After a rather disappointing Season 1, Blizzard is trying to do better with Season 2, titled Season of Blood.
Continuing the story of Diablo 4, Season 2 is bringing in the threat of Vampires. Magistrate Oren is the leader of a town that bloodthirsty monsters have invaded, and he needs your help ASAP. Accepting will start a new questline where you will receive help from a vampire hunter called Erys, and find out where the Dark Master that is responsible for this is hiding. But beware, these new enemies are not the typical demonic presence you’ve dealt with up until now. To fend off these new monsters you will have to embrace new Vampiric Powers with the help of a new Pact Armor. In order to start this questline you will have to travel to Ked Bardu and speak to Oren, starting you on the Blood Money quest.
Vampiric Powers
To help you deal with this new threat, your characters can access a new array of Vampiric Powers. To wield these new powers you will need Potent Blood which can be picked up from fallen enemies. Your new Vampiric Powers can be unlocked and upgraded with the help of this Potent Blood. Your character can have up to five powers that can be upgraded to Level 3. Each of these powers has an associated cost that will be explained in the next section related to Pact Armor.
Pact Armor
Each of those Vampiric Powers we already mentioned have a Pact cost that needs to be fulfilled before you can use them. These pacts are called Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. New pieces of Chest, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helms will contain these Pacts. Each piece will have a random assortment of Pacts tied to it, and you’ll have to ensure that they all add up to the necessary number of Pacts that a particular power needs. For example, an item that offers one point for each of the Pacts can fulfill multiple requirements. If you have a Vampiric Power that requires 1 Ferocity and another that needs 1 Divinity and 1 Eternity, that item alone can activate both of those powers.
You might find yourself in a situation where you have an item with great stats but the wrong Pacts on it. To help out with this, there are two new items called Standalone Pacts and Cleansing Acids. Standalone Pacts can be used on an item to add a specific Pact type to an item (as long as the maximum amount has not been reached obviously). Cleansing Acids can remove specific Pacts from an item, allowing you to add the ones that you truly need. Both of these items will be found on Blood Seekers as well as the Blood Harvest Season event, Opulent Coffins, Season Journey, and the new questline.
Blood Harvest Event
This new event is the best place to find Potent Blood and Pact Armor for your Vampiric Powers. Areas in the Dry Steppes, Scosglen, and Hawezar have been invaded by Blood Seekers and their armies of vampires, and they urgently need your help. There is also a new Reputation tree with multiple Tiers that need to be completed in order to gain access to a bunch of new rewards. You will have to take on bounties, complete World Events, and much more in order to advance in this new Reputation system.
During this event, you’ll be able to find Blood Lures, which can be used to summon a Blood Seeker that you can then take down for his juicy drops. Any Seeker Keys that you come across can also be used to free prisoners, open Seeker Caches in order to get your hands on Pact Armor, Pact Consumables, and Potent Blood.
New Endgame Bosses
Alongside these new vampiric events, Sanctuary now has a new assortment of endgame bosses that you will have to take down. But make no mistake, these Uber difficulty bosses are truly challenging, with a chance of dropping Unique items. Some of those Unique items are exclusive to a particular boss. Exclusive Cosmetic items will also drop, allowing you to further distinguish your character from others. Here is a quick rundown of all of these new bosses and how you can gain access to them:
Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint (World Tiers 3 and 4) – in order to gain access to Grigoire, you must first gather Living Steel from Tortured Offerings scattered throughout Helltide events. Alongside a few special Unique items that can only be found here, you can also get your hands on a Demonbinder Mount Armor Cosmetic.
Echo of Varshan (World Tiers 3 and 4) – During the Whispers of the Dead event you will encounter Grotesque Debtors. These mobs have a chance to drop parts of Varshan’s body. These body parts can also be found from Tree of Whispers collections, if you prefer this option. Once you’ve gained enough parts (including a Malignant Heart for World Tier 4), you will be able to summon Varshan.
The Beast in the Ice (World Tier 4) – First you will have to gather enough Distilled Fear on Nightmare Dungeons of Tier 30 or above. When you have enough, you can visit any Occultist and craft a Glacial Fissure Nightmare Sigil. When activated, you can travel to the arena of The Beast in the Ice. Alongside some special Uniques that will only drop here, the Skull Torch and Fell Steed Mount Trophies can also drop.
Dark Master (World Tier 4) – By defeating a World Boss on World Tier 4 or by completing a Legion Event, you can get your hands on Exquisite Blood. Once you’ve gathered enough you’ll be able to summon the Dark Master.
Echo of Duriel (World Tier 4) – When you defeat Grigoire and Varshan on World Tier 4 you’ll be able to find Mucus-Slick Eggs and Shards of Agony. Gather enough and you’ll be able to summon a new variant of Duriel, Lord of Pain. What makes this fight very special is the fact that Uber Unique items can drop here, and here alone.
When taking on these bosses, don’t forget that trying to fight one again will require the same amount of consumables. So make sure that you don’t throw away those items and hold on to them for future fights.
