Diablo Anniversary Event Complete Guide (2024)

Last updated on Jan 02, 2020 at 20:27by Deadset

The Anniversary Event is found in Act I, The Old Ruins waypoint. While the event is active,it will be marked with a demonic pentagram on the map, labeled 'The Darkening of Tristram'. Takethe road south of the waypoint towards the center of Old Tristram, and you will come acrossa legacy-styled town portal labled 'Tristram'. Go through it and you will enter the AnniversaryEvent, immediately recognizable by the grainy filter effect on the screen.

It is highly recommended to start the Anniversary Event solo with a fresh level 1 character, asa pet cosmetic reward depends on that (the selected difficulty does not matter). For maximumefficiency, do subsequent completionist clears in a group, with geared farming characters thatdo not depend on In-geom procs for speed, such as Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunters.

Note that there is a 'precusor event' found in regular game locations, whose completion isnecessary for a portrait reward (discussed below). Almost all of the Anniversary Event awards aretied to achievements, found under the 'General — Special Events' tab, making it easy to trackyour progress.

Ogden's Sign and Ogden's Brew: These sigil and accent are awarded upon killing all four mainbosses of the event — The Butcher, Skeleton King, Arch-Bishop Lazarus and The Dark Lord. Note thatwhile it is impossible to miss Lazarus and The Dark Lord, The Butcher and the Skeleton King are in sideareas on Levels 2 and 3, respectively. Butcher's room on Level 2 is on the main path and clearly markedwith blood on both entrances, making it harder to pass by. Skeleton King is in a side area called 'KingLeoric's Tomb' off the main path to Level 4, and can be missed if you rush the dungeon.

Red Soul Shard legendary gem and head transmog: The Red Soul Shard legendary gem is aguaranteed drop off The Dark Lord. To obtain the Red Soul Shard head transmog, simply slot the gemin your helm. You do not need to use the gem to wear this transmog from then on, as it follows therules of regular transmogrification in the game.

The Butcher's Cleaver transmog: The Butcher's Cleaver is a guaranteed drop from The Butcherin the Anniversary event. Notice that it is a blue item (making it rather easy to pass by), but willgrant you the transmog on pickup, similarly to a legendary item. It can be applied to other 1 handedaxes, swords and maces.

Wirt's Leg transmog: Wirt's Leg is a craftable new weapon, added for transmog purposes. Itcan be applied to other 1 handed axes, swords and maces. To obtain the plan for its creation, you needto follow the steps outlined below. Note that all of them are happening inside the pixelated AnniversaryEvent area, which — as noted above — is reached by going south of the The Old Ruins waypointand walking through the pixelated portal.

• Reach Level 9 in the Labyrinth, and look for The Black Mushroom object (guaranteed spawn). Clickingit will yield a Rotten Mushroom.
• Go back to the Old Tristram starting area of the event, and go to Adria's Hut that's inside the event(down the road towards the Cathedral, then to the right). Inside, click on the Cauldron object to obtainWitch's Brew.
• Take Witch's Brew to Farnham's Corpse, down from the entrance portal.
• Take Drunkard's Debt to Ogden's Corpse, upwards from the entrance portal.
• Take Garda's Letter to Pepin's Corpse, left of the entrance portal.
• Take Healer's Prescription to Griswold's Corpse, right of the entrance portal, and he will drop you theplan for Wirt's Leg.
• Teleport back to town, teach it and craft one at the Blacksmith; you will find it under the Maces tab.

Butcher pet: As previously mentioned, it is recommended to do your first clear of theAnniversary Event solo and with a level 1 character, as this yields the 'An Eerie Red Glow BlursYour Vision' achievement and the Butcher pet at the end.

The Royal Calf pet: Obtaining this pet naturally follows crafting a Wirt's Leg. Instead of theusual Forgotten Soul, salvaging a Wirt's Leg yields a Map of the Stars reading the sequence '2-1-3'. Headback to Adria's Hut in the event area, and note the cow corpses outside. Click them in the describedsequence, or more specifically: middle, left, right. This triggers the Abandoned Farmstead entrance to theright; a small area whose only notable feature is the 'Wirt's Stash' chest in the middle. It contains theRoyal Calf pet.

Classic Demon portrait: The classic D1 health bar frame is awarded from the Protector of Tristramachievement, unlocked upon killing all 40 unique monsters in the Anniversary Event. These unique monstersmirror their Diablo 1 counterparts as close as possible in appearance and location; the bolded ones are fixed(i.e. Blackjade and Red Vex), while others will require multiple runs to find. Judging by PTR testing, theachievement could be done in about 6-7 runs. Broken down by levels, the unique monster list is:

• Level 2 — Shadowbite, Rotfeast the Hungry;
• Level 3 — Madeye the Dead, Brokenhead Bangshield;
• Level 4 — Gharbad the Weak, Snotspill, Blacklash the Burning;
• Level 5 — Bloodskin Darkbow, Foulwing, Shadowcrow;
• Level 6 — Deathshade Fleshmaul, Bilefroth the Pit Master, Bloodgutter;
• Level 7 — Blighthorn Steelmace, Gorestone, Nightwing the Cold;
• Level 8 — Firewound the Grim, Zhar the Mad, Baron Sludge;
• Level 9 — Breakspine, Brokenstorm, Oozedrool;
• Level 10 — The Flayer, Goldblight of the Flame, Blackstorm;
• Level 11 — Bluehorn, Fangspeir;
• Level 12 — Viperflame, Viletouch, Lionskull the Bent;
• Level 13 — Warlord of Blood, Rustweaver, Witchmoon;
• Level 14 — Steelskull the Hunter, Graywar the Slayer, Stareye the Witch;
• Level 15 — The Vizier;
• Unholy Altar — Red Vex, Blackjade;
• Level 16 — Sir Gorash

Classic Angel portrait: The classic D1 resource bar frame is awarded from the 'I Sense a Soul inSearch of Answers' achievement, unlocked upon collecting all 7 Cultist's Page items. This achievement ispart of a "precursor event" that starts a few hours prior to the unlocking of the Diablo 1 dungeon (butis available for the duration of the whole event). It involves hunting down Temporal Priests, who look alike a gray version of the yellow Cultist-type enemies. They can be found in the following locations:

• Act I: The Weeping Hollow, Festering Woods, Cathedral levels 1, 2 and 4, Halls of Agony levels 1, 2 and 3;
• Act II: Dahlgur Oasis, Desolate Sands;
• Act III: Keep Depths 1, 2 and 3, Stonefort, Rakkis Crossing, Arreat Crater 1, Tower of the Damned 1, TheCore of Arreat;
• Act IV: Gardens of Hope 1, 2 and 3, Silver Spire 1 and 2, Hell Rift 1
• Act V: Westmarch Commons, Westmarch Heights, Paths of the Drowned, Battlefields of Eternity, Greyhollow Island;

There can only be one Temporal Priest spawn per location, and he can drop duplicate pages; but on the upside,they are a guaranteed drop and can be traded.

Note: On the live 2.4.3 patch the pages could be traded between non-seasonal characters, but not betweenseasonal characters. This is likely a bug. Last test: January 9th 2017.

For achievement completionists, The Dark Passage has a chance to spawn on level 2, The Chammber of Boneis a guaranteed spawn side area on level 6, and The Halls of the Blind are a guaranteed section of level 7.