MMOexp Diablo 4: Echoing Hatred – Is This New Endgame Activity Worth Your Time?

Looking for a reliable way to farm mythic seals? Want a free pet crab that juggles a knife? What about a hidden portal appearance that makes you look like you've stared into the void a little too long? This guide breaks down everything you need to know about Echoing Hatred—how to get in, what to kill first, and how to avoid wasting your keys. Plus, the one critical mistake that locks you out of holding multiple entries on Diablo IV Items.

What's in It for You? Let's Talk Loot
Best for: Players who want to know if Echoing Hatred is worth farming before investing any time on cheap D4 materials.

Understanding the rewards helps you decide whether this activity deserves a spot in your endgame rotation.

The Main Event: Goblin Plunder Bags
The primary power-based reward comes from the goblins you kill during the run. Each goblin drops one plunder bag, and you collect them all at the end. These bags contain dungeon keys, seals, and charms—including mythic seals. Yes, you can get mythic seals here. That makes Echoing Hatred a legitimate farming method for these highly sought-after items when you have access to it.

The Bragging Right: Crab with a Knife Pet
Reach tier 60 during an Echoing Hatred run, and you unlock an achievement that rewards a pet crab holding a knife. This little crustacean periodically juggles the blade from one claw to the other. It's easily among the highest-quality pets ever created in Diablo 4, and it's completely free as an in-game achievement reward.

The Hidden Gem: Howling Mouth of Madness Portal
This unique portal appearance is a secret reward. The portal shows as stark black with white highlights and emits a smoky substance. To unlock it, you must interact with four specific shrines during specific difficulty tier brackets. Shrine locations are random, but the shrine types are consistent across every run.

Shrine usage requirements:

Protection shrine (shield icon): Use sometime between tiers 1 and 9

Artillery shrine (bow and arrow icon): Use between tier 10 and tier 14

Lethal shrine (crossed swords icon): Use between tier 15 and tier 19

Channeling shrine (goblet icon): Use between tier 20 and tier 24

When you complete all four, an achievement notification pops up confirming your new portal.

⚠️ Warning for high-damage builds: If your character automatically deletes everything on screen with area damage, you may blast through tiers too fast to use shrines at the correct times. Use a build where damage requires intentional button presses for this unlock. Also, avoid killing too many monsters early in the run.

✅ Value of this section: Tells you exactly what rewards exist and how to get each one, so you don't accidentally lock yourself out of the hidden portal.

How to Get In: The Trace of Echoes Key
Best for: Players who have been running Echoing Hatred keys and want to know the most efficient way to farm more.

The Trace of Echoes material grants access to Echoing Hatred. Based on testing and footage review, the only confirmed drop source is reward chests at the end of Corrupted Undercity runs.

One Trace dropped from a mythic unique tribute, which makes sense given that tribute's highest item rarity. However, every other Trace obtained came from completing a greater tribute of refinement while farming Undercity war plan experience.

Here's the catch: Refinement tributes primarily reward Obsecite, a material that most players already have too much of in the current economy. As a result, almost no one has been running refinement tributes frequently. Players who have run them extensively for war plan experience appear to be getting the most Trace drops.

The bottom line? Greater refinement Undercity tributes appear to have a reliable drop rate for the Echoing Hatred entry key.

How to Increase Your Drop Chances
The Portal Prankster war plan base node for Undercity (located on the left side) gives you a chance to summon portal pranksters. Interacting with each beacon and killing each prankster adds another reward chest at the conclusion. More chests = more chances to get a key.

The One Restriction That Will Drive You Crazy
The Echoing Hatred key is unusual. It does not appear in your inventory. It works differently from standard currency. Instead, obtaining a Trace of Echoes initiates a priority quest in Temenos. Completing the activity finishes the quest.

Critical restriction: You cannot hold multiple keys at the same time. If you already have one Echoing Hatred run available, farming another Trace of Echoes does absolutely nothing.

Therefore, use any entry key immediately rather than saving it for higher power levels. Run the activity, collect your rewards, and then farm more refinement tributes later when you're stronger to get another key.

✅ Value of this section: Prevents you from wasting time farming keys you can't hold and shows you exactly which tributes to target.

How the Activity Actually Works
Best for: Players going into Echoing Hatred blind who want to understand the mechanics before they fail their first run.

Echoing Hatred is a wave-clearing activity where difficulty progresses with each wave. Difficulty uses the same tier system as the Pit and the Tower, so you'll know exactly when you cross difficulty thresholds (Normal, Hard, Torment levels) based on the equivalent Pit tier reached.

How You Fail
A red bar on the right side of the screen fills as monsters spawn. Killing monsters depletes the bar. If the bar fills completely, the activity ends early. This creates a speed and damage requirement—you can't be too slow.

Death also ends the activity instantly. In group play, players can revive each other, but the time spent with multiple players down often causes the damage check to fail anyway.

Enemy Types and Positioning
Monsters spawn in all directions around you. Large area-of-effect damage is highly effective. Pulling effects, such as the Wild Bolt legendary aspect, provide excellent utility for builds that lack native pull abilities.

Don't ignore single-target damage. Bosses spawn regularly throughout the activity, and smaller enemies always spawn around them. Builds that convert area damage into single-target damage against bosses while smaller enemies are present perform ideally. Otherwise, you need a balanced split between area and single-target damage for deep progression.

Your Priority Target List
Red Portals (highest priority): These large threatening portals appear as red symbols on the minimap. They spawn monsters faster than the normal timer would allow, filling the red bar more quickly and increasing your risk of failure. Kill these immediately, especially at higher tiers—they act as an escalating difficulty modifier while active.

Treasure Goblins (second priority): These spawn regularly as tiers progress. Each goblin provides one plunder bag at the activity's conclusion. Confirming these kills secures your primary reward source.

Bosses, Elites, and General Enemies: These must also be addressed but are secondary to portals and goblins.

Shrines as Push Tools
The same four shrines always appear. They provide options to extend beyond your build's normal limits:

Protection shrine: Full immunity while active

Artillery shrine: Increased attack speed with bolts fired on each skill use

Lethal shrine: Guaranteed critical hits on all damage

Channeling shrine: Reduced cooldowns and resource costs

Depending on your build, all four shrines may provide advantage. Saving shrines for appropriate timing can extend a run by several tiers near your limit. However, you cannot do this on the same run used to unlock the portal achievement, since that requires using shrines early.

✅ Value of this section: Gives you a clear kill order and failure condition breakdown so you don't wipe to easily avoidable mistakes.

What Could Be Better – Honest Critiques
Best for: Players who want to know the flaws before committing to the grind.

Key Availability
Keys should be more plentiful at higher torment tiers than currently observed. Even with knowledge of higher drop rates from refinement tributes, the frequency feels insufficient. The rewards from Echoing Hatred are good but not exceptional—no guaranteed mythic unique per run. Either access should be more frequent, or rewards should be substantially higher.

Good news: The Season 14 PTR patch notes indicate that Trace of Echoes drop rates from elites have been increased. However, no Trace drops from elites have been observed previously, so the long-term impact remains unknown.

Early Tier Tedium
Builds capable of torment 12 difficulty must slowly progress through approximately nine minutes of gameplay with no threat of death, no risk of missing the timer, and no meaningful challenge. The first completion provides an interesting reflection on your character progression. By the third, fourth, or fifth completion, the process becomes tedious.

✅ Value of this section: Sets realistic expectations about the grind so you don't go in expecting endless excitement.

Quick Summary Checklist
Best for: Players who want the TL;DR version to reference during gameplay.

To maximize your Echoing Hatred access and rewards:

Run greater refinement Undercity tributes while using the Portal Prankster war plan node

Use any Trace of Echoes key immediately upon acquisition—you cannot hold multiple

For the portal unlock, use a build with intentional damage inputs and use shrines at the specified tier brackets

During Echoing Hatred runs, prioritize red portals first, then treasure goblins

Save shrines for pushing higher tiers unless you're attempting the portal unlock

✅ Value of this section: Gives you a one-page reference you can keep open while you play.

💡 Final Tips Before You Dive In
Don't save your keys: You literally cannot hold more than one. Use it or lose it.

Build matters for the portal unlock: If your build automatically deletes screens, you will fail the shrine timing. Use a less powerful character or respec temporarily.

Group play is risky: Revives are possible, but the damage check often fails when multiple players are down. Solo might actually be safer for deep pushes.

Track your shrine tiers: Write down which shrine you need at which tier bracket. It's easy to forget mid-run.

Goblins before bosses: Each goblin is a plunder bag. Don't let them escape while you're focusing on something else.

Summary: What Every Player Gets From This Guide
Farmers looking for mythic seals: You learn exactly which tributes to run and which war plan nodes to take for the highest key drop rates.

Collectors and achievement hunters: You get step-by-step instructions for the hidden portal appearance and the tier 60 pet crab.

High-damage players who struggle with shrine timing: You understand why your build fails the portal unlock and how to fix it with intentional damage inputs.

Players frustrated by key storage limits: You discover the critical restriction that you cannot hold multiple keys, saving you from wasted farming time.

Anyone tired of tedious early waves: You get validation that the early tier slog is real, plus awareness of upcoming Season 14 changes that may improve elite drop rates.

One sentence summary: Echoing Hatred offers solid rewards including mythic seals, a free crab pet, and a hidden portal—but key availability needs work, and the early waves will test your patience more than your skill.