Diablo 4's War Plans are supposed to tell you what to do next.
For the past couple of weeks, some of them have instead been telling players to enter an activity the game literally would not let them enter.
That changes on August 12.
Diablo 4 Patch 3.1.3 fixes an issue where the War Plans teleport to Infernal Hordes could fail on difficulties below Torment.
It sounds like a small teleport bug.
For affected players, it could effectively stop the entire War Plan.
The Portal Opened — And Then Immediately Closed
Players started reporting the problem after the late-July update.
A War Plan would assign Infernal Hordes as one of its activities. The player would select the teleport option, the blue portal would briefly appear, and then it would disappear again.
The character remained exactly where they started.
No Infernal Hordes.
No completed objective.
And, in some cases, no obvious way to progress the War Plan.
One player described being stuck at two out of three objectives while levelling because Infernal Hordes remained the required final step.
That is not a particularly inspiring definition of a plan.
The Problem Was Difficulty, Not Character Level
Early reports made the bug look like it might be connected to character level.
Several affected players were below level 70.
Then somebody tested it properly.
A level 70 character was moved down to Penitent difficulty.
The Infernal Hordes teleport failed.
Move into Torment, and the problem disappeared.
The common factor was therefore not character level.
It was playing below Torment difficulty.
That explains why the bug was particularly annoying for levelling characters and Hardcore players who were not ready to simply increase the difficulty to make their seasonal progression work.
Patch 3.1.3 Fixes It on August 12
Blizzard has now added the problem to Patch 3.1.3.
The patch notes specifically state that the War Plans teleport to Infernal Hordes will no longer sometimes fail on pre-Torment difficulties.
That means players should once again be able to follow an Infernal Hordes War Plan without first having to reach Torment simply to make the portal function.
It is one of those fixes where the patch note is only a single sentence long.
The inconvenience behind that sentence was considerably larger.
War Plans Get Another Progression Fix Too
Patch 3.1.3 also addresses another Season of Death Awakening progression problem.
The Season Rank III objective Set Fire to the Beacons will now correctly count Escalation Nightmare Dungeons containing the Ruptures affix toward completion.
So players who did the correct activity but watched the objective stubbornly refuse to acknowledge reality should finally get credit.
Diablo 4 occasionally has the unique ability to make killing thousands of demons easier than convincing a checklist that you killed thousands of demons.
Echo of Mephisto Gets a Party Fix
There is also a useful multiplayer change.
Party members who join an Echo of Mephisto encounter already in progress will now be able to use a portal to access the third stage of the fight.
Blizzard is also cleaning up Corrupted Reaper encounters so resummoning the boss removes the previous Reaper's corpse.
Patch 3.1.3 is therefore not a major balance update.
There are no enormous class reworks or new endgame systems hiding inside it.
It is cleanup.
But cleanup matters when the thing being cleaned up is preventing seasonal systems from working.
A War Plan Should Probably Be Possible to Complete
The Infernal Hordes bug was especially awkward because War Plans are supposed to provide structure to Diablo 4's endgame and seasonal progression.
If the system tells you to complete an activity, the absolute minimum requirement is that the activity actually opens.
That bar was temporarily missed.
Patch 3.1.3 should put it back where it belongs.
So if your levelling character has been staring at an Infernal Hordes objective that refuses to go anywhere, August 12 is the date to try again.
The demons were always willing.
The portal was the problem.
Sources
Blizzard Entertainment – Diablo IV Patch Notes, Patch 3.1.3
Diablo IV Forums – War Plan Stuck on Infernal Horde
