Diablo IV Season 1 Developer Livestream Recap
As Diablo 4’s Season 1 approaches, we finally have gotten a peak into what’s in store. In this article, we are going to run through everything Diablo 4 related from the Diablo Season 1 Developer Livestream. From the new seasonal story to new seasonal systems and some massive item changes, we have everything you need to know about Season 1.
How To Start Season of the Malignant
Diablo 4’s first Season is called Season of The Malignant. Players will start the season by speaking with a new character named Cormund who can be found within Kyovashad. Seasonal characters can jump into the seasonal story at level 1 if the campaign has already been completed on another character on their account.
The new Seasonal story takes place after the events of the campaign. A new threat has emerged Malignant corruption. Spreading throughout Sanctuary this corruption has infected enemies throughout the world, empowering them and turning them into the malignant with powerful new abilities. The Malignant are incredibly powerful with new abilities for players to combat against.
The new Seasonal story is not a continuation of the campaign, rather it is a new self-contained side story found only within the seasonal realm.
New Seasonal Mechanics
Any elite enemy can spawn as a Malignant-infected enemy and as players slay the Malignant throughout Sanctuary they’ll get caged hearts. These hearts can then immediately be contained in a ritual of binding. This will summon waves of enemies ending with a much stronger fully corrupted version of the elite that dropped the heart. Once the ritual is successfully completed players will be rewarded with a caged heart.
Caged hearts can drop in four different colors, these colors correspond with different categories of legendary powers. Three of the colors correspond with special sockets found only on jewelry and the third color, the most rare, can universally socket into any of the three. Caged hearts can be socketed into your jewelry, similar to Legendary Gems in Diablo III.
As players progress through the season caged hearts will drop with stronger stats and bonuses. Unwanted hearts can be scrapped to produce a special resource used to craft invokers. Invokers are used in the new activity, available after the seasonal story has been completed, Malignant Tunnels. This activity can be entered in a number of locations throughout Sanctuary. The tunnels have an increased chance of spawning Malignant Elites and on occasion the new boss Varshan The Consumed.
New Legendary Aspects, Uniques and Balance Changes
As announced in the livestream, there will be a number of new aspects for each class. Many of these can be obtained through the Season Journey. There has not been any additional information on these aspects and uniques specifically, but we will know more when the patch releases on July 18th. These aspects and uniques will be added to the Eternal realm on the 18th, and players will have a chance to find them and test them out before the season starts on the 20th. Along with these new items for us to chase, we are expecting some pretty large balance changes to each class.
Seasonal Characters
To play new Seasonal content players must make a seasonal character on the Seasonal Realm. No purchase is necessary to play the seasonal content but the campaign must have been completed on either the eternal realm or the seasonal realm on at least one character to start the story.
New Seasonal Mechanics, story content, and other features will be available on the seasonal realm for the duration of the season, disappearing after the season ends. Once a Season ends your seasonal character will be transferred to the eternal realm. However, season-specific features, such as Malignant hearts, will disappear at that time.
Renown
Renown is a hot topic of conversation and this is what will carry over.
- All previously discovered Altars of Lilith
- All previously discovered areas of the Map
If you have done all this you’ll need to log onto an eternal realm character before making your seasonal character for the completion to carry over. Having this done will leave you almost at level 3 for your renown.
Seasonal Journey Cosmetics and Battle Pass
The Season Journey is divided into Chapters, each containing specific tasks that need to be accomplished. As you advance through the Journey, you will be rewarded with items that suit your role as a protector of Sanctuary. These rewards include powerful Legendary Aspects, an esteemed Mastery Title, and a valuable Scroll of Amnesia. The Scroll grants you the ability to reset your Skill Tree and Paragon Board at no cost. Additionally, the Journey grants you Favor, a valuable resource for progressing through the Battle Pass' Tiers. You can earn Favor by engaging in various activities within the game, such as slaying demons, completing quests, and more.
The Season of the Malignant Battle Pass activates on July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT. This Battle Pass consists of a total of 90 Tiers, with 27 Tiers available for free and 63 Tiers exclusive to premium users. As you progress through the Battle Pass, you can earn Smoldering Ashes from the Free Tiers. These Smoldering Ashes can be utilized to acquire Season Blessings, which grant you additional benefits in terms of experience, Gold, or Obols, depending on the specific Blessing you choose. It's important to note that the bonuses provided by Season Blessings are only effective until the conclusion of the Season of the Malignant.
It is worth noting that purchasers of the premium pass will only gain access to additional cosmetics with anything that impacts gameplay being available for free.
Finally, New cosmetics will be available for purchase in the in-game shop.
