Diablo 4 Season 9 makes huge changes to endgame dungeons with super-hard challenges for hardcore fans

Blizzard’s upcoming Diablo 4 Season 9 update Sins of the Horadrim is making huge changes to the ARPG’s endgame systems. 

After earlier promises to make the game more difficult with future updates, hardcore players of the live-service RPG will soon be met with a more difficult endgame when the new season goes live on July 1.

Diablo 4 Nightmare dungeons get more difficult 

Detailed in a new blog post, the game’s Nightmare dungeons will see a permanent change to be more challenging across the board. 

This is due to the introduction of brand-new Horadric Strongrooms, “potent micro-dungeon” activities that will be found within Nightmare dungeons. As you scale up your Torment, more Strongrooms will appear, or you can use a Nightmare Sigil to force their appearance. 

Similar to Infernal Hordes, these new activities will allow you to  select modifiers from a number of statues in the room. These modifiers will drastically increase the challenge with buffs, debuffs and the like while also increasing your rewards. 

Diablo 4 players will then need to attune to the pillars by killing all enemies between them in a specific timeframe before being transported to a boss fight. If you win, you’ll earn a Grand Horadric cache which can include Obducite to craft Masterworks as well as a buff for the rest of the Nightmare. 

Escalating Nightmares are also added which can be accessed with Escalation Sigils earned from completing Horadric Strongrooms. These are a series of, well, three Nightmares that escalate in difficulty. If you’re playing on an early difficulty, beating the three dungeons ends the activity. 

However, players on Torment difficulties will have to fight a new version of Astaroth in a deadly new boss fight. During the fight Astaroth will separate from his steed, and you’ll have to defeat both of the enemies to win. If the mount goes down, it enters a regeneration phase, so try and take out the bigger boss first. 

Astaroth and his mount can be affected by new affixes, and there’s a lot of new affixes coming for Nightmare Dungeons in general. It’s a major improvement, and something I’m really excited for. Are you? 

Of course, the new Diablo 4 Season 9 update also comes with the usual seasonal powers for players to explore. These powers are unique spell crafting powers dubbed Horadric Spells which will be removed by the time Season 10 launches. However, the new Nightmares changes are here to stay.