I have a complicated history with Diablo IV. I reviewed the base game at launch as death by a thousand cuts, the first Diablo that got less fun the more I played, and I jumped off it faster than any Blizzard game I can remember. The first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, did not pull me back in, but the second one did: I reviewed Lord of Hatred as a divine redemption, the update that finally made Diablo IV feel like a real Diablo game, something I compared to Diablo 3.5 and meant as a compliment.
Blizzard’s next chapter is Season of Death Awakening, the game’s fourteenth season, which launches June 30 at 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern) in the wake of Mephisto’s defeat. It builds on the systems that won me back, the reworked War Plans and the returning Horadric Cube chief among them, while adding a new seasonal theme, a major Unique overhaul, the Tower and Leaderboards graduating from beta, and a crossover with Overwatch. Here is everything coming with it.
Pandemonium Ruptures
The season’s centerpiece is the Pandemonium Rupture, an arcane rift that tears open the barrier between Sanctuary and the realm of Pandemonium. Ruptures appear across the overworld and show up most often in Helltides, and you open one by clearing the guardians around its Death’s Head Idols. Keeping a Rupture open by killing monsters and sealing Tears earns escalating rewards, along with Glints of Hope that you redeem at the reputation board in Zarbinzet and Pandemonium Fragments, the season’s main crafting currency. There are three varieties: standard Ruptures, Surging Ruptures that replace local Helltide events, and Colossal Ruptures that appear only in the Fields of Desecration near Zarbinzet, while Rupture Goblins can turn up anywhere to open extra rifts.
The seasonal questline, A Gospel of Despair, kicks off when a raven delivers a warning about a Death Cult in Zarbinzet, and you start it by reading a scroll in Kyovashad. The toughest Ruptures can summon a returning Realmwalker boss, guaranteed from Colossal Ruptures and possible from Surging ones completed with Mastery, and defeating it opens a portal to the Deathtoll Chamber. That one-room mini-dungeon, also reachable inside Nightmare Dungeons carrying the Rupture affix, is the best source of the Superior Lair Keys you need for endgame rewards. A new monster family called the Risen debuts as well, led by Gravehounds that drop orbs to empower a special enemy called the Exarch, so intercepting those orbs before they land matters. Capping it off is a new seasonal Lair Boss, the Corrupted Reaper, found at the Pandemonium Threshold in Zarbinzet and home to the best direct drop rates for Mythic Uniques and Pandemonium Fragments in the game.
Mythic Uniques 3.0
The biggest systems change this season is Mythic Uniques 3.0, which turns Mythic from an item rarity into a quality you can apply to any Unique. Every Mythic Unique rolls as Ancestral, has its Unique Powers boosted by 30 percent, and maxes all of its other affixes. You can craft one starting at level 70 in Torment and above, using either the Horadric Cube, which costs five Pandemonium Fragments, or the Jeweler, which takes 18 Runes and three Resplendent Sparks, and you can also earn them from the reputation board, Resplendent Caches, the seasonal Lair Boss, Season Ranks, or a rare roll whenever an Ancestral Unique drops. The one catch is that you can equip only a single crafted Mythic Unique at a time, though the ones you find as drops or in caches carry no such limit.
Blizzard also reworked the system in response to PTR feedback. Converting a Unique now returns a Mythic in the same gear slot rather than a random one from the same category, all Uniques keep two guaranteed affixes instead of the single one tested on the PTR, and affixes added through Enchanting, Transfiguration, and Tempering now always roll at maximum. Iconic Mythics can no longer be crafted at the Jeweler, though random ones are still available at the Blacksmith, and Uniques of every type can now have one unwanted affix rerolled at the Enchanter. Itemization was one of my biggest gripes in my original review, and Lord of Hatred is what turned the loot chase from the thing that pushed me away into the thing keeping me up too late.
Tower, Leaderboards, and Solo Self Found
Tower and Leaderboards graduate out of beta this season, and Blizzard is adding fresh cosmetics to chase across them. Each leaderboard cycle now rewards a Halo cosmetic and a Prestige Title based on your best rank, from simply playing the Tower up through claiming the top spot, and the start of the next season grants an Emblem reflecting your highest finish. The Pit’s leaderboard chase was one of my favorite parts of Lord of Hatred, and this builds out that competitive side of the endgame even further.
The headline new mode is Solo Self Found, a character state for players who want to carve their own path with no help. SSF characters are seasonal only, can be Normal or Hardcore, and cannot trade or group with anyone, sharing their stash, currency, and Paragon only with other SSF characters on the same account. The trade-off is that the Free Trial, Couch Co-op, and the Dark Citadel are off the table, and the choice is permanent for the season before the character reverts to Eternal afterward. You enable it with a toggle on the character creation screen, and SSF players get their own dedicated leaderboards for both Normal and Hardcore.
Crafting and Quality-of-Life Updates
Beyond Mythic Uniques, the Horadric Cube and crafting pick up a few more tweaks. Unique Charms and non-Ancestral Uniques can now use the Unique Power Reroll, Chromatic Tuning Prisms have a small chance to grant All Resist, and the Occultist can reroll one unwanted affix on a Unique, Mythic Unique, or Iconic Mythic through Enchanting. The endgame’s War Plans system, which I called the backbone of the variety in Lord of Hatred, is getting party sync (yes!), letting a group reroll and share a single War Plan board for two Marks of El’Druin once everyone is gathered in Temis. War Plan activity XP now scales up to Torment VIII and above, new quests cover longer Helltides and Nightmare Dungeon Escalation Sigils, and Helltide progress now comes from collecting Cinders rather than opening chests.
A handful of general changes round things out, including a raised Obols cap of 25,000 and a gold cap pushed to nearly one trillion. Blizzard also added missing mini-map icons to Nightmare Dungeon and Pit objects, plus Boss Trophy items for Astaroth and Bartuc with combined Horadric Cube recipes for them.
Warlock Free Trial and the Overwatch Crossover
Newcomers get a chance to sample the Warlock for free from June 30 to July 7 at 10 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern), playing the class up to level 25 on PlayStation, XBOX, and Battle.net, with the option to buy the Lord of Hatred expansion and keep that progress. The other big event is a Diablo IV x Overwatch collaboration that starts at season launch, where striking down Elite and Champion monsters earns Eye of the Overwatch currency. You spend it in a free Overwatch Reliquary stuffed with two Emblems, a Mount Trophy, three weapon skins, and an Overwatch-themed dye that doubles as the game’s first ever earnable dye, with Kiriko’s Fox Spirit companion waiting for anyone who completes it. Paid Overwatch hero skins also land in Tejal’s Shop the same day.
Season Rank, Blessings, and the Battle Pass
Season Rank returns with nine ranks and more than 120 objectives, more than last season offered. Climbing it hands out up to 12 Skill Points, 42 Paragon points, and seven Resplendent Sparks, along with five Mythic Unique Caches, the Greystone pet, the Remains of the Reaper Mount Trophy, two Emblems, four Titles, special title laurels, and stacks of crafting materials and caches, though about 15 percent of the objectives require the Lord of Hatred expansion. Within Season Rank you can also earn Smoldering Ashes to spend on Season Blessings, a set of Urns that boost reputation gains, salvage materials, Masterworking drops, glyph upgrades, and the chance for an Ancestral Cache from Whispers.
There are cosmetics to grab outside the game too. Watching at least two hours of eligible Diablo IV streams on Twitch between June 30 and July 14 earns the Final Headache two-handed mace, while the season’s Battle Pass Reliquary offers free rewards such as the Nangaria Mount, the Barding of the Deathless mount armor, and the Eye of Tyranny town portal. A Deluxe Battle Pass runs 2,800 Platinum and adds the Winged Redeemer armor set, the Netherean pet, and the Wings of the Redeemer reactive wings.
Patch 3.1.0 goes up for pre-download on June 25 at 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern), with the full 3.1.0 patch notes detailing the complete list of class balance and item changes, ahead of the season’s June 30 launch.
