You can’t currently trade in Diablo 4 because Blizzard has deactivated the feature. The developers are investigating a dupe exploit that apparently also involves the Stygian Stones for the endgame.
Why was trading deactivated? On the evening of August 14, Blizzard disabled trading in Diablo 4. In a forum post, Community Manager Adam Fletcher writes that the team is currently investigating a “possible duplication issue.”
How long is trading disabled? It is still unclear how long trading will remain deactivated. Fletcher writes in the forum:
We will be disabling trading in Diablo 4 while we investigate a potential duplication issue. We apologize for the disruption and will keep you updated on when trading will be available again once we have further investigated the issue and taken any necessary actions.
What kind of problem is this? In the past, Blizzard disabled trading because gold was being duplicated. Players discovered an exploit that allowed them to duplicate their gold and trade items for billions. There were already problems with gold dupes in Diablo 2. The exploits there were so bad that players eventually established rare items as a new currency.
In the current case, items, mats and especially the Stygian stones were apparently duplicated and sold. In his YouTube video, Diablo expert “Rob2628” shows a trading site where the stones are offered in thousands. A screenshot in the video shows a player’s inventory, which contains heaps of stones – around 1,500 of them.
You need Stygian stones to summon the “tormented” versions of the bosses. You need different mats and a stone per run. Since the start of Season 5, you can also get these in the “Hell Hordes.”
Diablo 4: The gameplay trailer for Season 5, the season of the infernal hordes
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What does the Diablo expert recommend? Rob notes in his YouTube video that it is currently not possible to drop items and pass them on in this way. He considers it a “win” that Blizzard reacted so quickly. He also encourages players to report such cases if they notice them:
This always ruins the economy every season, and I really hope that with the release of Vessel of Hatred in just a month and a half, all of these exploits will be discovered and disabled.
If you have any information, please report it to the official channels […]. I encourage you to do this because it’s not cool that the economy gets destroyed every time. Every time a new season starts there is a new duplication exploit and every time the economy is heavily affected and ruined.
In the Twitch livestream on August 14, Diablo expert wudijo joked that it wouldn’t be a Diablo 4 season without a dupe exploit and without disabled trading. He wonders if there will ever be a season in which no dupe exploits appear.
There were similar exploits in the last season that allowed players to duplicate items. One couple accidentally duplicated several items. Without really knowing how it happened, the two immediately raised the alarm and frantically reported the glitch in Diablo 4.