Diablo Immortal requires over $500k to max out character due to hidden “whale mechanic”

It was believed that it would take around $100k to max out a Diablo Immortal character. However, a new calculation suggests that the actual sum might be five times more due to a hidden mechanic aimed at the so-called whales.

A Redditor nicknamed ShiftYourCarcass came to this conclusion in a post published on June 26.

• Previous calculations suggested that a player would need six 5-star legendary gems to gear a character to its fullest extent.
• On average, one 5-star gem would cost a player around $16,600, which brings the total sum of maxing out a character to around $100,000.
• ShiftYourCarcass dug a little deeper, saying that there’s a “hidden whale ‘mechanic’ when you upgrade a 5/5 star gem to level 10 that is attached to a piece of gear above rank 6.”
• The gem will undergo the “awakening” process, gaining an additional five slots around it. This means that a player will need to put five additional legendary gems in these slots and upgrade each of them to rank 10.

An awakened 5-star gem (via Reddit)

• Due to “awakening,” a user will need not six but 36 (!) 5-star gems to fully max their character.
• “To awaken a gem, the gem has to be rank 10 and you’ll need to purchase an item that’s only available in the cash shop for purple orbs called dawning echos, which cost you around 1000 eternal orbs, roughly around 30$ per gear awakening,” ShiftYourCarcass noted.
• So it would take up to $540,000 at an average cost of $15,000 for each 5-star gem. On top of that, a player would need to pay around $180 for six dawning echoes.
• The thing is that “whales” with less luck will have to spend even more money (let’s say a million dollars?) since Diablo Immortal doesn’t guarantee a 5-star gem drop.

Diablo Immortal has become the most controversial launch of 2022 so far. It is now the lowest-rated Blizzard game on Metacritic by players, with many accusing the studio of milking money out of their fans. The title’s monetization was also criticized by some developers (here is a post by Riot producer Juno Blees about predatory pay-to-win mechanics).

Despite the controversy, Diablo Immortal continues to generate money for Blizzard. According to AppMagic, the game reached $14.5 million on mobile in its first week, with its revenue now surpassing $40 million.