D2 Survivors plays Diablo II as a survivors-like. Your hero walks; skills cast on their own. Each act is a five to six minute march through D2's areas as the horde grows, ending with the act's boss. Each act opens soft and ends hard.
The start
A run starts as in D2, with only Attack and your starting weapon. Your first card comes at once: a first skill from each of your class's three skill trees, so all six skill slots are yours to fill.
Level-ups and cards
- Each level-up offers cards: a new skill or passive, a rank in one you hold, or an attribute.
- You hold six skills and six passives on Normal; 8 and 8 on Nightmare, 10 and 10 in Hell.
- Every run starts with 2 rerolls, 2 skips and 2 banishes. A reroll redraws the cards, a skip passes, a banish removes a card for the rest of the difficulty.
- Charsi's wares sell more rerolls, skips and banishes.
Chests and evolutions
Champions, uniques and act bosses leave chests. Through Act II a chest gives level-ups, then stat points or +1 to a skill tree, so the build fills in during Acts IV and V. A chest also evolves any skill that is ready: at its max level, with its passive, at the evolved skill's hero level. See Evolutions.
The acts
Each act moves through its areas on a clock, and named monsters arrive at set times whatever area you are in. Every act page has its timeline.
When it ends
Your gold and items are kept whatever happens. Beat Baal and the run continues into Nightmare as the same hero; after Hell come the Terror tiers.