Diablo IV Season 1 Release Date Set for July 20 6p1m5x Malignant Quest Line, Broken Builds, More

It introduces a new character Cormund, who tasks us with ridding Sanctuary of a festering curse that turns all living beings into bloodthirsty fiends. 92zm

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 7 July 2023 17:08 IST

Diablo IV Season 1 Release Date Set for July 20: Malignant Quest Line, Broken Builds, More

Photo Credit: Blizzard Entertainment 8205l

Some elite monsters in the open world have a chance of spawning as Malignant variants

Highlights

Diablo 4 season 1’s story is set after the events of the main campaign
Players can collect Malignant Hearts to build insanely broken builds
Earning Favors through gameplay helps progress Diablo 4’s battle

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Diablo IV's much-awaited season 1 update will release July 20, nearly a month-and-a-half since the game debuted to rave reviews. Dubbed ‘Season of the Malignant,' the update was shown off during a developer live stream, held early Friday, detailing new quests, items, and further focus on its battle . As the title suggests, the season introduces a brand-new questline where the realm of Sanctuary is slowly getting corrupted by a plague, turning all living things into Malignant Monsters with new powers. The chapter is set after Diablo 4's main campaign where you bested Lilith, Daughter of Hatred, to rid Sanctuary of evil, and serves as a side story within the open world. The season starts at 10:30pm IST/ 10am PT.

As a festering curse widens its reach across Diablo IV's Sanctuary, the player will be summoned back to Kyovashad at level 1 to meet a new character Cormand, a former priest from the Cathedral of Light, who assigns us the new task of ripping the infected hearts out the Malignant creatures and using them to raise our power. Elite monsters you find in the world have a chance of spawning as a Malignant version, who upon defeat, drops an exposed Malignant Heart. You can interact with this item to start a ritual that spawns an even more powerful version of the elite enemy, surrounded by a group of corrupted mobs. Once you kill that — yeah, it's double the work — you earn a Caged Heart, which essentially functions like a gem that can be slotted into rings or amulets to tremendously boost your power. It's a way for you to create “stupid, new broken builds” that the developers hope are rightfully balanced.

Diablo IV Review

During Diablo IV's season 1, all ring and amulet drops will come with coloured sockets — red, blue, or yellow — that will only accept similarly coloured hearts' powers. You cannot pair a red heart in a blue socket, as the game directs players to look for specific colours of items. Maybe if you're lucky enough on your hunt, you will uncover a mysterious fourth colour of heart, which can be socketed onto any jewellery. There are a total of 32 Malignant Heart powers to collect, albeit you will run into even stronger versions of those as you keep playing the game. Any old, now useless hearts can then be broken down into crafting material that can be used to create Invokers. These can be used once you finish the Diablo IV season 1 campaign, at a Malignant Tunnel, where you can hunt for guaranteed hearts. : Malignant Hearts are quite rare when looking for in the overworld.

The season 1 journey will be spread across seven chapters, each with its own set of objectives and rewards, by way of new items and Favor. The latter is crucial to progressing two expansions in active development.

Diablo IV is out on Xbox Series S/X.

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Diablo IV 6o1x12

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Looks stunningly gory
Diverse class options
Skills synergise beautifully with builds
Finely-tuned combat
Great voice acting
Rewarding exploration
Satisfying loot system

Bad
Lacklustre story
Tight enemy-scaling
Microtransactions
Mob fights can get monotonous
Side quests feel like checklists

Read detailed Blizzard Diablo IV review

Genre RPG

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Multiplayer

Series Diablo

PEGI Rating 16+

More Blizzard Games

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