When is the Diablo 4 Season 2 release date for Season of Blood?

The Diablo 4 Season 2 start date is October 17, which means there isn't much time left until the Season of Blood officially kicks in, introducing a fresh Seasonal Realm for players to sink their teeth into. That phrasing is apt as Season 2 is all about vampires, so you'll be gathering up Potent Blood and using it to unlock dark Vampiric Powers to unleash on your foes in Diablo 4. With new mechanics to master, fresh gear to experiment with, and novel items to discover, there's going to be a lot to get your head around when the Season of Blood arrives, so with that in mind I've summarised the main points you need to know to prepare yourself for the Diablo 4 Season 2 release date.

Diablo 4 Season 2 release date

The Diablo 4 Season 2 release date is set for October 17, 2023, at which point the Season of Blood will begin. In this fresh campaign, players will be battling against the Dark Master's Blood Seekers, while using Vampiric Powers to unlock new abilities. As darkness falls across the realm, it's up to you to protect Sanctuary from this latest onslaught.

Diablo 4 Season 2 start time

Once we reach the release date of October 17, the Diablo 4 Season 2 start time is scheduled to kick in alongside the launch of the new battle pass. You'll be able to begin the Season of Blood from the following start times:

• October 17, 10am PDT
• October 17, 1pm EDT
• October 17, 6pm BST
• October 17, 7pm CEST

Diablo 4 Season 2 story

In the Diablo 4 Season 2 story you'll be fighting back against the new vampire threat, when Magistrate Oren calls upon your help after his town is attacked by these bloodthirsty monsters. To do this you'll join forces with Erys, a skilled vampire hunter, and together you'll investigate to discover what the Dark Master is plotting and find ways to defeat the hordes.

How to access Season of Blood

Unlike the previous Season of the Malignant, you don't need to have completed the main Diablo 4 campaign on the Eternal Realm before you can access the Season of Blood. If you start the campaign on the Seasonal Realm for Season 2, then you'll have the option to skip it once you've completed the Missing Pieces quest during the Prologue. Naturally, if you've already finished the campaign then the option will be there from the start to get straight into Season of Blood.

The next Diablo 4 battle pass will go live alongside the Season of Blood on October 17, with the usual 90 tiers of rewards split into 27 free tiers and 63 premium tiers to unlock cosmetics and more. As with the Season of the Malignant, whatever your battle pass level you'll be able to earn Smoldering Ashes that can be spent on Season Blessings for handy bonuses, including three new ones specifically tailored to Season of Blood.

What you need to do before Diablo 4 Season 2

As I said above, you no longer need to complete the campaign in order to be ready for Diablo 4 Season 2, so there's not really any preparation you need to make before it starts. As with the Season of the Malignant, you'll need to create a new Seasonal character in order to access the Season of Blood, so you'll be starting again from the beginning.

One thing to bear in mind during Season 2 is that your Season 1 character(s) will be automatically transferred to the Eternal Realm, with anything you left in their Season of the Malignant Stash(es) being available to claim through a Withdraw Only Stash tab within the Eternal Realm. Anything left in there at the end of the Season of Blood will be lost forever, so make sure you claim all of the items you want to keep.

Diablo 4 Vampiric Powers

Vampiric Powers are the new central mechanic running through Diablo 4 Season 2, so you'll need to unlock and level these up to achieve your full potential. After collecting Potent Blood from fallen enemies, you can spend it to unlock a random Vampiric Power or upgrade an existing one, and you can also unlock powers by completing the Seasonal Questline or Blood Harvest Seasonal Events. There are a total of 22 Vampiric Powers to unlock, though you can only equip a maximum of five at a time.

In order to use a Vampiric Power, you need to meet the Pact requirement with the Pact armor you currently have equipped. There are three different Pacts – Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity – with each piece of Pact armor delivering an amount to one or more of those Pacts. Vampiric Powers, in turn, each have a Pact activation cost, so you need to ensure the total score provided by all of your Pact armor is at least equal to the activation cost of you won't be able to use that power. Pact armor can be customized, using Standalone Pacts to add new values or Cleansing Acid to remove existing Pacts, so you can match your gear to the Vampiric Powers you want to use.

Diablo 4 Season 2 new bosses

During Diablo 4 Season 2 you'll have the opportunity to take on three new Uber difficulty Endgame bosses, depending on your chosen world tier. They'll put up an extremely tough fight, but there's the chance to receive Diablo 4 Unique items and cosmetics if you emerge victorious. Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint is available in World Tier 3 and 4, and you'll need to collect Living Steel from the Tortured Offering in Helltide to make them spawn. Echo of Varshan is also in World Tier 3 and 4, and you'll have to gather parts of Varshan’s body to summon them, plus a Malignant Heart in World Tier 4. Finally, The Beast in the Ice is only in World Tier 4 and requires Distilled Fear from Level 30+ Nightmare Dungeons to craft the necessary item to trigger a battle with them.

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