Treasure Goblin

The Treasure Goblin is a dungeon-exploring semi-monster who is a new addition to the Diablo gameplay experience. He runs very quickly, dropping gold as he moves, as well as more gold and items when players hit him. If killed he drops numerous quality items, much like a transcendent chest.

Despite his name and sneaky appearance, the Treasure Goblin doesn't seem to have the ability to steal from players or chests. He's just a sort of moving treasure chest, purely there as a bonus without offering any risk or danger. His official description, from an update on Blizzard's Diablo facebook page.

He'll randomly and rarely appear in dungeons, but when he does you'll want to beat the candy out of him as he'll drop progressively better loot with each hit. Don't let him escape!

Diablo III Monster

Diablo III Monster [e]
Treasure Goblin
Classification:	Demons
Monster Family:	Treasure Goblin
Role:
Monster Stats Norm/Night/Hell/Inferno
Life:
Mana:
Armor:
Resistance:	Unknown
Offence Norm/Night/Hell/Inferno
Armament:
DPS:	Unknown
Low Damage:	Unknown
High Damage:	Unknown
Range:
Speed:
Movement:
Monster Modifiers
Spells/Abilities
Found In

First sighted in the playable demo at Blizzcon 2010, the Treasure Goblin is a small, shiny, loudly-giggling, rat-like humanoid with a huge sack of loot over one shoulder and extremely quick foot speed. He is technically a monster, but he does not attack characters or deal any sort of damage. Instead he is basically a moving, gold-leaking treasure chest, one that drops a constant shower of gold and occasional items, and will drop lots of high quality items if you manage to run him down and kill him.

The Treasure Goblin is a sort of Easter Egg, since he's fun and diverting, and not a danger. The character is reminiscent of the Thief in the arcade classic Gauntlet II, except that he doesn't steal from you, and is purely a fun bonus diversion.

The TS is slow at first, giggling loudly and gleaming in the light to draw the eye, as does the shiny trickle of gold he's constantly dropping. He generally lets players get in a hit or two, before activating his super fast movement and darting some distance away. He's there to tease, not to escape, and he always stops just at the edge of the visible screen, where he continues laughing and screeching and making all sorts of comical, attention-getting, goblin type noises.

If the player pursues him, the Treasure Goblin will allow another hit to be landed before darting off again, dropping gold the whole while and running in semi-random directions.

He's very quick, far faster on foot than any character, and his erratic movement, and tendency to lead the player into large mobs, makes him hard to kill, especially for melee characters. Ranged attackers have an easier time nailing him from a distance, but his poor pathfinding makes him killable for any character who puts in the effort. Eventually the Treasure Goblin will run into a corner or a cul-de-sac and yield to melee strikes.

There are a few colors of Treasure Goblins to be found. Each with its own bonuses to drops. Grey drops extra crafting materials like tomes of blacksmithing or tomes of secrets. Gold drops extra gold. Red Drops extra gems. Blue drops extra magical/rare items.

Escape Portal?

Escape Portal?

If left alone for more than a few seconds, the Treasure Goblin may cast a special portal. Players can not pass through the portal, but if the Treasure Goblin is left alone for too long he will disappear through it, depriving players of the chance to score all that delicious loot from him.

His portal and evasive behavior can be seen in the Blizzcon 2010 gameplay movie.

Inspiration

The Treasure Pigmy seems to have taken its inspiration from the Golden Axe series, when players would in between levels sleep around a campfire and have their magic stolen by little Gnomes with sacks. they would then wake and chase them around to kil them to gain back their magic plus some, the resemblance and behaviour is very similar in both games.

Lore

Some devious little goblins have been robbing our merchants! When pursued, they simply open portals and disappear with a most aggravating chuckle. The peasantry seem to believe that the goblins serve a great demon lord known as Greed and furthermore, that their portals lead to Greed's domain! A ludicrous notion, truly.

Abd al-Hazir

Blizzcon 2010 Crafting Sanctuary Panel

Treasure Goblin wanted poster.

The Treasure Goblin was briefly discussed during the 2010 Blizzcon Crafting Sanctuary Panel, where the developers urged players to "beat the candy out of him" if and when we spotted the little guy. They also presented a wanted poster with his face on it; a useful presentation since there's no way to get a good look at his visage in the actual game.

Most players assumed he was humanoid; like a twisted old man, but apparently he's some sort of demonic rat-like creature?

This type of enemy will be found in some/many/most/all dungeons in Diablo III, and there are higher quality versions as you progress through Nightmare/Hell/Inferno.

Media

Assorted Treasure Goblin screenshots and concept arts.

• See every piece of Treasure Goblin media in the Image Gallery.

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  Concept art by Victor Lee.