Diablo 4: What carries over to Season 4? Renown, map & more

Diablo 4 Season 4 will make players start again with a new character, but not everything you’ve achieved will be lost. Here’s what carries over into Season 4 from previous playthroughs.

Blizzard has made life easier for players who don’t want to replay the same tasks and challenges over and over again – wanting to have their time respected. However, the game only makes you do some tasks once, with your progress carrying over to the next season. Diablo 4 Season 4 will be easier for those who’ve completed certain tasks, reducing the grind and helping you craft the right build.

Below, we’ll cover exactly what carries over into Season 4 of Diablo 4, what does not, and how it works. We’ll also offer a few tips to make your life easier in future seasons of Blizzard’s latest hack-and-slash loot ’em up. The good news is it’s all much simpler than you think.

Contents

• How does a new season begin?
• What carries over from previous characters?
• When should I start a new season of Diablo 4?

How does a new season begin?

When you start a seasonal character in Diablo 4 you’ll be forced to start again, unable to use a character from a previous season or any eternal characters, ie., non-seasonal characters.

If you’ve already completed the campaign with a former character, be they seasonal or eternal, you’ll be given the option to skip the campaign. This will automatically unlock all the endgame content, such as capstone dungeons, the Tree of Whispers, your mount, and Helltide events. Essentially, anything that unlocks after Lilith is defeated and the credits roll.

However, all the side quests in the game will still be available to you (even if you completed them in a previous playthrough), as will all the other side events that are unrelated to the main story, such as unlocking strongholds and Aspects.

You’ll also be a brand new character and will need to level up to 50 without the campaign’s help, but there’s more than enough content to keep you occupied, such as the Seasonal Journey.

You can play the new seasonal content either after you’ve beaten the campaign, when a new story kicks in, or when you skip it, but not before.

What carries over from previous characters?

You won’t need to start completely from scratch when you begin a new season. All of the Renown you’ve earned so far in Diablo 4 will be linked to your Blizzard profile, not your Diablo 4 character, so this will all follow you into a new season.

Let’s imagine you completed all the Renown Challenges in an earlier season or with a character from launch before Seasons were added to the game, and unlocked all the rewards. Then this will be reflected when you start a new seasonal character. You’ll also be given all the rewards again, including the 10 levels up, gold, Obols, and more – which is a pretty neat way to start a new character.

To be clear, this is for the Renown-based rewards that do apply to all characters, some only apply to individual characters, but this will become clear when you begin.

If you’ve only unlocked some of the Renown rewards, then that’s what you’ll receive when you start a new seasonal character. Your progress on each tier will carry over too, so consider it a snapshot of where you’re up to. You can, if you like, start collecting Renown with one character, then complete it with another. However, we found that a complicated and confusing way to do things unless you’ve got a set strategy in mind – which we’ll provide below.

Your map progress will also carry over into a new seasonal character, including all areas you’ve unshrouded, waypoints you’ve unlocked, and Altars of Lilith you’ve activated. This also contributes to your overall Renown, but the map from your main playthrough, or adventure with the most progression will be copied and ported to your new seasonal character.

Don’t forget, every Altar if Lilith gives all your characters a permanent stats buff and you’ll only need to activate the Altars once. So should you have them all activated, every new seasonal (or eternal) character you start will begin the game with a significant stat boost – and that’s on top of the 10 extra levels up Renown gives you.

Not a bad way to kick off your new adventure. It can be a slog activating every Altar of Lilith and took us a few hours to do, but it was worth it. This will make grinding for levels easier as you’ll be able to tackle the harder difficulties earlier and is essential for the true endgame content.

Some waypoints will be locked until you activate your first one, and then most others will unlock, and the rest will once the Stronghold housing them is cleared, so you’ll only need to properly unlock the waypoints that are connected to side missions.

Even if you beat the campaign, but missed a few areas or waypoints, this will be how your map will appear during your next playthrough. All dungeons, quests, and NPCs will be reset though. Consider it a new adventure but with your existing map. As an added bonus, you’ll be able to see the waypoints you missed.

When should I start a new season of Diablo 4?

The answer to this question purely depends on you and your individual circumstances. If this is your first playthrough of Diablo 4, then we recommend diving right into the current season of the game and taking advantage of all the rewards seasonal play has to offer. You’ll level up quicker, see more players, get to use some nifty new powers and play the new quests.

You’ll also get to enjoy the campaign for the first time with many of these fun perks being active, although some only activate once the campaign is completed. If it’s your first time playing the campaign, you’re in for a treat too.

If you played an earlier season or started your main playthrough at launch before seasons even started, then it mostly depends on where you are with that character. If you’ve barely begun, then it may make sense to start again.

However, if you’re halfway through the campaign, we recommend finishing it so that you’ll have the option to skip it when you start the new season. This will save you a lot of time. This way, all endgame content will be unlocked and you’ll also have your Renown and map progression to carry over.

Don’t worry about completing all the side quests, you can do this with any character, but remember, they’re a great way to gain Renown. If you have a previous character, then the most ideal situation to begin a new season is if you’ve already unlocked everything you need. For example, heading into Diablo 4 Season 4 with the campaign completed, the map fully explored, Altars of Lilith unlocked, and Renown challenges completed will put you in the best possible position for a new season.

This way you’ll begin a new game with everything you need to dive right into the seasonal fun. Remember, if you’re keen to jump into Season 4 but already have an existing character you’ve invested a lot of time in, you could simply unlock all the Normal and Veteran Renown tiers, the map, and complete the campaign, then begin a Season 4, level up to Nightmare difficulty, and unlock everything else with your second character. This way you can save yourself some time and jump into the new season quickly.

With everything you’ve unlocked, plus the seasonal rewards, you’ll be able to hit level 50 in no time and can then pick up where your previous character left off. By the time the next season rolls around, you’ll likely have everything unlocked and can just enjoy all of the new content each season brings. You can then pick your favorite characters to play the DLC with when the time comes.

Be sure to check our other guides and Diablo 4 content:

Diablo 4 Review | Diablo 4: Best way to make money | Diablo 4: Fastest ways to get XP & level up | All Diablo 4 Gems: Types, effects, costs, more | Does Diablo 4 feature followers or mercenaries to hire?