Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn – Itemization Reworks, Helltide Changes, & Major Updates

After nearly a year since its release, Diablo 4 is about to embark on its fourth and most anticipated season yet, The Season of Loot Reborn. This season will see the highly requested itemization rework finally make its way to the game, along with several other major changes that give the game the shot in the arm it needs.

There is a lot to look forward to and tons to digest before the season kicks off later this month. As the resident Diablo player here at Bonus Action, I’ll be walking you through what you can expect from this juggernaut new season of the ARPG.

When Does Diablo 4: Season of Loot Reborn Start?

Diablo 4‘s Season of Loot Reborn will be released on May 14, bringing all the changes to both the Seasonal and Eternal Realm and spoiling players with the new updates. As for the patch notes, they will be coming after the May 2 Developer Update LIvestream, which can be streamed on Twitch and YouTube.

What Players Can Expect From Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn

Diablo 4‘s upcoming fourth season is the most substantive since its release. Instead of themed content, season 4 will introduce major overhauls to the game’s core systems, essentially making it feel like a brand-new experience.

To say there are many changes would be an understatement, but they are all positives. We’ve listed them all out with details on what they mean for players right here, so you are prepared for the game’s rebirth. You can also check out the developer’s official post with even more information.

Itemization Reworked – Less Loot, More Impact

The biggest change in Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn is itemization, which will make grinding for loot and upgrading your character a far more impactful experience.

For starters, items will drop with fewer affixes, with the affixes themselves being simplified. They will now be geared toward improving base stats with more oomph, such as health, movement speed, and Core Skill damage. Despite there being fewer affixes, they will be more powerful, making for less clutter on gear and more focused loot. There are also new greater affixes, which are 1.5 times more powerful than others and can only be discovered in the world through looting and killing.

In that same vein, there will be fewer loot drops in Diablo 4, but they will not be upgrades. The aim is to spend less time in an inventory screen and more time killing demons, quickly upgrading and moving on to more demon killing.

Crafting materials have also been adjusted along with these changes, and Forgotten Souls, an upgrade item, is now dropping from Whisper Bounties and Elites. Add to that capped enchantment costs, reduced costs, and more chances to get Sacred and Ancestral, which can now only drop in World Tier 3 and World Tier 4, respectively, and players will find getting loot much more fun and rewarding.

Tempering and Mastercrafting – More Refinement

Along with being more impactful, Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn items can now be better refined into the weapons and armor players are looking for thanks to two new key systems: Tempering and Mastercrafting.

Tempering is done by finding Tempering Manuals, which drop and are rewarded for nearly all the game’s content. With these, players can add affixes to their items, with each manual having multiple options to choose from and picking the one they want. As an added bonus, they can be used as many times as you want, so there is no need to refind one you need over and over again. However, items can only be tempered so many times, with a durability that varies between gear and rarity.

Mastercrafting is the higher end of that scale and is used to refine your gear to greater heights. This end-game system uses materials earned from the new Pit content that can upgrade your gear, improving its affixes and massively upgrading one every 4th level. After hitting the max level of Mastercrafting, players can undo their process and reset the progress if they decide to change things up later.

Gems – Streamlined and Shiny

Gems are now easier to deal with in Diablo 4. Crude gems were removed and crafting levels shifted back for simplicity. Normal Gems are available at Level 51, Flawless at 71, and Royal at 91, and multiple gems have had reworks. Diamonds get buffs to all their resistance stats, and every stat is assigned to a gem to provide an increase. Topaz now provides increases to Intelligence, and Sapphires increase Willpower. Amethyst increases your Strength, and Emeralds now provide bonus Dexterity.

Helltides Reborn – Turn Back the Bigger Tides

Diablo 4‘s Helltides have been improved in nearly every aspect, influenced by the Blood Harvest events in Season of Blood.

For starters, Helltides will now appear in every World Tier, meaning players can tackle them right from the beginning of their character’s journey. But with that, there is also some extra challenge and reward that players can now expect.

As you fight through the hordes of demons, you will generate Threat, which depends on the difficulty of the enemy you kill and how often you open Tortured Gifts. There are three levels, and as you increase in level, more ambushes of stronger enemies will appear. Once you are Hell-Marked at level three and survive the ambush that comes, a Hellborn, a powerful enemy based on one of the game’s classes, will appear. Defeat them; you’ll get rewards, and your Threat will reset.

Along with that, new Accusred Rituals in Diablo 4 can be found in a Helltide, which can be triggered by placing 3 Baneful Hearts at the ritual, which are found through killing Hellborn enemies and opening Tortured Gifts. This will summon a Blood Maiden, a powerful enemy will great rewards, but can be tricky to kill. By contributing to the Ritual, you’ll earn increased rewards, and the more you contribute, the better your individual loot.

For those who really want a challenge, they can use the new Profane Mindcage elixir, which will increase all enemies’ levels by 10 and increase the Cinder drop rate. However, the returns diminish as you approach a level cap.

In essence, Helltides are now more worthwhile and substantive activities to play, and players will be rewarded for their efforts much more liberally.

Codex of Power – You’ve Got the Power

The Codex of Power in Diablo 4 will now store your strongest version of the Aspect you have, meaning you will always have the best version you have had ready to use, and it will no longer take up inventory space. You can also use it as many times as you want, so no more holding onto Aspects and deciding which to use when.

With seasonal characters, this will still reset with each new character, but when they move to the Eternal Realm, the Codex will update with your best version across the Eternal characters.

The PIt – Dive Deep and Get Dirty in Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn

A new piece of endgame content, the PIt, will be coming in Season 4. This new timed dungeon-like content is unlocked in World Tier 4. Once players complete the required quest, they will begin to get Runeshards, which can be used at the Obelisk in Cerrigar. These are earned through nearly all the endgame content players will be doing.

When you take on this content, you’ll have a 10-minute timer to defeat all the enemies in the dungeon before taking on a boss. If you do it in time, you’ll get Mastercrafting materials, and with more time to spare, you will skip a tier or 2 as you progress through its ranks, with 200 tiers available in this mode.

Players can go solo or in up to groups of 4, and the player who spends their Runeshards gets the lion’s share of materials and a chance to get Stygian Stones, an item needed to summon more powerful, Tormented Echoes version of endgame bosses.

If you have tried the Abbaitor of Zir during Season of Blood, you’ll get the idea. This is a way for players to keep up the grind and challenge for the best gear, a chance to take on the strongest bosses and get the bragging rights they deserve.

Endgames Bosses – New Addition and Stronger Versions

Andariel will be joining as a new endgame boss for players to take on in Diablo 4 Season of Loot Reborn, sitting at the same tier as Duriel, with the same drop rate for Uber Uniques. They will need the items from Lord Zir and the Beast in Ice in order to summon and are summoned in Hanged Man’s Hall.

Along with this new addition in Diablo 4, bosses can now be summoned at level 200 as Tormented Echoes. They are summoned with the required materials and Stygian Stones, the new item found in The Pit. They drop top-powered items, and your first kill gives you a Resplendent Spark, which can be used to craft Uniques.

Iron Wolves – The New Kids On The Block

Last but certainly not least is the new faction of mercenaries joining the game. With their members starting to disappear under strange circumstances, players will help find the source and earn their favor. By favor, I mean rewards, like Tempering Manuals and loot. There are also new Iron Wolf events that occur during Helltides that are here to stay past Season 4.

So, it will be a packed season with some highly requested changes. In truth, it’s the game’s second chance at a first impression, and it’s looking like it will be a good one from everything said so far. More details will be shared during the May 2 Developer Update Livestream, and if there are more of the good things we are hearing so far, Season of Loot Reborn might just be the best time to play Diablo 4. Perhaps things will work out for the ARPG after all.