Diablo 4 players rush to hide their bugged ultra-rares as Blizzard clampdown begins 'literally hotfixing fun'

Have you managed to get hold of one of Diablo 4's six ultra-rare "Uber Unique" items in the last day or so? Better cling onto it, then. Blizzard has responded to a recent bug that dramatically increased the drop rate for Diablo's rarest and most sought-after items by temporarily clamping down hard: Until the studio can put out a patch later today, no Uber Unique items will drop in Diablo 4 at all.

Problems kicked off yesterday after Blizzard put out Diablo 4's 1.0.4 patch. For whatever reason, that patch had the unintended side effect of making the game's Helltide Events (and associated Helltide Chests) spit out the game's would-be most coveted items at an absurdly high rate. Players were picking up shakos—a pet name for the mega-rare Harlequin Crest—like they were being mass produced in Shenzhen.

Just got Shako from Helltide helm chest. from r/diablo4

Blizzard wasn't having that, of course, so now the ultra-rare spigot has been turned all the way off while the studio gins up a solution. In a post to the Diablo forums, a Blizzard community manager said that the company has "temporarily disabled Uber Uniques from dropping in-game while we address an issue with Helltide Chest drops". 

That means "players will not be able to obtain the 6 Uber Unique items until a hotfix which we expect to be implemented on Friday afternoon Pacific Time". On the plus side, less slobber-inducingly rare uniques will continue to drop from Helltide Chests without fuss.

Diablo's players aren't exactly thrilled, with many complaining that Blizzard seemed to move much faster to shut down sky-high Uber Unique drops than it does to fix other problems. Over on the Diablo 4 subreddit, one player summed up complaints in a meme suggesting that Blizzard ignores "underpowered builds, biggest quests, gem tabs, more stash space, [and] actual social features" but moves with incredible alacrity as soon as players start "getting good loot".

That's probably not quite fair, but it's not an uncommon sentiment. Another comment, from eclipse4598, laments that "Druid dropping barb uniques [took] 2 weeks to fix" while "Shako dropping too much [took] 2 hours to fix". Another, GreenAirport5280, accused Blizzard of "Literally hotfixing fun at 8:40pm at night".

Of course, some of the anger is pure salt. Some players are simply frustrated they missed their opportunity to snag an easy ultra-rare. "So a bunch of people got free shako and everyone else go fuck themselves," complained a user called Rchrdzzz in a comment that drew around 1,500 upvotes. Similar comments were made by other users who were busy living their lives elsewhere.

But, honestly, the funniest segment of the community is the people who did manage to nab a shako, and now live in terror that Blizzard is going to snatch it away from them. Some are even conniving elaborate and probably doomed plans to hide their ill-gotten gains from the devs. "I sent [my shako] to my alt and sold it to vendor, it's sitting at buy back stash now," reported a player called Sanrichin. 

Another, RepresentativePut808, had an even more complex plan: "I sent it to my alt inventory and deleted my alt, now waiting for everything [to settle] down before restoring the recently deleted character".

Good luck to them, I say, and to anyone who thinks they can hide Blizzard-made items in a Blizzard-made game from Blizzard itself. If the company does decide to take back the bugged shakos—which it hasn't said it'll do—I hope you all manage to cling onto yours. As for the rest of us, Uber Uniques will resume dropping (at their usual, vanishingly small rate) when Blizzard puts out a hotfix this afternoon Pacific Time.