Should Diablo 3 Season 21 bring back double Treasure Goblins?

The temptation to answer the headline of this post with a giant yes was irresistable, and yet, I have not simply written yes in giant ten foot tall letters. I am proud of myself. Diablo 3 needs more giant ten foot tall letters, I think.

We’ve had double treasure goblins twice now — once in Diablo 3‘s Season 14, and again in Season 20. I’m on record saying that Season 14 was one of the best we’ve had, and Season 20 got so much better once we added the Goblins to it — and it was pretty good before. Season 21’s buff got a much-needed hotfix, but it’s still relatively lackluster, and could only be improved by bringing back double Goblins. To be fair, there’s not much that couldn’t be improved by shoving additional Treasure Goblins at it. So should we just have double Treasure Goblins in every Season? In Season 21 only? How many goblins should we have?

Look, I’ll be honest. My immediate response is that we should just always have double Treasure Goblins, and then, for a special treat we could go nuts with it, like, have four different kinds of Treasure Goblin all spawn at once. But is that immediate response a good idea? What will happen to the game if we just have constant Goblins?

Give me more Treasure Goblins

It’s like this. Diablo 3 is basically waiting to sundown. Diablo 4 is on the horizon. That’s where the development’s going to be going. I’m far from upset about that — Diablo 4 looks like its going to be amazing and everything I hear about it makes me happy. But let’s just face facts — this is not a new game anymore. Diablo 3 came out in 2012. Even if you’re hooked on the core concepts and love smashing stuff up for a new Season — of course you are, it’s fun — things are feeling pretty repetitive around here. There’s not going to be any new story, no new places to explore, no sudden new cults and ruins with new monsters. All of the content that’s going to be introduced has already been introduced.

Ramping up the Treasure Goblins feels to me like a fun way to add a new element, but it also means that we’ll get used to it. Double Gob will become the norm, and there’s a threat that it won’t be special anymore. I don’t even want to countenance a world where people aren’t excited by the idea of two Goblins at once. Can you imagine a sadder world?

So what do we do? Do we just throw more and more goblins at people endlessly, until we’re at constant Goblins running around the map and we’ve literally forgotten everything else in our mad lust to crush Goblins into paste and loot loot loot until there’s no tomorrow? Is that the future of Diablo 3 — crushed under the weight of Goblin corpses? Is that why the world of Sanctuary in Diablo 4 seems on the verge of utter ruin, because the Nephalem was buried under a mountain of dead Treasure Goblins?

What if we tried something else?

I think what we need isn’t a direct repeat of the Double Treasure Goblins, which we’ve already seen twice. Now, as much as I love more Goblins, let’s think about what we really want here. We want cool, exciting things that make us happy. That’s what Treasure Goblin excess is all about — it’s that rush of KILL KILL KILL that rushes through our veins when we hear that noise. Rather than watering down Treasure Goblins by having it just always be there, what else could we add to the game that would do that for us?

Well, one possibility would be to have more portals to Whimsydale/Whimsyshire open, or even to have Whimsy Invasion events. Imagine it — you’re doing your usual questing in Caldeum, when all of a sudden a rainbow portal appears, and a bunch of teddy bears and chubby unicorns comes rampaging out, attacking the very world of Sanctuary with rainbows and happy clouds. This cannot stand. Keep it random, so it’s not just always happening, and make sure once you’ve cleared out the Whimsy invaders you can jump through the portal and take the fight back to the enemy. There should be a huge chubby unicorn boss at the end which takes a bit of doing to take out, like a happy glitter version of Greed from the realm of Greed.

I would absolutely love to go fight a cute giant Teddy Bear monster boss or unicorn or what have you. But this isn’t the only possibility.

We could hint at the future

Okay, hear me out. We know Diablo 4 is coming, and we know it’s going to be set years after Diablo 3. We know it’s going to feature a Sanctuary even more screwed up and bereft of hope than the one in Diablo 3. How do we get there? Well, we don’t want to have the story of the new game spoiled for us, but you could definitely show signs of the world slipping over into ruin and chaos by having special events where certain areas go under siege. Imagine if, during the Season Journey, Caldeum or Tristram or Westmarch are suddenly assaulted not just by the usual monsters, but waves of monsters from other Acts — so for example, while out in the deserts around Caldeum, in addition to the usual plagues of demons, we get the Skeleton King’s hordes of undead?

You’re trying to fight your way through the demons around Arreat Crater? Look out, the Reapers are suddenly attacking! Twice as many monsters, the whole wasteland is so thick with targets you can barely choose. Everything gets much, much worse.

That’s pretty much the whole franchise in a nutshell anyway, so yeah. It could be a fun way to spice up things while waiting for Diablo 4‘s new hotness. And it would mean not having to overdose on Treasure Goblins. However…

Give me more Treasure Goblins

In the end, I still say yes. Yes, more Treasure Goblins. More Gobbos. More more more give me more. And give me all the other stuff I suggested. I’m making grabby hands at the screen. You can’t see it, because I’m writing this post. But they’re there.