Blizzard Entertainment announced some more-than-welcome features coming to Diablo 4 in the Vessel of Hatred expansion at this year’s Gamescom. If those announcements piqued your interest, this happens to be a great time to get started in Diablo 4 before the expansion lands in October. From August 22 to August 27, Diablo 4 is totally free to play on Steam, and a special event running for the weekend will let you get your character upgraded faster than ever.
All you need to do to start playing Diablo 4 for free is on Steam and check out the game’s store page, where a free download option is now available. Once you’re in, you can also take advantage of the Mother’s Blessing event. Running from August 21 to August 28, Mother’s Blessing gives all players — whether they own the game or are playing for free — a 35 percent boost to experience points earned and a 50 percent boost to gold. The bonus also applies even on Seasonal and Eternal Realms modes, and you can use in-game items to further increase your earnings. For anyone looking to get up to speed for Vessel of Hatred, you can stand to make some major progress over the next few days.
Diablo 4 is in many ways an improvement over Diablo 3. Players generally prefer its story and more diverse character builds, along with its open-world design offering more opportunities to stumble upon interesting encounters. One big critique players have had is that progressing through the game feels pretty slow in Diablo 4, but this weekend’s experience boost should eliminate or at least alleviate that particular issue. Climbing the ladder quicker means you’ll have earlier access to the game’s most potent abilities and be able to build a character that better suits your play style, whether you’re out to smash demons to bits as a Barbarian or turn the world to ash as a Sorcerer.
Even if you bounced off Diablo 4 after playing at launch, it’s worth giving it a second try now. Since its release, Diablo 4 has gotten an absolute deluge of updates making it feel almost like a different game altogether. The most obvious change is the addition of more endgame content to keep things rolling well after the credits, but it’s also gotten plenty of smaller tweaks to classes, items, and dungeons. The most recent seasons of the game (it’s currently in Season Five) have been largely popular, particularly with updates that have seen Blizzard take the kid gloves off and offer some wildly powerful gear to make its never-ending demon slaying more exciting.
If you stick around after the free weekend, you’ll also get to take part in the March of the Goblins. While that might sound like a delightful parade of fantastical creatures, it’s actually more akin to the Running of the Bulls in terms of sheer carnage. From August 27 to September 3, Treasure Goblins will spawn at a massively increased rate, sometimes even appearing in pairs. Treasure Goblins carry enormous amounts of treasure which you can claim by defeating them, making the event a great time to gear up your new high-level character after leveling up during Mother’s Blessing.
A little further out, Vessel of Hatred launches on October 8, bringing the Spiritborn class, a new endgame dungeon that’s basically equivalent to World of Warcraft’s raids, and an extra story chapter set in a brand-new environment. Putting enough time in this weekend will kick-start your character to get you much closer to all the new features Vessel of Hatred has to offer.
Whether you stick around for the next chapter or not, it’s worth giving Diablo 4 a shot while it’s free. The game maintains all the compulsively playable action the series has always been known for, combined with a series of intricate upgrade systems to please players looking for more complexity. The free weekend is also a great time to play with friends who might not want to shell out for the game just yet. However you play, there are worse ways to spend a weekend than flying through the early levels of Diablo 4, leaving a sea of dismembered demons in your wake.
