A Diablo Immortal player spent more than $15,000 trying to obtain a rare 5-star gem item, then immediately destroyed it in protest.
New Zealand streamer Quin69 has been attempting to get a 5-star gem since the game was released on June 2, spending thousands of dollars in the process.
He finally received his first 5-star gem over the weekend, by which point he had spent $25,165.57 NZD ($15,997 USD) on the game.
After getting the gem, Quin said, “it’s over” and immediately uninstalled the game.
However, he then realised that he’d forgotten to take a screenshot of the gem, so he installed the game again, before deciding he was going to ‘destroy’ the gem in protest.
Quin then reloaded the game and used his 5-star gem to power up a relatively useless 1-star item, deliberately destroying the 5-star gem in the process.
He then left his clan, saying “it was an honour to whale with you”, before deleting his hero entirely to ensure he couldn’t resume the game again later.
“Fuck you, fucking Blizzard,” he stated, showing a middle finger to his camera, before uninstalling the game for a final time.
Quin finally uninstalled the game again, saying: “Get off my computer, you don’t even deserve to stay on it. Diablo II Resurrected, you can stay. Diablo III, you’re on thin ice, but okay, I’ll allow it. Diablo Immortal? Get the fuck out of here.”
The reason it cost Quin so much money to buy a single 5-star gem is because although the game has microtransactions, they can’t be used to directly buy rare items like legendary gems.
Instead, players have to buy ‘legendary crests’, which are then applied during Elder Rift dungeons. These crests let the player earn runes and gems during Elder Rifts, but their value differs each time.
As such, it took Quin more than $25,000 NZD of attempts before earning his first 5-star gem. Players can equip up to six gems on their character, so had Quin been aiming to equip six 5-star gems, his $25,000 NZD investment would have only taken him 1/6 of the way there.
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Diablo Immortal has faced criticism for its microtransactions since its release on June 2.
One analysis released shortly after launch suggested it could cost up to $110,000 to fully max out a post-game character with legendary gems.
As explained in a Reddit thread, there’s a whole level of upgrades that only unlocks once a player manages to get their 5-star gems to Rank 10. Doing this is estimated to cost up to $40,000 in loot boxes, according to the thread.
