It's that time again, a new Diablo 4 season is about to begin and today's campfire went through everything learned from the Public Test Realm (PTR) and what to expect from Season 8.
Starting on April 29, 2025, Season 8 of Diablo 4 introduces a new storyline and gameplay mechanics centered around Belial, the Lord of Lies. Players will face unique challenges and unlock powerful 'boss abilities' in this seasonal update. Lets dive in.
Belial’s Return and the Seasonal questline
Belial’s comeback brings a new storyline for seasonal players, with help from two new allies: Sayeena, a former Vizjerei mage, and Jarius, a knight from the Cathedral of Light.
To begin the Lord of Lies questline, visit the Stranger in Kyovashad’s city center near the Waypoint. You’ll need to have completed Diablo 4’s base campaign and created a new character on the Seasonal Realm.
Boss Powers will be the Seasonal theme
This new mechanic allows players to absorb special abilities from defeated bosses, including World and Lair Bosses.
Each Boss Power has a Main effect and additional Modifiers, letting players experiment with different builds. Players can equip one Main Power and up to three Modifiers.
Apparition Incursions will pit you against Belial's manifestations
These are world events tied to Belial’s presence, where players battle his manifestations. Completing these incursions offers valuable loot and opportunities to gain new Boss Powers.
Any character playing on any Difficulty Level can participate in this event. The event occurs in a different part of Sanctuary every few minutes, so keep an eye on your map for its current location.
Everything you need to know about the Lair Boss rework
Season 8 introduces a reworked approach to Endgame Bosses, replacing the previous boss ladder system with Lair Bosses, now divided into three tiers based on difficulty and rewards:
Initiate Lair Bosses - cost 12 keys to summon
- Beast in the Ice
- Grigoire
- Lord Zir
- Varshan
- Urivar (Vessel of Hatred required).
Greater Lair Bosses - cost 3 keys to summon
- Andariel
- Duriel
- Harbinger of Hatred (Vessel of Hatred required).
Exalted Lair Bosses - cost 2 keys to summon
- Belial, Lord of Lies
All Lair Bosses are available starting at Torment Difficulty 1. Bosses no longer require summoning materials. Instead, they drop a Hoard chest upon defeat, which each player in a party must unlock individually using Lair Boss Keys.
There are guaranteed unique drops for first-time kills, and higher difficulties and larger parties increase the chance and quantity of unique rewards. This should help dramatically with bloat in the stash from previous boss farming.
More Boss Keys drop from activities like Helltide Chests, Nightmare Dungeons, and World Bosses. Lairs now have unique map icons and a direct teleport feature.
Supreme Belial is the ultimate challenge, requiring specific items like the Betrayer’s Husk to unlock. Defeating him yields rare rewards, including Ancestral Uniques.
The devs stated that the idea of all of this is that "the bosses will be more rewarding" and even more so after the feedback received since the PTR for Season 8.
Season Journey and Battle Pass simplified
Smoldering Ashes will now be earned directly through the Season Journey, rather than through the Battle Pass. These are what you use to power up your Seasonal Blessings such as XP boosts, increased reputation towards seasonal rewards etc.
The process should be simpler than in previous seasons.
Reliquaries, the new Battle Pass system
Season 8 introduces new Legendary Aspects, Unique Items, and cosmetics. A Battle Pass titled 'Reliquaries' provides additional rewards, while the in-game shop expands with more customization options.
In the shots above you can see that the Reliquaries are broken up into categories. Belials Return, Weapons, Beasts and Armor.
Belial’s Return is a non-premium Battle Pass Reliquary, which means it doesn't require Platinum to access, and you can even unlock a little platinum within it. The other 3 Reliquaries can be purchased with Platinum individually for 200/500/800 respectively, or as part of the whole Battle Pass bundle for 1000 platinum.
To unlock rewards, you'll need to earn favor, which can generally be done by simply playing the game, as you did for previous Battle Passes. You can hold up to 99 favor tokens and will need to spend these before earning more, however, they do roll over to future season battle passes if you do not spend them (up to the 99 limit).
This is all in addition to the Diablo x Berserk collaboration coming to the game on May 6, this will appear in the Event Reliquaries tab.
The Diablo 4 Roadmap
The Diablo 4 roadmap that was revealed weeks ago was met with a mixed response. The devs did want to emphasize that this roadmap is intentionally vague and will have other things added to it over the next 12 months.
"It's a starting point to be fleshed out." So we should expect more to come than what's been slated.
Additional updates
Summarized points from the question and answer portion of the developer chat below:
- Conduit Shrines removed.
- Obol Gambler buffed.
- Leveling Glyphs made easier.
- Lair Boss Keys remain tradeable.
- Balance changes to roll out faster.
- The levelling will not be as slow as it was in PTR.
- Mythic Unique drop rates increase as players progress through the difficulty levels.
How to start Season 8
Seasonal characters are required to participate in much of the new content, so ensure your campaign is complete and jump into the Seasonal Realm on April 29. Will you be playing?
