Season 10, the ‘Season of Infernal Chaos’, is live now in Blizzard’s illustrious Diablo IV, and it brings mild differences that surprisingly bring big fun to the land of Sanctuary. Here are my thoughts and opinions on this season so far as the local MKAU Diablo IV connoisseur.

The veil across Sanctuary between safety and the hordes of Hell is thin, and as it weakens, chaos is breaking through and reigning supreme, forcing a rogue by the name of Shyan to seek your assistance. You, the ever-diligent hero, must give offerings to the Hells, fight off waves of demonic spawn and confront warlord Bartuc, a charge of Mephisto’s twisted will.

While my squad (I can’t play this without the homies) and I thought we blitzed through the story a lot quicker this time, sadly, we thoroughly enjoyed it, much more than last season. The build-up to Bartuc was paced decently with defeating Fell council members inbetween, but it was a rush to the end as the last of the 6-story missions are quite early in the seasonal reward board located in Yelesna.

This season has two currencies, with the latter more important to gameplay. Firstly, Viz-Jaq’taars are used as offerings at the reward board to unlock in-game loot and caches and are just obtained by playing. The final reward of a pet red fox called Pandora is definitely a highlight of it.

Infernal Warp are earned by closing Chaos Rifts and defeating their accompanying monsters linked to the rifts found in the Helltides. These are particularly more helpful to gameplay as they are used to upgrade this season’s extra passive abilities called Chaos Perks. These unlock gradually throughout the season and add sporadic skills that need no controlling, but can turn a battle in an instant with elements like explosions or grenades, etc.

A feature that is distinct to the season is the inclusion of unique drops of Chaos Armour and the newest threat most likely to drop these cool and neat-looking gear items, the ‘Chaos Bringer’. Also unique to this season, you will need to activate a Fleeting Hordes Compass to be sent to Hell to face waves of Infernal Hordes to lock the ultimate loot. This is a neat little dungeon variant, and I got a lot of unique drops here.

The elephant in the room is still the battle pass called The Reliquary, and although I still HATE this new format as opposed to a linear progression, it does give the player the option to pick and choose what they want to unlock and then leave instead of grinding for days (but I enjoy the grind with purpose).

The free battle pass has some decent value with  3 transmogs, a town portal, a mount and 200 platinum available, but the much more expensive Premium and Deluxe versions are just where it is at, as there is sooo much more quality and interesting items, pets and mounts to unlock. 

Some standouts that make it worth the money in the Reliquary are the inclusion of Angiris the Brave, the cute Labrador pet with an endearing neck scarf, ‘Dark Horseman’ mount with horse armour and most notably ‘The Red Griffin armour set, mount and wings set, which are very fiery and distinct in a crowd.

While you can unlock most of this with real money, I found the in-game battlepass currency called Favour Tokens much easier to obtain too this time around. I had most of my favourite items unlocked in a 3-day grind and left overs transfer over from season to season. A smart little inclusion to keep the player base happy.

Overall, my friends and I enjoyed this season much more than last. I still hold out for another DLC soon, but the seasonal grind was a fun one as we battled through the Torments for the best gear possibly, which was nice, as after last season, I was feeling less than enthusiastic. I can’t wait to see what the holiday season in Sanctuary looks like in Season 11. 

Written by: Stacey