From the moment Blizzard announced Diablo IV in 2019, it teased the ability for players to ride mounts. This would be a series first, and it seemed like a cool feature to include. But now, Blizzard has confirmed that you actually won’t get to ride a mount in its latest loot-filled Diablo adventure until you’ve gone and saved the world. Horses are only for heroes, I guess.
Blizzard announced Diablo IV in November 2019, and even back then it was talking about how big the new game’s world would be and how mounts would help players traverse it. We duly mentioned mounts in our preview back then. And in the recent beta, mounts were again teased but were not available to use, as the playable test was just a small taste of the full action-RPG. In short, Diablo IV’s mounts have been known for some time, and seem pretty cool! However, Blizzard has recently confirmed that you won’t get to ride any horses (or other mounts, for that matter) in Diablo IV right out of the gate.
In a blog post from Blizzard on April 24, the company revealed new information about how players will be able to customize their characters and skills in Diablo IV. And when talking about mounts, Blizzard revealed that you’ll need to beat the main questline with at least one character to gain access to a rideable friend.
Thankfully, once you unlock a mount with one character you’ll be able to use it with all your other characters in all other game modes. And once you do gain access to a cool new mount you’ll be able to customize it with different armors and trophies.
As for why this choice was made, my guess is that Blizzard doesn’t want players to rush through the world and campaign it had spent years making. At least, not the first time you play Diablo IV. Once you’ve seen it all and saved the planet from demons or whatever, then Blizzard will relent and give you a mount to help your future replays with different characters go more quickly. Understandable, but I do wonder if at some point down the line Blizzard will give people mounts sooner, maybe after a few years or so. We’ll have to wait and see.
Kotaku reached out to Blizzard for comment.
Classic items coming back to Diablo IV
Blizzard’s blog post also shared more information on loot, explaining how legendary items that you don’t pick up due to a disconnection error or because you don’t spot them will be added to a special section of your stash. (This special storage area will fill up quickly, so players will need to check it regularly.) The studio confirmed that some classic items from past Diablo games, like Windforce, will have a chance to drop in the new game, too.
Blizzard also talked about how respeccing will work, mentioning that it will not be as free and open as Diablo III’s version of the endgame system but will be less rigid than how it was implemented in fan-favorite Diablo II.
Diablo IV launches June 6, 2023, on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. For those who can’t wait, Blizzard recently confirmed another beta will be happening in May.