A hardcore journey [win SC NL prizes] [***DONE***]

The journey is over, the Ancients bested me on Hell.

Sadly, noone had the correct Death guess, and since I didn't make it 'til the end, there won't be a grand prize. Instead, I think the plan is to draw a single winner among the participants, for the value of a correct Death guess prize which noone won (8

Ist or equivalent as I died in Act 5 Hell). I'll get around to that as soon as I can.

---

Original post follows.

---

Greetings, fellow diablo2.io members!

So, I have never actually played hardcore in D2, LoD, or D2R, and I never really seriously considered it before either. Well, until now, that is. I have just created a fresh new hardcore character, a Sorceress, and I'm going to try to complete a SSF (solo self-found) playthrough, with the ultimate goal of defeating Hell

Baal. I don't intend to try to do Dclone or

Uber Tristram with her, just complete the game. I have no idea how long this is going to take, or rather... how far I'll get before I die. Because I'm pretty sure I'll die before I reach my goal.

Also, inspired by @Nate2.0 (see post3702339.html#p3702339), I'm going to play with the game's brightness set to the lowest setting. Dark mode it is.

To make this a bit more fun, I encourage you all to guess how I will die. Anyone who correctly guesses the circumstances of my ultimate Death will win a prize. You need to at least mention a type of monster, a specific boss or a specific super unique, but you can be as specific as you want - a more specific guess will win a better prize, if correct. You can also guess that I complete the whole thing without dying, but if I do, I'll only hand out a single GRAND PRIZE (secret) to one winner (randomly selected among those who guessed that I complete it without dying).

So...
Game mode: Hardcore
Restriction: Solo Self-Found (no trading, no outside help, no twinking)
Online/Offline: Online

The prizes? Well, the prizes will get higher the further I get into the game before I die.
The prizes will be on SC NL (softcore non-ladder). I don't have anything on HC to hand out lol.
It will start at 1

Ist (or equivalent) on Act 1 Normal, and increase by ½

Ist for each act.

Act 1 Normal = 1

Ist
Act 2 Normal = 1½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 3 Normal = 2

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 4 Normal = 2½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 5 Normal = 3

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 1 Nightmare = 4½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 2 Nightmare = 4

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 3 Nightmare = 4½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 4 Nightmare = 5

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 5 Nightmare = 5½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 1 Hell = 6

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 2 Hell = 6½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 3 Hell = 7

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 4 Hell = 7½

Ist (or equivalent)
Act 5 Hell = 8

Ist (or equivalent)

That's the base prize for a correct Death guess.
A more specific guess will yield a better prize, if correct.

For those who guess that I complete the whole thing without dying -
Well, if I somehow do complete the whole thing without dying, I'll pick one of you randomly to win a GRAND PRIZE (secret).

You can
-either-
(1) guess how I die
-or-
(2) guess that I complete it
not both

You can change your guess at any time (your last guess counts).
Last time to guess was 2024-04-06T18:00:00   This timestamp has been automatically converted to your local date/time for convenience. The format is DD/MMM/YYYY, HH:MM am/pm. This is based off your browser time. .


NOTE: Prizes will be handed out on SOFTCORE NON-LADDER.

This could take a couple of weeks, depending on my play time, and how long it takes for me to die.
Or... it could end tomorrow. Who knows. I really don't know how this will go

Have fun! xD

Den of Evil done After

Den of Evil:

Blood Raven down: It is oh so very very dark in here (

Crypt):

I believe in you - you'll go all the way and defeat Hell

Baal!

Great idea! I might give it a try.
Cause of Death: Gloam / Swamp Ghost / Burning Soul / Black Soul. I'm almost certain it will be a Burning Soul.

Lanceor wrote: 8 months ago

I believe in you - you'll go all the way and defeat Hell

Baal!

Haha, thanks for the vote of confidence

SnowSnow wrote: 8 months ago

Great idea! I might give it a try.
Cause of Death: Gloam / Swamp Ghost / Burning Soul / Black Soul. I'm almost certain it will be a Burning Soul.

Yeah, not unlikely to end up being true

Also, I already had my first near-Death experience. In

Cave Level 1 (in

Cold Plains), shortly after entering, I encountered two elite packs of archers at the same time. They were standing at the exact same location! I started running away from them to try to take them on a few at a time.... and then there was lag. After a couple of seconds I rubberbanded back to the archer elite packs and had almost no life left. Almost dead. I managed to escape somehow and heal up. That was close xD

I predict a bad

Lord De Seis spawn. Either bad spawn location or fanatacism, extra strong, extra fast etc. Do we have to say which difficulty? If so I guess nightmare. However I'm rooting for you! Channel our deceased Nate 2.0

Guessing you die on Act 3 Nightmare to a

Bone Fetish variant in either Flayer Dungeon or Durance of Hate

Oh, forgot about those pesky archers!!! Fair chance of going out to those too.

Knappogue wrote: 8 months ago

Do we have to say which difficulty?

I thought about that initially, but no - you can if you want, you don't need to. More specific guesses will yield a better prize when correct (but it's harder to get it right too).

Ha, nice one ! I believe you're strong enough not to die easily (though playing sorc is risky, summon necro would have been safe).

My cause of Death bet would be Dolls, such a classic for sorcs... So act 3, either in the swamps zone or in Durance of Hatred.

But act 3 normal, or hell (I find Nightmare being easier as you start being more stuffed...) ?...

> My vote in on hell, act 3, durance of hatred, to dolls.

Also take care of Old Kaa in the tombs in normal, he is not kidding.

Edit : ah damned, Necro Sandro said the same as me two minutes before ! I guess we'll share prize if this happens.

Necrarch wrote: 8 months ago

... (though playing sorc is risky, summon necro would have been safe).

That was kind of on purpose, I could have picked a much safer choice for sure

Trying to produce some light in the

Dark Wood. It's so very very dark here. I'm scared.

Made it to

Outer Cloister for now

my guess is blizzard server lag ...

"What a mis-guided monster !"

Hell countess tower - you will enter a room and get killed by a light enchanted dude while being swarmed by its minions.

Ooo fun.. I’m tempted to try to get all the deets of your build plans and how quickly you plan to progress but I’m gonna wing it and go big money. I do see at this point you’re making good time.

Predictions:

2 close calls in normal.

You’re gonna drop vipermagi. Probably night andy.

I sense Death by

Charge or lightning

Enchant.. can’t tell if it’s nightmare or hell… I’ll say hell, act 2,

Claw Viper Temple Level 1,

Stun lock

Charge Death from a viper minion. And 1 f bomb haha

Good luck!

Great idea! I figure if you get past bumper cars with

Duriel you should do well all the way to the Ancients.

Welcome to the Darkside May the force be with you sir!

Good luck to you. I'll consider going hardcore too once I get a hang around the game

Well, my friend Atari and I just finished HC D2R Classic mode, lol. Now that was kinda masohistic, but nevertheless, we enjoyed a lot!
His Barb smashed Lightning immunes and bosses, my Java the rest. I know, Java in Classic is the worst option, but with phys/lightn/psn combo (on much less values than in LoD), it is doable even alone (although very slow in Hell when map is full of Lghtn immunes). And no, we didn't skip any mob, all must die:-)
So, welcome to the HC, but now you can try Classic HC for a challenge.