This weekend will be the Diablo IV “Server Slam,” an open beta event to stress test the servers. It might not be the best timing considering Tears of the Kingdom is releasing and it’s Mother’s Day weekend, but hopefully the team gets the data it needs to be ready for launch. Today was another developer update, and the team shared more information on how seasons and the battle pass will work in Diablo IV.
Seasons will be released quarterly and each season will add gameplay features, questlines, Battle Passes, Legendary Items, class balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, and more. The goal of each season is to introduce fresh concepts and ideas to Sanctuary, similar to how seasons have been handled in Diablo III. The first season is expected to start mid to late July, giving the team a little over a month to deal with launch issues.
In order to experience what the first season will have to offer, players will have to first complete the Campaign. There will be a Season Journey in each season, just like Diablo III. The Season Journey serves as a guide for players to quickly level up their Battle Pass by completing Objectives to clear Chapters. Seasonal rewards for clearing a Chapter include crafting materials and Legendary Aspects for the Codex of Power.
The objectives will also reward an amount of Favor, which is the resource that is needed to level up through the Tiers of the Battle Pass. Players can also obtain Favor from completing quests, killing monsters, participating in events, etc.
As for the optional Battle Pass, there will be 27 free tiers and 63 premium tiers for each pass. The free tiers will grant cosmetics and Smoldering Ashes, which is a resource that can be spent on Season Blessings: bonuses to earning XP, Gold, or Obols depending on which Blessings you choose to spend the Ashes on. Those bonuses will only last until the respective Season ends, and players can have more than one Season Blessing active at a time and can use additional Ashes to upgrade the bonus they receive. Certain character level requirements will have to be met in order to claim Smoldering Ashes, this way there is no advantage gained from purchasing Tier Skips.
The Premium Battle Pass has the tiers that feature cosmetics unique to that season and the Platinum currency. Platinum can be spent in the Shop to purchase cosmetics, and it can only be acquired using real currency. In total, Diablo IV will offer three Battle Passes: the free battle pass, which is simply called Battle Pass, the Premium Battle Pass, which costs 1,000 Platinum ($9.99 USD), and the Accelerated Battle Pass that includes all perks of the Premium Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, the Wings of the Creator Emote for 2,800 Platinum ($24.99 USD).
The Diablo IV team wanted to reiterate that the cosmetic items sold in the Shop do not provide anything greater than aesthetic variety. There are no buffs or changes to the player’s character, other than how they appear in-game.
As a reminder, the Diablo IV Server Slam takes place from May 12 to May 14 and will be available on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
