The Paragon Board is the definitive source for Diablo IV content and news. Blizzard has been releasing quarterly updates on their blog, which provide an in-depth look at the changes coming to both characters and gameplay with each new update. Join us as we explore what’s changed before these upcoming patches go live!
The “when does diablo 4 come out” is a question that many players are asking. The “Paragon Board” is an end-game progression system in Diablo IV. It allows players to progress their characters to level 60, and beyond.
Blizzard revealed a lot of fresh information on Diablo IV with the release of their December 2021 Quarterly Update. It also introduces the Paragon Board, a significant end-game advancement mechanism.
We have discussed the technical improvements around Physical Based Rendering and Visual Effects in our first breakout piece for the Diablo IV December 2021 Quarterly Update. The second highlight will go through all we know so far regarding the Paragon Board system and how it relates to Diablo III’s endless Paragon system.
Physical Based Rendering and Visual Effects in Diablo IV – Diablo IV Quarterly Update December 2021
Basics of the Diablo IV Paragon Board
Lead Mechanisms Designer Joe Piepiora discusses the Paragon Board and one of Diablo IV’s primary end-game progression systems in the article. Please keep in mind that all information regarding the Paragon Board and its features is current and subject to change during development and testing!
Tiles and Boards
The Paragon board is shown to be accessible at character level 50. This is what the beginning board will look like:
The Paragon Board’s primary idea is straightforward: Players will be awarded with Paragon Points as they progress through the endgame, which they may spend to progress through a series of various so-called Tiles, each of which grants distinct perks. They may also extend their board by connecting other boards with varied layouts to their original board:
Players may then continue their journey across the new section of the board, unlocking further bonus tiles or one of the new gate tiles to add another board to their customizable collection of boards:
Tiles
There are countless tiles on the initial board and every every board linked to it. By spending Paragon points and progressing through the board, you may unlock tiles. The distinctions between tile kinds are the rationale for following a certain tile pattern. The Paragon Board has many extra tile types based on the standard Diablo item rarity levels:
- Common tiles (greyed-out circles) provide your character a minor one-dimensional attribute benefit.
- Magic tiles (which have no visible indication and are a subset of regular tiles) come in clusters and provide more powerful character benefits.
- By achieving specific attribute break thresholds, rare tiles (yellow hexagons) provide build-defining advantages as well as extra abilities.
- Legendary tiles provide a new Legendary Power on the character.
There are two sorts of “utility” tiles in addition to the four bonus tiles:
- The gate tiles are used to link two boards together.
- Socket tiles (greyed-out circles with a red outline) may be socketed with objects that offer benefits to unlocked tiles within a radius of the socketed tile.
Glyphs and Sockets
Glyphs are the things that players may place in their socket tiles. We’ve only seen two glyph rarities so far: Magic and Rare:
We’ve also learnt that “delving into certain exceptionally perilous dungeons” may help level glyphs. By influencing more active tiles on the player’s Paragon Board, increasing the level of a given glyph increases its radius and hence its total power.
Paragon Board Numbers in Diablo IV
We and other Diablo fans have made the following observations on the Paragon Board system based on the blog post:
- Character level 50 is the starting point for the Paragon Board. The four little diamonds in the level progress indicator signify that you will get four Paragon Points every level, as suggested by the user interface.
- The highest level in Diablo IV will be 100, according to Reddit user silec. The level progress bar for level 100 does not feature the little diamonds that indicate the newly imposed level cap, unlike the bar for levels 50 and above.
- Players will be able to gain a total of 200 (or 204 if level 100 is included) paragon points by collecting 4 paragon points at each level.
- Returning to the Paragon Board: There are a total of 278 tiles on the beginning board. The two additional board configurations featured in the blog article seem to have the same number of tiles.
- There are a total of 6 unusual tiles on the beginning board. The number of tiles required to access the uncommon tiles ranges from 4 to 20. To achieve a rare tile, players must unlock an average of 13 tiles. Players must unlock a total of 78 tiles to unlock all rare tiles on a board. That implies, in principle, a max-level character will be able to unlock a total of 15 rare tiles. Players will also unlock other tiles like socket and gate tiles that do not contribute to the road to a rare tile, so keep that in mind.
- Magic tiles are the only ones that haven’t been recognized on the Paragon boards so far. They’re probably an unusual subgroup of frequent tiles.
- When you rotate one of the boards in the Board Selection interface, you’ll discover that they’re the same. We think this was done only for the purpose of convenience, and we hope that the various board alternatives have really unique layouts.
The Paragon System in Diablo IV: Finite or Infinite?
We may fairly assume that the end-game progression scheme for the Paragon Board will be limited.
Over the course of end-game growth, players may be able to attach three to four boards, depending on layouts and tile priorities. Based on our knowledge of Diablo III gameplay, we may predict that unlocking 8 to 12 uncommon tiles, 3 to 4 legendary tiles, a slew of socket tiles with glyphs, and a slew of attribute bonuses would significantly increase character strength.
This new model seems like a full 180 from Diablo III’s endless paragon system. Most crucially, the Paragon Board encourages greater player agency, decision-making, and character customization – but it also reveals something new to Diablo III players: the end of the journey.
Theorycrafting regarding future Diablo IV content remains inconceivably fluid in the absence of actual proof and precise figures. However, Diablo III’s rotting carrot on a stick, Paragon, seems to be on its way to becoming a sweet and meaningful form of end-game growth for Blizzard’s fourth Diablo installment.
