Everything to know about Diablo 4 Season 1: New enemies, loot and more

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Blizzard has revealed Diablo 4’s first season, which includes new story quests, dungeons, a boss and more launching on July 20. 

Blizzard Entertainment held a developer stream this week to announce details on Diablo 4’s first season of content, titled Season of the Malignant. Season 1 launches on July 20 at 10am PDT, bringing players a new questline, boss, loot, battle pass, season journey, dungeons and more to dig into while an invasion of Malignant Monsters befalls Sanctuary. 

Here’s the season announcement trailer:

 

So what’s this season all about?

Season of the Malignant shakes things up in Sanctuary with new story events set after the main campaign. Lilith’s return has somehow paved the way for a new threat to be born in Sanctuary - zombie-like decaying creatures called Malignant Monsters. These undead demons attack anyone and everyone in Sanctuary without hesitation, but their sudden appearance is a mystery to all but a former priest of the Cathedral of Light named Cormond. 

Cormond is a new character who calls for aid from the Wanderer in Season 1’s all-new questline. The new story quests will involve players capturing Malignant Hearts that fuel these creatures and convert them into build-altering powers. With these new bonuses at your fingertips, you’ll have to eliminate the Malignant Monsters from Sanctuary entirely. 

Malignant Hearts are the game’s way of introducing new ways for players to do powerful character builds. Partly Corrupted enemies will drop Malignant Hearts when killed, and these can be captured by using the Cage of Binding to perform a ritual - the latter of which will be given to players during the new questline. Unfortunately, Partly Corrupted enemies get reborn as Fully Corrupted enemies when you’re trying to capture Malignant Hearts, so you’ll have to defeat them again. 

What do you get out of all this? Fully Corrupted enemies drop a version of Malignant Hearts that go into special Infested sockets in your Jewelry in place of a normal gem, for special perks. 32 Malignant Hearts across four different categories will appear in Season 1, giving players access to new bonuses and build opportunities. New dungeon types called Malignant Tunnels will also give players an easy way to hunt down Malignant Monsters and try the new boss battle against Varshan the Consumed. 

 

Okay, what about seasonal characters?

In case you didn’t already know, you need to create a new character to experience Season of the Malignant’s content. You will also need to beat the campaign before playing Season 1, after which you’re given the option to skip the campaign with a new Seasonal character. Your Seasonal character will then have all of the following unlocked immediately:

• The option to skip the Campaign.
• Your Mount available immediately.
• All previously discovered Altars of Lilith unlocked, and the corresponding Renown for them.
• All previously discovered areas of the map revealed, and the corresponding renown for them.

Any old characters will be transferred to the Eternal Realm with all their old items in tow, where you can still access them without Season-specific features. Season 2 will deliver the same reset, allowing Blizzard to use these temporary seasons to throw in whacky new features without worrying about how to balance them in future seasons. The company said during the livestream that buffs and nerfs will be few and far between - the focus is on new mechanics that don't last long anyway. 

 

So, about that battle pass… 

Diablo 4: Season of the Malignant adds two new ways for players to earn rewards by progressing through the season: the Season Journey and the Battle Pass. The Season Journey is broken up into Chapters consisting of a checklist of in-game activities to complete, rewarding players with Legendary Aspects, a Mastery Title, a Scroll of Amnesia (that lets you reset the Skill Tree and Paragon Board for free) and Favour. Favour is basically Battle Pass XP. 

The Battle Pass goes live on Season 1’s launch day, July 20, with 90 tiers in total for players to grind through. In the 27 free tiers, you’ll find Smoldering Ashes which give you XP, Gold or Obols depending on which Season Blessings you spend them on. The 63 paid-for tiers host cosmetics for your characters and mount, platinum and more. More cosmetics will also hit the shop in Season 1.