Everything in the seasonal realm world (from regular animals to humans and even demons) is afflicted by this malignant force. The season will also revolve around a new character, Kormind, who is trying to cure this plague. Quite fittingly, Season of the Malignant’s main gimmick will revolve around that threat.

All elite monsters in the game have a chance to spawn as a Malignant version of themselves. Those Malignant variations are stronger than usual and also sport some malignant pustules. After (or if) the creature is slain, it will drop a Malignant Heart, which can be socketed into equipment like a gem and used to unlock some potentially broken (in a good way) builds and abilities.

Unlike gems, though, once a Malignant Heart is equipped, you can’t unequip it. You can only replace it with a new/different heart. Plus, Malignant Hearts follow a unique color pattern and can only attach to coinciding colored sockets. Players can ultimately collect over 32 Malignant Heart abilities. Throughout Season of the Malignant, participants can also acquire new Legendary Aspects, new Unique items, and even Malignant gear (which is more powerful than normal). Furthermore, anyone who wants a specific type of Malignant Heart can use Invokers within Malignant Tunnels, which are special areas that spawn Malignant enemies more often than they appear in the wild. If you’re feeling bold, you can even face off against Varshan the Consumed: a new end-game boss that patrols this dangerous new area.

The seasonal pass, the Seasonal Journey is divided into seven chapters, each with their own objectives and rewards. For instance, during the first season, players can earn crafting materials, unique Legendary Aspects, and Favor. The first two are self-explanatory, but Favor is crucial to progressing through the battle pass. The more Favor a player earns, the more tiers they unlock in the Battle Pass.

How Will Diablo 4 Season 1’s Character Resets Work?

For the most part, Diablo 4’s battle pass seems fairly bog standard, but it is subject to a fairly contentious piece of controversy: You can’t use the same character for each season, and you can’t transfer an existing character to a Seasonal Realm. Whenever a new season surfaces, players have to roll a new character and start from scratch.

Why? Well, according to the developers, each new season is designed to iterate on the base experience. You can still keep the main character you rolled for the campaign, but in order to acquire seasonal rewards, including battle passes, you need to start over. Them’s the breaks, but on the bright side, at least this system will give you an excuse to try out different classes and builds.

Danofgeek