Race through Hell to become immortal
Blizzard has revealed aDiablo 4Hardcore Race to 100via the officialDiabloTwitter. As part of the race, the first 1000 players to reach themax level of 100on Hardcore mode—with proof—will be declared the winners. The stakes for the race are as real as they get. Winners of the race will have their Battle.net BattleTag engraved on a physical Lilith statue, immortalizing their victory forever.
This race is certainly not for the faint of heart. InDiablo 4‘s Hardcore mode, death results in the permanent deletion of the character. This means in order to win the race you will have to level up all the way to the max level without dying a single time. Permanent death occurs in both PvE and PvP, so Hardcore players looking to win the race should stay away from the Fields of Hatred PvP designated zones.
Diablo 4Hardcore Race to 100 drama
The announcement of theDiablo 4Hardcore Race to 100 has created some controversy of its own. For starters, players have complained that the race realistically requires contestants to purchase theDeluxe or Ultimate Edition to obtain four day early access. The race itself will begin when theearly access servers go live one June 2 at 7PM EST. While it’s technically possible for someone with the Standard Edition to win, they would be starting four days behind, making it highly unlikely.
But that’s not the only drama around the race. Shortly after the reveal,Diablo 4executive producerRod Fergusson tweeted outreminding reviewers that their access to the full version of the game was coming to an end and that their character and progress would be deleted.
To all the#DiabloIVreviewers who’s play time is up, and your characters and progress deleted – sorry!
Only 6 days till Early Access!pic.twitter.com/PgxU3b3ChP
— Rod Fergusson (@RodFergusson)July 24, 2025
Consequently fans started questioning the fairness of the contest. Thefollow-up response from Fergussonhas been viewed as somewhat out of touch. While yes, everyone will be starting over at the same time from level one, you can’t argue that having two weeks of access to the full game doesn’t create an unfair advantage. Everyone had access to the open beta and Server Slam beta, but only Act I and level 25 were available.
How does deleting all their progress and making them start at the same time as everyone else give them an unfair advantage?
At the end of the day, I have to agree with questioning the fairness of the event. For hardcore long-termDiabloveterans that is two weeks to iron out the best leveling route. Two weeks to theory-craft the best leveling builds. Some prominentDiablocreators have alreadyannounced they will not claim victoryin the race due to fairness. It’s great to see Blizzard creating a fun event for fans to get excited about. But hopefully future events are more well thought out to be as fair as possible.
[Update:It has been confirmedvia the officialDiabloTwitteraccount that those who had access to the review build will not be eligible to claim victory in the Race to 100. While a bummer for those who opted to play the early build without knowing it would disqualify them from the contest, this is overall the right move in terms of fairness.]
