Blizzard has officially revealed a few of the remaining details about the next Diablo 4 season, coming to the game on April 29. We’ve known much about Season 8: Belial’s Return thanks to the PTR (Public Test Realm) the developer hosted for the new season last month, and quite unsurprisingly, not much has changed.
Separate from all the new content and changes to the endgame, Season 8 will also see the introduction of a new type of battle pass that should offer players more freedom in how they unlock its content.
Season 8: Belial’s Return arrives alongside patch 2.2.0, which includes the bulk of the changes that affect all players. As the name suggests, the big baddie this season is Belial – or, at least, his Apparations, which have now flooded Sanctuary.
Sayeena, and Jarius are your NPC handlers this season, and they’re who you’ll be dealing with throughout the seasonal quest, and it’s to them you’ll turn in your bounties to earn faction rep. The Lord of Lies quest itself can be started by speaking to the Stranger in Kyovashad’s city centre by the Waypoint.
Said faction rep can be earned mainly by taking part in Apparition Incursion, which is the new rotating event in Season 8. The longer you stay in the event zone and the more of them you cull, one of ten Apparition Bosses will spawn to hunt you down, and each of them has a unique Boss Power you can claim.
Which nicely leads into the big mechanic this season: Boss Powers. Each power has two effects, Main and Modifier. You can equip one Main and three Modifiers at any one time. Most Boss Powers can be acquired at any difficulty level, but some are only available in Torment I or higher. There are 24 of them, which you can claim from World, Event, and Lair bosses after killing them for the first time.
The other major gameplay addition in Season 8 is the rework to the endgame boss ladder, now simply known as Lair Bosses. Not much has changed there since players got a chance to test out the new system with the 2.2.0 PTR, but the idea is that summoning each boss is now a much more straightforward process, and you’ll more clearly be able to see their location on the map, and how much of the required materials you have. Bosses have also been rearranged into three tiers: Initiate, Greater, and Exalted.
Now, the battle pass. Starting with Season 8, the old linear track of rewards will be going away, and replaced with Reliquaries, which sort of work like Sectors in a Call of Duty battle pass. Each Reliquary is made up of standard rewards, and a bonus reward you earn once you buy everything else.
Similarly, you’re free to pick any Reliquary to start with. As a result, there’s now yet another currency, one used specifically to unlock items within the Reliquaries. It’s called Favor Tokens, and much like the battle pass tokens in Call of Duty, they’re earned by slaying monsters and completing quests, i.e., playing the game. You can hold up to 99 Favor Tokens, and save as many for future seasons.
The normal battle pass, starting with Season 8, will contain four Reliquaries. Only one – Belial’s Return – is free, while the rest will cost you Platinum. You can buy a bundle that contains all of them for 1,000 Platinum (same price as the premium pass in the current model), or pick the ones you want individually.
Each one is designed to have a theme; one will only contain weapon skins, animal skins and so on. In order to earn that season’s full amor set, however, you’re going to need to buy and complete all Reliquaries, because each one’s bonus reward is one piece of the set.
Much like Call of Duty, this new system allows for limited-time battle passes that exist alongside the main seasonal one. Blizzard is calling those Event Reliquaries, and they’re going to arrive whenever there’s a an event active in-game. We’re also getting one with each IP collaboration, starting with Berserk – which will be available May 6 – June 3.
The Accelerated Battle Pass is also gone as a result of this overhaul, replaced with the Deluxe Battle Pass Bundle, which costs the same 2,800 Platinum ($25), unlocks the full Guise of the Deceiver armor (this season’s set), wings, and the new Owl pet.
The Season Journey, however, will remain, it’s just gonna live under a different menu now. You can still tick the quests off the board to earn each page’s set of rewards. This menu now also includes Season Blessings, which is where you’ll go to spend your Smoldering Ashes on game-wide buffs like you’re used to.
Catch up on the full Blizzard blog post for more, if you’re interested.