victory is inevitable. Perhaps that’s what you want — but another option exists for those who refuse to grow complacent.
If you’d like to test yourself against deadlier foes, enable the “Monster Power” option from the Options menu. Then, when you begin a game from the quest selection page, you’ll be able to customize the power of your demonic adversaries from 1 (being the smallest boost to monster power) to 10 (indicating a massive increase that produces insanely difficult foes).
Increasing Monster Power increases all monsters’ health, damage, and other factors. It also provides a slight bump to the effectiveness of the Gold Find and Magic Find attributes (over the cap on these attributes). The amount of experience you receive for slaying your strengthened foes is also increased. Monster Power can be enabled regardless of difficulty mode, character level, or whether you’re playing a public or private game. Adjust your game difficulty (and rewards) to your heart’s content.
Monster Affixes
Below is a list of the monster affixes – unique monster powers – you’re likely to encounter in Diablo III. Take note:
- You can identify most of a monster’s powers by looking at the text under its name.
- Many affixes are restricted by the monster's level or the game's difficulty level (some affixes will not appear prior to a specific difficulty or on monsters below a certain level).
- Affixes appearing in Normal difficulty are not exclusive to it or to low-level monsters – they can show up in Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties, too!
- The number of affixes appearing on monsters increases in harder difficulties. Be careful!
Normal
One affix per monster
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- Desecrator: Desecrator monsters conjure burning pools of hellfire beneath your feet. These pools surge after a few seconds, dealing immense damage if you don’t move quickly to avoid them.
- Electrified: Electrified monsters release bolts of electricity when struck, causing lightning damage on contact.
- Frozen: Frozen monsters fill the air around them with exploding ice crystals. These explosions deal cold damage, slow, and freeze heroes caught in their blast radius.
- Illusionist: Illusionist monsters create duplicates of themselves; these duplicates can deal damage while obscuring your true target.
- Jailer: Monsters with the jailer affix can temporarily immobilize you. You are vulnerable to attack while immobilized, but you can escape by using certain defensive skills.
- Knockback: Successful hits from monsters with knockback send you flying away from them, interrupting your attack and slowing your movement.
- Missile Dampening: Missile dampening monsters project an aura that slows your incoming projectiles, making ranged attacks less effective.
- Molten: Molten monsters trail burning lava wherever they walk. Shortly after they die, their bodies explode into high-damage gouts of fire.
- Mortar: Monsters with the mortar affix lob volatile globes of fire that can deal extreme damage to you at range. Move close to avoid their attacks.
- Nightmarish: Successful attacks from nightmarish monsters can cause you to lose control of your character and flee for a few seconds.
- Plagued: Plagued monsters leave toxic puddles in their footsteps. Standing in these puddles – even to attack the plagued – will deal increasing amounts of poison damage.
- Reflect Damage: Monsters with this affix deal a portion of the damage they take back to their attackers. Their reflection power turns on and off over time, but you’ll be able to tell that it’s active if you keep an eye on them.
- Shielding: Shielding monsters can conjure a temporary magic shield that makes them immune to damage.
- Teleporter: Monsters with the teleporter affix can disappear and reappear in different locations on the screen at will, both to make surprise attacks and to escape.
- Vortex: Monsters with the vortex affix can pull you towards them, interrupting your attacks and keeping you dangerously close.
- Waller: Monsters with the waller affix create walls that can trap you or block your path to the monster summoning them. Summoned walls will vanish after a few seconds – if you can afford to wait.
Nightmare
Up to two affixes per monster
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- Arcane Enchanted: Arcane enchanted monsters cause additional arcane damage with their attacks and summon rotating beams of arcane energy which deal significant damage.
- Extra Health: Monsters with extra health have substantially more Life (and, hence, survivability) than normal for monsters of their type.
- Fast: Fast monsters move and attack much more quickly than their normal counterparts. They excel at chasing you down when you’re wounded and use their increased speed to move around the battlefield.
- Fire Chains: These monsters are linked together by chains of fire that burn anything they touch. Killing individual monsters in the group limits the length and mobility of the chain.
- Horde: Hordes of monsters don’t gain any particular abilities, but groups with the horde affix are larger than normal for their type.
- Vampiric: Vampiric monsters feed off of your injuries. They recover a portion of all damage they deal as Life.
Hell
Up to three affixes per monster
- Avenger: Monsters with the avenger affix grow in power as other monsters in their group are slain – they can increase in damage, attack speed, total life, and other attributes.
- Health Link: Monsters with health link share damage and Life pools. Any damage dealt to an individual is split among all members of a group.
Inferno
In Inferno difficulty, monsters can have up to four affixes.
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