Player Settings

Overview

The player setting gives account of how many players are present in one game. It has impact on monsters' hit points, experience gained and drops. The default player setting is 1. However, with every player joining a multiplayer game the player setting is increased by one up till a maximum of 8 (i.e. the maximum number of players in one game). In Single Player mode, open battle.net and non battle.net Multiplayer mode the player setting can be changed by the Players X Command.

Common abbreveations are pX or /pX, e.g. "I cleared the whole Throne Room on p8", meaning that all of Baal's minion waves were defeated on a player setting of 8 players.

Influence on game mechanics

In general one could say: the higher the player setting, the higher the monsters' hit points, the amount of experience gained and the frequency/amount of drops. Basically that means:

• You'll level faster
• You'll need more time for killing monsters
• You'll find more items

Note: The player setting does not influence the quality of the dropped items! There's an entirely different algorithm for that.

Monsters' Hit Points

Each monster's Hit Points are multiplied by the number of players in the game according to a certain formula, which differs from version to version:

1.00-1.08: Hit Points = X * n
1.09: see list below
1.10+ (any): Hit Points = X * (n + 1) / 2

where X = base Hit Points n = # of players in game

Assorted in a table it looks like this:

Player setting	HP 1.08	HP 1.09	HP 1.10+
1	100%	100%	100%
2	200%	200%	150%
3	300%	300%	200%
4	400%	400%	250%
5	500%	450%	300%
6	600%	520%	350%
7	700%	570%	400%
8	800%	620%	450%
10		700%
20		1200%
40		2200%
64		3400%
(HPs increase by 50% per player past 10 in 1.09a/b)

Experience

With increasing player settings the amount of Experience gained also increases according to a certain formula, which differs from version to version:

1.00-1.08: Experience = X * (2n + 1) / 3
1.09 (any): see list below
1.10+ (any): Experience = X * (n + 1) / 2

where X = base experience n = # of players in the game

So it's basically the same numbers as for the Hit Points calculations.

Here's the table:

Player setting	XP 1.08	XP 1.09	XP 1.10+
1	100%	100%	100%
2	167%	175%	150%
3	233%	250%	200%
4	300%	325%	250%
5	367%	375%	300%
6	433%	400%	350%
7	500%	425%	400%
8	567%	450%	450%
10		455%
20		505%
40		605%
64		725%
(XP increases by 5% per player past 10 in 1.09a/b)

Items

As already stated, the player setting will not affect the item quality, but will affect the amount of items dropped.

The Players X Command

From version 1.09 onward, the player setting can be changed arbitrarily in Single Player mode, open battle.net and non battle.net Mulitplayer mode. In order to do so, one has to enter a certain command while in game. This is done by hitting "Enter", typing the players X command, and confirming by hitting "Enter" again (yes, it's the normal shoutbox usage). The command differs slightly for the different versions of Diablo II.

Note that the Players X command doesn't affect monsters that have already spawned by the time you type the command. I'm not entirely sure about the radius in which monsters spawn around you, but according to jiansonz's testings it's somewhat smaller than the distance from the stairs in Durance level 3 to Mephisto's spawning point (meaning that one could still tune down the player setting shortly after entering Durance 3 and thus have the Council spawn on a different player setting than Mephisto himself). To make sure every monster is affected, typing the command while still in town is recommended.

Players X does however affect all clickable items (i.e. logs, chests, urns etc.) immediately. In theory one could clear the whole area on p1, then set the player settings to 8 for maximised drops (i.e. minimised NoDrop) and pop all chests, urns etc. only then. This is in no way illegal, but considered cheesy by most players in the SPF. Ususall this (ab)use of the Players X command is prohibited in SPF tournaments.

In V1.09, when hit points of your summoned minions (e.g. Golems, Valkyrie) scaled with the player setting, it was useful to change the player setting to maximum before casting the minion and then immediately switch back to a lower player setting, which is also considered as cheesy.
In V1.10 minions' hit points no longer scale up with the player setting.

Versions 1.00 to 1.08

No players X command available.

Version 1.09a/b

The command is players X, where X can be any number between 1 and 64. You won't get any confirmation that the player setting has changed.

Version 1.09c/d

The command is players X, where X can be any number between 1 and 8. You won't get any confirmation that the player setting has changed.

Versions 1.10 and 1.11

The command is /players X or /playersX, where X can be any number between 1 and 8. You will get the confirmation players set to X on your screen.
This command is available in all versions of 1.10 and 1.11.