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Diablo 4 Season 1 began on July 20, and the massive player base now has new ways to experience the hit action-RPG. These include a battle pass and a reset of the world–meaning you’ll also need to made a brand-new character to participate in Season 1 content. Thanks to a developer livestream, we knew lots of details on Season 1 leading to the start date. We’ll go into all of the pertinent details you need to know about the battle pass and Season 1 of Diablo 4 in the guide below.
Diablo 4 Season 1 release date and content
Season 1 of Diablo 4, which is titled Season of the Malignant, began on July 20 for all platforms. On July 20, a new patch arrived that introduced the seasonal content as well as a flurry of bug fixes, balancing updates, and more.
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Now Playing: Diablo IV | Season of the Malignant | Announce Trailer
Season of the Malignant introduces a quest line that features “new faces and new enemies, new powers, the first Season Journey, and the first Battle Pass.” The quest line introduces the character Cormand and takes place immediately after the events of the main story campaign. Cormand is a former Cathedral of Light priest that is attempting to stop the Malignant plague from spreading across Sanctuary, and he needs your help.
The Malignant plague’s threat mainly stems from a new enemy type called Malignant Monsters. These creatures can be spawned by any elite enemy in Diablo 4 and they carry extra powers that players have not seen before. Players are able to defeat Malignant Monsters by extracting their Malignant Hearts. The hearts can then be imprinted onto Amulets and Rings to give them extra powers, sort of like how an Aspect works. Blizzard has promised that these new Malignant Powers will allow players to craft some “stupidly broken builds,” but we’ll have to wait and see exactly how strong they can make players.
Finally, while playing through the new quest line, players will be able to see a new boss monster, receive new legendary and unique drops, and more. Luckily, players will be able to receive the new drops in the Eternal Realm. This means they can use their same launch character and not partake in Season 1 to earn the new items. Of course, players who do this will be missing out on the Battle Pass and the new Malignant quest line.
Season 1 battle pass
In addition to all of that content, the game’s first battle pass is included with Season 1 as well. Blizzard has stressed that the battle pass is optional to buy and there are several free tiers of content (27 tiers) players will be able to access. If players wish to purchase the battle pass, they will be able to unlock those 27 free tiers as well as 63 paid tiers.
Players can level up their battle pass by simply playing Diablo 4. Slaying demons and monsters, completing dungeons, and partaking in endgame content will all earn you battle pass XP so you can rank up to the next tier. Although players can also use the Season Journey to quickly rank up their battle pass, it should be noted that players will need to start fresh with a new character to access the Season 1 content–a detail that has confused or even upset some players.
The Season Journey allows players to complete objectives within Chapters, which in turn rewards you with Favor. This is the currency that is used to rank up your battle pass from tier to tier. The more Favor you earn, the quicker you can reach tier 100. The objectives and Chapters in the Season Journey also reward players with other items as well, such as Murmuring Obols, Legendary Aspects, and more. Each season of Diablo 4 is meant to go on for about three months, in line with many other games’ schedules of releasing four seasons in any given year.
Diablo seasons and what carries over
As we mentioned, you’ll need to play seasonal content with a new character and first have beaten the game at least once with any character–you need not replay the campaign to gain access to seasonal content, thankfully. Furthermore, Blizzard recently revealed that it’s altered some plans regarding which in-game systems would start fresh with a new season.
Previously the team planned on asking players to re-find evert Altar of Lilith, regain their Renown, and basically start completely fresh as a new season arrived. Mercifully, that’s no longer the case. During a dev chat shared publicly, general manager Rod Fergusson said progress related to player Renown levels, uncovering world maps, and Altar of Lilith locations will not reset with each new season. Fast-travel waypoints will still be marked on the map, though players will need to revisit them to activate them once more.
Fergusson added that activities players will need to complete again include things like dungeons, Strongholds, and some side quests, but added that the team is continuing to re-evaluate these reset requirements, meaning future changes could be on the way, too. It’s often the case that teams first trying their hand at new or different live-service elements fidget with those elements a lot in the early life of a game.
Battle pass price
One bit of potential controversy that arises with any battle pass in a live-service game is the pricing model developers use. In Diablo 4, players can purchase one of two versions, the Premium or Accelerated track. The Premium version costs 1,000 Platinum ($10) while the Accelerated version costs 2,800 Platinum ($25). If you purchased the Deluxe Edition of Diablo 4, you will unlock the Premium version automatically while Ultimate Edition buyers get the Accelerated version. The Accelerated version differs from the Premium in that players get 20 tier skips right off the bat as well as an exclusive cosmetic item.
Speaking of cosmetics, that is mostly what the Diablo 4 battle pass is filled with in Season 1. Players will be able to earn gold, emotes, character cosmetics, titles, and more. However, there are also tiers with Season Boosts and Smoldering Ashes as rewards. Season Boosts are basically XP boosters for your character while Smoldering Ashes are used to unlock Season Blessings. The blessings are buffs that give you bonus XP, Gold, or Obols when they are active. You can have more than one Season Blessing active at a time, meaning you will be earning bonus XP, Gold, or Obols at the same time while playing.
The one caveat with Season Blessings is that players need to be at a certain character level to activate them. This basically ensures players can’t “pay-to-win” and purchase tier skips to immediately gain access to gameplay boosts.
For even more on Diablo 4 Season 1, check out the full official patch notes.
For a lot more on Diablo 4, don’t miss our guides hub.
