Old Diablo heads will remember the Annihilus charm from Diablo 2 as one of the iconic ARPG’s most powerful and coveted items. Even in its worst-rolled form, having one in your inventory granted +1 to all skills, +10 to all attributes, +10 to all resistances, and +5 to XP gained. It’s the only small charm in the game that grants bonuses to all skills and attributes, and because it’s small, it only takes up a single inventory space. It’s the crown jewel of Diablo 2’s endgame, and now it’s in Diablo 4 as a Unique Horadric Seal.
The unfortunate thing about Annihilus in both games is that it’s really freakin’ hard to get. The exact parameters required to initiate the encounter in Diablo 4 are still being figured out by the community, but we know from various reports on Reddit as well as an in-depth video from Diablo creator Rob2628 that one of the ways you can get your hands on the Annihilus seal is by triggering an encounter with Uber Diablo, which in every case seems to follow a battle with the World Boss Azmodan. After that fight is over, an on-screen message warns, “Diablo walks the earth.” Annihilus recipients say Diablo Clone drops the item when slain, just like in Diablo 2.
Also similar to Diablo 2 are the ridiculous passive buffs you get from the item. At max roll, this gloriously, stupidly over-tuned seal grants +20% to all stats, +20% resistance to all elements, +10 to all skills, and +10% bonus XP. Best of all, you can re-roll it at the Cube until you get the stats you want, although reports indicate it becomes account-bound once you do so. If you manage to get your hands on one of these bad boys, that’s a genuine game-changer for literally any build.
While I don’t have anywhere near the patience to try my luck at spawning Uber Diablo, much less beating him, I’m very much enjoying seeing all of these callbacks to older Diablo games in Diablo 4. The recreation of Diablo 1’s campaign as a new Waking Nightmares activity was heavily marketed from the jump, but it seems there are still plenty of more niche discoveries to be made in season 15.