If you’re playing Diablo 4 Hardcore, maybe skip the Stolen Artifice quest

The never-ending clones of Darcel the bugged

If you’re playing a Hardcore character on Diablo 4 and adventuring into the Act II region of Scosglen, beware of which side quests you do. In the town of Braestig, you will find a woman offering the side quest Stolen Artifice. The quest itself is simple enough: Head to the north and track down the bandit Darcel. Slay him and retrieve a charm and bring it back to the quest giver.

The problem, however, is that Darcel is currently bugged. For some reason every time he respawns, about a dozen instances of Darcel appear. He is an elite mob with higher-than-normal base attack speed and has the ability to overpower you. With that many instances of him attacking you at once, you can very quickly find yourself unable to move and then dead before you can react. Obviously, on Hardcore the increased possibility of permanent death simply makes this side quest not even worth tackling. Even if you do not have the quest, the many copies of Darcel can spawn in the open world at the spot indicated on the map below.

Is it worth attempting the side quest on Softcore?

When I encountered him on softcore in World Tier 1 I was able to pretty easily kite several copies of him around while slowly depleting each one’s health pool. On World Tier 2 I was quickly surrounded and killed, so I certainly wouldn’t recommend attempting it on this difficulty or higher.

Each copy of Darcel gives you the standard amount of experience you get for killing an elite mob. You may be able to get as much as half of a level or more for killing all of them. Realistically it doesn’t feel worthwhile to purposefully farm him even with the glitch. You could probably get the same amount of experience or more by playing the game normally. Furthermore, he doesn’t appear to drop anything special so you’d be better off farming elsewhere for better loot.