While Diablo 4 Season 2 (Season of Blood) has been mostly fantastic, endgame players, even level 100’s, have had frustration with how long it takes to farm Living Steel, a summoning material for one of the endgame bosses of great importance.
In this guide, we explain the recent changes from the developers, how you can farm Living Steel quickly, and why everyone wants to get their hands on more, so let’s leap in.
Why Diablo 4 Players Want More Living Steel?
At World Tier 4 difficulty, you can use five (5) Living Steel to summon Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint endgame boss. Grigoire has its own loot table with some great Unique item drops, but that’s not REALLY the reason you see level 100 players still farming this boss.
Instead, players still slay Grigoire because it drops Shards of Agony, another summoning material used alongside Mucus-Slick Eggs (kill Echo of Varshan for those). You’ll want two of each to summon Echo of Duriel, which is the only boss in the game that has roughly a 2% chance to drop Uber Uniques such as The Grandfather or Shako. Players want to kill it hundreds of times unless they are as lucky as a Diablo 4 player who got two Shakos in the first two kills…
Diablo 4 Living Steel Drop Changes
Late on 14 November 2023, Blizzard put out a Diablo 4 hotfix, which greatly increases Living Steel drop rates in Helltides! This makes farming more Living Steel much, much easier!
- Living Steel Chest in World Tier 3: Increased from 1 to 2.
- There is an additional chance for 1-2 extra Living Steels to drop.
- Living Steel Chest in World Tier 4: Increased from 3 to 5.
- There is an additional chance for 5 extra Living Steels to drop.
- All other Helltide chests will additionally grant 1 Living Steel in World Tier 4.
How To Farm Living Steel Quickly in Diablo 4
First up, get your best AoE build ready, including movement speed boosts if possible, just like you would for Nightmare Dungeons. Then, very importantly, keep an eye on the Helltide tracker so you always know when the next Helltide is about to spawn.
Once a Helltide rises, head to the area and farm Aberrant Cinders, killing everything that moves and opening every chest. To speed up the process, we suggest doing events in the area. Once you have 300, head to one of the two Living Steel chest spawns and open it for 5 Living Steel or 10 if you get a bit lucky. Find the exact location using the Helltide tracker mentioned above.
An important note is that new Living Steel Chests spawn on the hour. So, for example, if a Helltide spawned at 14:30 (lasting for an hour), you can open two more Living Steel chests after 15:00. We tested this method with the Diablo 4 hotfix update and managed to get 34 Living Steel from one Helltide, opening a few smaller Tortured Gifts chests along the way, that now also rewards one Living Steel each!
As a side note, we suggest not using your Living Steel in World Tier 3 difficulty, as Grigoire only drops Shards of Agony on World Tier 4 difficulty!