What to Expect from Diablo 4 Season 1

Diablo IV Season 1 – Season of Malignancy is near, and Wanderers are getting ready to embark on a new adventure in Sanctuary’s dark and dangerous world. This exciting season brings forth a fresh story campaign after the main game, where players will confront the insidious corruption known as Malignance. Gamers will have to team up with an unlikely ally and fight off the looming threat born of Lilith’s and Inarius’ quarrel. Here is everything that players should expect from the coming Season:

What is Diablo IV – Season of Malignancy

Diablo IV Season of Malignancy introduces a fresh story campaign set after the main game. Players will join forces with Cormond to confront the corruption of Malignance. When equipped, powerful enemies, called Malignant foes, hold valuable Malignant Hearts that grant significant power. Players can enhance their characters with Caged Hearts, potent artifacts that provide extraordinary abilities when socketed into gear. However, wearing a Caged Heart comes with the risk of losing it upon the character’s death. Progress through the season to earn rewards, including cosmetic items and pets, with the option to purchase a premium Battle Pass. The season also brings balance improvements, bug fixes, and exciting challenges to the world of Diablo IV.

What is the Story for the Season of Malignancy

The story in Season of Malignancy is said to be darker and more personal than the story in the base game. Season of Malignancy occurs after the primary Diablo IV campaign and introduces a new short campaign. The world of Sanctuary, still recovering from Lilith’s devastation, now faces a fresh threat: Malignance, a spreading corruption. Players assume the role of a hero aiding Cormond, a scholar investigating this evil force.

Together, they journey across Sanctuary, searching for the source of the corruption and striving to halt its advance. Encounter new foes, explore uncharted regions, and acquire powerful artifacts while making impactful choices that shape the narrative. The story delves into themes of corruption, redemption, and the resilience of hope, presenting a darker and more personal tale than the base game.

Diablo IV Season 1 Enemies

Diablo IV Season 1 introduces a range of formidable adversaries, and these corrupted beings possess heightened power and can be encountered throughout Sanctuary. Defeating them yields Malignant Hearts, valuable rewards that contribute to your progression. Additionally, existing enemies have been affected by the Malignance, resulting in new variants with enhanced abilities and attacks. Here are the expected new enemies in the game:

• Malignant: These are corrupted creatures that are more powerful than regular enemies. They can be found throughout Sanctuary and drop Malignant Hearts when defeated. 
• Malignant Elites: These are even more powerful than Malignant enemies. They can be found in specific areas and drop even more valuable rewards. 
• Varshan the Consumed: This is the final boss of Season 1. He is a powerful Malignant creature found in the Malignant Tunnels.

What are Malignant Hearts?

Malignant Hearts are items found in Diablo IV Season 1 and are closely tied to Malignant enemies. Malignants are corrupted creatures that are more powerful than regular enemies and can be found throughout Sanctuary. When players defeat Malignant enemies, they can drop Malignant Hearts as loot. Here are four different rarities and what each of them offers:

• Common: Common Malignant Hearts provide a slight power boost to the player’s character. They offer modest improvements to stats or abilities.
• Uncommon: Uncommon Malignant Hearts are more potent than their standard counterparts, providing a medium power boost. They offer more significant enhancements to stats and abilities.
• Rare: Rare Malignant Hearts are the most powerful among the Malignant Heart rarities. They grant a considerable power boost, significantly enhancing the player’s character with substantial stat increases and potent abilities.
• Legendary: Legendary Malignant Hearts are rare and offer a massive power boost. They provide the most substantial enhancements to the player’s stats and abilities, giving them a significant edge in combat.

Malignant Heart Stats

Malignant Hearts in Diablo IV Season 1 can grant various stats to enhance the player’s character. Here are some of the stats that Malignant Hearts can provide:

• Damage: Malignant Hearts can increase the player’s damage output, allowing them to harm enemies significantly.
• Health Regeneration: These hearts can enhance the player’s health regeneration rate, enabling them to recover health more quickly during combat or after battles.
• Resistances: Malignant Hearts can increase the player’s resistance to elemental damage, making them more resilient against fire, ice, lightning, or other attacks.
• Cooldown Reduction: These hearts can reduce the cooldown of the player’s skills, allowing them to use their abilities more frequently and efficiently.
• Life Leech: Malignant Hearts can grant life leech, causing the player to heal a portion of their damage dealt. This provides sustainability in battle by restoring health with each successful attack.
• Critical Strike Chance: These hearts can increase the player’s chance to land critical strikes, which deal bonus damage and often trigger additional effects.
• Critical Strike Damage: Malignant Hearts can boost the damage of the player’s critical strikes, making their critical hits even more devastating.
• Attack Speed: These hearts can increase the player’s attack speed, allowing them to unleash more attacks within a given time, increasing overall damage output.

How to Get Malignant Hearts

To obtain Malignant Hearts in Diablo IV Season 1, players must engage in combat with formidable Elite foes. Defeating an Elite enemy will expose their corrupted heart. By utilizing a Cage of Binding on the heart, the Elite will respawn as a more challenging opponent, accompanied by new spawns. Overcoming this enhanced version of the Elite will reward the player with their Malignant Heart.

Additionally, certain areas within the game will feature Malignant Tunnels, accessible after completing the season’s story. These mini-dungeons culminate in a Malignant Outgrowth at the end. Players can employ invokers to acquire a Malignant Heart matching the node’s color within the outgrowth—special items crafted from salvaged Malignant Hearts. Activating one of the growth’s nodes with an invoker will spawn an Elite enemy, offering an opportunity to obtain the corresponding Malignant Heart.

How to Use Malignant Hearts

When players socket a Malignant Heart into their gear, it grants them specific stat bonuses or special abilities. The exact stats or skills provided by Malignant Hearts can vary, offering a range of benefits such as increased damage, health regeneration, critical hit chance, elemental resistance, or other powerful effects. These enhancements help players tailor their character builds and playstyles to suit their preferences and strategies.

However, it’s essential to exercise caution when using Malignant Hearts, as they come with a risk. If a player dies while wearing a Malignant Heart, the heart will be permanently destroyed. This adds an element of strategy and decision-making, as players must weigh the potential benefits against the possible loss of a valuable item.

Diablo IV Season 1 Colored Sockets and Caged Hearts

players will encounter a new system of colored sockets associated with different powers. There are three socket colors: blue, red, and yellow, each representing distinct categories of abilities. There are four types of malignant hearts: blue, red, yellow, and colorless. Rings and jewelry found in Season 1 will have infested sockets in one of these three colors, while colorless sockets can accommodate any gem, although they are rarer. Once a caged heart is socketed, it cannot be removed without being destroyed.

Even with lower stats, caged hearts obtained early in the season remain valuable as they can be deconstructed to yield materials for crafting invokers. These invokers are essential for targeting specific hearts at the end of malignant tunnels, new dungeons introduced in Season 1.

As players progress and reach higher world tiers, they will have a higher chance of obtaining more powerful malignant hearts. However, this new Diablo IV Season 1 mechanic becomes accessible only after completing the campaign with at least one character on their account.

New Characters and New Progressions

Players must create a new seasonal character to participate in most of the unique challenges introduced in Diablo IV Season 1. However, essential character data from the Eternal Realm, which refers to the game’s endgame content, will carry over.

Transferred data includes map exploration, earned regional renown points, and activated Altars of Lilith. However, aspects in the Codex of Power, experience points, and gear will not be carried over.

Once the season update patch is live on July 18, it is recommended to log into the character with the most progress. Diablo IV will save that progress to the account and apply it to all characters upon signing in, including characters in the Eternal Realm and seasonal classes.

Diablo 4 Season Journey and Battlepass

Players can embark on the Season Journey, consisting of chapters with various objectives to earn progress toward the battle pass. These objectives encompass activities like clearing cellars or defeating specific enemies. Completing Season Journey chapters advances your progress and rewards you with rare items, including exclusive Aspects not typically obtainable through dungeon completions.

The season also introduces a battle pass featuring multiple tiers divided into free and paid tracks. It’s important to note that the battle pass rewards are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay. By completing objectives, quests, defeating enemies, and earning XP, you can accumulate Favor, the currency used to level up your battle pass. You can earn battle pass favor by playing in the Eternal Realm if you have a seasonal character.

Participating in Diablo IV Season 1

The Season of Malignancy will be the first season in Diablo IV, so players should expect many cool and new things from this update. Participating in the Season Journey is worth the time, so gamers should consider creating new characters during the period. Make sure to accomplish all the quests or tasks in the Battlepass to get additional prizes.