On October 17, tons of quality-of-life changes and a bloodthirsty scourge arrive in Diablo IV. 

Skip the Campaign, Dive Into the Season

Starting with Season of Blood, players will now have the option to skip the Campaign after completing the Missing Pieces quest from the Prologue on the Seasonal Realm. Doing so will allow you to dive straight into Seasonal content, fast tracking your path to mastering the sanguine arts.

For those wanting to dive right into the Seasonal content with a pack of your best demon slaying allies, this change is for you!

Bloodthirsty Foes Descend Upon Sanctuary

Diablo IV’s Season of Blood calls upon players to battle against new monstrous threats – Vampires, Blood Skeletons and Blood Seekers threaten the citizens of Sanctuary. Uncover a new Season Journey, Questline, 22 Vampiric Powers, Battle Pass and more. Fight against the forces of the dark master Lord Zir and defeat them to unlock the secret of their dark art.

Fresh Blood, Fresh Start   

In Diablo IV, at the start of a Season, players must create a new character in the Seasonal Realm. Considering it’s a fresh start for all players, the beginning of a new Season is the perfect time to come to Sanctuary’s defense alongside everyone else on the same journey. Fear not! Once Season of Blood has concluded, your Seasonal Character becomes part of the Eternal Realm. Here, you can continue to progress, level and slay demons at your leisure.

For those savvy enough to have previously aided Sanctuary denizens, any earned renown (gained from uncovering the Map and conquering mighty Strongholds) will provide an advantage when the time comes to begin anew. All earned Renown Rewards persist between any new character on the same Realm, providing an immediate edge to your latest wanderer. This includes increased Potion capacity, Murmuring Obols Capacity and additional Skill Points.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Slain Demons

Reaching Level 100 with a character takes cunning, grit and determination; it’s no small feat. With Season of Blood, the team has implemented many changes to make achieving Level 100 significantly faster across both Seasonal and Eternal Realms. We heard the community feedback to decrease the time spent to reach Level 100 and for more meaningful content to play while progressing past Level 50 and beyond.

With the update on Oct. 17, many changes have been made to core game mechanics to help wanderers on their journey to glory. The experience gained from killing monsters at Level 50 and above has been generously increased and rises steadily as you level. Experience bonuses (such as Elixirs and Seasonal Blessings) are now multiplicative with the World Tier bonus. Nightmare Dungeon layouts have also been improved to ensure players don’t miss out on key Objectives, which reduces the need to backtrack. Monster density has also increased in Dungeons, drastically raising the carnage of these brutish hollows.

These changes, alongside many others, make the overall journey to Level 100 about 40% faster.

Seasons are a great opportunity for the development team to introduce new content and make bold changes. Season of Blood is a chance for us to address many community concerns and make the experience of slaying demons more exciting for all. As for meaningful ways to level up in the Endgame, bosses of awesome power stand in your way.

The Chase to the Endgame

On your path to greatness, new and familiar threats arrive to challenge even the most fearsome of warriors. Starting in World Tier III, Uber difficulty bosses become available, each with their own ability to drop exclusive Uniques, items that provide rare, powerful upgrades to your character. These bosses will require different materials and conditions to engage them – fighting the mighty Echo of Duriel will require playing in World Tier IV and resources gained from all other Uber boss fights.

We received community feedback that there should be more Endgame activities and better opportunities to farm Unique and Uber Unique items. This group of Endgame bosses were created to pose a challenge to high-level players while allowing them to hunt down sought-after items in a fun and intense way. These Endgame bosses each drop glorious cosmetics to earn – use them to style your character and Mount.

The Endgame experience for wanderers has also improved through vastly increased Gold and experience gained from Helltide Chests, Grim Favors and completing individual Whisper tasks. For the avid loot collectors, we’ve changed how items are collected in later World Tiers. Items of lower rarity in higher World Tiers simply drop as materials, freeing up much needed inventory space.

Legions of Lord Zir’s Minions Await

This is a brief glimpse of the Season Journey, quality-of-life changes and Endgame challenges that are coming with Season of Blood. Classes have been adjusted, Damage has been redistributed, Unique items have received a major overhaul and more!

For a full look at everything that arrives on Oct 17, you can read our Diablo IV patch notes. Fierce new challenges and Lord Zir’s vampiric scourge await in Season of Blood.

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