Diablo IV has seen a constant stream of additions and refinements since launch, and Vessel of Hatred continues that trend, albeit by looking to the past for inspiration. This is all well and good, however, as Diablo has a rich history of engaging game modes to make the task of slaughter demons and grinding for loot less tedious. In the case of a new activity in Diablo IV, the Kurast Undercity references a location from Diablo 2 and the Nephalem Rifts in Diablo 3, allowing you to clear timed dungeons for various treasures… and fortunately in this game there are no Undead Stygian Dolls haunting the ruins under Kurast! This page will cover the Kurast Undercity in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, including how to complete the accompanying questline, and how to use Tributes and Bargains to modify your runs.

Page Breakdown¶

Unlocking Kurast Undercity¶

To unlock Kurast Undercity events, you must progress through the campaign until you reach Kurast Bazaar. After some more main quests you’ll eventually start Reunion, after which comes the quest Living Memory. Once Living Memory begins, the quest The Kurast Undercity will become available, and this is a multi phase questline with an NPC named Councilor Sihek at its heart. During the course of this questline you’ll make three trips into the Undercity - more than enough time to grasp the event’s mechanics - and only once the third run is completed will you be given full reign of the game mode.

Kurast Undercity Gameplay¶

Another timed dungeon run, the Kurast Undercity event shares a lot in common with The Pit of the Artificer, and hence, Diablo III’s Nephalem Rifts. The Pit of the Artificer not only gates the game’s various Torment difficulty levels and rewards you with loot at the end, but it allows you to upgrade Paragon Glyphs, making it an indispensable activity for character advancement. The Kurast Undercity, on the other hand, is bound to be disappointing on its first few quest-based runs, as the rewards are awfully underwhelming and unlike The Pit of the Artificer, there are no difficulty levels or other progression elements locked away by Kurast Undercity. That said, there are some key differences that can, under the right circumstances, make Kurast Undercity an appealing place to grind.

Time Limits and Afflicted Monsters¶

First, the basics. As mentioned earlier, Kurast Undercity is timed, but unlike The Pit of the Artificer, the timer is dynamic. You’ll have around 100 seconds on the counter when you start a run, and the clock doesn’t start counting down until you step out of the starting area (marked by a ring of light at the start of each stage). You can get more time added to the counter by either clearing a floor (there are three floors in total) and by killing afflicted enemies. These enemies come in various forms, from trash mobs you likely won’t even notice as you indiscriminately slaughter your way through the level, to minibosses. However big or small they may be, killing them will put seconds back on the counter, and these afflicted enemies are marked by orange clock icons on the minimap so you can scout them out ahead of time and plot your route accordingly.

You’ll also get more time added to the clock at the beginning of each level, so if you’re running low on time, make a dash for the exit portal! When you clear the third stage you’ll reach the boss level, but at this point the timer stops being a factor, so don’t worry about saving yourself any time past the third level.

Attunement¶

Managing your timer isn’t the only gameplay aspect you need to pay attention to in Kurast Undercity runs, however, as there’s also the matter of loot to consider. On the right hand side of the screen is an Attunement bar that fills blue as you kill enemies, and it is segmented into four tiers. You only need to make it to the first tier to “succeed” at a Kurast Undercity run, but the fuller the Attunement bar, the better your rewards at the end will be.

Not only do you want to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible, but you’ll need to be on the lookout for Beacons, both small and grand. Light these and a mob of enemies will be summoned (almost certainly containing some elites) that will give you a significant amount of Attunement if defeated.

Lighting Beacons and defeating their guardians is a time-negative task, as it is fighting your way through each stage itself, but the point of most things in Diablo is scoring loot, and you’re wasting time on a deeper level if you don’t maximize your Attunement as much as possible during a Kurast Undercity run. Ideally you’ll want to target Beacons and hope nearby Afflicted will follow you to them so you can kill both the Afflicted and Beacon guardians at the same time. Both are marked on your map, and while you have to get somewhat close for them to appear at times, it’s very possible to plan your route through levels to maximize your speed. Generally, however, Kurast Undercity runs are just kill speed tests, and no amount of routing will make up for poor DPS. Still, try not to dawdle and if you don’t see anything important on your minimap at the end of a nearby corridor or chamber, don’t bother with it. Also, loot isn’t a concern during these runs until you finish them, so focus on killing.

Portal Pranksters¶

While the focus on Kurast Undercity runs tends to revolve around Attunement and the clock, there is at least one other distraction that can pop up from time to time: The Portal Prankster. This odd breed of Treasure Goblin has a chance to spawn on Kurast Undercity runs, and when approached it’ll seek to escape by opening a series of portals and running between them to throw off pursuit. If you manage to bring these elusive foes down you’ll get a special chest at the end of the run (so you don’t have to fuss over drops during the timed section, most likely) and some Attunement.

Unlocking Tribute and Bargains¶

Exit the third level of a Kurast Undercity run and you’ll face a boss. The boss fight isn’t timed, making it awfully conventional, and once you win you’ll get a chest (or chests) containing your reward for the Kurast Undercity run. The drops you’ll get are pretty standard fare, several gear drops of random quality and various resources. All in all, fairly underwhelming for the work involved.

This is where Tributes and Bargains come into play, which enhance both the rewards you get at the end of each run while also increasing the difficulty of said run. You can’t use these until you complete the questline with Sihek, but once that questline is complete you’ll be given some starter Tributes to play around with (these can be found in the “Dungeon Keys” tab of your inventory). Once this happens you can find further Tributes from standard sources of loot, including World Bosses, Tree of Whisper caches, Helltide chests, and from the rewards chests at the end of Kurast Undercity runs.

Tributes¶

Tributes are what make Kurast Undercity runs compelling. Interact with the Spirit Brazier in Kurast Bazaar and you’ll find two slots at the top of the Kurast Undercity menu, one for Tributes and one for Bargains. Bargains can only be used alongside Tributes, making them decidedly secondary components.

Like many things in Diablo IV, Tributes come in varying rarities with differing effects. Some guarantee drops from the rewards chest at the end of the run, yielding either runes, crafting materials, uber boss summoning items or ancestral legendaries. Legendary rarity Tributes are often restricted to Torment difficulty, and all Tributes make the Kurast Undercity run more difficult by reducing the time on the clock at the start of the run, further reducing the amount of time you recover every time you reach a new level, and by reducing the frequency of potion drops. You must attain Attunement Rank 1 by the time you exit the third level.

The quality of drops you get are, of course, not guaranteed - don’t expect rare or legendary runes every run, nor should you expect any legendary gear if you use a Tribute that grants you something else (this makes Bargains during such runs somewhat useless). Still, the ability to target specific drops can speed up farming, provided your kill rate is sufficient. Tributes that grant masterworking materials are especially useful, as you can obtain hundreds of Obducite from a single Kurast Undercity run this way - quite possibly the fastest way to accumulate the mounds of Obducite you’ll need for those higher masterwork upgrades.

Bargains¶

Once you use a Tribute, you can further refine your drops with Bargains. Bargains are not dropped by any enemy specifically, as they are just resources used for other things being expended to influence your drops: Iron can be sacrificed to ensure more weapons drop, Murmuring Obols will cause items for other classes to appear, Baleful Fragments will yield weapons with Offensive Aspects on them, and a few million gold can ensure a dropped armor or amulet will have skill or passive ranks, respectively.

If you need to headhunt a very specific type of item, Bargains can really help speed things up, especially if there’s one annoying aspect you can’t get to drop randomly, or the last gear slot in a build that doesn’t have a passable Ancestral in it. This is all late-game stuff, to be sure, but tilting the odds in your favor, however slightly, might be more bearable than doing another dozen Helltide runs and hoping for the best.

Bargains are best used in conjunction with legendary Tributes that ensure Ancestral Legendary gear drops. If you’re using a Tribute that guarantees materials or runes, you’re better off not wasting the resources on Bargains at all. Rarer Tributes can allow for different Bargains to be applied - rare Tributes can apply magic and rare Bargains, legendary Tributes can apply magic, rare and legendary Bargains, and so on. Use Tributes and Bargains to focus your search on specific items and make Kurast Undercity runs more lucrative and, ideally, a time-saver.