Diablo 4 season 1: Everything we know about Season of the Malignant

Diablo 4 Season 1 is set to launch on July 20, but the time is here to start getting ready to leave the Eternal Realm behind. With the Seasonal Realm opening up on Thursday for every one of you who has completed the campaign, there's about to be a new horror ripping across the world of Sanctuary. New opportunities to grow in power, new items to discover, and plenty of ways to test your strength against all-new elite monsters. 

If you're planning on diving into Season 1, you'll first need to get Diablo 4 update 1.1.0 installed. The July 18 Diablo 4 patch will give you the chance to propagate your progress over to the Seasonal Realm, so you'll want to log in with the character that you have earned the most renown with – all of that will carry across to your Seasonal character to help you get a headstart on leveling. 

There's a lot of new info to get through, so keep reading to find all the new Diablo 4 season 1 gameplay changes, news, and details that we have uncovered so far. 

Diablo 4 season 1 release date

Diablo 4 season 1 release date has been set for July 20, 2023. Blizzard is calling this the 'Season of the Malignant'. Set after the events of the core Diablo 4 campaign, where a new corruption starts to spread through the creatures of the world – from beast to human to demon – you'll need to fight back against the Malignant. Remember, you'll need to complete the Diablo 4 campaign before you can jump into the first season. 

Diablo 4 Season 1 start time

The release date for Diablo 4 Season 1 is July 20. It's set to launch alongside the battle pass, with the two directly interconnected. If you want to be there for the start of the Season of the Malignant, here's the Diablo 4 season 1 start times:

• July 20, 10am PDT
• July 20, 1pm EDT
• July 20, 6pm BST
• July 20, 7pm CEST

Diablo 4 season 1 story

The Diablo 4 season 1 story will see you joining forces with a new character, Cormand – a former priest from the Cathedral of Light who finds himself drawn into a new conflict following the conclusion of your fight with Lilith. Blizzard is keen to note that Season of the Malignant isn't a continuation of the main campaign, but rather a self-contained side-quest in the open realm that's set after the campaign. You'll be teaming up with other heroes to destroy a plague which is threatening to destroy Sanctuary. If you join the Seasonal Realm, you'll be able to begin the season 1 story from the moment you reach Kyovashad. 

How to access Season of the Malignant

If you want to jump into Season of the Malignant content you'll first need to complete the core Diablo 4 campaign on the Eternal Realm. Once you do that, you'll start to encounter Malignant enemies anywhere in the open world, regardless of whether you decide to buy the battle pass or play in the Seasonal Realm. Naturally, if you want to go all in on the Season of the Malignant, you'll need to create a new character on the Seasonal Realm and head straight to Kyovashad. Thankfully, Blizzard has confirmed that your renown will carry over to your new character – including your unlocked Diablo 4 Altar of Lilith statues, potion charges, skill points, and your Diablo 4 map progress. 

What you need to do before Diablo 4 Season 1

Want to get ready for Diablo 4 season 1? Okay, well the first thing you'll need to do is complete the campaign. You won't be able to access any of the new story, mechanics, or items until you do. That isn't all though. Blizzard says that a lot of your progress can carry over from the Eternal Realm to the Seasonal Realm, which ought to be a great way to power level from July 20. Before season 1 goes live, you'll want to collect as many Altar of Lilith statutes and discover as many new locations as you can, as all of that renown you earn will carry across to your new seasonal character. Speaking of progression – starting July 18, you'll want to log into the character that you have progressed the furthest with, as this will trigger a process to ensure that all of your progress will be propagated across your entire account.

Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts

Diablo 4 season 1 is introducing a suite of new mechanics, systems, and items – all stemming out of the plague spreading out across Sanctuary. Regardless of whether you are exploring the open world with your original character or with a Seasonal character, you will always have a chance to encounter a Malignant enemy. Defeat it and it will expose a Malignant Heart which you can use a cage of binding on to begin a ritual. This will summon Malignant enemies in the area and a powerful elite which, if defeated, can drop a new item called a caged heart. 

The Diablo 4 caged heart is essentially a replacement for gems. These can be socketed into gear and offer an enormous amount of power – so much so that the Diablo 4 team has joked that "broken builds" can be generated by being smart with the new item. There are 32 new Malignant powers which can be unlocked; each Malignant Heart you collect will have a specific color coding, with each corresponding to a socket color that appears on gear collected on the Seasonal Realm. There are three socket colors but four different colored hearts, with the rare fourth being omni-color – as in, it can be socketed in any item and offer specific power sets that will change the way you pilot your character. 

Diablo 4 malignant tunnels

Malignant Hearts are a key component of the Diablo 4 season 1 experience and Blizzard promises that there will be a way to farm them. All across the world of Sanctuary will be alternative dungeons called Malignant Tunnels. If you complete these unique areas you'll encounter an Outgrowth at the end – use a crafted invoker on the Outgrowth and it'll summon an Elite Malignant enemy. Kill that and you'll get a colored Malignant Heart back and, better yet, the invoker can be crafted to correspond to one of the specific color sets of the hearts, letting you target farm to a degree.   

Diablo 4 season 1 new items

Alongside the Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts and Malignant gear, Blizzard is also introducing a suite of new items to the game as part of season 1. You should expect to encounter new Diablo 4 Unique items, new bosses, and new legendary gear and, better still, this will appear across both the Eternal and Seasonal Realm. Oh, and better still, this will all be available in the game from July 18, where all of this new content will go live alongside quality-of-life changes and balance updates ahead of season 1 launching on July 20. 

How the battle pass works

The Diablo 4 battle pass is set to go live on July 20 alongside the Season of the Malignant. Blizzard has been keen to stress that there will be 27 free tiers to the battle pass which will allow you to earn cosmetics and Smoldering Ashes – a new resource which can be applied to the Season Blessing system, enabling you to invest in Seasonal Realm boosts such as more XP or improved Elixir effectiveness. It's worth stressing that the entire Season 1 story and mechanics can be enjoyed without purchasing the Season 1 battle pass. If you do decide to purchase the battle pass, you'll find 90 tiers of cosmetics, resources, and other items to bestow upon your new character on the Seasonal Realm. 

You'll be able to track progress (regardless of whether you buy the battle pass or not) as part of the Season Journey tab in the UI, which will break down progression into seven chapters, with each containing a number of objectives. You'll only need to complete a subset of these objectives to advance to the next chapter, with item rewards and Legendary Aspects handed out along the way. You should also expect to unlock new emotes and horse armor through the battle pass – as well as cosmetics which are class-agnostic, barring the transmog weapons which are class-specific. 

While you wait for the season 1 to launch, why not learn how you can get the Diablo 4 Prime gaming rewards.