Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant starts July 20, lets you use Malignant Hearts as Gems
It's official, folks. Blizzard has finally confirmed when Diablo 4's Season 1 will begin, and shared a tonne of details about what we can expect when it does.
As part of today's big Diablo livestream, Blizzard revealed a whole lot about Season 1 of Diablo 4. The new season is called Season of the Malignant, and it will arrive in-game on July 20 across all platforms.
Each new Diablo 4 season, beginning with Season of the Malignant, is going to launch with new narrative content, including quests. This time, the story kicks off following the end of the main campaign. Though Lilith is defeated, her evil lingers, and it's responsible for a new threat: Malignant Monsters.
A Malignant Monster is an enraged version of existing enemies, and they're rampant across Sanctuary. The key to their malignancy is their Malignant Heart, which you will be able to capture. The new season introduces Cormond, a former Cathedral priest who helps you use these hearts to your advantage.
As part of the new new questline, you'll learn about this new blight, and make use of the Malignant Hearts in powerful new ways.
This ties into the new mechanics of Season of the Malignant. When you slay a Partly Corrupted enemy, they drop a Malignant Heart. You capture them using the Cage of Binding (an item you get as part of the questline). After performing the necessary ritual, the Partly Corrupted enemy respawns as Fully Corrupted - a much more difficult variant. If you defeat that overpowered version, you earn a Malignant Heart that you place into your Jewellery.
Jewellery now comes with Infested Sockets that accept these new not-Gems. There are 32 Malignant Hearts to chase, split into four categories (colours). More challenging Malignant Enemies will drop more powerful Hearts.
Outside of running into Malignant enemies in the open world, you can also target farm in the new Malignant Tunnels - a new themed style of dungeons with concentrated numbers of Malignant Monsters. A new boss fight awaits you at the end, too, against Varshan the Consumed.
The Season 1 battle pass has already generated a fair bit of controversy after Blizzard confirmed that you'll need to create a new character to experience the new content, and make progress in the battle pass itself.
The good news, at least, is that all battle pass cosmetics can be used by any class, because it would've been unreasonable to expect players to create one character for every class each season.
All of the new gameplay boosts and mechanics in the Season 1 battle pass are available to all players, regardless of whether or not they own it. Upgrading to the premium pass unlocks extra cosmetics, but that's it. Even buying tier skips will not grant you certain benefits if you haven't the reached in-game requirement to take advantage of them.
We got a look at the battle pass layout during the show, as well as a few of the rewards on its free and premium tracks. The battle pass, of course, is included in Diablo 4's Deluxe, and Ultimate Editions, so many players already have access to it as part of their purchase.
For more of our up-to-date Diablo 4 coverage, hit up the link.