What to do, in order
Season 15 opened at 9:30 a.m. PDT on 15 September 2026, on patch 3.2.1. It is the centrepiece of Diablo's 30th anniversary, and it drags four games' worth of old places back into Sanctuary.
- Season start
- 15 Sept 2026
- Patch
- 3.2.1
- Live status
- 3.2.1 + mid-Sep hotfixes
- Soul Splinters
- 8 names, 32 gems
- Legacy Uniques
- Nine, permanent
Still on 3.2.1 — two things to know
There is no numbered patch after 3.2.1 yet. Mid-September hotfixes under that same number fixed login, Solo Self-Found and Tree of Whispers issues; they were not a balance patch.
Warlock: the Dominance upgrade on Fiend of Abaddon is temporarily disabled because of unintended damage scaling. If your plan leaned on that upgrade, leave it alone until it returns. Our Ae'grom Summoner page does not use Fiend of Abaddon.
Rebirth converts an Eternal character into a Seasonal one at level 1, keeping its class, name, appearance, mode, cosmetic ensemble and total played time. You cannot use it until that character has nothing equipped and nothing in its personal inventory, and anything still on it when you go through is destroyed. Move it all to the stash first.
Only living Hardcore characters carry War Plans reputation forward. Keep one alive in the same partition so your points reach Eternal later. A level 1 storage character counts.
Confirm you are on the Seasonal Realm, decide whether you are skipping the campaign, and start on Normal. If you are new, the Paladin beginner guide is the gentlest of the eight, or pick another class.
Travel to Temis and start your first War Plan, favouring one with several Helltide activities and rerolling if you are offered the choice. Pick your Mercenary, look at the Horadric Cube, and activate your Pet.
Follow the introductory quest until the seasonal systems unlock, then finish your first Helltide War Plan objective. The questline is not a levelling route. Take short seasonal objectives when they unlock something you need or sit on your path, and don't break a fast farm for every unfamiliar event.
Finish the class quest if yours needs one, spend the skill points you have been sitting on, and move up to Hard once packs are dying quickly.
Either the Undercity, pushing Attunement to Rank 4 and collecting the experience orbs yourself at each rank, or Helltide, taking Hellmouth and then Writhe and Rot for the maggot spawns. Once a route works, stop shopping around.
Both Fields of Hatred roaming bosses give 5 Grim Favors while their Whisper is active, one near Alzuuda in the Dry Steppes and one near Denshar in Kehjistan. Kill the pair and that is a full turn-in.
It usually lands near level 35 if you have been farming rather than questing.
Then check the Season Rank list to confirm the Pit has opened for you.
Replace gear, temper it, fit the Aspects your build cannot work without, use Runewords, and drive Paragon toward a Legendary node at roughly 25 to 40. Settle on a difficulty you can actually hold, ideally Penitent. Then clear Season Rank 1 to 4 for the skill points, the easy gear and the Lair Boss Keys.
Every Torment tier after that is also a Pit clear. The ladder is in section 08.
Core Aspects, Lair Boss keys for the Uniques your build demands, and the new Cube recipes. Switch to the endgame build once the items and the resource sustain are both in place, not before.
Three dark wanderers
Deckard Cain returns as a lost soul with news that three Prime Evils have come back. The questline starts in Kuhuthi's Tavern in Tarsarak and runs you through three long dungeons rebuilt from Diablo's past.
| Quest | Where it goes | What you fight |
|---|---|---|
| The Horadrim's Fate | Ancients' Way, Arreat Summit, Worldstone Keep, Throne of Destruction, the Worldstone Chamber | The Ancients, then the Echo of Baal |
| The Brother's Keeper | Cathedral Level 2, Catacombs Level 7, Caves Level 10, Hell Levels 15 and 16 | The Butcher and Blood Raven, then the Echo of Diablo |
| The Burning Shepherd | Seven areas below Kurast, including the Sewers, the Spider Cavern and the Flayer Dungeon | The High Council, then the Echo of Mephisto |
- Each one is five to seven areas long. They are the largest of the season's Waking Nightmares, built like Capstone dungeons, and you can replay them afterwards.
- Each kill hands you a Splinter of Evil. That is the seasonal power, and almost everything else in the season is gated behind carrying one.
- A follow-on chain, Deckard's Journey, opens the Deckard's Memory portal into Tristram. It is also the gate on the Hellfire Torch.
- Finishing the questline is what arms the rest of the season — the Splinter swap, the reputation tracks, the 24 seasonal War Plan bonuses and the Prime Evil Ambush system all need a Splinter in hand.
Don't plan around a free Leoric's Crown
You will hear that the questline guarantees a Leoric's Crown and a Stone of Jordan early. That is unsettled, and no level is attached to it. Patch 3.2.1 made every Unique drop from level 1 on any difficulty, so a crown can reach you long before the questline does either way.
The battle pass, explained
There's no linear track any more. You earn a currency and spend it on whichever rewards you actually want, in whatever order you like.
Unclaimed rewards are destroyed when a Reliquary expires
This is the expensive mistake of the season. Anything you have not unlocked inside a Reliquary is gone when that Reliquary ends, whether that is the close of a limited event or the close of the season. There is a countdown timer above each Reliquary in the menu, and it is the only deadline that matters. Eternal Realm players get the sharpest edge of this: you can use Reliquaries, but only for the duration of the season. Unspent Favor Tokens carry over. The rewards do not.
- Favor Tokens are the currency, earned by killing monsters and completing quests. There is no way to buy them, and a bar at the top right shows how close the next one is.
- Reliquaries are themed catalogues. Spend Tokens to unlock whichever item you like, in any order you like.
- Tokens cap at 99. Anything earned above the cap is wasted. Unspent Tokens under the cap do carry into future seasons.
- There are two kinds. Battle Pass Reliquaries run all season, usually four of them. Event Reliquaries are limited-time and expire on their own schedule.
- Clear a whole Reliquary and its Bonus Reward unlocks at no extra Token cost. It shows as a red-framed item with a star in the corner, and this season every one of them is a piece of the Archangel of Justice armour set.
- Each premium Reliquary holds one non-premium weapon cosmetic that anyone can unlock with Tokens alone, without buying the Reliquary.
- Season Blessings and Smoldering Ashes are not in here. They live in the Season Journey menu.
Three weapon transmogs, a Town Portal, a mount, and two lots of 200 Platinum. The named pieces are the Eidolon Mount, Eidolon's Barding Mount Armor and the Ancient Town Portal.
Free — returns 400 PlatinumWeapon cosmetics, including the one non-premium piece anyone can take.
200 PlatinumMounts, mount cosmetics and a pet, plus a non-premium weapon cosmetic.
500 PlatinumCosmetic armour sets built for each class individually, a Town Portal cosmetic, and the Archangel of Justice set for every class.
800 PlatinumIf you're going to buy anything, buy the bundle
All three premium Reliquaries together cost 1,000 Platinum. Bought separately they come to 1,500, so the bundle saves you a third. The Deluxe Battle Pass Bundle at 2,800 Platinum includes access to those same three Reliquaries plus the Archangel of Justice armour set straight away, the Wings of Justice and the Lordling of Terror pet. Read the catch before you buy it: you still need Favor Tokens to unlock each item inside those Reliquaries.
Old tokens
A Premium Battle Pass Token converts into a Premium Reliquary Battle Pass Token. An Accelerated Battle Pass Upgrade Token converts into 1,800 Platinum.
The season's build lever
Eight gems named for demons and one artefact, each in four rarities, so 32 items in total. Every one gives you something large and takes something real away. None of them is a straight upgrade.
- Three fit in your jewellery — amulet and two rings, each needing a socket.
- Leoric's Crown makes it five. The helm counts as jewellery while you wear it, adding two more slots, and it sharply increases the effect of whatever you socket there.
- Each Splinter can only be socketed once. No doubling up on the same name.
- The rarities read Lesser, Splinter, Greater and Abyssal in the loot filter, which is Magic, Rare, Legendary and Unique. You start finding them early.
| Splinter | Named for | What you gain | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anguish | Andariel | 5 / 10 / 15 / 20% Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance | Primary Resource costs rise 30%, the same at every rarity |
| Sin | Azmodan | 20 / 30 / 40 / 50% Maximum Life | Maximum Primary Resource cut by 30% |
| Lies | Belial | 40 / 60 / 80 / 100% more gold and crafting materials, and 25% bonus experience | You are permanently Weakened and Vulnerable |
| Black Soulstone | The Black Soulstone | Kills absorb a soul for 10 seconds. Each one adds 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 / 2.5% damage, stacking up to 200 times | Each soul also adds 1% damage taken, and the 10 seconds never refresh |
| Pain | Duriel | 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Damage Reduction | 30% of your Movement Speed, flat |
| The Mother | Lilith | You are Unhindered, and touching an enemy makes it Vulnerable for 10 seconds | Every 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 enemies you touch Stuns you for 4 seconds |
| Hellfire | Na-Krul | 20 / 30 / 40 / 50% increased damage, multiplicative | You lose 100% Critical Strike Chance |
| Damnation | Skarn | Killing an Elite pack gives 25% bonus experience for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds | The same kill raises Monster Power by 1 for that window |
Every Splinter but one also carries resistance. Seven give a single element, 250 at Lesser rising to 4,375 at Abyssal, except Hellfire, which gives 35 to 625 Resistance to All Elements. The Black Soulstone gives 7 to 50 All Stats instead.
Which ones to reach for
- Anguish is the default damage pick. The 30% resource cost is the whole bill, so it only stings on expensive skills.
- Hellfire is the biggest raw multiplier in the set, and it is only for builds that never wanted to crit. Overpower and Deadly Strike setups love it. If any of your resource generation or cooldown reduction triggers on a Critical Strike, it breaks those too.
- The Black Soulstone is a speed farmer's gem. At Abyssal and full stacks that is up to 500% more damage for 200% more damage taken. Against a lone boss with nothing else in the room, no new souls are generated at all.
- Sin is the straightforwardly defensive one. Take it if your build has no resource problems, and avoid it if your damage, defence or triggers depend on a big resource pool.
- Lies and Damnation are farming gems. Lies' Weakened and Vulnerable follow you into every fight, which matters far more while pushing, fighting hard bosses or playing Hardcore than it does on a farm route.
- Pain costs you dodging. Losing 30% Movement Speed makes tight mechanics and fast routes harder, not just slower.
- The Mother's stun is the sleeper danger. Four seconds is long enough to kill you at high difficulty, and fast melee builds reach the touch counter quickest.
Upgrading them
Take several Splinters of the same name and the same rarity to the Horadric Cube and use Amalgamation to fuse them into one of the next rarity up. Don't salvage a duplicate Lesser Splinter. It is upgrade material.
Pick your allegiance
Separate from the gems above. You carry exactly one Splinter of Evil, it reshapes a slice of the endgame, it earns reputation on its own track, and it makes the Prime Evil behind it hunt you back.
| Splinter | Evil | What it reshapes | Its power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terror | Diablo | Helltide and Infernal Hordes. The dense-mob option, best for a build that wants to walk through packs. | Flames of Metus, erupting Fire damage |
| Destruction | Baal | The Undercity and Lair Bosses. Its rank 20 bonus, Exotic Armory, makes Hoard Chests drop three extra Uniques for any class. | Ice of Excidium, a Cold blast and projectiles |
| Hatred | Mephisto | The Pit and Nightmare Dungeons. The glyph-levelling and pushing option. | Ghosts of Odium, Physical damage |
| All three | — | The Tree of Whispers is modified by every Splinter, and holds six of the season's 24 War Plan bonuses. | — |
How the track works
- 24 ranks, 20,000 reputation, and it comes from Waking Nightmares and from slaying remnants.
- Eight Activity Modifiers land at ranks 4, 5, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20 and 22. These are the seasonal bonus lines added to 24 War Plan nodes this season, eight per Splinter.
- Six upgrades to your Iconic Power land at ranks 2, 6, 10, 16, 21 and 24, at 350, 1,300, 5,150, 13,100, 17,400 and 20,000 reputation.
- Early hopping is cheap, late hopping is not. The first power upgrade costs 350 and the first modifier 666, so trying all three early costs you almost nothing. Ranks 18, 20 and 22 sit at 14,800, 16,600 and 18,300, which is where committing starts to pay.
- Swap at the largest Waking Nightmares. The replacement Splinter is a consumable that displaces the one you carry, reputation is banked per Splinter, and the game warns you that you are bound to your Prime Evil for a while.
What you hunt stalks you back
Carrying a Splinter arms Prime Evil Ambushes. An Echo of Diablo, Baal or Mephisto can drop on top of you, announced by a harmful buff called Prime Evil Ambush that gives you 10 seconds of warning. Finishing a local event or a Whisper opens a 60-second window in which one can fire, with a 120-second lockout between them. Carry no Splinter and none of this happens. The ambush echoes use the ordinary seasonal boss profile of 4.75 times life and 1.33 times damage, the same as Ashava and Avarice, so if you can clear the Waking Nightmare version you can clear the ambush.
- Echo of Uber Diablo is the exception. It counts as a world boss, arrives with "Diablo Walks the Earth", warns that he will depart in one minute, and leaves on his own if nobody finishes him.
- The Pit gained a matching affix. Prime Evil Corruption fills the dungeon with the Evils' servants.
The season's activity
Old Diablo bosses and locations dragged back into Sanctuary: 33 of them across 27 unique places, in three sizes. They are also the main source of Splinter reputation, so this is where the season's power actually comes from.
Multi-level dungeons rebuilding the historic showdowns, in campaign, Nightmare and Hell versions. Fixed difficulty, like every Capstone. You meet them first in the questline, replay them for loot, and swap your Splinter of Evil here. Clearing the harder versions opens the later Season Ranks.
3 dungeonsNormal-length dungeons at fixed spots on the map, including the Den of Evil. This is the farm loop, and four of them unlock Season Ranks II to V.
9 dungeonsSingle-room fights that appear suddenly in the open world with no minimap icon, only a quest-tracker marker. Queen Araneae, waves of dagger-wielding Flayers. Free loot on your way somewhere else.
14 encounters| Standard nightmare | Entry | What clearing it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Halls of the Blind | Level 30, Expert | Season Rank II |
| Den of Evil | Level 60, Penitent | Season Rank III |
| The Scouring of Caldeum | Level 70, Torment I | Season Rank IV |
| Horadric Library | Level 70, Torment II | Season Rank V |
- The standard nine are keyed. The Chronicle of Nightmares is a Nightmare Sigil that rolls two dungeon affixes from a pool of 54. One of them is Echo of Pindleskin, which may drop any item in the game when killed.
- Four popup nightmares belong to a timed world event called Popup Rifts. The rest simply appear.
- There is a hidden one. Na-Krul's Crypt is not on any list the game shows you.
Check the entry before you queue
The difficulty the three capstones sit at has not settled down. The pinnacle versions are meant for Torment 10 and above, but the entry requirement shown on each dungeon is the number to trust, not a tier quoted anywhere else.
The activities, and when each opens
The Splinters of Evil reshape six existing activities plus the Tree of Whispers. Here is what each one is and the point at which you can walk into it.
| Activity | Opens at | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Helltide | Character creation | Available the moment you make a seasonal character, from Normal upwards. Torment adds Standard Armor, Weapons, Jewelry and Mystery Gifts to the pool. Take Hellmouth, then Writhe and Rot for Hellwyrm and maggot spawns. |
| The Undercity | Around level 20 | Opens by pushing the Lord of Hatred campaign to its priority quest, which also unlocks the Spirit Brazier permanently. Light Beacons, kill for Attunement, collect the experience orbs yourself at every Attunement rank, reach Rank 4, then take the boss. Rushing straight to the boss throws away the experience. |
| Tree of Whispers | Early | Grim Favors from objectives on your route, cashed in for caches. Patch 3.2.1 roughly tripled the gold and lifted the experience, gems and salvage. |
| Nightmare Dungeons | Sigils | Sigil-keyed dungeons, and the home of the Chronicle of Nightmares this season. |
| The Pit | Season Rank II | On a seasonal character it opens after the Capstone Dungeon Hellish Descent at Season Rank II. Entered at an obelisk in Cerrigar. Fifteen minutes to kill enough to summon the boss, then kill the boss to upgrade glyphs and unlock the next tier. There are 150 tiers. |
| Infernal Hordes | Quest, then Torment | Complete "The Eyes of the Enemy" once per account and you are handed a Compass. More cannot be crafted. They drop from Helltide chests, Whisper caches and the end of Nightmare Dungeons and the Pit, and only start dropping at Torment. Pre-Torment Fleeting Compasses run 4 waves against the normal 6, 8 or 10. Burning Aether buys Spoils. |
| Lair Bosses | Keys | Summoned with keys and materials. The targeted route to a specific Unique. |
Season Rank and Blessings
- Nine ranks across 125 objectives. Between them they pay up to 14 Skill Points and 42 Paragon points, 10 Resplendent Sparks, 5 Mythic Unique Caches, the Dark Wanderbear pet, the Banner of the Three mount trophy, two Emblems, two Titles and four Title Laurels, plus materials and Lair Boss Keys.
- Do Ranks 1 to 4 as soon as you hit 70. That is where the free skill points, the easy gear and the boss keys are. At the absolute minimum, clear the Rank II Capstone so the Pit opens.
- Roughly 15% of Seasonal Objectives need the Lord of Hatred expansion, including objectives required to finish Rank VIII and collect every Season Rank reward.
- Season Blessings are bought with Smoldering Ashes in the Season Journey menu: the Urns of Curiosities, Reclamation, Masterworking, Glyphs and Ancestral Whispers.
Torment, and what each tier buys
Four standard difficulties for levelling, then twelve Torment tiers for the endgame. Expert and Penitent now unlock when you finish the Prologue rather than the whole campaign. Every Torment tier is unlocked by a Pit clear.
| Torment | Pit tier | Extra kill XP | What it adds to the loot pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Pit 10 | 300% | Ancestral quality items, and more Legendaries, Uniques and Mythics per tier |
| II | Pit 15 | 400% | Legendary Temper Manuals and Scroll of Restoration |
| III | Pit 20 | 500% | Set Charms |
| IV | Pit 25 | 600% | Neathiron |
| V | Pit 30 | 700% | Legendary Runes |
| VI | Pit 40 | 800% | Greater Lair Keys |
| VII | Pit 50 | 900% | Volatile Primordial Dust |
| VIII | Pit 60 | 1000% | Unique Charms |
| IX | Pit 70 | 1100% | Kullean Tuning Prisms |
| X | Pit 80 | 1300% | Mythic Horadric Seals, and far more Gem Fragments and Royal Gems from Elites |
| XI | Pit 90 | 1500% | — |
| XII | Pit 100 | 1700% | — |
- The damage wall is not even. Penitent to Torment 1 asks for 60% more damage. Each tier through Torment 5 asks for 119%. From Torment 6 to 12 it is 381% a tier, which is why pushing stalls there.
- Patch 3.2.1 raised Legendary drop rates in Torment I to V only. Torment VI and above are unchanged, so the lower tiers are better than they were.
Unlocking a tier and farming on it are two different decisions
Clear the Pit tier so the difficulty is there when you want it, then go back down and farm where things actually die. A slower kill at a higher tier is usually worse per hour than a fast one lower down.
Nine permanent additions
Built from relics of the older games for the 30th anniversary, and they are not seasonal. They join the loot pool on both realms and stay there. Patch 3.2.1 also made every Unique in the game drop from level 1, on any difficulty.
| Item | Slot | Who can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leoric's Crown | Helm | All classes | Counts as jewellery, so it holds two Soul Splinters and boosts what you socket there. Guaranteed Attack Speed affix. |
| Nemesis Bracers | Gloves | All classes Charm | Shrines spawn an Elite Pack. |
| Stone of Jordan | Ring | All classes Charm | Your Resistances each equal your highest, and you deal 15 to 25% more damage of that Element, multiplicative. |
| Sirloin of the Bovine | Legs | All classes | — |
| In-Geom | 1H Sword | Every class except Spiritborn Charm | Defeating an Elite pack cuts your Skill Cooldowns by 8 to 10 seconds for 15 seconds. |
| Henri's Perquisition | Focus | Sorcerer, Necromancer, Warlock Charm | You gain Primary Stat equal to 85 to 115% of your Dexterity. |
| Arioc's Needle | 2H Polearm | Barbarian, Druid, Spiritborn Charm | Large Deadly Strike Chance, and your Deadly Strikes hit far harder. |
| The Furnace | 2H Mace | Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin, Warlock Charm | You deal a great deal more damage to Elites. |
| Messerschmidt's Reaver | 2H Axe | Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin, Warlock | Lucky Hit: up to a 20 to 30% chance to explode for Fire damage and cut your Cooldowns by 1 second. |
- Six of the nine can be made into Unique Charms for the Talisman, marked above. Leoric's Crown and Messerschmidt's Reaver are items only.
- They drop like anything else. There is no special route, no seasonal flag and no difficulty floor.
- Mythics got easier to find too. Patch 3.2.1 raised Mythic rates from Initiate and Greater Lair Bosses, from Belial and from random sources, and gave the Echo of Mephisto a guaranteed Mythic drop.
New crafting, and the trap in it
- Affix Value Reroll rerolls all base affixes on equipment and on Talisman items, and protects Greater Affixes, Enchanted affixes, Tempers and Transfigurations, as long as the item is still modifiable.
- Horadric Reroll takes Legendary and better Charms and Seals, fully randomises their base affixes, and leaves Set Bonuses and Unique or Mythic charm powers alone, including the Charm Set Bonus affixes on Seals.
- Deterministic Mythic crafting is the Horadric Cube's Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic. It is one of three routes, not a replacement: the Jeweler's rune crafting and the Blacksmith's Mythic Cache both still exist and both still roll at random. The Cube route is the most expensive of the three.
- The Mythic limit is an equip limit, not a crafting limit. Items made with the Cube recipe carry a Crafted tag, and you can only wear one Crafted tag item at a time. Mythics from the Jeweler or the Blacksmith carry no tag, so you can stack several of those alongside your one crafted piece. Craft as many as you can afford.
- You cannot use the Cube route on an Unmodifiable item. Think twice before Transfiguring something you were saving as a Mythic candidate.
- War Plans are not simply account-wide. What is shared is reputation, and only between characters that match on all three splits: Eternal or Seasonal, Hardcore or not, Solo Self-Found or not. A seasonal softcore character shares nothing with a seasonal softcore Solo Self-Found one. Each character still spends its own points, on its own plans.
Things to claim, and things to find
| What | How | Window |
|---|---|---|
| Deforestation axe | Twitch drop. Link Battle.net and Twitch first, then watch any stream in the Diablo IV category for two hours. | 15 Sept 11:00 a.m. PT to 29 Sept 10:59 a.m. PT |
| 50+ cosmetics | Link Game Pass to Battle.net. Armour sets for every class, Mount Trophies, a Town Portal, an Emblem and a Headstone. Anything you already own is skipped. | Ongoing |
| Geralt skin | Pre-purchase or buy Songs of the Past on Battle.net. | Ongoing |
The things nobody announced
- Classic runewords are back, transmuted in the Horadric Cube from a normal-quality base plus runes. Stealth is Tal and Eth in a chest, Spirit is Tal, Thul, Ort and Amn, Enigma is Jah, Ith and Ber. Use an Ancestral base and you get an Ancestral runeword.
- Whimsyshire opens by pushing the Seasonal Journey through Chapter 5 and using a Liquid Rainbow.
- Echo of Tristram is a secret area reached with a Wirt's Lucky Coin. It needs a high Torment tier, and below the threshold the entrance simply tells you the minions of Hell are too strong.
- The Hellfire Torch is the long chain: all three Splinters of Evil, then the Horadric Cube, then Wirt's Lucky Coins, then Deckard's Journey, then the fountain inside Echo of Tristram.
The red fountain will eat your coin
The Hellfire Torch fountain is buggy. If it is showing red, do not click it, or you lose the coin. Log out, turn off crossplay, and come back to it.