Success! Shawn and I achieved our goal of getting the characters that we rolled on Launch Night all the way through Normal difficulty before the one year anniversary of Diablo III (May 15, 2013). We actually managed to do it a couple of days before the anniversary.
Yeah, it took us a while. However, we were having fun and taking things at our own speed, as our schedules allowed. To us, it was super exciting to get those two characters through Normal before the anniversary of Diablo III. Here are some of the screenshots from the last part of Act IV that I thought were cool.
Before I jump into the last part of Act IV, I want to toss in a screenshot that should have gone into the previous blog. I didn’t find it until now. Shawn got an Achievement.
Beastmaster of The High Heavens: Read the following Bestiary books in Act IV
Armored Destroyer, Bile Crawler, Enslaved Nightmare, The Mallet Lords, The Oppressors, Terror Demon, Morlu, Shadow Vermin, Subjugator, Rakanoth, the Lord of Despair
Here stands Smashez Stanzenfyr and ThirtySeven, standing before The Pinnacle of Heaven in the The Silver Spire Level 2. We stopped here because it was a Checkpoint. This was, at the time, the farthest that Shawn has gotten in the game, so he had no idea how close we were to the final battle with Diablo.
Here we go! The Pinnacle of Heaven Event
The screen went black, and Shawn got an Achievement.
The Crown of Heaven: Explore the following areas of the Silver Spire
The Crystal Colonnade, Gateway to the Silver Spire, The Silver Spire Level 1, The Silver Spire Level 2, The Great Span, The Pinnacle of Heaven
Imperius is angry, yet again
Boom! There go the angels.
Tyrael opens the door.
Shawn got an Achievement.
It’s Just Us: Listen to all of Tyrael’s conversations
Here we go! Boss: Diablo
Smashez and ThirtySeven finally get to battle Diablo! This screenshot is from our first attempt.
Success! Time to fight Shadow Diablo in the Realm of Terror!
Smashez got killed, so ThirtySeven bravely fought on without him (hoping to resurrect him asap).
Sadly, her attempt failed. There wasn’t enough time to do it while in this battle.
This was where we learned something new. We knew that each of us would have to fight our clone. It turns out that if one of the players in a party dies, the surviving player(s) still have to fight his or her clone anyway. The clone doesn’t disappear if the player dies.
Unsurprisingly, this resulted in death. First attempt at killing Diablo = fail.
Our second attempt went a lot better! The first battle with Diablo went pretty fast.
We were more prepared to take on Shadow Diablo this time around.
Fighting the clones went better, too.
This screenshot was from right before we killed Shadow Diablo!
Ready to take on (stage three of the battle with) Diablo.
Smashez finished off Diablo with the final smash!
Boom! Diablo is dead!
We both got the Achievement The Prime Evil (Cooperative): Kill Diablo on Normal difficulty in a cooperative game.
Shawn also got The Prime Evil: Kill Diablo on Normal difficulty.
Smashez and ThirtySeven take a moment to pose for a screenshot next to dead Diablo.
They are now ready to continue their adventure into Nightmare difficulty!
Will ThirtySeven and Smashez venture into Nightmare? Will they retire now that their quest (to finish Normal difficulty before the one year anniversary of Diablo III) is complete? Stick around to find out the answer in future blogs.