What’s New In Season 4? The Returning Player’s Guide (Diablo 4)

Diablo 4 Season 4 Returning Player Guide

Diablo 4 Season 4 is finally here with a swath of new changes and some incredibly insane improvements to the item system. Whether you’re entirely new or returning, my goal will be to fill you in on what’s new and how to best start your journey in Sanctuary so you can hit the ground running.

This Season may feel different from previous Seasons in Diablo 4. Usually, Seasons revolve around some Seasonal mechanic, but they’ve decided to focus on meaningful overhauls of current systems this Season.

There have been some solid class changes, an entire item system rework, improvements to Helltides, and the addition of a new Dungeon type known as The Pits. Bosses have also had a bit of a touch-up, expanding how players can summon bosses, allowing players to summon greater versions of bosses, giving bosses new loot tables, and adding an entirely new boss, The Echo of Andarial.

The Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4 introduced a new class. Dive into our Spiritborn guides and builds to keep up with the meta.

What’s New In Season 4?

There is a whole host of new changes in Diablo 4, with items, bosses, and crafting being some of the major ones. Let’s review some of these big and small changes to help keep you up to date on what’s going on in Diablo 4.

New Crafting System

The updated crafting system is one of my favorite changes in Season 4. We saw many new ways to customize and create weapons that fit into builds perfectly. The system allows you to shape items in the way you want them at a price and with a bit of randomization.

We’ll cover the basics below, but be sure to visit our in-depth guide on Tempering and Masterworking.

Tempering

A new system that can be used extensively throughout the leveling portions of the game right up into endgame and is a key part in crafting best-in-slot items. It basically allows players to heavily customize their gear by adding up to two different affixes of their choice to an item, chosen randomly from a list of possibilities.

It’s a powerful system that, although cheap to do, has the potential to ruin an item as you only have a limited number of tempering tries.

Masterworking

The new endgame crafting system completely replaces Diablo 4s old upgrading system. Masterworking improves the affixes currently on an item by 5% for each rank, increasing stats gained from Tempering.

An item can be upgraded 12 times, with every fourth rank increasing a random affix by 25%. If you don’t get the random 25% affix upgrades you want, you can reset the rank back to 0 for a costly fee.

The system uses three new crafting materials: Obsducite, Ingolith, and Neathiron. All three are obtained via the new endgame dungeon, Pits.

Item Changes

Items have definitely been one of the most controversial topics of debate, from having too many convoluted affixes to having to stash way more items that are needed due to Aspect hoarding.

Thankfully, both areas have been heavily redesigned, with Affixes being reduced across the board and the old Codex of Power being revamped to contain now the Aspects of items you have salvaged at the Blacksmith.

Salvaged Aspects with higher rolls will replace entries in the Codex of Power so that you can always imprint your own Legendaries with the highest rolled Aspect you’ve salvaged.

Affix Reduction

Affixes on items and the total number of affixes able to roll on items have been massively reduced. One of Diablo 4’s initial criticisms was the sheer number of affixes that relied heavily on conditions to be met to work. The removed affixes are too many to list, but the system as a whole has been positively impacted.

Legendary items now only roll with three affixes, and Rare items roll with 2. This means that the gameplay loop will heavily revolve around collecting and upgrading Legendary, and Rares are primarily used for materials and selling for gold.

Ancestral and Sacreds are now also contained within their respective world tiers, with Ancestral only being found in World Tier 4 and Sacreds being found in World Tier 3.

Greater Affixes (GA’s)

A simple but awesome addition to the item system is Greater Affixes. When an item drops, its affixes will typically roll between two numbers. When an item drops with a greater affix, up to all three of the affixes will roll as its max roll instead, with a 1.5x multiplier added. This makes greater affix items some of the best bases for best-in-slot gear.

Boss Changes

In Season 4, bosses have also been heavily improved and overhauled. Firstly, a new boss is entering the roster, The Echo of Andarial, with the same Uber Unique drops as Duriel.

Another massive feature is Tormented Echoes, essentially level 200 versions of all existing bosses. They require double the material costs as they currently do but will require a newly introduced material called Stygian Stones. These can be found by killing World Bosses and the new endgame activity, Pits.

Items dropped by these Tormented variants will always be item level 925, and the Tormented versions also have a chance of additional loot drops.

In addition, all bosses who didn’t before now have a 0.5% chance of dropping an Uber Unique.

Helltides

This Season, Helltides was also hit with some nice changes similar to Diablo 4 Season of Blood, as well as some much-needed quality of life.

Firstly, a lesser version of Helltides has been introduced to World Tiers 1 and 2. The monster density isn’t as crazy as World Tier 3 and 4 Helltides, but it gives those levelling a great way to level and obtain gear.

Density has been increased overall in World Tier 3 and 4, though, with the introduction of giant worms that spew up hoards of demons from wherever. A Helltide threat level has also been introduced, which works in conjunction with this worm.

You will have a total of three threat levels, and each level increases the chance of you being ambushed by the worm. Once you fill the bar and reach the maximum threat level, you will be ambushed by several packs of demons, and each time, your threat level will slowly decrease.

Finally, Helltides have been given another unique currency, The baneful Heart. You’ll be able to see how many you have in the top right, beside your Cinders. They’re dropped from the Tortured Gifts that are opened with Cinders. Using three of these at an Accured Ritual site will summon the new Helltide Boss, Blood Maiden.

Quick tip: you can check the timers for the Helltides, as well as thier locations by using our Diablo 4 interactive map!

The Pit

Pits are a new endgame dungeon that can be accessed when you reach World Tier 4 in Cerrigar. If you’ve played Diablo 3 before, these are incredibly similar to Greater Rifts. They are timed and require you to kill a certain amount of creatures within said time limit to open a portal to a boss room. Defeating the boss completes the Pit.

Loot isn’t dropped during the run except at the very end from the boss, so it allows you to focus purely on slaughtering instead of looting.

Opening the Pit will actually first require you to have farmed some Nightmare Dungeons for Runeshards; three are required to run a Pit Dungeon. The Pit gradually increases in difficulty as you clear different tiers, with the highest Tier being Pit Tier 200.

We highly recommend you to prepare for the Pit Dungeons by chosing one of our highly optimized builds for your class!

Alchemist Changes

The Alchemist was also given an overhaul, specifically with crafting potions and upgrading health potions. Previously, potion crafting required various flora ingredients, but in Season 4, all of these materials have been bundled together to create “Bundled Herbs.” Bundled Herbs, Angelbreath, Forgotten Souls, and some gold are required to upgrade and craft your potions.

Transmutation

A Transmutation window was also added to craft Uber Uniques and exchange materials from the Pit for materials from a lower tier.

The Uber Unique crafting will require Resplendent Spark, which is gained from various things like the Season Quest Board and the Seasonal Journey.

Where to Start the Season 4 Journey

This Season, I’d recommend immediately starting and following your seasonal questline, at least early, as it gives rewards appropriately through a system known as “Wolf’s Honor.” It also immediately tells you to do Helltides.

Once you do your Helltide and head to the next quest, you’ll have access to this Wolf’s Honor board when you reach the Wolf’s Encampment and talk to the NPC there. Deviating off after this is fine. These rewards do not level with you, so grabbing them quickly and early will help you progress significantly, so keep tabs on when you unlock new rewards.

This questline can be started and picked up early in Kyovashad.

Wolf’s Honor

The Wolf’s Honor board is quite amazing early on and gives you a lot of aspects as rewards. These are simply amazing for boosting your early game. Remember that they do not scale with your level, so do Hellgates early. Unlock these as early as possible for a great boost in progress this Season.

Seasonal Journey

As with every Season, there is also a seasonal journey for you to follow, these also give you a plethora of rewards and are also well worth doing. I’d recommend gradually doing these as well as they can help the early game and give you some direction throughout your journey if you feel lost.

This menu can be found under Season in the map tab.

Leveling and Progressing

There are quite a few ways to level this Season. In previous Seasons, Nightmare Dungeons were the fastest way to level, and this remains true, but with the new changes to Helltides, they come in very close. Helltides this Season are incredibly fun due to the insane increase in monster density. They feel fun to be in, and the rewards are amazing.

I’d recommend doing Helltides first, especially when gearing in new World Tiers, as monsters are assigned to your level. After you’ve got sufficient gear, I’d do a mix of Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides. Also, remember that the best way to gain Wolf Honor for the Season quest rewards is through Nightmare Dungeons.

Nightmare Dungeons

• The fastest way to level is to gain less loot, and you can easily burn yourself out if you spam them. Consider spacing them out. To start these, you’ll need to loot a Nightmare Dungeon key from the Tree of Whispers first.

Helltides

• Solid XP, incredibly fun, great density, and amazing loot. Collecting 3 hearts and placing them on the statues signaled by the horned devil on the map, you can summon a Helltide boss with a high rate of dropping Greater Affix gear.

The Pits

• This is more about trying to push your build to greater heights. The difficulty gets progressively steeper as you progress. The XP isn’t as good as the other two, and the loot is significantly less. This is where you loot materials, though, for Masterworking, primarily run mid-late game.

Gearing

After you finish your Wolf’s Honor Board and some of your Seasonal journey, you should reach World Tier 4. If you’re still missing Aspects for your build, I’d recommend getting the rest by using Hearts in Helltides, as it’s a solid way to continually spawn many monsters and elites.

While doing this, you’ll want to disenchant as much as possible; you’ll need the resources later on. It’s also worth noting that rares have little value this Season. This was done to reduce clutter. Their primary purpose is to sell and dismantle so you no longer have to look at all your rares.

Crafting

This Season, crafting has been overhauled quite a bit; I’ll go through the basics of what you’ll want to do, but for an in-depth guide on Season 4 crafting, visit our guide here.

As a general overview, there are a few basic laws to follow when crafting. Tempering is cheap and relatively easy as it only requires materials and no gold. Temper often, as it can give you a nice boost to damage. Enchanting and Masterworking, on the other hand, are expensive, and Masterworking specifically requires materials found in the Pits; you want to do these two late game.

Dischanting vs Selling

At a certain point, you’ll also want to start selling rares and Legendaries to vendors; this is simply the easiest and fastest way to make gold. A good indicator of “when to start selling over disenchanting” is when you need gold. You’ll eventually get a feel for it but having around 10-20 mil on your for the odd Respec’ing and Aspect changing is worthwhile.

Aspects

Applying an Aspect to an item is the first step to any good build. The Aspect system was revamped this Season, and you now collect “Aspect Imprints” that you can use for items.

You gain imprints when you disenchant Legendaries, so keep an eye on the rolled Legendaries you want and disenchant them for the imprint; you will then be able to apply your highest rolled imprint onto any other legendary.

To imprint, search for the Occultist in towns.

Greater Affixes (GA’s)

This Season, Legendarys, Uniques, and Uber Uniques all can drop as a Greater Affixed item. Up to all 3 of its affixes can be GA’d and will be upgraded to 1.5x its max roll, making these items the strongest in the game.

Tempering

To Temper, you’ll first need to find recipes. These are dropped worldwide and drop as soon as you start playing; they gradually increase in power when you’ve found the weaker recipes.

Tempering your weapon should always be a priority as you progress. You can gain a reasonably good boost in damage this way, and it can really help as you progress through the game.
It’s always a good idea to start your crafting journey with Tempering after you have the correct Aspect.

This is because Tempering, while cheap, also has a chance of bricking your item as you have a limited number of Tempering tries. So, if you don’t get what you want, it’s best not to enchant or masterwork the item first.

Enchanting

Enchanting is a resource cheap but monetarily expensive. It’s best only to start enchanting when you have the best Temperings you can get. When you have 2 affixes you want, but the 3rd is lackluster, that’s likely a good item for enchanting.

It’s best to Temper first because you can effectively brick an item with Tempering, leaving the item with a bad temper and devaluing the point of Enchanting.

Enchanting works the same way as in previous Seasons, so there’s not much change here. However, the monetary cost increases sharply the more you try to enchant.

Masterworking

This is the final journey in crafting: Masterworking. Remember that Masterworking is restricted to World Tier 4, likely because it requires materials from the Pits. There are three different materials for Masterworking. Obducite is used for lower ranks, while Neathiron is used for higher ranks.

• Obducite – Tier 1 Pits
• Ingolith – Tier 31 Pits
• Neathiron – Tier 61 Pits

Obducite can also be found in the lower levels of the Pits, and Ingolith and Neathiron in the higher levels.

Sockets – World Bosses

This Season the only way to get the materials used for adding sockets to items is from World Bosses. These are on a timer and spawn throughout the day. They are well worth doing because of the material needed.

For boss farming, check out our current Diablo 4 tier list in order to find out which builds will help you to have much easier time!

Boss Farming – Endgame

Your final goal or even as soon as you can, might be to farm Unique bosses. These can sometimes drop build-defining items, and many builds rely on them.

There are a total of six summonable bosses currently in Diablo 4. Each one drops their own unique items, and with patch 1.4.0, they now have a 0.5% chance of dropping Uber Uniques.

A new mechanic in Season 4, we can turn all 6 bosses into the Tormented Echo version, which are level 200 version of these bosses. They require Sygian Stones and are definitely the very end game of Diablo 4.

In Conclusion

Overall, this Season is shaping up to be an absolute blast. I just love everything about it so far. The item changes, the crafting system, and the pits are all changes I personally love to see, and they’ve attempted to make all facets of play meaningful. There are still some problems with Diablo 4, but overall, this is such an incredibly positive direction, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in Season 5.