Diablo 4 season one battle pass: How it works and all rewards

Diablo 4’s first battle pass is live, along with the game’s first season, Season of the Malignant. This battle pass goes beyond the usual formula of adding new content for players to grind for, instead also offering seasonal bonuses to make XP and gold farming a little easier.

The battle pass is exclusive to seasonal characters, which means you must create a new one during Diablo 4’s season one to unlock the bonus content, regardless if you own the free or premium pass. It will be time to give your original characters a rest, just like I will give to my dear Overpower Druid.

Diablo 4 season 1 battle pass release date

Diablo 4’s battle pass came out on July 20 at 12 pm CT along with season one, the Season of the Malignant, and is expected to end around October 2023.

The battle pass features 90 tiers, with 27 free tiers and 63 premium tiers. The free tiers of the battle pass are ones that anyone can earn. However, the premium rewards are ones that only those with the premium battle pass can earn.

Aside from the passes’ new content, which will include visuals of all kinds for your characters, you can expect the season to bring new quests, legendary items, and balance changes—we’re looking at you, billion-damage builds.

How to unlock season 1 and the battle pass

You must complete the Diablo 4 campaign on the Eternal Realm to unlock the Seasonal Realm and the battle pass. That’s the only realm where you can create the required seasonal character that will let you progress through the tiers. As soon as you enter the new realm, you’ll automatically gain access to the battle pass.

The devs have previously said seasons in Diablo 4 will run for around three months, which makes October the estimated end date for the game’s first battle pass.

Diablo 4 season 1 battle pass price

The season one Diablo 4 battle pass will cost $9.99 USD (1,000 Platinum Points). If you want to have a head start and buy the pass with a 20-tier skip and an exclusive cosmetic, you can pay $24.99 (2,800 Platinum Points) for the Accelerated Battle Pass.

You have the option to not pay for the pass and play in the Seasonal Realm normally, gaining Favor and unlocking free battle pass tiers along the way. If you later decide to buy the Premium Pass, you automatically gain the rewards of all tiers behind your current one that was previously locked.

All Diablo 4 season 1 battle pass rewards

All the battle pass rewards for season one of Diablo 4 can be found under the Season tab in your menu. Here are all the rewards, unlock levels, and whether they’re a premium tier reward or free tier reward.

The free tiers in the pass obviously pale in comparison to the Premium tiers. Players who play for the Premium or Accelerated battle pass will have access to a slew of extra cosmetic items. But if you want to unlock the Premium battle pass, you can do so right from the battle pass menu.

How to level up the Diablo 4 battle pass and earn rewards

The Diablo 4 battle pass comes with seasonal objectives that give you Favor, the currency that lets you progress through the tiers on the battle pass and unlock rewards. That is the only way to climb the tiers and unlock rewards.

The objectives are fairly simple and include things like:

• Collect 15 Gallowine
• Complete any dungeon on your map
• Complete a world event on your map

Players will get new objectives as new chapters of the Season Journey are released, and these objectives are tied in with the Holding Back the Flood quest many of us were having trouble with.

How Smoldering Ashes and Season Blessings work in Diablo 4

You can get the new Diablo 4 currency Smoldering Ashes from free battle pass tiers and use it to unlock Season Blessings, which give your Seasonal characters a little progression boost. Even though these blessings don’t affect your character’s stats, they can speed up your XP, gold, and materials farming, or even make your elixirs last longer.

But there’s a twist. Some of the free tiers that give you Smoldering Ashes are tied to your character level. So, if you reach or buy the battle pass tier that rewards you with Smoldering Ashes but don’t meet the required character level, you can’t claim the currency until you reach that level. Blizzard did this so buying tier skips doesn’t buy you these gameplay boosts instantly, which would effectively make leveling in Diablo 4 pay-to-win.

Here are the Season Blessings revealed so far:

• Urn of Aggression – Boost to XP earned from monster kills.
• Urn of Bargaining – Boost to the amount of Gold earned from vendor sales.
• Urn of Reclamation – Boost to the chance of rare materials from salvage.
• Urn of Prolonging – Boost to the duration of all Elixirs.

Is the Diablo 4 battle pass pay-to-win?

No. In its current form, the only gameplay benefit you can get from the Diablo 4 battle pass comes from the free tiers. Also, these benefits only help with character progression, and they won’t give you stat boosts of any kind.