Diablo IV’s first season—The Season Of The Malignant—is almost upon us. After weeks of pre-season content to grind through, players will be in for a major content drop this week. Clear your schedules: This weekend is going to be all slaying monsters and trying to find the best loot possible.

In order to play the new season’s full range of content, you’ll need to start a brand new character. These “Seasonal Characters” are required to progress through new questlines, but they’ll also be able to play through the base campaign and other content if you haven’t finished that yet. Players are supposed to login prior to the start of Season 1 with their highest-leveled character in order to make sure they keep at least some of their progression going forward.

The new season is set to last about 12 weeks, which should give everyone plenty of time to work through the new content and Battle Pass. Read on for everything you need to know about Diablo IV Season 1.

Diablo IV’s first season goes live on July 20th. There hasn’t been an official time released, but according to the season’s website, which has a countdown timer, the update will go live at the following times:

“A new threat is corrupting Sanctuary” the Season 1 trailer’s description reads. The trailer shows off werewolves. The “Season Of The Malignant” looks, if anything, even more grimdark than the base game.

There’s also this gameplay trailer for Season 1:

Some of the Season 1 content highlights include:

Blizzard is implementing a ton of changes including a number of balancing changes to all the classes. You can read all about the new patch right here. Lots and lots and lots of buffs and nerfs. No matter the new character you create, the game will play much differently now.

What character will you be starting with for Season 1?

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