Season 2

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Release Date

Stepping out from the shadows that once obscured them, the Dark Master’s Blood Seekers swoop in to prey upon unsuspecting mortals. Their ravenous appetites have grown—the Season of Blood will soon ooze throughout Sanctuary!

Diablo IV’s second season begins on October 17 at 10 a.m. PDT. Dare to look fanged destruction in the face and send it back to Hell with a new Season Journey, Questline, Season Event, deadly blood-driven enemies, Battle Pass, and more. Plus, new Uber Endgame bosses have arrived in Sanctuary to increase the variety of endgame activities in Diablo IV. These havoc-wreaking bosses are hard to topple but can drop Unique items and Cosmetics found nowhere else. We’re shedding light on all the grisly details—read on for a comprehensive look at Season of Blood’s contents.

Beginning 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. Choosing to do so will allow you to jump right into content from Season of Blood.

Patch 1.2.0 goes live on October 17 too! Visit this article on October 10 after our upcoming Diablo IV Campfire Chat for more information on Class balance, new Unique items, sweeping changes to Resistances, and a great deal of other quality of life updates and bug fixes.

Theme

At first, they targeted small hamlets, descending upon insignificant prey and tearing into their jugular—a most grisly death to befall someone. But then their ambitions grew, and they became sloppy, greedy. That’s when word of suspicious vampire activity met your ears, wanderer.

Magistrate Oren, the distraught leader of a town badly plagued by these bloodthirsty assailants, needs your help in investigating the recent slew of murders. Enter Sanctuary’s vampire-infested underbelly in a new Questline, recruit the skillful vampire hunter Erys to your cause, and discover the sinister plot of the Dark Master behind it all.

Mechanics

Driving a stake into the heart of the Dark Master’s plan will require you to wield their same savagery—Vampiric Powers. What was once a forbidden art shall become Sanctuary’s salvation. But to wield it, you’re going to need blood, Potent Blood. Acquired from fallen adversaries, Potent Blood can be spent in the Vampiric Powers tab within the Character menu to unlock a random power or power upgrade. Vampiric Powers can also be unlocked by completing the Seasonal Questline and from the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event. We’ll cover the latter in detail later.

After learning a Vampiric Power, you can spend Potent Blood in the powers tab to take its might to the next Level. Each power can be upgraded to a maximum of Level 3 and up to five powers can be equipped to your character at a time. When you hover over a Vampiric Power, you’ll notice it displays anywhere between 1–3 symbols and numbers—these are called Pacts and the number is their associated cost. This is where Pact Armor comes into play.

Unpack Your Vampire Power Through Pact Armor

There are three Pact types in total. Using the above image for reference, from left to right, they are called Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. Keep your eyes peeled for Chest armor, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helms containing Pacts that drop during Season of Blood because they are needed to activate your Vampiric Powers. Once you have both Pact Armor and Vampiric Powers equipped, you’ll need to ensure that the armor you’re wearing provides Pacts that match the activation cost listed on the power.

Let’s use the above Legendary Gloves as an example. They provide 1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, and 1 Eternity Pacts. If you have a Vampiric Power that requires 1 Ferocity to activate, then this item alone covers the requirement, and you still have 1 Divinity and 1 Eternity available. If you equip a second Vampiric Power that requires both 1 Divinity and 1 Eternity to activate, the boots still provide enough Pacts to activate both powers.

Customize Pact Armor to Your Needs

You might not always have armor with the right Pacts to activate the Vampiric Powers in your collection. The Dark Master’s servants have devised two types of items to remedy this situation: standalone Pacts and Cleansing Acids.

Standalone Pacts are used to add a specific type of Pact to an item of your choice (this can only be done if the maximum amount of that Pact type isn’t already on that item). Cleansing Acids are used to remove Pacts from an item.

These crafting items can be pried from the clutches of Blood Seekers, as well as acquired from the Blood Harvest Season event, Season Journey, Opulent Coffins, and through the new Questline. Use these tools to ensure you always have Pact Armor that matches the Vampiric Powers you’d like to use.

Bleed New Blood into Your Build

Now that you’ve learned of Vampiric Powers and Pact Armor, let’s look at the 22 Vampiric Powers available in Season of Blood. All Classes can wield any Vampiric Power, and in doing so, they will sculpt your character into a vampire-killing machine. Will you seek to diversify your collection of powers or concentrate your resources on maxing out a handful of them?

The new Vampiric Curse keyword has been added to complement these terrifying powers. Look out for it as you read about each power.

Vampiric Curse: Killing an enemy affected by your Vampiric Curse stores their soul. Casting a Defensive, Macabre, or Agility Skill will unleash stored souls to attack nearby enemies. You can hold up to 8 souls.

See Vampiric Powers.

Reap Hunter's Acclain from the Blood Harvest Season Event

Home to the highest chance for receiving Potent Blood and Pact Armor drops is the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event. With a wave of his hand, the Dark Master has dispatched cunning Blood Seekers with armies of vampires to conquest the Dry Steppes, Hawezar, and Scosglen regions of Sanctuary, imprisoning its denizens and causing pandemonium.

Putting enemies to the sword during Bounties, bursting Blood Blisters, completing World Events, disrupting vampiric rituals, and freeing prisoners, will earn you some Reputation. With Reputation, you’ll climb Tiers containing useful rewards, such as crafting materials, Items, and Pact consumables.

Inside the Blood Harvest, you’ll have the chance to acquire Blood Lures, which summon Blood Seekers for you to extinguish. You can also use any Seeker Keys you find to free prisoners of the Dark Master's army or on Seekers Caches to receive Pact Armor, Pact Consumables, and Potent Blood.

Crush the Dark Master’s Army in New Events

There will also be new World Events and Dungeon Events where you can go toe-to-toe with more Blood Seekers and other vampire foot soldiers as well. The dark master’s army calls some of Sanctuary’s Dungeons home—delve into their depths to see what secrets lie in wait.

New Endgame Bosses

Reinforcements from the darkest depths of the Burning Hells take hold of Sanctuary, ushering in a new era of death and wanton destruction. This batch of Uber difficulty Endgame bosses are not for the faint of heart, but the chance to receive Unique items and Cosmetic items await those who muster the courage to stand against them. Each boss has a variety of Unique items they can drop, with some of those being exclusive to only that boss. The same goes for the special Cosmetic items they can potentially drop.

You can test your hand at slaying these unsightly abominations in the Eternal or Seasonal Realms starting in World Tier III, with even more intense encounters awaiting you in World Tier IV. These foes will only grant you an audience on their terms.

Below is a list of the bosses and the requirements to encounter them.

Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint (World Tier III and IV): You must gather enough Living Steel from the Tortured Offering in Helltide. In addition to Unique items that can only drop from Grigoire, you also have a chance to receive the Demonbinder Mount Armor Cosmetic.

Echo of Varshan (World Tier III and IV): Defeat Grotesque Debtors during Whispers of the Dead for a chance to receive parts of Varshan’s body. The Tree of Whispers collections—gained from turning in Grim Favors—guarantees a part of Varshan’s body. Once you have enough parts, including a Malignant Heart if you’re playing on World Tier IV, you can summon Varshan. The Flesh-Weld Rod Trophy has a chance to drop from this boss in addition to Unique items that can only drop from Varshan.

The Beast in the Ice (World Tier IV): Gather Distilled Fear while completing Tier 30 or higher Nightmare Dungeons. After you have enough, visit the Occultist and craft the Glacial Fissure Nightmare Sigil, activate it, then you can fight The Beast in the Ice. The Skull Torch and Fell Steed Mount Trophies can potentially drop from this boss, in addition to Unique items exclusive to it.

Dark Master (World Tier IV): Defeat a World Boss on World Tier IV or complete a Legion Event. From these activities you’ll acquire Exquisite Blood. Once you have enough, you’ll be able to summon the Dark Master. The Diadem of the Ancient Helm Cosmetic can potentially drop from this boss, in addition to Unique items exclusive to it.

Echo of Duriel (World Tier IV): Defeat both Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint and Varshan in World Tier IV to collect Mucus-Slick Eggs and Shards of Agony. Once you have enough, you’ll be able to summon the Lord of Pain, Duriel! Out of this group of Bosses, Duriel is the only one who has a chance to drop Uber Unique items. The smoldering Brimstone Mount can also potentially drop from this boss.

Keep in mind that:

You’ll need to meet the summoning conditions of a boss each time you want to fight it, so hold on to any additional summoning materials that you might acquire during your travels.

Developer’s Note: We have received feedback that there is a lack of variety in the Endgame experiences offered and that there are not enough 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 farm sought-after items in a fun and intense way.

These demonic barons of torment await the opportunity to grind you into dust—defy their expectations!

Five Endgame bosses have been added across Sanctuary to increase the variety of Endgame experiences offered, providing better opportunities to obtain specific, Unique and Uber Unique items.
- The new Boss fights are unlocked based on succeeding in different tasks across Sanctuary, with different resources required for facing each Boss, and each new fight becoming available as you progress through World Tiers III and IV.
The reward pools for these Endgame bosses have been significantly improved:
- Each boss drops specific Uniques, exclusive to each individual boss fight.
  - The Duriel boss fight has significantly increased the chance to drop Uber Uniques, making the process of accessing these coveted items more achievable.
- Each individual boss also has a chance to drop unique cosmetics specific to each boss, making the access of specific cosmetics in-game more targeted.

Gameplay Changes

Scrolls of Escape are now consumed automatically by Hardcore Players who disconnect during a battle, teleporting them to a safe location.
Incenses now grant a bonus to XP and they persist after death.
XP bonuses are now multiplicative with the World Tier bonus, resulting in a 40% increase in the rate of progress to Level 100.
Ten unlocked waypoints have been added to the start of the Season.
Renown rewards now persist between seasons and new characters.
Overworld Monsters in WT3 and WT4 will now match the player level.
Two additional charcter slots will be added to each account after the end of the Season.
The Occultist will now have a shop by the Tree of Whispers.
Stashes have been added to each town that has a waypoint.
The gambling NPCs have been moved closer to the waypoints.
Mounts will be less likely to get stuck or slow down, will be better able to jump over traversals, and will break through barracades.
The Mount base movement speed has increased by 14% and the spur duration has been increased by 50%.
All of the dismount skill cooldowns have been decreased by at least 50%.

Nightmare Dungeons

Teleporting now takes the player inside the dungeon.
Dungeon event monster density has been increased.
Dungeon event NPCs will no longer get one shot.
Overall readability of traps has been improved.
Paragon Glyph experience has been increased.
Backstabber attacks from behind will now cause the character to become Vulnerable and damage taken is increased based on the tier.
Monster Critical Resist attacks reduce the damamge of Critical Strikes for 3 seconds and stack based on the tier.
Death Pulse will no longer spawn on top of each other and will prevent pulses on monsters that have on-death explosions.
Lightning Storm grants 35% bonus movement speed when shocked in the bubble and will only start when the player is in combat and when the player has a direct path to the bubble.
Drifting Shade duration has decreased to 3 seconds and the respawn time has increase by 2 seconds.
Objectives have been completely removed from some dungeons apart from defeating the boss.
Dungeon layouts have been redesigned for many dungeons and additional changes were made to limit backtracking.

World Events

World Boss spawn interval has been reduced from 6 hours to 3.5 hours.
World Boss warning timer has been increased from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
World Boss announcement will be broadcast to all players at 15 minutes prior to the spawn time.
Legion Event interval has been reduced from 30 minutes to 25 minutes.
Legion Event warning timer has been increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes.

Endgame Activities

The time between Legion Events has been reduced from 30 to 25 minutes.
- Legion Event warning timers increased from 5 to 10 minutes.
- Fixed an issue where the Legion Event pin would not display at the edge of a player’s mini-map if a Whisper was active for the Legion Event.
The World Boss fight is available more frequently to players on all World Tiers as the Spawn Times have been reduced from 6 hours to 3 hours and 30 minutes.
- World Boss warning timers have increased from 30 to 60 minutes.
- Fixed an issue where the World Boss pin would not display at the edge of a player’s mini-map if a Whisper was active for the World Boss.
- For increased visibility, a message is now broadcast to all players when the World Boss is 15 minutes away from spawning.
Gold and Experience rewards have been increased from the following activities:
- Helltide Chests
- Cashing in Grim Favors
- Completing individual Whispers
To ensure enemies constantly give experience relative to the current player level, the Nightmare Sigils rewarded from Whisper Caches will now always be within 5 Levels of the highest-level Nightmare Dungeon the player has completed.
To improve readability, Helltide Chests now have specific icons on the map to indicate their type.
Whisper Caches adhere to the item slot of the cache.

UI/UX

Items in stash or inventory can now be locked as Favorite to prevent them from being sold or slavaged.
Aspects when sorted in the stash or inventory will be grouped together based on Legendary Power.
Sorting of normal affixes has been improved to be more consistent.
Dungeon Map tooltips that have active Whispers associated will now display the respective Aspect Name and Description.
Stash now has a more advanced search and sort feature.
Streamer Mode has been implemented in Social settings.
Combat text has an added option to hide text associated with Vulnerable, Dodge, Fortified, etc.
Auto-run feature has been added to cause the character to move continuously.
Minimap has been zoomed out to cover a larger area.

Items

Gems will no longer drop as rewards; players will now earn Gem Shard materials to be used to craft gems at the Jeweler.
Enchament costs have been adjusted; the first enchant cost has been increased but subsuquent costs have been decreased.
Crafting materials will now drop instead of low power non-legendary items in WT3 and WT4.
Item drops in WT3 and WT4 will be of only Sacred or Ancestral power, respectively.
Higher level monsters in WT3 and WT4 will progressively drop Sacred and Ancestral items of greater Item Power potential.
Normal Whisper cache rewards now provide +10 Item Power and Upgraded Caches now provide +20 Item Power rewards.
Helltide cache rewards now provide +20 Item Power value.

Battle Pass & Season Journey

As you hunt down Lord Zir’s acolytes with Erys and unlock the secrets of your newfound Vampiric Powers, you’ll earn rewards from the Season Journey and Battle Pass.

The Season Journey is broken into Chapters with tasks to complete. As you progress through the Journey, you’ll earn rewards befitting Sanctuary’s defenders, such as new Legendary Aspects, the Salmagundi mount, Strips and Points mount armor, and 3 Scrolls of Amnesia, which provide a free Skill Tree and Paragon Board reset. The Journey also provides Favor—the resource used to climb through the Battle Pass’ Tiers—which can also be earned naturally by playing aspects of the game.

The Season of Blood Battle Pass begins on October 17, 10 a.m. PDT and hosts 90 Tiers—27 Free Tiers and 63 Premium Tiers.

If you get the Premium Battle Pass, not only will the rewards of the Free Tiers be yours to wield, but Awoken Armor Sets, Mount and Mount Armor, Platinum, and more also await you. For example, the Famished Thoroughbred mount unlocks at Tier 1 and Awoken Marrow cosmetics unlocks at various higher Tiers. If you decide to embrace the bloody madness and get the Accelerated Seasonal Battle Pass, you’ll also receive 20 Tier Skips and the Vampire’s Repose emote.

Smoldering Ashes earned from the Free Tiers can be spent on Season Blessings that provide helpful bonuses to beat back Hell’s armies. There are five total Blessings to choose from, three of which are new with Season of Blood:

Urn of Blood: Boost the Hunter’s Acclaim you earn from Blood Harvest activities.
Urn of Helltides: Boost the chance to receive an extra equipment item from Helltide chests. The extra item will be of Legendary rarity or better.
Urn of Swift Travel: Boost how quickly your Mount recovers from sprinting.

The bonuses gained from Season Blessings only last until the end of Season of Blood.

Announcement Details

A fanged threat emerges from the shadows in our second Season, Wanderer. At Gamescom: Opening Night Live, the Diablo IV development team announced Season of Blood will begin on October 17.

At the behest of their dark master, a newly turned army of ravenous vampires has set their sights on Sanctuary. The master’s sinister plot remains a shrouded mystery but their pursuit for the blood of innocents has caused an uproar. You must learn to hunt the hunter—your fate depends on it.

Season of Blood will introduce a new Questline for you to uncover, Vampiric Powers to wield against their originators, 5 additional endgame bosses with the ability to target specific Unique and Uber Unique items as a drop, and more.

Additionally, we will introduce some community-requested quality-of-life updates with Season of Blood:

More efficient Inventory management for Gems.
Paragon Points, Skill Points, Potion Charges, and Obol capacity upgrades will now carry over into a new Season once achieved with an Eternal or previous Seasonal Realm character.
Changes to the functionality of status effects such as Vulnerable, Overpower, Critical Strike Damage and also Elemental Resistances.

The updates in the above bullet and the ability to target specific Unique and Ultra Unique items as a drop will be available in both Seasonal and Eternal Realms.

Watch the trailer below to meet Erys, a vampire hunter who stalks these blood leeches throughout Sanctuary, voiced by actress and producer Gemma Chan.

What we’ve shared today is just a slice of what’s in store for wanders in Season of Blood. We’ll share more details about Season of the Blood as we approach its release date.