Because of the way PS3 and PS4 make savegames, the Diablo 3 console version can easily be exploited.
To some degree, all the stuff described here can be considered cheating.
Personally I consider true cheating when you employ external programs (like "
trainers") to easy your game (invincibility mode, infinite gold, one-shot-kill mode etc. etc), or when you (or someone other) modify game data to gain advantage (like changing a savegame by altering it's code).
Exploiting is more about abusing a game's programming and architectural "faults": you don't touch the code in any way; you don't modify anything, you don't use external aid to change the original purpose of the programmation. You just slip through the "holes" left in the system in order to obtain a little or strong advantage.
That said, I'm totally ok with exploitation ("
Hey, developers, you left that available, so I'll use it until you'll fix it!"), even if I'm against cheating ("
Using that SuperUltraUberUniversalModdedInvincibility Sword is just plain sh*t!").
So, it's just up to you to decide what to do with the following informations: use them, ignore them, deprecate them, I just don't bother. ;)
Anyway, what's all of this about? All the stuff relates to the fact that PS3 and PS4 don't save every thing you do inside Diablo (where PC does): the savegame is written once you create a new game, when you exit that game through the appropriate menù option, and again every few minutes or when some special events occurs (mainly checkpoints). If you close Diablo by selecting the "Close game/Close application" option available when pressing the "PS" button on the joypad, you'll exit the game without giving it the time to save (this way to exit Diablo will be grom now addressetd to as "
kill/killing diablo 3"). Such a thing can be abused at our advantage in a number of different ways.
So, what can you actually do?
- Duplicate item/gold
This is also called dupe/duping and is about creating a copy of gold or any item in the game.
There are mainly two ways to do this.
The simpler is to send items or gold to a friend through the mailbox, closing Diablo 3 before it saves as explained above. This is very viable, but you must be warned that you should send only few items at once, or you'll risk that Diablo will naturally save the game when your items are sent, making the modifications permanent. You can even use this method alone, on the same console, using two different accounts and sending stuff between them, logging through them. This can be a bit slow if you don't have 2 joypads, but is still quite useful to duplicate craft materials, gems, gold, and
Horadric Caches. Here are the detailed steps:
1. Go to the mailbox and click on it.
2. Select the person you're sending the duplicate stuff (items or gold).
3. Select the items and/or the gold you want to send.
4. Send it and a message will ask you if you want to do that. Click ok.
5. A message saying the item has been sent will appear.
6. Kill Diablo 3.
If you have two joypads available, you can duplicate stuff much more quickly, by following these steps:
1. Log in Account A with Joypad A and start a game.
2. Log in Account B with Joypad B, choose any character and join the game.
3. Account A drops the item you want to duplicate.
4. Account B picks it up and exit the game with the appropriate menù option, saving the game.
5. Account B enter the game again with the previously used character, which should be in possession of the item Account A dropped. Account B now drop that item, then leave the game by long-pressing the PS button and logging out from PS4. This way the original item will be on the ground and Account A can gather it. Rinse and repeat for fast dupe.
- Blood Shards abuse
This is very simple: Just spend your
Blood Shards at
Kadala's "shop", but leave the game with the PS-button method if you don't get the item you're searching for. This way you'll restart with all your
Blood Shards intact. You can even mix this with the dupe method, by sending to another account the interesting items you get from
Kadala before killing Diablo 3 to reset everything.
- Horadric Casches abuse
In the PS3/PS4 version of the game, an
Horadric Cash content is rolled upon opening it, not when it's received. The level is set when you get it from
Tyrael, but the class isn't. Beacuse of this you can even farm them with, for example, a
Crusader and obtain Intellicenge-based items if you open them with a
Witch Doctor. Pairing this with the dupe method can allow you to easily find all the special
Horadric Cashes rewards (starting with the pretty useful
Ring of Royal Grandeur).
- Crafting/Enchanting abuse
In a way much similar to the
Blood Shards abuse, you simply try some
crafting/
enchanting and, if you're not satisfied with the results, you can just kill Diablo 3 to retain all the material used in the procedure. All the enchanting modifications will be lost, as will be any item you crafted, but you can easily try again without wasting tons of money and materials.
-
Experience trick
An additional trick you can use is what I call the
Difficulty Change Trick (what a mystical and evocative name eh? I know, I know, got a great inspiration here, for it!). While adventuring in
Sanctuary, you can always change the game difficulty by 1 step harder or easier (even more, under some circumstances), switching, for example, from T5 to T6 in a couple of seconds. To do this, just bring up the in-game menù, select Change Difficulty and adjust it. Do this just before completing a "quest" (finishing a
bounty, talking to
Orek after a
rift, talking to
Tyrael after completing the 5
bounties of an act etc. etc.), increasing the difficulty to the higher step you can reach, to gain some additional experience. Return to previous difficulty once done, or just leave game and restart it at a different difficulty level. Simple, clean and helpful.
As you can see, some abuses are less game breaking than others. Duping stuff can easily be seen as heavy cheating, while
blood shards and
crafting/enchanting exploits are just ways to easy your life a bit. Still, you should use them based on your judgment and at your own risk. I just provide informations and I'm not in any way responsable on how you use them ;).
As always, have fun in
Sanctuary!
- Quick Items Slots: Dunnow if later in the game you gain more, but the two item slot I can use so far is a bit limited. 2 potions or 2 kind of food (or a mix of the two) is not very much. Something like four slot would be probably more enjoyable.
