45 hours of Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred wasn't enough to find its new ultra rare mode where you fight to the death against waves of demons, so I cheated to try it

Out of all the new things added to Diablo 4 with its new Lord of Hatred expansion, Echoing Hatred might be the most mysterious. It's not a dungeon, nor is it a boss fight: It's a fight to the death against relentless waves of monsters. But the only way to play it is by finding a rare item drop.

While I was reviewing the game on an early access server provided by Blizzard a few weeks ago, I never found a key to Echoing Hatred. I played the expansion for a little over 45 hours and in that time I completed the new campaign, fully geared up a warlock, climbed through most of the new Torment difficulty tiers, and did a little bit of fishing. It wasn't until the very last day the servers were up that I finally decided if I was ever going to see Echoing Hatred, I'd need to cheat.

Blizzard set up the friendly little demon who gives you free level boosts and gear in the review server just like it does in PTRs. In his list of freebies was an option for Echoing Hatred. I clicked it and out popped a "Trace of Echoes" on the floor. This item doesn't appear in your inventory or your list of materials; it simply activates a pedestal in the new region's city, Temis, and allows entrance to the mode.

After touching it, my character woke up in an empty arena with another pedestal sitting in the middle. Once you activate that, the mode begins and a bar starts to fill up as monsters come crawling in. The goal of Echoing Hatred is to keep that bar as low as possible as you clear monsters out of the room, but the catch is that each wave increases in difficulty and death is game over.

My warlock made quick work of the first several waves. Every monster would get smashed into pieces by my big demon buddy before they could even move. Treasure goblins would drop out of portals occasionally and killing them added bonus loot to the final rewards. It was going so smoothly that I didn't bother picking up the shrine buffs along the edge of the arena, but those could be helpful if you're struggling.

This is where I should mention the fact that I never died a single time during the Lord of Hatred campaign. I also never died running dungeons and killing bosses afterwards. Warlocks have a powerful ultimate that gets stronger the more life you have, so I was running around with near-immortality in torment 10 (out of 12). Nothing could get close to me with my demon crushing everything in his sight.

When the screen said that I was now on torment 12 difficulty in the Echoing Hatred, I immediately noticed that the monsters were starting to live through my demon's wallops. That also meant they lived long enough to realize there was a higher priority target than the unkillable demon. I tried to dodge and run out of their attacks, but a wave of fire incinerated my warlock on the spot, causing my first death and ending the run.

The monsters had all fled by the time I revived and a chest sat in the middle of the room. Items poured out of it like a hose while goblin portals opened up to drop even more loot. It was like playing Diablo 4 during its second season when I could barely see my character with all the glowing items on the floor. My inventory could not hold it all, forcing me to use the nearby NPCs and stash to help sort through it all.

For a 15-minute experience, Echoing Hatred drops more loot than anything else I've seen in the game. Most people who thoroughly gear their characters up in the endgame should be able to survive until at least torment 12, making the mode especially lucrative for legendary items you can upgrade using the new Horadric Cube crafting system. And based on early accounts of people trying the mode now that the expansion is live, it can drop items you can use to earn mythic uniques, some of the most powerful items in the game.

Echoing Hatred is pretty straightforward as far as modes go in Diablo 4. You don't have to do anything but slay monsters until you die. This is why, I assume, it's extremely rare to find. Nobody would want to play a mode like this over and over. It's supposed to be a treat for finding a key and having a character strong enough to survive several waves. If it were ever too easy to find, everyone would farm it dry, nullifying everything else in the game.

Needle in a haystack

It's been a few days since the launch of Lord of Hatred and it doesn't look like Blizzard has changed the frequency of Echoing Hatred key drops. Several players are talking about it on the Diablo 4 Discord, but nobody is quite sure what the best way to get a key is yet.

I do have some possible insights, though, because one of the developers was generous enough to give reviewers some clues on where to find Trace of Echoes in a private Discord. I would stop reading if you want it to remain a surprise, but this is what they said:

• Endgame lair bosses have a small chance to drop them in torment 10 or higher
• Any "activity keys" upgrade nodes in the new activity skill trees have a chance to drop them in torment 10 or higher
• There's also a small chance for them to drop off of anything in the game (presumably with a higher chance in torment 10 or higher)

Diablo 4 has needed more surprises that aren't just loot drops, and Echoing Hatred is a good example of that. Piles of loot are great and all, but if I've learned anything from Path of Exile, it's that it can be even more exciting to stumble onto things that unlock rare and special events. In a game and a genre where knowledge is so important, they make the world feel a little bit bigger and a little more mysterious. Diablo 4 tries its best to get you to settle into a loop of your favorite endgame activities, and that can be satisfying, especially as you chase after specific upgrades. But having your routine derailed because of some unexpected drop or event will drive you to keep playing if only to see what else can happen.

People will surely have Echoing Hatred all figured out soon, but most players won't know about it until the key drops. And even when that happens, they won't know what they're in for until they try it. I didn't even find one naturally and all I want to do is give it another go. I'm killing monsters left and right hoping to see that little key drop so I can go for a second round, and I'm sure many people will feel the same after they see just how much loot drops at the end.

According to Blizzard, there are a few more secrets hidden in the expansion that might take a while for people to find. One of them might finally be the cow level it's been teasing since Diablo 4 came out. A cow bell is one of the many pieces of "junk" you can fish up, which feels like a deliberate tease for something more. Hell, maybe the Echoing Hatred will start spawning cows if you make it past torment 12. Anything is possible in this rare time where Lord of Hatred hasn't been fully figured out, and I'm excited to see what people find in the coming weeks.