Switching Weapons in 'Diablo IV' is Surprisingly Difficult – Here’s How it Works

With the Diablo IV open beta returning on March 24, fans of the upcoming game will once again have a chance to dive into the visceral ARPG ahead of its launch in June. One of the most intriguing aspects of Diablo IV is its weapon system – specifically, changing weapons doesn’t function like most other RPGs. And since some classes give you the option to equip four different weapons at once, you’ll want to swap between them frequently to tackle the task at hand.

Here's how to switch weapons in Diablo IV. It’s a bit unconventional, but once you come to terms with the system, it gives you a remarkable amount of freedom to play how you’d like.

Diablo IV doesn’t have a preassigned button that lets you swap weapons. Instead, your weapons are tied directly to skills. Using a certain skill will automatically swap to the weapon required for the skill, meaning you don’t need to muck around manually swapping weapons before you can access a new ability.

However, some skills give you the option to swap weapons based on which you’d prefer to use – here’s a closer look at how that works.

• Pull up your Skills Menu. On PC, this defaults to “S".
• Hover over your skill of interest and press the “Cycle Weapon” button. On PC, this defaults to the middle mouse button.
• Cycling your weapon is essentially how you switch weapons in Diablo IV. When you use the skill, you'll automatically use the selected weapon type.

• Some skills require a specific type of weapon – for these, you won’t be able to switch to another weapon type. Others allow you to freely toggle between anything currently equipped to your character.
• All skills also feature an “Auto-Select” option, which will automatically switch weapons to whichever one will deal the most damage.

This system allows you to switch weapons for individual skills without needing to change your entire hotbar. It’s a quirky way to do things, but it gives you incredible freedom to use each available skill as you see fit. This is especially true for the Barbarian class, which can equip four weapons at once – and trying to manually toggle between all four of these to perform different skills would be incredibly cumbersome.

Instead, simply performing a skill will switch to the required (or selected) weapon. This allows you to go from swinging a deadly two-handed hammer to dual-wielding daggers in a matter of seconds. There’s definitely a learning curve to the system — and the lack of a physical “Swap Weapon” button might be confusing — but once you’ve learned its nuances, you’ll be hacking away at demons like an old pro.

The Diablo IV open beta begins on March 24, while the full release is planned for June 6.