One of the most anticipated new features of the v1.10 patch was the "World Event". Blizzard teased it relentlessly, promising that it would be difficult to achieve, like nothing we'd ever before seen, and extremely rewarding. What exactly it would be was a subject of much debate, though a few hints were discovered in the v1.10 beta test game files. With the arrival of v1.10, thousands of players were immediately testing the World Event out, and much more info appeared.

Thanks to over 200 player emails on this topic in less than two days, we know quite a bit about the World Event, DC (the DiabloClone), and the rewards for victory in your special battle. If you have more information to add to this page, send it in.

How many people are scoring Annihilus Charms? Well, there are already more than a dozen of them up for sale on eBay, less than 2 days after v1.10 went live, if that tells you anything.

What we know now: -- Updated Oct 30

• The World Event occurs randomly, and is unaffected by anything you do in your game. Dozens of people have gotten it while just sitting in a game, not killing anything or selling any SoJs.

• There are a lot of World Events occurring. We've heard from numerous players who have taken part in 8 or 10 of them in less than two days, and players who have already scored 4 or 5 Annihilus Charms in that amount of time.
• World Events occur in all difficulties, as well as in Hardcore, Ladder, and normal Realm games. We've had far more reports of them in Hell games than Normal or Nightmare, but it occurs in those games as well. Whether or not this is a bug remains to be seen.

• We've heard from two people who say they got a World Event in D2 classic, and that both times Diablo didn't drop any items at all. This is unconfirmed, and it seems impossible that a d2x patch change would work in d2c also, but perhaps it does?

• His official game code name is "Uber Diablo," but since everyone is pretty well sick of the formerly-cute and now pathetically-overused word "uber," we're calling him by his first public name, "DiabloClone," or "DC" for short. Hell, call him "Annihilus Boy" if you want to, just leave "uber" out of it.

• When the World Event triggers in your game, you'll see orange text proclaiming, "Diablo Walks The Earth" The sky will go black and you'll see a circle of light around your character.
• Once you get this message, the next SuperUnique monster that anyone in the game gets close enough to spawn, will spawn as the Diablo Clone. It's best to run right to a location that always has a SU in it, such as Eldritch, north of the first waypoint in Act 5. Many people are fighting the Diablo Clone in place of Rakanishu in the 2nd area of Act One since the monsters around him will be easier to destroy, but we've had reports of him in place of Pindleskin, The Countess, Baal's Minions, and more.

• Everyone who joins a game that's been selected for a World Event will see the world event graphics and text message, even if the DC is already dead. He will not appear twice in the same game, and many players have spent hours hunting through games, trying to find him when he's already been dealt with.

• He is extremely difficult to kill and very dangerous; see below for player testimonials and strategy tips.

• When killed, the DC will almost always drop a single item, the unique Annihilus Charm.
+1 To All Skills
+10-20 To All Attributes (varies)
All Resistances +10-20 (varies)
+5-10% To Experience Gained (varies)

It's unknown why he sometimes doesn't drop one, but we've had numerous reports from players who saw him die with no charm dropping, plus there's this forum post by Blizzard confirming it. So it's real, it's just a mystery.

• The Annihilus looks like a unique, normal small charm before you identify it. Once you do it looks like Mephisto's Soulstone.
• The Annihilus Charm can not be placed in the trade window; you must drop it on the ground to transfer it to another character. You can only hold one of them on a character, so don't kill DC by yourself if you already have an Annihilus, or if you do be prepared to get a friend or join the game with another of your characters to pick it up.

• World Events have been reported from every type of realm game, including Hardcore and Ladder, as well as normal Realm chars, and World Events have taken place in all difficulty levels, though Hell seems to be the most common.

• It's not at all clear if players selling SoJs actually have anything to do with the World Events. Many players have gotten World Events without ever selling a single SoJ. Other players are speculating that the "SoJs sold display" is a sort of timer that resets at random intervals, and is unrelated to anything any players are doing.
• The SoJs sold counter is often entirely different for people on the same realm. Each realm is made up of numerous servers, and it seems that the SoJ counter runs on each server, making it possible for there to be multiple counters (and World Events) going on at the same time on each Realm. Another possibility is that the counter runs for each game individually, and there is some % chance of the World Event in each game, which may or may not be influenced by what the characters do in that game.

Suspicions Mount:

We are speculating that SoJ sales do nothing at this time, other than reduce the quantities of duped SoJs clogging up so many characters on the realms. We think that Blizzard controls how fast the "SoJs sold" counter moves, and how frequently a World Event occurs in someone's game. With v1.10 just out they want to make it exciting and reward players, so World Events are occurring constantly. Perhaps Blizzard will turn down the speed later, or actually tie it to sold SoJs, or something players do in a given game (points for every boss kill or quest finished?) and the frequency of World Events will drop greatly. They seem too common now, with individual players reporting seeing over a dozen of them in just two days.