Blizzard's community manager Bashiok confirmed on Tuesday that Canadian gamer Kripparrian (with help from wizard friend Krippi) was the first person to complete Diablo 3's Inferno difficulty using a high-level character in Hardcore mode.
While some us as are still working on Act I in the Normal "kiddie" difficulty setting (hey, I waited for the Blizzard Launch Blues to subside, thank you very much), he successfully completed the isometric dungeon crawler on its hardest difficulty level using a character that will bring the game to an end if it dies. That means all the loot, all the gear, all that progress... gone. Game over, man. Game over.
"My apologies Kripp and Krippi, looks like you were 1st HC Inferno clear. (my spreadsheet deciphering isn't what it used to be) Congrats!" Bashiok's tweet stated after there was some confusion about the "first ever" accomplishment.
In a video posted on YouTube, Kripp said the duo wanted to beat Diablo 3 in Inferno-Hardcore mode before Blizzard applied the recent 1.0.3. patch. The update makes the bosses and mobs in Inferno a little easier so that players can obtain better gear earlier on. Knowing this, the duo made plans to march right through the game before the patch rained on their parade.
"We wanted to beat the game when it was hard, at its hardest point possible," Kripp said. "So it was a race against time."
He said once they learned that the patch would actually hit the PC game the next day, they knew there was roughly 9 hours left to complete Act IV in Inferno-Hardcore mode. Time was ticking.
"We were able to move through the game and take time on-software to practice and make sure our strategy was not necessarily perfect, but good enough. That we would have a decent chance of beating the clock, to beating Inferno-Hardcore."
Well done in making all other Diablo 3 players look like noobs! Due to the possible spoilers, Kripp's video of Diablo's defeat can be seen here.
