- Diablo Immortal: The Best Control Options In the Game
There was a time when Diablo Immortal was an incredibly controversial mobile-only entry in the legendary Diablo franchise. However, not long before the game’s launch, Blizzard confirmed that Immortal would also be available for PC on day one. That means that those who want to try Diablo Immortal are no longer limited to mobile devices and touch controls.
Just because Diablo Immortal now offers more control options doesn’t mean that all control options are created equally, though. Indeed, after a little time with the game, it’s easy enough to see that there are some ways to control Diablo Immortal that offer considerable advantages and other ways that may leave you at a disadvantage.
That being the case, here’s a rundown of the various control options Diablo Immortal offers and a few words on which ones may be best for you.
Diablo Immortal: Touch Screen Controls Explained
The good news is that you can play Diablo Immortal on mobile devices with nothing more than basic touchscreen controls. The bad news is that the quality of your touch control experience will almost certainly vary.
Diablo Immortal‘s touchscreen controls will feel familiar to anyone who has played many modern mobile games. One side of the screen features a digital joystick used to control your character, and the other side features touch buttons that control your primary attack and skills. The rest of the screen is filled with touch-supported menu icons and situational UI prompts.
Actually, one of the best things about Diablo Immortal‘s touch controls is the way the game manages those UI prompts. You always know when you’re able to interact with something, and you never have to go out of your way to hit context-specific prompts. Generally speaking, it’s fairly simple to navigate the game’s various menus with touchscreen controls.
Unfortunately, Diablo Immortal‘s touchscreen controls struggle to keep up with the game’s combat. If you’re mostly relying on your character’s primary attack and the occasional skill, the touchscreen controls work fine. When you need to complete more complicated combos or throw out a free-aim ability, things become significantly more annoying. It’s just too difficult to aim complicated attacks in the middle of a fight using only touchscreen controls. That means that some classes that depend more on those abilities (especially Monks and Mages) are significantly more difficult to control with a touchscreen. It’s also generally annoying to have to keep pressing forward on a digital joystick. My thumb is constantly going numb whenever I try to play this game for longer periods of time.
For those times when you need to use Diablo Immortal‘s touchscreen controls, you’ll find that they do most of the things you need them to do. However, anyone looking to play through some of the game’s tougher content or play for longer period of time may want to consider other options.
Diablo Immortal: Every Supported Controller
While Diablo Immortal is no longer the mobile-only title it started out as, it’s still the type of game that was clearly designed with mobile devices in mind. If you do decide to play Diablo Immortal on a mobile device, I highly recommend doing so with a controller.
First off, here’s a breakdown of every controller that is currently confirmed to work with the mobile versions of Diablo Immortal:
Diablo Immortal: iOS Supported Controllers
- Backbone One
- Razer Kishi
- Rotor Riot Controller (Mfi)
- SteelSeries Nimbus (Mfi)
- Sony Dualshock 4
- Sony DualSense Wireless
- Xbox Elite Series 2 (iOS 15+)
- Xbox Adaptive (iOS 14+)
- Xbox One Wireless Bluetooth
- Xbox Series X/S Bluetooth
Diablo Immortal: Android Supported Controllers
- Xbox One Wireless Bluetooth
- Xbox Series X/S Bluetooth
- SteelSeries Stratus Duo
- Sony Dualshock 4
- Sony DualSense Wireless
- Xbox Elite Controller Series 2
- Xbox Adaptive
- Razer Kishi
- 8bitdo SN30 Pro
If you happen to have a controller that isn’t on one of those lists, you should still give it a shot. There’s no guarantee it will work, but people are still testing which controllers the game actually supports and which ones it doesn’t. It will take a little while for a full list of supported devices to become available.
Generally speaking, Diablo Immortal plays pretty well on a controller. At the very least, controllers make it possible to move your character around the map without wearing out your thumb. More importantly, a controller makes it significantly easier to perform some of the complex combos and quick movements that some of the game’s classes depend on.
Aside from some potential disconnect issues, the biggest problem with playing Diablo Immortal on a controller is properly aiming some of the game’s more complicated free-aim skills. There are just some skills that are significantly easier to properly aim with a mouse rather than a joystick. Otherwise, controllers work surprisingly well.
Diablo Immortal: Mouse/Keyboard and WASD Controls Explained
If you’re playing Diablo Immortal on PC, you actually have access to a few distinct control options.
First off, Diablo Immortal still supports those mouse-based movement/combat controls that helped make the Diablo series famous. In other words, you’re still able to play Diablo Immortal on a PC by holding down right click to move and left click to unleash primary attacks. That’s obviously a good thing.
However, if you wish to do so, Diablo Immortal also allows you to rebind the game’s controls so that you’re able to use your keyboard to move your character rather than the mouse alone. The most popular layout for that particular input method will almost certainly be the “WASD” system, but the game actually offers a surprising number of keybind options that allow you to assign movement, skill, and combat controls to whichever keys you’d like.
I know Diablo fans will consider this blasphemous, but there are actually a few good reasons to consider a WASD movement system over mouse movements. Because every class has several skills that encourage (or demand) precision aiming, there are times when using your mouse to attack, move, and aim at the same time can be a little awkward. Veteran Diablo players won’t mind, but everyone else may be slightly annoyed by having to rely on the mouse quite so much.
Finally, PC players are also able to use either a wired or wireless controller to play Diablo Immortal. Here’s a list of the known controllers that the PC version of the game currently supports.
Diablo Immortal: Supported Wired Controllers For Windows
- Xbox One Wireless
- Logitech Gamepad F510
- Logitech Gamepad F710
- Sony Dualshock 3
- Sony Dualshock 4
- Sony DualSense
- Nintendo Switch Joycons
- Nintendo Switch Pro
- Xbox Adaptive
- Xbox Elite
- Xbox Elite
Diablo Immortal: Supported Bluetooth Controllers For Windows
- Xbox One Wireless Bluetooth
- SteelSeries Stratus Duo (via Bluetooth)
- Sony Dualshock 3 (via 8 Bitdo Bluetooth Adapter)
- Sony Dualshock 4 (via Bluetooth)
- Sony DualSense
- Nintendo Switch Pro
Diablo Immortal: What Is The Best Control Option?
Unless you have to play with touch controls or just really, really, like digital joysticks, I can safely say that you’re at least best off trying to play Diablo Immortal with a controller. Again, touch controls work fairly well in this game, but they’re not ideal by any means.
Beyond that, we’re really talking about personal preferences. For instance, I can genuinely see even PC players preferring to use a controller over a mouse and keyboard. I actually quite like using a controller in this game just to be able to use the trigger buttons to quickly access my skills. While it still feels strange to “free aim” with a controller, it’s not a dealbreaker by any means.
I also think that some long-time Diablo fans may be overlooking this game’s keyboard movement options at their own risk. There are aspects of this game that feel just a little bit better when you use a WASD/mouse combo rather than relying on the mouse for movements and attacks. Indeed, I’ve found that the WASD/mouse set-up is usually the best way to free-aim certain skills.
At the end of the day, though, Diablo Immortal is perfectly playable using classic Diablo controls. There are parts of the game that don’t feel quite as smooth with that set-up as they did in previous Diablo titles (which is largely due to some of this title’s MMO mechanics and the fact it was made for mobile devices, but you won’t be missing out on much if you decide to treat it like a traditional Diablo title so far as the controls go.
