Diablo 4 is here, but while its critically acclaimed story campaign and grindable endgame activities are available to play now, the game's first live service season actually hasn't begun yet. Once it does, though, fans can expect new gameplay offerings, quests, and a reward-filled Battle Pass, with everything tied together by Season of the Malignant's unique theme.
While the nitty gritty specifics of the seasonal gameplay loop aren't fully known yet, we do know quite a bit about Season of the Malignant's release date, story, its new content, and the Battle Pass. Here's a full overview of everything we know so far.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Start date and time
• The best Diablo 4 builds
• Diablo 4: List of all Legendary Aspects
• Diablo 4: List of all Unique items
• Diablo 4 starter guide
• Diablo 4 class tier list
Blizzard has confirmed that that Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant is scheduled to go live on July 20 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET, so you won't be able to engage with most of its content until then. Once it's active, the season is expected to last until October. This is because the developers previously said that Diablo 4 seasons will be "quarterly," so Season of the Malignant (and all future seasons) is expected to last about three months. Blizzard hasn't given the season a concrete end date, though, so those plans could change.
Notably, you'll need to finish the Diablo 4 campaign before you can access Season of the Malignant's quests and content, so we recommend playing through it now. That way, you'll be able to jump into everything the season has to offer right when it launches, giving you the maximum amount of time to reap the rewards.
The patch for Season of the Malignant is now available to download. While you won't be able to load into the Seasonal Realm and make a seasonal character until it begins, characters on the Eternal Realm will be able to get Season of the Malignant's new Legendary Aspects and Uniques to drop.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Theme and story
Similar to other live service games like Destiny 2, Diablo 4 seasons will have a theme and a title that reflects it. Season 1's is Season of the Malignant, and will be centered around a new corruption called "Malignance" that's invading the world of Sanctuary and infecting everything and everyone it touches, including humans, Lilith's demons, and other creatures.
Only a new character named Cormond (pictured above) knows how to halt the spread of the corruption, but to do so, he'll need your help to ward off Sanctuary's many dangers. Thus, the majority of the season's story will revolve around your collaboration with Cormond as he works to combat the growing Malignance.
Note that Season of the Malignant's narrative takes place after the events of the base Diablo 4 campaign, and is thought of by the developers as a relatively standalone story. Presumably, this is how future seasonal narratives will be structured as well.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Gameplay details
During Season of the Malignant, Elite mobs throughout the game will have a chance to spawn as Malignant versions with some special new buffs and attacks. Defeating them will drop a Malignant Heart, which you can then interact with by using the season's unique Cage of Binding item. Doing this will spawn an even stronger version of the enemy supported by hordes of minions, but once you kill them, you'll be rewarded with a Caged Heart that you can slot into armor pieces for valuable Malignant Power bonuses. These are similar to Legendary Aspects and Unique effects in that they can overhaul your build with new effects and abilities.
Malignant Power bonuses get progressively stronger as you push into endgame World Tiers and engage with content like Nightmare Dungeons, and in total, there are 32 Malignant Powers split across four categories. Notably, you'll be able to break down old Caged Hearts to obtain a material used to craft Invokers, which are special items you can take into infested dungeons called Malignant Tunnels. At the end of these, you can use Invokers to target farm-specific Malignant Power types by spawning bosses. For more information on all 32 Malignant Hearts and how they interact with sockets on your items, check out our full guide here.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: New items
Throughout the season, players will also have a Season Journey to progress through by completing various gameplay objectives. When finished, these will give rewards such as a Mastery title, a new Scroll of Amnesia item that allows you to instantly reset your skills and Paragon Board for free, Favor XP for the Battle Pass, and new Legendary Aspects.
Speaking of Legendary Aspects, Blizzard has confirmed that there will be seven new ones available to use in Season of the Malignant, along with six new Unique items that can drop. These will be available in the Eternal Realm as well, so you don't have to engage with Diablo 4's seasonal reset to enjoy them.
You also won't have to hunt down Altars of Lilith and map locations for Renown again if you have already, though you will still need to do side quests and complete dungeons.
Something important to note is that all of the seasonal gameplay content will be available to all players, regardless of whether or not they buy the Premium Battle Pass. That means you don't need to buy it in order to complete the story with Cormond, engage with the new Malignant Powers, and finish the Season Journey.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Season Journey
The Season Journey is seven separate chapters full of objectives for you to complete for Favor. You can do any combination of each chapter's activities to complete it and move on to the next chapter. The Favor you earn will help you progress both in the game and Battle Pass. For each chapter completion, you will also earn a cache.
- Chapter 1 - First Journey Cache (contains herbs and jewelry), of the Ancestral Charge Aspect (Barbarian), Subterranean Aspect (Druid), of Gore Quills Aspect (Necromancer), of Pestilent Points Aspect (Rogue), of Searing Wards Aspect (Sorcerer)
- Chapter 2 - Second Journey Cache (contains Scattered Prisms and jewelry), Bold Chieftain’s Aspect (Barbarian), Shockwave Aspect (Druid), of Exposed Flesh Aspect (Necromancer), of Surprise Aspect (Rogue), of Frozen Orbit Aspect (Sorcerer).
- Chapter 3 - Third Journey Cache (Contains Legendary Salvage and jewelry), of Encroaching Wrath Aspect (Barbarian), Dire Wolf’s Aspect (Druid), of Decay Aspect (Necromancer), of Imitated Imbuement Aspect (Rogue), of the Unbroken Tether Aspect (Sorcerer).
- Chapter 4 - Fourth Journey Cache (contains some Malignant Hearts, Forgotten Souls, and jewelry), Earthquake Aspect (Barbarian), Lightning Dancer’s Aspect (Druid), Coldbringer’s Aspect (Necromancer), Umbrous Aspect (Rogue), and Gravitational Aspect (Sorcerer).
- Chapter 5 - Fifth Journey Cache (contains late game crafting materials, Nightmare Sigils, and fine jewelry), Craven Aspect (You gain 20-40% increased movement speed when moving away from Slowed or Chilled enemies.
- Chapter 6 - Sixth Journey Cache (Contains late game crafting materials, Nightmare Sigils, and jewelry), of Audacity Aspect (When there are at least 5 close enemies, Stun them for 2-4 seconds. This can only occur once every 20 seconds.)
- Chapter 7 - Seventh Journey Cache (contains late game crafting materials, jewelry, and a Scroll of Amnesia, which refunds all allocated Skill and Paragon Points).
The Favor you earn from completing your Season challenges, can be used to purchase the Season Blessings.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Battle Pass rewards
In addition to new gameplay content, Season of the Malignant (and future seasons) will also feature a 90-tier Battle Pass with a wide variety of rewards. To progress through its tiers and unlock their items, players will need to accrue Favor XP by slaying monsters, completing quests and World Events, and finishing Season Journey challenges.
It's important to stress that while seasonal Battle Passes are a core part of Diablo 4's monetization, Blizzard has promised that gameplay items like Season Boosts (XP boosters) and Smoldering Ashes (a currency that allows you to unlock and upgrade Season Blessing buffs) will be available on the Battle Pass' Free reward track. Additionally, since they have level requirements, folks won't be able to get these unlocks early by buying Battle Pass tiers.
Fans can expect the following items to be available from the tiers:
Tiers 1-20
Tiers 21-40
Tiers 41-60
Tiers 61-80
Tiers 81-90
If you have the Premium Battle Pass, here are the rewards at the very top of the pass, as levels 89 and 90.
How much does the Diablo 4 Battle Pass cost?
Diablo 4 Battle Passes have three distinct tiers, with each giving access to different types and amounts of rewards and two requiring real-world money in order to purchase. We've listed each tier and their costs below.
- Free: Free for all players, gives access to Free reward track
- Premium: Costs 1,000 Platinum (£8.39 / $9.88), gives access to Premium reward track
- Accelerated: Costs 2,800 Platinum (£20.99 / $24.99), gives access to Premium reward track, 20 tier skips, and an exclusive cosmetic
If all you care about is gameplay, you'll probably be best off sticking with the Battle Pass' Free tier. If you want lots of extra cosmetics to use for fashion, though, you'll probably want the Premium Battle Pass. The Accelerated tier — essentially just a separately-sold version of the Battle Pass bonus you get from buying the Diablo 4 Ultimate Edition — is quite expensive, but does give you a significant head start on progression and includes a unique cosmetic item.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Get prepared
We have a bunch of guides here at Windows Central to help you in your journey through Sanctuary, but if you want the best start to your first seasonal journey you'll want to check out 'How to prepare for Diablo 4 Season 1' for info on logging in with your non-seasonal character to make sure your map is unlocked, and our guide to leveling as fast as you can to make that journey to level 50 a bit less grueling.
Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant: Announcement trailer
Below, we've embedded the official announcement trailer for Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant for easy viewing.
Diablo 4 is out now and is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and we've been having an absolute blast with it.
