A twisted experiment awakens irresistible dark urges, along with the lingering, putrid odor of Fresh Meat. The Season of Slaughter arrives March 11 at 10 a.m. PST, granting you the power to transform into The Butcher, a force only partially under your control. Feed your hunger with Kill Streaks as you rampage through activities to claim Uniques and Bloodied Items that push your power to brutal new heights.
For players who haven’t pre-purchased Lord of Hatred, play as the Paladin for free up to Level 25 and experience the righteous might of Sanctuary’s holy warrior
Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2.6.0 Public Test Realm (PTR). We’ve included feedback from the PTR throughout this article. Additional changes made since the PTR’s conclusion are highlighted in blue.
Patch 2.6.0 is available for early download on March 9 at 10 a.m. PT on the following platforms:
Unleash Your Rage with Killstreak System
Glimpse the Divine in the Paladin Free Trial
Rip and Tear, DOOM: the Dark Ages Collab
Earn new Items from Season Rank
Feast Your Eyes on Twitch Drops
Carve Through the Season of Slaughter Reliquaries
Community Guides for Season of Slaughter
For the first time in Diablo history, assume the form of an iconic adversary: The Butcher.
Succumb to your dark urges as The Butcher. Feed your endless appetite for slaughter and earn Seasonal currency with a hotbar full of Butcher-fied skills.
As The Butcher, you wield brutal powers that for decades have inspired terror. Cleave through monsters, charge fearlessly into the fray and unleash a hail of hooks to drag your prey to a bloody end.
A Taste of Power Seasonal Questline
Starting in Gea Kul on the Seasonal Realm, begin A Taste of Power to uncover the dark path and claim the power of this walking abomination. This questline is but a sampling of the carnage you’ll experience while playing as The Butcher.
There are several ways to be come the king of slaughter. Earn Meaty Offerings, a new consumable item which can be used on Shrines of Slaughter in a new Helltide event. Activating this gory shrine draws enemies in Helltide to your location, kill them expeditiously to feed your gory rewards.
In Fields of Hatred, a Ceremony of Slaughter completely replaces typical PvP combat in this zone. This new event turns the battlefield into a race for supremacy. Every kill fuels your Savagery—a kill-based progression system that pushes you toward ultimate power. When the Ceremony concludes, The Butcher’s Idol rises for the fiercest contender. Take it to become the Butcher and turn the entire area into your personal killing ground.
Slaughterhouses arrive as another way to transform into the Butcher, read on to discern their grisly connotations.
Massacring enemies as the Butcher will earn you Fresh Meat, a new resource that can be used to earn more Bloodied Items.
Unleash Your Rage with the Killstreak System
Indulge in bloodthirsty carnage to grow progressively stronger—maintain a fast, efficient slew of kills to increase your power and earn rewards.
The Killstreak system changes the way you play across every activity in Diablo IV. Slaughter your enemies in quick succession to begin your Killstreak. As your killstreak begins, a pop-up will start tracking your kill count.
After it begins, you have a short window before your Killstreak starts to decay. Continue your Killstreak with merciless pace, refresh your Killstreak timer with additional kills, direct damage, or on initial damage-over-time application.
Killstreaks are marked by five distinct tiers based off current streak’s total:
When the timer bar fully depletes, the Killstreak is over. Experience and seasonal reputation are gained at the end of a Killstreak, a pop-up will indicate the amount of seasonal reputation and experience gained. These are based on the total number of monsters slain during the Killstreak, with a bonus based on the Killstreak Tier reached.
Stay alive if you hope to reap your rewards. The bigger the slaughter, the better the bonus.
A warrior consumed by bloodlust can become the embodiment of unbridled rage if they know how to direct and sustain their rampage.
Based on PTR feedback, we made several adjustments to bring Bloodied Items more in line with the power of Chaos Armor from Season of Infernal Chaos and Sanctification bonuses.
Bloodied Items are a new Item Quality you can harness in combination with your Killstreaks to heighten the bloodshed.
Bloodied Items have affixes which scale in power based off your current Killstreak Tier. Any item that can drop can potentially appear as Bloodied. This Item Quality tag is non-exclusive, and an item can be both Ancestral and Bloodied.
Bloodied Affixes come in three categories:
- Rampage: Increase in power based off current Killstreak Tier Applies to Armor Ex: Killstreak: 7%[+] Move Speed per Killstreak Tier in your Killstreak
- Increase in power based off current Killstreak Tier
- Ex: Killstreak: 7%[+] Move Speed per Killstreak Tier in your Killstreak
- Feast: Apply Combat bonuses based off total kills in your current Killstreak Applies to Weapons Ex: Every 40 Kills in your Killstreak, reset 1 random Cooldown These bonuses are constant and are not tied to Killstreak Tier
- Apply Combat bonuses based off total kills in your current Killstreak
- Ex: Every 40 Kills in your Killstreak, reset 1 random Cooldown
- These bonuses are constant and are not tied to Killstreak Tier
- Hunger: Customizes reward offerings, which scale with Killstreak Tiers Ex: Elite kills will drop Runes more frequently Applies to Jewelry
- Customizes reward offerings, which scale with Killstreak Tiers
- Ex: Elite kills will drop Runes more frequently
If you want the fantasy of playing as the ultimate purveyor of human charcuterie, Slaughterhouses is the perfect new activity for you. Step into this grisly gameplay which keeps you as the Butcher for the entire run. From the first step to the final blow, you’re unleashed upon your enemies to do one thing: slaughter everything in sight.
Considering this is your first taste of this bloodbath, some things are best left to be experienced firsthand…
Evoke the power of the Burning Hells and set a fearsome combatant on your trail. Bloodied Sigils unlock your ability to increase the heat and increase the ferocity of gameplay while rewarding you handsomely for this increased effort.
Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes, and Lair Bosses each have Bloodied Sigils. Note: these potent Sigils only become available once you reach Torment I. When playing in Bloodied activities, enemy health bars will display the level difference between their current level and how difficult they are in the Bloodied content.
Each Bloodied Sigil carries a Bloodied Affix, Relentless Butcher. The infamous purveyor of human charcuterie hunts you endlessly, hounding your every move. Should you manage to fell the Butcher, he will immediately return. He will never cease!
This does not replace the existing chance for Butcher spawns. You may even face both Butchers at once. Expect the activity in the Bloodied Sigil to be around a Torment Tier higher in difficulty than your current Torment Tier.
Bloodied Sigils reward this significant challenge with guaranteed drops of Bloodied Items.
