Diablo 4’s six Uber Unique Items have been temporarily disabled due to a Shako bug exploit found after patch 1.0.4.

Unique Items are the rarest and highest-quality loot in the game. ‘Uber Uniques’ are even rarer variants and are the most powerful and sought-after gear pieces.

The recent patch resulted in a bug relating to the Shako, which increased the drop rate for the Harlequin Crest Uber Unique Item. This caused the devs to remove all Uber Uiques from the game entirely.

Harlequin Crest unique item stats

Why Are Uber Uniques Disabled in Diablo 4?

Uber Uniques have been disabled in Diablo 4 to stop players from exploiting the Shako bug which guaranteed Harlequin Crest Uber Unique item drops from Helltide Chests, which was possible after patch 1.0.4.

The recent patch aimed to address fan complaints of the items being too rare, and finally allowed Unique Items to drop from Helltide Mystery Chests.

Apparently, Unique Items were not able to drop from these before. This change was a response to some of the apathy fans felt toward the late-game loot grind.

Unfortunately (or fortunately!) the Shako bug led to a disproportionately high percentage of Harlequin Crest Uber Unique Helms dropping from Helltide Chests.

After only a few hours, Blizzard made the decision to temporarily disable these Uber Uniques from appearing in the game:

As Diablo is based around random loot drops, balance must be maintained. It needs to keep its delicate loot-based ecosystem intact.

What Was the Shako Bug Farming Exploit in Diablo 4?

The Shako bug farming exploit involved hundreds of players receiving Harlequin Crest Unique Helms from opening Helltide Chests.

As one of the six Uber Uniques in Diablo 4, the Harlequin Crest (also known as the Shako) is one of the most powerful Helms in the game.

Harlequin Crest Uber Unique farm exploit
Credit: u/Desertanimal

Its Unique Effect gives a whopping +4 ranks to all skills, which is a huge all-round buff that adds significant power to any build.

After the patch, players soon found out that Harlequin Crests had an extremely high chance of dropping when opening Helltide Chests. As there were previously only one or two reported drops of the Shako before, fans flocked to make the best of this exploit.

Check out Rob2628, a popular Diablo streamer, explain this exploit as and when it happened in the video below:

How Long Will Uber Uniques Be Disabled in Diablo 4?

According to Blizzard’s Community Manager, Uber Uniques are disabled until the release of a hotfix. This will most likely be on Friday (July 7) afternoon, Pacific Time.

It’s quite a vague period, as the afternoon can lie anywhere between 12-5 PM. Expect Uber Uniques to come back to Diablo 4 within this time window.

Dev comment about Uber Unique disabled in Diablo 4

What Are Uber Uniques in Diablo 4?

Uber Uniques are the rarest items in Diablo 4. There are currently six Uber Unique items that have an extremely low chance of dropping.

Here are the six Uber Unique items in Diablo 4:

  • Doombringer
  • The Grandfather
  • Ring of Starless Skies
  • Andariel’s Visage
  • Harlequin Crest
  • Melted Heart of Selig

Check out our guide on all 6 ultra rare Uber Unique Items for more information on all of them.

For those that managed to get their hands on a Harlequin Crest Helm during the exploit, it’s still unclear whether or not they’ll get to keep it.