Diablo IV’s latest season features a Berserk crossover and the return of Belial.
Diablo IV Season 8: Belial’s Return has officially been unveiled, and it’s a big one. From a story questline that has players confront returning baddie and Lord of Lies Belial, new Boss Powers to play with, Deadly Apparitions-fronted events, a rework of Lair Bosses, new items, and more, there’s plenty to do in Season 8. We haven’t even mentioned the game’s upcoming crossover with Berserk, the acclaimed manga by the late Kentaro Miura!
GosuGamers attended a roundtable interview with Diablo IV developers Deric Nunez (Lead Season Designer) and Colin Finer (Associate Director, Game Design) in advance of the season’s launch, to shed light on its upcoming gameplay content.
Diablo IV Season 8: Belial’s Return centres on the Lord of Lies
Diablo IV Season 8’s main questline centres on the return of Belial, who has unleashed Apparition Monsters into Sanctuary. The quest’s protagonists, Sayeena and Jarius, set out to investigate the appearance of these monsters with the Wanderer. In doing so, players will get access to new Boss Powers, which serve as this season’s new player abilities.
On Belial’s introduction, Finer said that “I'll say that if you're a fan of Diablo 3’s Belial bossfight, there's just so much to offer in this season in terms of callbacks. There's a rich story that we have, to reintroduce you to Belial [...] if you're uncomfortable with the whole seasonal paradigm, you will be able to fight some of the new bosses that we've added to the game as part of Belial's return, including Belial himself."
Boss Powers allow players to siphon abilities from 24 of Diablo IV’s main bosses. These Boss Powers have Main and Modifier effects, which can be activated depending on which Power Slot they’re equipped to. Modifier Boss Powers serve to buff up the Main Boss Power, and you can have up to one Main and three Modifier Powers active at a time.
Boss Powers allow you to wield the might of Sanctuary’s most powerful enemies, including Lilith herself. Players can acquire them by killing targeted bosses across Sanctuary, and thus gain their powers.
Nunez added that the Boss Powers serve as a structured way for lapsed Diablo IV players to get back into the game:
“The Boss Power collection is guided in the sense that, you know, when you log in, your first 10 powers will come from the brand-new seasonal activity, the apparition incursion where you be fighting the new apparition bosses, and, you know, inevitably, a showdown against Belial. From there, it's kind of like a checklist. We have the world bosses for your next 3 powers, which then guides you into the torment tiers, into the lair boss system itself, where you collect your next few powers. One of my favourite things about how we position Season 8 for the returning player is this very clear guidance.”
Apparition Monsters, Lair Boss reworks, and more
Belial is back in Sanctuary, but he’s not alone. The Lord of Lies has brought Apparition Monsters, foot soldiers borne from illusions, into Sanctuary with him, and it’s up to the player to deal with them in new Apparition Incursion events. These timed events will ask players to cull Apparition Monsters whenever they appear in the world map, after which an Apparition Boss will spawn. Killing this boss will grant the player a unique Boss Power (there are 10 to be granted in total).
These Apparition Incursion events double as Season 8’s new levelling experience, according to Nunez: “It's going to be a nice, fun, fast-paced way for all of us to hop on and just get our first pre-Torment batches of powers together, and start leveling up. We certainly want players to find immediate value out of the Apparition Incursions, but also to work them into the greater pantheon of other activities healthily. We see [Apparition Incursions] as the new shiny thing that a lot of players will check out first, but for them to settle into the healthy stable of rotating activities depending on what their current needs are.”
Lair Boss rework
This season revolves around bosses, so it’s fitting that its new changes include a Lair Boss rework. These bosses now come in three tiers of difficulty (Initiate, Greater, and Exalted), and no longer require boss materials to summon. They also now spawn a Hoard chest upon death, which players can use Lair Boss keys to open. The entire Lair Boss system has been revamped to be more forgiving for players who might’ve otherwise sunk a lot of time into the system with little reward to show for it.
Finer added that this was once of his personal highlights of the season: “It’s a Season of bosses, so we leveled them all up. We’re adding the Harbinger of Hatred, the final boss from Vessel of Hatred, which I think is just going to be so cool. Beyond Harbinger of Hatred, Duriel's getting this attack that I think is really nasty. At any point in the fight, if you get knocked down by Duriel, he's gonna do this big overhead cleave attack, and actually suck you into his belly and eat you. And I think that's just gonna be disgusting and awesome.”
New Legendary and Unique Items, balance changes
Six new Unique items are also being added to Diablo IV for players to hunt down. In addition to that, the game’s Battle Pass system is getting a revamp with Reliquaries. Reliquaries are different catalogues of rewards which can be purchased using Platinum, and other currencies. The rewards in these battle passes will require Favour Tokens to unlock.
Finer explained that “the key decision behind adjusting the Battle Pass system was really that we wanted the battle pass to feel more like the player was in control of the rewards that they were getting. So it's really in the spirit of what we think makes Diablo best, which is playing Diablo your way and having lots of customization and choice. The reliquary system and update is really driven by that desire to ensure that players have that customisation and choice available to them, even in something like the battle pass system.”
While this season’s patch notes aren’t available yet, expect Blizzard to act quickly when it starts to see overpowered builds crop up early in the season. Finer noted that “We don't want to disrespect player time investment. Blood Wave Necro is a great example of this, where you get one Unique on Blood Wave Necro and now you're shutting down everything in the game, and we let that ride. We didn't want to hurt the player.
But in Season 8, what we're going to be doing is watching out a little bit more vigilantly early in a season, before a ton of time investment has actually happened on the player side. If we see a class way overperforming and leaving the other classes in the dust, we're going to try and action on that really quickly at the start of the season, so we catch it before you put a bunch of time into it.”
Diablo IV Season 8 kicks off on 29 April, 2025. Read more on the season’s contents here.
