Have you been searching for a Diablo 4 party finder? Struggling to coordinate big, four-player raids and game sessions without the help of third-party tools? Well, Vessel of Hatred is about to fix that particular, frustrating problem. As confirmed by Blizzard at Gamescom 2024, the new Diablo 4 expansion will include a seriously helpful party finder, designed to facilitate the tough PvE mode Dark Citadel. Combined with the new mercenaries companions, it’s another good reason to be excited for the next chapter of Diablo 4.
The Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred release date is on the way, and the Blizzard team has revealed more about the upcoming RPG expansion at this year’s Gamescom. Dark Citadel is a fresh, endgame PvE mode designed to be both seriously challenging and only surmountable if you’re playing cooperatively – two players is fine, but it’s recommended you attempt Dark Citadel in a party of four.
With that in mind, the team behind the Diablo 4 expansion has created an official, in-game party finder, something for which we’ve been clamoring since D4 first landed back in 2023. Available within the game map, it offers a multitude of search options and parameters so you can find the right players, of the right level, to help you complete the right tasks.
“You can play with two people [in Dark Citadel] but the ideal experience is for four,” Diablo 4 lead game designer Rex Dickson explains. “In order to facilitate that, we’ve built an all-new party-finder feature. The community has been pretty vocal about wanting this for a long time. It made a lot of sense to us to pair it with this new Citadel mode.”
The party finder is not exclusive to Dark Citadel, however – you can use it to find comrades across all of Diablo 4.
“Dark Citadel does require you to go into a party of two to four people in order to accomplish it, and this is something that the previous Diablo games haven’t really done,” senior producer Tiffany Watt tells PCGamesN exclusively. “The strategy needed to accomplish it, you need to work with others, and to pair with that we’re also adding the party finder feature. It doesn’t only work for Dark Citadel, it works for any kind of gameplay.”
“The group finder offers a lot of ways to find the people that you’re looking for,” Vessel of Hatred director Brent Gibson continues. “We’re looking to have this system work in a way that’s healthiest for our community as possible. We don’t want to set up a system where using it puts you in a group you don’t want to play with, so we’ve put all the attention and detail into getting that right. We didn’t just want it for Dark Citadel either, so we looked at all the activities available in the game.”
In terms of co-op play, Vessel of Hatred will also introduce the new mercenaries NPCs, who you can recruit and customize to best suit your own class and playstyle. There’s also the new Spiritborn class and a completely new region, offering plenty of reasons to return to the grim world of Sanctuary.
There are four mercenaries: Rahier the Shieldbearer, Aldkin the Cursed Child, Varyana the Berserker Crone, and Subo the Bounty Hunter. You can add them to a party or have them join you when you play solo.
In the meantime, you can get ready for Vessel of Hatred with best Diablo 4 builds, or maybe check through the current best Diablo 4 classes if you want to make a fresh character.
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Additional reporting from Gamescom 2024 by Ken Allsop.