Yes, You Will Need a New Diablo IV Character in Season 1 To Progress in the Battle Pass
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Blizzard’s hit ARPG Diablo IV has been out for weeks now and people have reached the max level, doing everything the endgame has to offer. In July, things will change with the release of the game’s first Seasonal content, and the realization is slowly starting to hit Diablo newcomers – you need to start over and play a completely different character to play the new content and progress through the season’s battle pass.
This isn’t a surprise as this is how ARPGs like Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and Path of Exile have handled seasonal content for years in the same manner, so ARPG veterans are used to the idea of starting fresh. New players? Well, not so much, especially those who either maxed a character to 100 or even got close to that goal as reaching that high would require over 90 hours to complete.
Newcomers aren’t too pleased by the idea despite it being a staple for ARPG titles for the longest time.
How seasons will work in Diablo IV
But don’t think your efforts are wasted. You won’t lose the characters you have now and you do have permanent unlocks that carry over. There’s a reason why there’s an “Eternal” placed on your characters before logging in as those are described as non-seasonal characters.
The stat bonuses you get from Statues of Lilith will carry over, so don’t expect to make the rounds of unlocking each one every season. The world map will also remain the same as whatever you’ve discovered before the season went live will be visible next season. The Renown rewards like the Skill points earned and potion capacity will also carry over.
So far, Side quests and dungeon unlocks will not carry over.
When a new season goes live, players that want to participate in the current season will have to create a new character, starting from level 1. You can choose to play the whole campaign again or skip it entirely (the option to skip becomes available once you complete the campaign once). Ideally, each season will have new content like new items and seasonal content created in a specific theme, and would last roughly 3 months.
For Season 1, Blizzard has yet to reveal the contents of the live service’s first batch of post-launch content. We also don’t have an exact date but the developers have stated in multiple interviews and livestreams that we can expect season 1 to roll out mid to late July.
When a season ends, assuming Diablo IV seasons will work similar to how Diablo 3 did seasons, all seasonal characters and their stash will be converted to Eternal characters and you’ll have to make a new batch of characters for the next season.
It’s hard to grasp considering players have spent close to 100 hours on a specific character and they won’t be able to use them in future content. I for one am rather used to the idea as I’ve played Diablo 3 and Path of Exile, and assured Blizzard will follow the same seasonal design, which is why Intentionally ignored trying out a few classes to reserve them for future seasons.
Regardless, new players bring up a reasonable argument – why can’t eternal players progress through future battle passes? It doesn’t hurt much to allow players to progress through the battle pass system to earn rewards for spending time on the game.
But time will tell as they haven’t said much about what is in store for players in season 1. How they handle seasonal content will determine if players are keen on playing Diablo IV in future seasons, especially players new to the series. So far, they are not keen on grinding all the way to level 100 a second or third time.
Time will tell but it looks like Blizzard is open to feedback and is being transparent as their latest developer live stream tackled the top discussions within the community since the game officially launched, announcing what will carry over to seasons and that they will be improving the experience gained in Nightmare Dungeons as it’s currently not the most efficient way to earn experience.
Diablo IV is off to a great start with an impressive launch and positive reception from critics and even the community.
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