Blizzard is launching Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred alongside the most deliberately minimal season the game has ever had, and the studio is fully aware of how that sounds.
The new season is called Season of Reckoning, and according to a Blizzard blog post, it "represents a departure from past seasons." That's an understatement. There are no season-exclusive powers, no temporary story questline, none of the usual scaffolding that typically defines a Diablo IV season. You can still create a fresh seasonal character and grind to godhood, but nothing you encounter will disappear when the three months are up.
Why Blizzard is deliberately stepping back this season
Here's the thing: the expansion itself is doing the heavy lifting that a season would normally handle. Lord of Hatred ships with two entirely new classes in the Warlock and the Paladin, completely reworked skill trees for every existing class, a revamped item crafting system via the Horadric Cube, and a new endgame mode that reportedly takes serious time to exhaust. Stacking a full season on top of all that would bury players before they even finished the campaign.
Blizzard confirmed the expansion launched on April 27 at 4 pm PDT, with Season of Reckoning following 30 minutes later at 4:30 pm PDT. That half-hour gap exists so players can at least attempt to log in before server queues turn into a waiting room simulator.
What Season of Reckoning actually offers
To compensate for the stripped-down seasonal structure, Blizzard loaded up the seasonal objectives with more rewards than usual. The key here is the mythic unique situation: completing the seasonal checklist nets you enough crafting materials to build at least 7 mythic uniques, the rarest and most powerful items in the game. Normally, a full season rewards enough for just one.
Beyond that, the reward pool includes:
- Free cosmetics, including a pet constructed from hellish roots
- Crafting materials useful for endgame gearing
- A paid seasonal reliquary with exclusive cosmetics for players who want to spend extra
Most of these rewards are accessible without owning the expansion, which is a reasonable move given that Lord of Hatred costs $40 on top of the base game.
The expansion and Season of Reckoning are separate purchases. Non-expansion owners can still participate in seasonal objectives and earn the majority of rewards.
The expansion content that makes the light season work
The honest read on Season of Reckoning is that it only makes sense because Lord of Hatred is genuinely packed. The expansion brings activity-specific skill trees, a fishing mechanic that the community is already convinced hides a secret cow level, and an endgame mode substantial enough that even players who spent 45 hours in the expansion before launch hadn't fully explored it.
Blizzard has promised that future seasons will return to the standard format once this one wraps up. The stripped season is a one-time structural decision tied to the scale of the expansion, not a sign of things to come.
What most players miss in situations like this is how much the seasonal character reset still matters even without exclusive content. Starting fresh, racing through the new class skill trees, and building toward those 7 mythic uniques gives the season real momentum regardless of whether there's a temporary power system attached.
For everything else coming with the expansion, browse our latest gaming news to stay across the full picture as players dig into the new endgame content over the coming weeks. You'll also want to check out our latest reviews once the community has had time to stress-test the new systems at high difficulty.
