I’m new to this season of Diablo 4 and started trying to clear out my keys inventory by using all my nightmare keys. But then I noticed that every time I finish a nightmare dungeon, I end up getting another nightmare key, so I just keep accumulating them instead of using them up. I also found out that you can destroy these keys at the blacksmith and get materials back to craft new nightmare keys. Am I missing something about how these keys function or their purpose?
5 Answers
One grumble from me is that nightmare keys are all dungeon-specific and don’t stack, which gets frustrating when you have lots of keys for the same dungeon laying around. It’d be way better if they made a generic nightmare key that you could apply to any dungeon instead of being stuck with specific ones.
You’re not misunderstanding. That’s basically how nightmare keys work now. When you run a nightmare dungeon using a key, you get rewarded with a new, random nightmare key. You can either use them, break them down at the blacksmith or occultist to get materials, or craft new keys hoping for affixes you prefer. There’s not much more complexity to it at this stage.
Yeah, I thought maybe there’d be some deeper mechanic but it seems straightforward for now.
Some nightmare dungeon layouts or affixes can be really annoying or just not your cup of tea, so people tend to destroy those keys and try crafting new ones to get more enjoyable or rewarding challenges. Also, right now people farm sigil powder a lot by breaking down keys and recrafting, especially to target specific affixes like Forgotten Altars in this season.
Is the Forgotten Altars affix still available this season? I thought that was a limited-time thing.
At this point in the season, you usually have so many nightmare keys coming in that you can afford to be picky. Just break down keys with affixes or dungeon types you don’t want, keep the good ones, and keep farming. The system kind of encourages sorting through keys to maximize your rewards.
The keys are mostly about managing affixes. If you have nightmare keys with affixes you don’t like — like ones boosting gold when you don’t need gold — you break those down to craft new keys hoping for better affix combinations. So it turns into a bit of a random roll and pick system to get keys that suit your farming goals.
Do nightmare dungeons actually upgrade affixes on keys or just randomize them each time?
They randomize them each time you craft new keys, so you can keep trying for the affix combos that work best for you.
Yeah, that would be a nice quality of life change for sure!