Blizzard Entertainment held a developer livestream dedicated to the upcoming server slam and the imminent release of aRPG Diablo IV. In particular, the team focused on the post-launch experience and plans on increasing the hellish heat through Seasons, Season Journeys, Battle Pass, Shop and more.
Seasons will be quarterly releases that will introduce additional gameplay features, questlines (with new and old faces alike), Battle Passes, Legendary Items, class balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, and much more. Season 1 will begin in mid to late July, and to embark on this next chapter, you must first complete the Campaign.
The Season Journey will be invaluable in helping you quickly level-up your Battle Pass, as this is done through completing Chapters that are comprised of Objectives. Completing all Objectives in a Chapter will score you Seasonal rewards, such as useful Crafting Materials and Legendary Aspects for your Codex of Power. Each objective also rewards an amount of Favor, the resource used to level up through the Tiers of the Battle Pass. Favor can also be obtained from completing quests, slaying monsters, participating in events, and more.
With each Season comes a new Battle Pass for you to earn rewards from, containing 27 Free Tiers and 63 Premium Tiers. You can earn Cosmetics and Smoldering Ashes from the Free Tiers just by slaying demons as you normally would.
There are three versions of the Battle Pass available to players: the free Battle Pass (referred to as simply Battle Pass), the Premium Battle Pass, which will cost 1,000 Platinum (equivalent of $9.99 USD), and the Accelerated Battle Pass, which includes all perks of the Premium Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, a special Cosmetic, and will cost 2,800 Platinum (equivalent of $24.99 USD).
In comparison to the Class-agnostic Cosmetics earned from the Battle Pass, the Cosmetics offered in the Shop are meant to reinforce class-specific fantasies, so there will be some Cosmetics unique to particular Classes. The Cosmetics sold in the Shop will rotate on a consistent basis and must be purchased with Platinum. Once you have purchased a Cosmetic for a Class, it will be usable for all characters of that Class on your account.
The developers have also taken time to remind players of the upcoming server slam and teased the Ultimate Edition of the game for those who just can’t wait:
“If you have not already pre-purchased the Diablo IV Ultimate Edition for your platform of choice and want up to 4 days of Early Access to launch, and the Accelerated Seasonal Battle Pass—includes 20 Tier Skips—and the Wings of the Creator Emote, visit the shop.”
