First Diablo 4 hardcore player to reach level 100 permanently loses character after server disconnects

There’s always a ‘game of the moment’. In recent weeks, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom safely held on to that title yet now I can’t help but feel that the torch has been passed to Diablo IV. It’s all anyone is talking about.

It was a rocky start for Diablo IV. The game released to rave reviews, but PlayStation 5 players were unable to gain access to the title on launch day which is certainly less than ideal. Thankfully, that whole debacle has been sorted. Now, we’re hearing of the incredible (and not so incredible) feats players have been achieving. Earlier this week, one player lost 24-hours of hardcore mode progress after falling asleep mid-stream. Now, another player has permanently lost their level 100 hardcore mode character after the game’s server disconnected. That’s got to hurt.

Take a look at Diablo IV in action below.

As reported by PCGamesN, Twitch streamer Souaïb ‘cArn’ Hanaf suffered an unfortunate disconnection from Diablo IV’s severs shortly after his character reached level 100 on hardcore mode. If you don’t know, hardcore is Diablo IV’s answer to permadeath so you can understand just how gutting this must’ve been. Hanaf was also the first person recognised by Blizzard for reaching level 100.

Hanaf was playing with a Barbarian build and was in the midst of levelling up further. The streamer was just pulling out weapons to tackle nearby enemies when the screen froze then cut to black. “Hello? Are you kidding me?” he said, desperately trying to reconnect. The streamer was unable to log back in at first. When he succeeded, he had returned to the character creation screen. It had taken him 82 hours to reach level 100.

The fallen hero was officially “slain by [a] vampire bat”. It’s not actually Hanaf’s level that he’s most upset about. He’d almost maxed out his gear. Another one bites the dust.