What are the Shadows in Diablo Immortal?

January 2022 · 6 minute read

Like many MMOs, Diablo Immortal heavily cultivates a social space where players can interact and play with one another. Some of the best content available to players can be enjoyed the most when tackling it with friends and clanmates. In Diablo Immortal, players have the opportunity to group up in large and small groups to enter specific Raids, dungeons, and Rifts.

One of the major conflicts the entire realm can participate in is the Cycle of Strife. This unique struggle is between the defenders of Sanctuary, the Immortals, and those who wish to become them, the Shadows. The Shadows form Dark Clans, and the best of the best challenge the Immortals in the Rite of Exile to make them prove they’re still worthy of being the Immortals. Here, we’ll go over how to become a Shadow and some of the activities involved in climbing the ranks within them.

What are the Shadows?

In Diablo Immortal, there are three different factions players can be a part of. One of these is the Shadows. Compared to the Adventurers, the Shadows are a step above and are those who take their role in the mortal realm, Sanctuary, more seriously. Any Adventurer can become a Shadow, and with access to better loot and a near-behind-the-scenes war or struggle, being a Shadow takes the game to the next level.

The Shadows are the faction constantly power-checking the Immortals to make sure they are still worthy of being the defenders of Sanctuary. There can be an infinite number of Shadows, unlike the set limit to the Immortals. But the battle between the two factions is very structured, so the infinite number is not an overwhelming force all at once.

The top Dark Clans—Clans of Shadow members—take on the Immortals. If they are successful in the Rite of Exile, any Shadows outside of these top Dark Clans will become adventurers again and have to start over from scratch.

How to become a Shadow

There are two ways players can make the jump from Adventurer to Shadow. Additionally, the bare-minimum requirements are reaching level 43 and completing the Bilefen questline.

Shadow Lottery

The first is the Shadow Lottery. Once a day, players can venture to the Mysterious Patron located in the Tavern in Westmarch. Here, they will enter a lottery to see if they are selected by the Patron. If the player receives an invite, they will be directed to the room right behind him where the player must prove their worth against three enemies. Defeating these enemies will allow the player to learn more about the unique Shadow activities and welcome them into the Court of Whispers.

Shadow Invitation

The second way is by receiving an invitation from a current Shadow, but that’s not as simple as it sounds. Players who wish to invite others into the Shadows must obtain an Akeba’s Signet. This trinket is a reward for the Shadows that re-enter the Shadow Lottery.

Players with Akeba’s Signet can recruit a new member who has reached level 43. This is valuable to the Shadow recruiting because they will be rewarded with 20 Hilts and some additional experience every time they do so. Hilts are used at Hilt Traders to purchase Crests, Reforge Stones, Gems, and more.

What can you do as a Shadow?

One of the main aspects of being a Shadow is participating in player-vs-player conflicts with the goal of entering the Rite of Exile and the Cycle of Strife. Additionally, there are many daily activities associated with being a Shadow that reward players with Marks unique to the Shadows. These Marks are used to improve your rank within the Shadows, which will be covered later.

The following activities can be completed to obtain Marks and are important to increase one’s rank within the Shadows:

This is not an exhaustive list but will give players a good idea of what to do with their time as a Shadow before participating in the Rite of Exile and the Cycle of Strife.

Path of Blood

In this activity, Shadows will be tested against strong enemies that get increasingly more powerful as they progress through the floors. Doing this rewards players with Marks used to increase their rank within the Shadows.

The Path of Blood can be found in the Court of Whispers on the west side and by speaking with Nuon to enter.

As a new Initiate, this is the only activity available, so it’s advised to start this right away to obtain some starter Marks and increase the Shadow Rank as quickly as possible. This will unlock more and more content.

Contracts

Once players have reached the rank of Initiate II, they will unlock Contracts. These Contracts are daily quests exclusively available to the Shadows. To start or receive a Contract, players must head to the Tavern in Westmarch and speak with Bartender Baily.

Each Contract has a chance to drop a legendary item as well as reward the player with gold and experience. While this is a daily activity, it can also be viewed as a weekly. Each week, there are three Shadow Chests available to those who complete three Contracts. These chests reward the player with 700 Marks.

The Vault

One of the coolest Shadow activities is raiding the Immortal’s Vault. The Immortal’s Vault contains the best legendary items in the game, so there’s a lot of incentive there. Loot is based on the amount of Essentia collected during the Vault Raid, and players with the best coordination will come out on top.

Each week, players can obtain 40 chests from the Vault as well as up to 350 Hilts. These hilts are used to buy Crests, reforge stones, gems, and more. The best reward comes from the final chest looted in the Vault.

Battlegrounds

Those looking for a purely player-vs-player-oriented event can look to the Battlegrounds. In this eight-vs-eight event, players can get a similar experience to what they would see in the Rite of Exile when challenging the Immortals.

These Battlegrounds can be found in the top right of Westmarch and entered by talking with the Battleground Captain. To participate, players must be at least level 55.

Players can participate in two Battlegrounds per day and receive 70 Hilts per match, 140 per day.

Shadow ranks

Similar to a structured army, clan, or force, the Shadows have specific ranks for players to reach. Players can obtain Marks to increase their ranks within the Shadows.

The primary benefit to doing this is a defense and damage increase for each rank. At the beginning as an Initiate I, players will receive a +1-percent damage and defense increase and get an additional +1-percent every rank up. This increase goes all the way to +32-percent at Whisper IV, which is the highest rank.

There are eight unique rankings in the Shadows players can reach: Initiate, Apprentice, Watcher, Hunter, Blade, Phantom, Unseen, and Whisper. Within these rankings are four tiers, or minor rankings.

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