Blizzard has revealed that Diablo IV’s first season will be released in mid to late July, following the game’s June 6 launch. The announcement was made during a developer livestream aimed at providing new information on Diablo IV’s seasons and battle pass.
Seasons in Diablo IV will be quarterly (four times a year) and will work in the same way as they did in Diablo III, with players completing objectives as part of a Season Journey. The objectives are divided into chapters, and players must fulfill the majority, but not all, of the objectives in one chapter before moving on to the next.
Completing Season Journey objectives will contribute to leveling up the seasonal battle pass, which will include 27 free reward tiers. Playing and leveling up seasonal characters will also help you proceed through the battle pass. Seasonal perks (called Season Blessings) grant various benefits to seasonal characters, ranging from increased XP earned from monsters to a higher chance of acquiring rare salvage materials.
Blizzard reiterated that players will not be able to buy tier skips for the battle pass to earn Smouldering Ash and instantly make their seasonal characters more powerful in Diablo IV, as each Smouldering Ash reward will have level requirements that must be met before they can be used.
All awards that provide a gameplay benefit will be included in the game’s free battle pass. Instead, the premium battle pass reward track, which Blizzard said will cost $10, will provide 63 tiers of mostly aesthetic goods. Players will now be able to purchase an accelerated premium fight pass with 20-tier skips for around $25.
Blizzard stated that each season would contain a strong unifying theme that will run across the battle pass and new gameplay elements. They will also provide new seasonal stories that will not advance the game’s core story (which will be saved for future expansions, according to Blizzard), but will instead explore the realm of Sanctuary in new ways. New gameplay mechanics and the seasonal plot will be removed at the end of each season, though Blizzard has stated that seasonal content may return in the future. However, any new Legendary powers or unique items introduced throughout the season will remain in the core game.
To gain access to seasonal content, players must have completed Diablo IV’s campaign on any character at least once. From then on, players can skip the campaign on successive characters at any moment to plunge right into the new content. Blizzard also clarified what unlocks are per character and what unlocks are account-wide.
Unlocked Legendary attributes and Codex of Power entries, as well as regional Renown levels and found Altars of Lilith, must be gained on each character and are not account-wide. The stat increases and other incentives from hitting particular Renown levels in each of the game’s locations, on the other hand, will be account-wide.
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