We know that Diablo 4 would include seasonal content updates, and we know that part of that seasonal content model would include both a free and paid battle pass. As of yesterday's post-launch livestream, Blizzard has revealed more of what fans can expect from the upcoming Diablo sequel.
"Seasons are quarterly releases that will add additional gameplay features, questlines (with new and old faces alike), Battle Passes, Legendary Items, class balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, and much more," wrote Blizzard on the Diablo 4 blog. "Above all, we want Seasons to be celebratory moments; something to look forward to and enjoy with your friends and other members of the Diablo community."
Season 1 will start in mid-to-late July, giving players plenty of time to beat the campaign first. And you'll need to have beaten the campaign in order to access the seasonal content.
We still don't know what Season 1 will be called (as Blizzard has labeled it "TOP SECRET") but we do know it'll have multiple chapters providing increasing rewards. Chapter 1 of Season 1 will have nine objectives of which players will have to complete seven in order to unlock the next chapter. Those objectives include a fun reference to Diablo 2's Den of Evil and requires the completion of any dungeon. Seems relatively simple.
Completing these objectives provides a "Large Favor Drop," favor being the currency that increases your battle pass level. You'll also gain favor for "completing quests, slaying monsters, participating in events, and more."
As for the battle pass itself, it'll have 27 free tiers and 63 premium tiers. The premium tiers will only provide you with cosmetic rewards, while the free tiers will provide both cosmetics as well as another currency called Smoldering Ashes. These Smoldering Ashes will let you unlock Season Blessings: buffs that increase your XP or gold earnings, improve your odds of obtaining rare materials from salvaging equipment, or increases your elixir time.
Season Blessings are only active for the season they're unlocked, and you're only able to apply Smoldering Ashes after reaching certain character level milestones--this is to prevent you from using the Season Blessings to create a totally overpowered new character. You can have more than one Season Blessing active at a time, though.
The Premium Pass will cost you $9.99 or 1,000 Platinum, which will be Diablo 4's premium currency. There's also going to be an Accelerated Battle Pass which provides 20 tier skips and a special cosmetic for 2,800 Platinum, which works out to be $24.99.
And if that wasn't enough monetization for you, there's also a cosmetic shop where players can spend Platinum on class-specific skins. Battle pass cosmetics will be class-agnostic, but items purchased in the shop will be locked to specific classes. On the plus side, cosmetics unlock per class, not per character, so once you buy something you'll never need to buy it again.
Diablo 4 arrives on June 6, but you can get an early taste by signing up for the open Mother's Day beta which starts tomorrow.