In the latest developer livestream, Diablo 4 developers talked in-depth about the post-launch experience and answered questions about Seasons, Season Journeys, Battle Pass, and the Shop.
Seasons
Seasons are quarterly updates that will add gameplay features, quests, Battle Passes, Legendaries, class balance changes, and other quality-of-life improvements to the game.
Seasons will introduce fresh concepts and ideas into the world of Sanctuary.
Season 1 will begin mid to late July, and to embark on the next chapter, you must complete the Campaign.
The Season Journey
The Season Journey will fill your Battle Pass progress. Completing all objectives in a chapter will provide you with Seasonal rewards, such as Crafting Materials and Legendary Aspects for your Codex of Power.
Each objective grants you Favor, a resource used to level up through the Tiers of the Battle Pass. Additionally, Favor is obtained from quests, killing enemies and participating in events.
The Battle Pass
A new Battle Pass will be introduced with each Season, containing 27 Free Tiers and 63 Premium Tiers. You can earn Cosmetics and Smoldering Ashes from the Free Tiers by slaying monsters.
Smoldering Ashes are a resource that you can spend on Season Blessings, which provide you with a bonus to earning Experience, Gold, or Obols. The bonuses from Season Blessings only last until that respective Season ends. You must meet certain Character Level requirements to claim the Smoldering Ashes needed to apply Blessings. This ensures they are earned by achieving gameplay requirements and there’s no advantage gained from buying Tier Skips.
To earn rewards from Premium Tiers, a player must buy the Premium Battle Pass. This upgraded track of the Battle Pass will not provide any in-game powe, but instead unlocks tiers that provide Cosmetics unique to that Season and the Platinum currency.
Platinum is spent in the Shop to acquire Cosmetics that sculpt you into the wanderer you wish to become or put towards the purchase of future Battle Passes. Platinum can only be acquired using real currency.
Diablo 4 has three Battle Pass variants:
- Battle Pass (Free)
- Premium Battle Pass: Costs 1,000 Platinum (equivalent of $9.99 USD)
- Accelerated Battle Pass: Includes all the perks of the Premium Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, a special Cosmetic, and will cost 2,800 Platinum (equivalent of $24.99 USD).
The Shop
The role of shop cosmetics is to provide greater breadth in customization options. None of the cosmetics sold in the Shop provide anything greater than aesthetic variety.
Cosmetics sold in the shop will rotate on a consistent basis and must be purchased with Platinum. Once purchased, Cosmetics will be usable on all characters of that Class on your account.
Diablo 4 contains a cross-purchase feature, where any Platinum or items acquired with Platinum are tied to your Battle.net account and can be accessed on any platform where you play the game.
*Legendary Armor earned through gameplay (left) versus Armor Cosmetics purchased from the Shop (right).
