Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant starts on July 20th and introduces a new story where you help Cormond fight against some Malignant Monsters. Before its reveal, the development team confirmed that you’d need to make new characters during the season to claim Battle Pass rewards. It reiterated the same in a blog post but confirmed you don’t need the Premium Battle Pass to play the season’s new content.
However, finishing the Campaign on a regular or seasonal character at least once is mandatory. After starting Season of the Malignant, you gain instant access to a Mount and can skip the Campaign. Any Altars of Lilith and areas discovered on the map are revealed, and you gain their respective Renown, which should help with the Renown grind.
Any items earned during a season transfer to the Eternal Realm (or Standard League) after it ends, Malignant Hearts and their powers are gone. As for the Battle Pass, you earn new Legendary Aspects, a Scroll of Amnesia for a free Skill Tree and Paragon Board reset, and a Mastery Title by completing tasks on the Seasonal Journey.
Playing the game and completing quests also earns Favor to level up Battle Pass tiers. There are 27 Free Tiers and 63 Premium Tiers for 90 rewards in total. Smoldering Ashes for increases to Gold, Obols and XP for the season’s duration are free. The Premium Battle Pass includes a Mount, Mount Armor, Platinum (the premium currency) and Awoken Armor Sets as rewards.
You can skip Tiers by spending 200 Platinum per Tier, but you still need to meet level requirements on a character to benefit from the bonuses of Smoldering Ashes. Stay tuned for more details on Season of the Malignant in the coming weeks, and check out our review for the base game here.
