Blizzard has told Diablo 4 players who have reached all their goals that it’s fine to take a break from the game ahead of the launch of Season 1, dubbed Season of the Malignant, on July 20.
Diablo 4 launched big early June, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It has only been out five weeks, but some players have already hit the level 100 with a permadeath Hardcore character, and are now repeatedly target-farming in a bid to obtain loot that increases their power in ever-shrinking increments. There are even reports of players completing Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons in Hardcore mode, considered one of the hardest challenges currently in-game. As a result, some players have said they are either getting bored with the Diablo 4 endgame after cramming in hundreds of hours in such a short amount of time, or feeling burnt out.
During a recent livestream, Diablo 4 associate game director Joe Piepiora said Blizzard staff take their own advice, and pointed to the launch of new seasons as a great time to return to the action role-playing game because they offer a fresh start to all.
“When you’ve reached all the goals and done the things you think are important, and you want to go take a break to play something else for a little while, that’s fine,” Piepiora said. “We do the same thing. But when a season rolls and there are new things for you to come out, that’s a great time to come back, particularly if you had a good time playing before, that’s exactly when you should come back and check out Diablo 4 fresh.”
“I’ll be honest, when the next WoW [World of Warcraft] expansion comes out, there’s a non-zero chance that I’m going to be playing WoW for a while,” added lead game producer Tim Ismay. “But it’s great to know there’s a point that I can come back to Diablo 4, and everybody’s on an even footing.”
Diablo 4 players must start a new character to play Season 1 content, which means players can safely take a break without falling behind. Diablo development boss Rod Fergusson said seasons “allow us to have a fresh start for everybody”.
It’s worth pointing out you need to complete the Diablo 4 campaign in order to engage with Season 1, which makes sense given the Season 1 questline takes place after the events of the campaign. But, if you’ve completed the campaign once, all subsequent characters can skip the campaign, meaning you can get stuck into Season 1 straight away. Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
