Monday, 17 August 2026

Diablo 4 Players Say a Campaign Skip Bug Has Trapped Eternal Characters for Months


Diablo 4 players are still reporting a particularly irritating Eternal Realm problem more than three months after Lord of Hatred launched.

Some existing characters simply cannot skip the expansion campaign.

That is despite the player already completing Lord of Hatred on another character.

Blizzard’s own pre-launch guidance says completing the campaign once should unlock the Skip Campaign option for all other characters, regardless of whether they are Seasonal or Eternal.

For some Eternal players, that is apparently not happening.

Some Characters Can Skip. Others Cannot.

The original bug report appeared on May 1.

The player had seven level 60 Eternal characters prepared for Lord of Hatred and completed the entire expansion campaign on one of them, including defeating Mephisto and progressing into War Plans. Yet six other Eternal characters still had no option to change their campaign state.

Other players quickly reported similar behavior.

One had six Eternal characters and found that three could skip while a Paladin and Barbarian could not. Another reported that some classes worked and others did not, making it difficult to identify any obvious class-specific pattern.

That is perhaps the most annoying version of a bug.

The button exists.

Just apparently not for Steve.

Players Suspect Older Campaign States Are Involved

Several affected players noticed a possible connection with characters that previously used the Vessel of Hatred campaign skip.

One player tested four old Eternal characters that had skipped Vessel of Hatred, completed Lord of Hatred on both Seasonal and Eternal characters and even leveled one Eternal alt to 70.

The skip option still did not appear on the remaining characters.

That does not prove the old Vessel of Hatred campaign state is the cause.

It does suggest the problem may involve how Diablo 4 stores campaign-completion data on older characters.

Blizzard Already Fixed a Campaign-State Display Bug

There was briefly hope that a May patch would solve the problem.

Blizzard’s patch notes included a fix for an issue where Character Select displayed incorrect campaign completion states.

Players in the original thread immediately tested again.

Several reported that the patch did not restore their missing Skip Campaign option.

Blizzard later expanded campaign-state information further, adding each character’s current campaign progression directly to Character Select.

Useful information.

Slightly less useful if the character is still being informed that it must complete a campaign you already completed elsewhere.

The Thread Is Still Active on August 17

This is what turns an old bug report into a current story.

The forum thread has continued receiving replies and, as of August 17, has reached 37 responses and more than 1,600 views. It remains one of the active PC Bug Report topics today.

There is also a separate fresh report from August 16 specifically concerning a level 60 Paladin with the Skip Campaign option missing, suggesting the general issue has not completely disappeared.

Why Eternal Players Care So Much

Seasonal players are used to creating fresh characters.

Eternal players often are not.

These are frequently characters with hundreds of hours behind them, carefully assembled gear and years of history.

The entire point of the Eternal Realm is that you can continue playing those characters rather than starting over every few months.

Blizzard explicitly positioned Lord of Hatred that way too, telling players they could return to an existing Eternal character and continue their journey.

If six old characters are unexpectedly required to replay the full expansion campaign, that undermines one of the Eternal Realm’s main attractions.

There Is Still No Confirmed Fix

At the time of writing, Blizzard has not publicly identified the precise cause of this specific long-running campaign-skip problem or announced a dedicated fix for the affected Eternal characters.

That distinction matters.

There have been several campaign-state and Character Select fixes since Lord of Hatred launched, and campaign skipping itself continues to receive updates. For example, the current patch notes state that skipping Lord of Hatred now automatically clears Fog of War around Capstone Dungeon locations.

The skip system clearly still exists.

The problem is getting every eligible Eternal character to actually see it.

For players sitting on six old characters and one completed campaign, the desired solution is not especially exotic.

They do not need another multiplier.

They do not need a new currency.

They just need the button Blizzard says they should already have.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Prepare for the Reckoning — Lord of Hatred Draws Near

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo IV Patch Notes

Diablo IV Forums: Can't Skip Campaign on Subsequent Eternal Characters