Roger’s $0.02 - Side-loading Diablo Immortal

Diablo is possibly one of the most addictive video games ever created. Its simple one-click game mechanics and loot enhanced leveling system established it as the grandfather of top-down action RPGs. Its sequels, Diablo II and Diablo III, still garner a rabid fanbase. While Blizzard is busy working on an updated version of Diablo II it released Diablo Immortal; a version of the game designed around mobile phones with an emphasis on an MMORPG experience last week. The Diablo fan that I am I had to give it a try. Available for Android, iOS, and Windows I picked Android because that was the quickest option. Also wanted to see how Blizzard managed to cram the experience onto a small screen. After about 20 minutes I wanted to play on a bigger screen. Windows was an option but being the gluten-for punishment that I am I opted to see if I could side-load the game onto my Android TV device the Nvidia Shield TV.

Side-loading is a nifty way of installing apps not found in the Google Play store. On iOS devices side-loading apps require

the owner to jailbreak, aka hack iOS to remove OS restrictions on installing non-authorized software, the iPhone. Thankfully on Android, the task is much simpler. The Android OS doesn’t prevent you from installing non-authorized apps instead it warns users about the dangers of installing software that hasn’t been vetted by the Google Play store for malware. A simple dismissal of a dialog box overcomes that hurdle. There are a couple of approaches to side-loading an app like Diablo Immortal. One is to get the .apk file, an app installer file for Android. Because the Google Play store doesn’t let you directly download .apks you need to either find them hosted on another site or use a site like Evozi APK downloader. I’ve never had luck getting an APK downloader to work and I’m hesitant to download a .apk from a site that’s not vetted so I moved on to my second option. Getting the .apk off my phone.

Getting the .apk’s from an Android Smartphone is a surprisingly straightforward task. First, you need to install the app on your phone via the Google Play store. Next, you want a way to turn that app you installed back into a usable .apk. There are two tools that I use. Apk Extractor and Split APL Installer or SAI. Apk Extractor works with most apps except for very large apps that come bundled across multiple .apks, usually games. In those instances, you’ll need to use SAI. Since Diablo Immortal tips the scale at over 2.5GB I need to use SAI. I select an output directory in SAI’s settings and select backup on the main screen. I scroll down to and select Immortal and hit backup resulting in an .apk file titled “Immortal_com,blizzard,diablo,immortal_1,4,886633.apks”.

Next, you’ll need a file manager to access and manipulate files on your android devices and for that, I use X-plore File Manager. It's free and comes with a built-in FTP server that you can use to share files across Wi-Fi. I use X-plore to transfer the .apk via its built-in FTP feature, although the free version of X-Plore is a read-only FTP server, to my laptop via an FTP client. I then transfer that to my Nvidia Shield TV via its network drive share function. Other optional ways to move that file over is to install an FTP Client on the Shield TV, or copy the file from a laptop/PC to a USB thumb drive and plug that directly into the Shield TV.

Finally, on the Shield TV you need to have SAI installed to install the Diablo Immortal .apk you just transferred over onto the device. The catch? SAI isn’t available for Android TV. So you need to go back to the phone and use Apk Extractor to make a .apk of SAI and transfer that over to your Shield TV. You’ll also want to install X-plore on the Shield TV as well as it simplifies the next step but that app is available for Android TV on the Google Play store. Using X-plore on the Shield TV you will go to the folder where transferred the SAI .apk and click on it. X-Plore will ask if you want to install and then ask if you want to change permission for the X-plore to install third-party apps while warning you about the possible risks from malware. Once SAI is installed and you can then install the Diablo Immortal .apk. After about six or so minutes Diablo should be installed.

Diablo Immortal is now installed so you’re ready to play. Not quite. First, you need to have a blue tooth game controller since touch screen interfaces don’t work on Android TV. Later models of the Xbox One controller are Bluetooth enabled as are PS4 controllers. Two because some things in the game still require a screen touch to access you’ll need a remote control that can also function as a mouse to click on things in the Diablo Immortal interface. I use this $15 remote from Amazon. It works via a USB interface so you’ll need to have a free USB port on the Shield TV or a USB hub. Just hit the mouse cursor button on the remote and you’ll be presented with a mouse cursor on Android TV. Third, once you initially start up Diablo Immortal it will throw up an error screen saying an app can’t be found or opened. Diablo Immortal uses a web browser-based dialog box so you’ll need to install a web browser on the Shield TV. The only one that’s freely available off the Google Play store for Android TV is the Puffin TV Browser. I haven’t used the browser for anything other than getting Diablo Immortal running. With that installed and Diablo Immortal running you’ll need to navigate the screen with the controller or the mouse via your $15 Amazon mouse remote. Almost forgot because Diablo Immortal isn’t a regular Android TV app it won’t appear on your app's screen. You’ll need to dig into the Shield TV’s settings, go into Apps and scroll down to Immortal to launch it.

So after all that how does it play? It plays as well as something not optimized for the Shield TV to run. The game can run a decent 30fps when no one else is around. But once you start encountering NPCs the frames drop. Once you are in combat the frames drop even more noticeably. And when you run into other players the game downright crawls and stutters and in some cases crashes back out to the Shield TV launcher. It is playable though. I’ve spent at least 12 hours in-game leveling up my character and finishing story arcs. Not the best experience compared with Windows or on my phone, but my TV is a better screen to look at for long periods and it's enjoyable enough to play in that fashion. It certainly was a bit of a learning process to get it installed but having done it I think I’m better able to figure out what other legit things I can side load onto my Shield TV.