Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls' Adventure Mode is the 'smartest way to play'

The upcoming expansion to Diablo 3, Reaper of Souls, will offer players "the most varied and smartest way to play" if their aim is to level-up and find gear, according to lead designer Kevin Martens.

Speaking to Polygon, Martens described Adventure Mode as a sandbox for Diablo 3, allowing players to play the way they want to. He said finding new gear and levelling up is the main draw of the game for a lot of people, and the development team noticed a significant number of players going into areas with the highest density of monsters with good loot drops and chests, killing those monsters, jumping out of the game, restarting it, and doing that over and over again.

"We took the 'If you can't beat them, join them' approach, and now you can do that across a wider variety of content, so you're not stuck in the one run of the game," Martens said. "If you want to get the best gear and you want to get it as fast as possible, mathematically, this is the best way to do that. You're getting a big tour of the hundreds of hours of content we've added, and this is now both the most varied and smartest way to play."

Adventure mode can be accessed once players defeat the final boss in Act 5 of the expansion. The mode has all the cutscenes and conversations disabled, and players will be able to bring their existing character or a new character into the game. The main focus is to kill enemies, pick up loot and level up, and the player's gains carry over to the main game. Players can freely move between Adventure Mode and the story mode and, according to senior level designer Larra Paolilli, Adventure mode offers the freedom to jump in and play shorter sessions.

"People can come in and play for 15 minutes or a longer session because of how we've structured it," she said. "Adventure Mode strips away everything and just exposes the randomness of the game. it lets you play the game the way you want to — it's like a buffet for Diablo 3."