Blizzard spoke in a new dev stream about the future of Diablo 4. Core topic: content and launch of Season 1. MeinMMO summarizes the key information for you.
When does Season 1 start and what does it include?
- Season 1 starts on July 20, 2023. The exact time is yet to be announced.
- The theme of Season 1 is Corruption, the title of the season is: “Season of the Malignant”, roughly: Season of the Malignant.
- Corruption creeps into the hearts of all creatures. The season mechanic is “the threat”.
- As the developers previously promised, the Renown from exploration and Lilith statues will count towards your season Renown. The effect of the statues and the exploration itself will also remain.
- You may need to log in again with old characters to transfer the progress.
This is the mechanic of Season 1: In the stream, Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora and Lead Game Designer Tim Ismay along with Diablo head Rod Fergusson and Community Lead Adam Fletcher discussed the future of Diablo 4.
The corruption, the main theme of the season, corrupts enemies and makes them stronger. You are supposed to help a new NPC, Corban, to prevent the spread. For this, “The Threat” serves as a mechanic.
Whenever you encounter an elite enemy in the world, there is a chance that it is corrupted. If you kill such an enemy, a corrupted heart appears. If you interact with this, a stronger version of this enemy appears. However, this can only occur after the campaign.
Season 1: Mechanic in detail and Battle Pass
What does the mechanic offer? When you defeat this enemy again, you will receive a “captured heart”, which works similarly to a gem. You place it in sockets and thus gain a huge boost in power, as the developers promise.
In total, there will be over 32 new “corrupted powers” that are supposed to be similar to legendary effects. Hearts come in 4 different categories, which only fit into sockets of the same “color” with one exception that fits into any socket. There are no more “normal” sockets.
If you specifically want to hunt the hearts, there are new “corrupted tunnels” as dungeons where corruption is more likely. These are even supposed to allow targeted hunting for specific colors.
For this mechanic as well as for the Battle Pass you need to start a new character.
What is included in the Battle Pass? The Battle Pass includes various cosmetic, class-agnostic rewards, as well as a new currency. However, what might be more interesting for most players is the journey. This works similarly to Diablo 3.
The journey grants you progress in the Battle Pass and for each section you also receive legendary aspects that you normally wouldn’t find in the Codex of Power. In this way, completing the journey should also give you an advantage.
You don’t have to pay anything for the Battle Pass, there is a free path through which you also have access to content like the journey.
With the new currency from the Battle Pass, the Smoldering Ash, you can buy seasonal blessings. These improve all your seasonal characters with various bonuses, such as increased effectiveness of elixirs.
New Legendarys and Uniques for All
In addition to the actual season mechanic, there will be a story that represents its own narrative apart from the main story. The story missions start in Kyovashad and you can begin as early as level 1. There are no restrictions.
The mechanics and the Battle Pass are, however, currently only available for season characters on the seasonal realm. Additionally, new legendary affixes and unique items will be coming, which you can also obtain on the eternal realm.
You do not need a new character if you only want new loot to work on builds. The patch for this, which will also bring balance changes, is even set to release earlier: on July 18.
What else was announced? In the stream, the first third also discussed the direct predecessor Diablo Immortal. There, the first new Diablo class in about 10 years was introduced, as the developers say: the Blood Knight.
Blood Knights are fighters with vampiric, dark magic, who will be playable in Diablo Immortal starting July 13. A similar, dark class has already been suspected for Diablo 4.
New classes are also planned for Diablo 4, but they are probably only coming with expansions sometime in the future. There is no further information on this yet. Many fans are already considering which class it could be, one is high in demand:
Diablo 4 is still missing a class to be complete – And it is the one you wish for
