It’s time to finish Diablo 4’s campaign now
Diablo 4’s first season, Season of the Malignant, arrives on July 20 — and it sounds almost like a mini expansion for Blizzard’s hit dungeon-crawler. The season brings a new quest line, which takes place after the events of the main campaign, as well as a new gameplay mechanic revolving around socketable Malignant Hearts that will superpower your character and enable “stupid broken” new character builds. It also interacts with Diablo 4’s first battle pass to unlock new cosmetics and bonuses for seasonal characters.
But there are two significant requirements for entry to the season. The first — well publicized, if not well understood — is that you will need to create a fresh, level 1 seasonal character to participate in the season. (Don’t worry, you won’t lose your old characters, nor will you lose your seasonal characters when the season ends.)
The second requirement is less well known, but was confirmed by Blizzard in an FAQ posted to the official Diablo website on Thursday. You need to complete Diablo 4’s campaign on one character to gain access to the seasonal content on or after July 20.
On one level, this makes perfect sense. The season’s storyline follows the campaign’s, and the Malignant Hearts mechanic is clearly meant to be additive for people already familiar with the game’s systems. In Diablo and its action-role-playing-game ilk, seasons are generally understood as a clean-slate leveling challenge for experienced players.
On the other hand, there are many reasons why you might not have finished Diablo 4’s campaign yet. Perhaps you’ve been busy, on vacation, or playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (or, in my case, all three). It’s also a side effect of the way the game is structured differently to
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