Diablo 4’s debut Season of the Malignant will have players facing off against Varshan the Consumed as well as a horde of the season’s titular Malignant creatures. Over the next three months, players can start fresh with new characters on the seasonal realm where they can progress through 90 tiers of Battle Pass content featuring cosmetic rewards and all-new Legendary Aspects. The season is also introducing Malignant Hearts, powerful build-defining items that can fit into jewelry gem slots.
Ahead ofDiablo 4’s Season 1 launch, Game Rant chatted with Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora, Dungeon Designer Michelle Piña, and Quest Designer Madeleine James to discuss everything about Season of the Malignant. Piepiora broke down the new Malignant enemies and how players will interact with them to acquire Malignant Hearts, and he also spoke about the new boss, Varshan The Consumed.
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Diablo 4’s New Malignant Enemies Can Be Anywhere
The key feature ofDiablo 4’s Season of the Malignantis the new Malignant Heart items which are acquired from Malignant creatures found throughout Sanctuary and within the season’s special Malignant Tunnel dungeons. There are four categories of Malignant Heart for players to target, and players can easily tell which type of Malignant Heart a particular creature is carrying thanks to special affixes and color coding. Any creature can be Malignant, whether it’s a lowly quill rat or one ofDiablo’s hulking demonic monstrosities.
When Malignant creatures spawn, they are going to be associated with one of four different Malignant Heart types, and each of these Malignant creatures is denoted with a color as you find them. The type of Malignant creature they are provides a bonus affix to the creature whenever you fight it, so you might find a quill rat or a mega demon, and it’s going to have this affix based upon its Malignant type. When you kill that creature, it’s going to present its Malignant Heart for you to attempt to capture with a Cage of Binding. When you start that process, that brings out the corruption from the Heart. You choose to start that next fight, and that’s a much more powerful creature. It can bring in other enemies from nearby and can buff those creatures and do other things as well.
Once the Cage of Binding is used on a Malignant Heart, the Malignant creature will transform into its “final form,” a powerful creature with some new capabilities. These upgraded Malignant enemies can call upon nearby creatures for aid, and are a challenge worthy of the loot that they hold. Certain objectives in the season journey will task players with collecting Malignant Hearts or fighting Malignant enemies, so players interested in moving upDiablo 4’s Battle Passwill want to familiarize themselves with these mechanics quickly.
Season of the Malignant Enemies Will Grow Stronger Over Time
Season of the Malignant is also introducing the newestDiablo 4boss, Varshan the Consumed. Varshan is responsible for the Malignant corruption spreading throughout Sanctuary and will be a particularly challenging encounter for seasonal players. He can be found somewhere within the new Malignant Tunnel dungeons and will feature several new mechanics tied to the season’s theme.
We’re also going to introduce Varshan, our seasonal boss, and that’s a brand new boss fight with lots of new mechanics that are going to interact with Malignant mechanics in different ways. You’ll be able to fight more difficult versions of that boss fight as time goes on, and you’re going through the season in order to get more powerful Malignant Hearts. These more powerful versions of the boss can be found in certain malignant tunnels.
Things don’t stop once players have defeated Varshan and acquired theirnew Malignant Hearts, however. Malignant enemies and Varshan himself will grow in power as players progress through the season, and they’ll yield increasingly powerful loot and Malignant Hearts as a result. This way, players will continue to hunt down Malignant enemies and tackle harder versions of Varshan so that they can maximize their power level later in the season. It’s a great way to encourage continued gameplay through the season even after players have put together their new builds.
Diablo 4is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
