How do Seasons work in Diablo III?

Diablo III is a game that adopted a seasonal structure much earlier than others. Every few months, a new Season comes around bringing new mechanics, challenges, leaderboards, and balance changes. But you may be wondering: “How do seasons work in Diablo III?”

How Seasons work in Diablo III

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Season Heroes

To participate in a new Season, you must create a Seasonal Hero. Firstly, create one by opening the ‘create Hero’ interface and checking the ‘Seasonal Hero’ checkbox on the bottom left. It’s right under the checkbox for a Hardcore hero. Make sure Season Hero is checked and create your hero. Keep in mind: Seasonal Heroes start entirely fresh. Their stash is empty, and their artisans are level 1.

Moreover, many players recommend completing the Challenge Rift to use the Challenge Rift cache on fresh Seasonal characters. The cache contains several necessary crafting materials that jumpstart your leveling and character power progression.

Season Leaderboards

Leaderboards let you track progress against other players, and Diablo III has several leaderboards tracking both Seasonal and non-Seasonal heroes. There are separate Seasonal leaderboards for:

• Greater Rifts
• Seasonal Achievements
• Conquests

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Season Journey

Of course, the largest part of any Diablo III Season is the Season Journey. The Season Journey is a set of achievements that grant several rewards, and is a huge part of how seasons work in Diablo III. Some rewards are cosmetic, such as pets and portrait frames, while others provide powerful gear for your character.

Open the Season Journey interface by pressing ‘Shift+J’ at any point in the game. It’s split up into Chapters, and the first four chapters reward you with a powerful class-specific item set. This item set changes for each class with each Season. In Season 27, for example, the item sets are:

• Barbarian – Wrath of the Wastes
• Demon Hunter – Unhallowed Essence
• Monk – Raiment of a Thousand Storms
• Necromancer – Bones of Rathma
• Witch Doctor – Helltooth Harness
• Crusader – Roland’s Legacy
• Wizard – Tal Rasha’s Elements

Screenshot by PC Invasion

However, these item sets are going to change in Season 28. It includes following sets, according to the PTR:

• Barbarian – Horde of the Ninety Savages
• Demon Hunter – Gears of Dreadlands
• Monk – Patterns of Justice
• Necromancer – Masquerade of the Burning Carnival
• Witch Doctor – Spirit of Arachyr
• Crusader – Aegis of Valor
• Wizard – Typhon’s Veil

The Season Journey tasks are the same every season, and the item sets you get from them cause a massive boost in your character’s power. Once you have your class-specific set, you should easily be able to take on the earlier Torment levels. Therefore, completing chapters I-IV of your Season Journey is your first priority after reaching level 70. Also, prioritize getting the Kanai’s Cube as early as possible. Combined with your class item set, Kanai’s Cube abilities are imperative in making your Seasonal character as powerful as possible.

You can purchase Diablo III on Battle.net.