Battle Pass (Details + How it Works)

The beginning of Season 1 will introduce the first Diablo 4 Battle Pass. Like many other live service games, it will provide both a free track and premium track filled with rewards for players to earn.

Battle Passes have become a mainstay in today's gaming world, but not every Battle Pass is built to the players' liking. "Pay to Win" is one of the most common concerns for any game, and Battle Passes can occasionally be guilty of that.

What do we know about Diablo 4's Battle Pass so far?

Let's dive in and break it down.

This guide was written by Shugo.

The Battle Pass is set to launch alongside each Season and offers cosmetics that correspond with the Season's theme. Every Season in Diablo 4 will have its own unique theme and new content to explore.

Each Season is intended to be three months long, giving us a total of four per year. Season 1 will begin sometime in mid to late July.

Diablo 4's Season Journey is similar to that of Diablo 3. There are a set number of tasks to complete that ultimately lead toward the next chapter of challenges and rewards. However, unlike its predecessor, instead of completing every single objective on the list, we're only required to knock off a majority of them.

This allows players more freedom to pick and choose the challenges they want to take on, while avoiding others that may seem less appealing.

What does all of this have to do with the Battle Pass? Completing these achievements is a key part of progressing through the Battle Pass.

Favor

Each task on the Season Journey provides what's known as "Favor". This is essentially the "XP bar" that moves us along the path of rewards.

Other ways to earn Favor include slaying monsters and participating in events. To put it simply, just play the game.

There are three different tiers of the Battle Pass, the Free Tier, Premium Tier, and Accelerated Premium Tier.

Free Tier

• The Free Tier is the basic pass that's available to all players and includes 27 reward tiers to complete.

Premium Tier

• The Premium Tier adds 67 tiers beyond the Free Tier, bringing the pass to a total of 90 rewards.
• Expected pricing is around $10 USD.

Accelerated Premium Tier

• The Accelerated Premium Tier offers the same reward track as the Premium Tier, but allows the player to skip the first 20 tiers of the battle pass.
• In addition, players who purchase the Accelerated Premium Tier will obtain an additional exclusive cosmetic.
• Aside from the cosmetic, there are no additional rewards given compared to the regular Premium Tier. It's mainly there to help players save a bit of time.
• Expected pricing is around $25 USD.

Blizzard has stated that completing the Battle Pass is intended to be achievable. To what extent, we don't entirely know, but the impression given is that it shouldn't be a huge grind.

Season Blessings are a new mechanic that allows players to gain a passive buff towards various aspects of the game. We can gain a percentage bonus towards earning gold or XP, increase our odds of salvaging rare materials, or even extend our elixir duration. Importantly, they also mentioned Obols.

In order to acquire these buffs, we need to spend a currency known as Smoldering Ashes. We'll be able to choose which attribute to invest in, allowing players some agency in which powers they want to focus on. This can be a great benefit when making additional characters, as they apply to every character you create under that Season.

How do we earn Smoldering Ashes? By completing tiers of the Battle Pass. As you progress, you'll reach specific nodes of the track that will grant Smoldering Ashes to help strengthen your characters.

Note: There are NO Smoldering Ashes on the Premium Tier. Additionally, while the Accelerated Premium Tier will technically reach the Smoldering Ashes early, they are level-gated to ensure all players will be on an even playing field.

The initial tiers shown indicate that characters must reach level 10 before unlocking the first set of Smoldering Ashes. Essentially, the devs expect that all players will likely reach that point of the Battle Pass by that time, thus dispelling any worries of paid advantage. You can rest assured.

The paid Battle Pass is said to offer a lot of value. We've been told it includes two full armor sets for every class, a seasonal mount, mount armor; all themed to match the Season. There's also a variety of more unique cosmetics. "White Bloomers" were briefly mentioned (and confirmed!) on the developer livestream.

In addition, we'll also get the paid-only Platinum currency, allowing us to purchase other cosmetics directly from the shop.

Platinum can also be put towards the cost of future Battle Passes, which is great to know as it can help fund future Seasons!

A few final things you should know:

• Any purchases made on one platform will apply to other platforms.
• All Battle Passes are unique to the Season. Any progress will reset and not carry over into the next Season.
• If you buy the Battle Pass later during the Season, you'll still be able to obtain any Premium Tier rewards that you would've otherwise acquired along the way.

Season Preparation

Whether or not you're planning to purchase either of the Premium Tiers, there's one piece of advice to consider before the Season begins. In order to unlock the Season Journey, you must complete the campaign first.

Given what we now know about Seasons Blessings, we're ultimately going to progress through the Battle Pass much faster with the Season Journey unlocked.

This is a great incentive for players to play through the game on launch in order to be prepped for July. We've got roughly a month and a half, so that's a pretty good amount of time to get the job done!

Prepare for the Spiritborn class in Diablo 4’s upcoming Vessel of Hatred expansion. Our Spiritborn Overview has all the essential details.