Players of the popular action role-playing game Diablo 4 have expressed frustration over the lack of experience points (XP) and loot rewards for completing the final room of Vault dungeons.
Vaults were introduced in the Season of the Construct update as randomized dungeons offering valuable rewards. They contain elite monsters and plenty of loot, making them an ideal place to farm XP. However, players have discovered that the final room of Vaults provides no XP or loot drops at all, despite containing numerous enemies.
“It should never be the case that avoiding monsters is the smarter play than killing them,” said Reddit user NewPhoneNewSubs. Other players agreed, saying they initially fought every monster they encountered in Vaults before realizing it was a waste of time in the last room.
Redditor yelsuo called the missing rewards “criminal,” noting this issue exists not just in final Vault rooms but also halfway rooms in dungeons. “Often no XP and no loot,” they wrote. Another player responded that even rooms providing XP give much less than the open world.
Some theorized this was an exploit Blizzard purposefully removed rewards to address. “Instead of completely scrapping it they decided to just remove all XP and drops,” wrote user PaleFollowing8572.
The lack of rewards undermines the enjoyable enemy-dense experience of Vaults for farming. Players feel their time is wasted clearing the final room when it provides zero character progression. Though the reason is unclear, removing incentives to battle goes against the core Diablo gameplay loop centered around defeating hordes of monsters.
It remains to be seen if Blizzard will tweak Vault rewards to align the last room with the generous loot content that makes the dungeons worth running in the first place. For now, fans are upset their effort receives no payoff. The controversy highlights issues with rewarding player actions and respecting players’ time investment even in side content.
