How to get the shiny Taennin the Tiny pet in Diablo 3 Season 28

In Diablo 3 Season 28, there is a beautiful new dragon pet, Taennin the Tiny, just waiting for you to win it and love it and make it your own. “But wait! How shall I acquire this angelic little friend?” you argue. Fret not, for I am here to assist you (and sound like a superhero cliche).

Earning Taennin the Tiny will take you through the Seasonal Journey when Season 28 starts on February 24. If you want to pick up your pet quickly so it can join your Seasonal leveling adventure, you’ll want to run through the latest Season Journey and pick up all the rewards along the way.  So let’s wind through how to complete the Diablo 3 Season 28 Seasonal Journey so you can get your own Taennin the Tiny pet.

What is the Seasonal Journey?

The Seasonal Journey refers to the set tasks/achievements you must complete to win the various exclusive rewards for playing that season. These tasks are split into two groups: Chapters (with milestones achievable by all players) and the “enlisted” Tiers (also referred to as the extended Journey) — Slayer, Champion, Destroyer, Conqueror, and Guardian — with goals designed for advanced players. In Season 4/Patch 2.3.0, Blizzard added the Season Journey interface for players to track their progress across tasks, so it’s now easy to keep tabs on all of your Seasonal activities.

The Journey interface panel can be opened at any time to track progress. Alternatively, you can manually keep track in D3Resource if you’re trying to follow along without popping the window up every five minutes to see where you are in the Journey. I tend to like this because you can click the chapter name (ex., Chapter 1) on the page and check off all the items in that chapter as completed. Also, since this tracker uses a single screen, it is easier to see what you have remaining.

The various tasks in each Chapter/Tier are increasingly challenging, with Guardian’s tasks requiring the most time and effort on the player’s part. However, the Book of Cain is one of two cosmetics available for completing all of Season 28’s tasks, so get ready to knock out both the Chapters and the Tiers — or everything listed below — to get it.

What will I need to complete?

Across Chapters and Tiers, there are themes to every task. However, some only apply to the first four Chapters, some continue across both Chapters and Tiers, and some only show up in the Tiers.

A few types of activity show up pretty much across each Journey Chapter or Tier:

• Nephalem/Greater Rift runs — Each Chapter and Tier has a task to complete an increasingly difficult Nephalem rift. This progression caps off with the Guardian tier requiring a Torment 13 Rift run in under four minutes. The Greater Rift tasks start in Chapter 4 and continue through the season’s journey with GR70 solo as your final (Guardian) goal.
• Boss kills — Each Chapter and Tier has two tasks for boss kills (Guardian has one boss kill task) across the various acts. These boss kills have an associated (and increasing) minimum game difficulty, from Normal in Chapter 1 to Torment 13 starting at the Destroyer chapter. The last two Tier groups, Conqueror and Guardian, hold at the Torment 13 difficulty level but add a timer requirement.
• Keywardens and Uber Bosses — Kill the Keywardens across Acts 1 through 4 to obtain Infernal Machines. Each act’s key unlocks an associated portal to the act’s associated Uber Bosses, which you need to cut down to complete goals in Slayer and Champion. In addition, each Uber Boss drops a unique crafting material required to create a Hellfire Amulet (Destroyer Task).
• Kanai’s Cube  — Starting with Chapter 2, each category has tasks that require obtaining the Cube and using the various recipes.

The following types of tasks show up primarily in the first four Chapters and represent standard progression as the player levels in the game:

• Artisans — Level up all three artisans, craft level 70 items and increasingly powerful gems, learn jewel-crafting and blacksmithing recipes and enchant/transmog gear with the Mystic. One task is to craft a Flawless Royal Gem in the Champion tier; otherwise, these are solely tasks in Chapters 1-4.
• Bounties — Chapter 1 requires completing five bounty quests (easiest to achieve by running through an entire act’s Bounties). Doing so progresses directly into Chapter 3’s tasks to get a bounty cache from all five Acts.
• Leveling and Kadala — These tend to be miscellaneous or ‘benchmark’ tasks, like hitting levels 50 and 70, equipping a follower fully with gear, socketing gems, and buying from Kadala. There is a task in the Slayer tier for getting a Legendary from Kadala, but this is entirely dependent on luck and requires blood shards to gamble on, so it may not happen until after level 70 anyways.

Finally, there are tasks exclusive to the enlisted Tiers. These can only be completed after level 70 and have pre-requisites like specific gear or gem drops from greater rifts.

• Set Dungeons — Set Dungeons are a unique experience to Diablo 3; these tasks have two levels: complete and master a set dungeon. Each dungeon is unique to the set, presenting a timed challenge with goals based on its buffs. However, this season’s gear from Haedrig’s Gift does not have an associated Set Dungeon, so accomplishing these tasks will require extra loot grind.
• Legendary Gems — Starting with Slayer, each tier requires leveling legendary gems dropped in Greater Rifts. Slayer is the only tier requiring leveling one gem; the others require leveling three gems to a set level. Additionally, Conqueror has a task requiring a level 50+ gem to augment gear through Kanai’s Cube.
• Conquests — Conquests are a season-only achievement in Diablo 3, each representing a unique and challenging goal. The game has nine total Conquests; each season has five available to complete. Each conquest has a normal-mode version and a hardcore version. The last three Tiers require completing a Conquest for each Tier (up to 3 total).

Chapters for gear, Tiers for new cosmetics

Chapters 1-4 represent the general goals most players should be able to reach in a 3-month season. The Chapter goals focus on natural progression markers, such as hitting levels 50 and 70, killing bosses throughout the five Acts, and leveling up/using the artisans (Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic). While Chapter 1 does not have a reward, completing the subsequent chapters rewards a bag of two gear pieces apiece (Haedrig’s Gift).

Beginning with Season 17, Blizzard started reintroducing rewards from previous seasons to make them available to players who missed them the first time. In addition to Haedrig’s Gift, the player earns three returning cosmetic rewards for completing Chapter 4 (initially available in Season 15):

• Conqueror Set — this exclusive transmog set is on a two-piece rotation throughout the seasons. Season 28 rewards the Helm and Shoulder slots.
• Themed portrait — Season 16’s Call to Adventure-themed portrait will become more ornate as you complete the Tiers.
• Wildcard — This reward comes from the three remaining collections: wings, pets, or pennants. Season 28 sees the return of Season 16’s Wings of Lempo.

A helpful note for progressing your Season’s journey: let’s say you get to 70 and go from running Normal-difficulty Nephalem Rifts to Torment 1 Nephalem Rifts. You will not only knock out the tasks for Normal and Torment 1 but also complete the tasks for the difficulties between (Expert and Master). Some players complete the first four chapters as fast as the first night of the season, but playing a few hours a night will spread this work out over a week.

Upon completion, each Tier rewards an improved version of the portrait received from Chapter 4. The completion time for the Tier groups is wholly dependent on completing the more complicated tasks, such as Set Dungeons and Conquests. Players burning through the first weekend can knock out everything, leaving the remainder of the season to run Greater Rifts, grind Paragon levels, and improve their gear. Going back to the earlier estimate of running a few hours a night, a casual player could complete all this in about a month, but some of it is luck and hard to estimate.

Conqueror (the penultimate Tier) rewards the upgraded portrait and an additional stash tab (up to a maximum of five). New cosmetic rewards — the Primal Hunter portrait frame and your Taennin the Tiny pet — only come once the player has finished all Tiers through Guardian.

I know it sounds like a lot. And it is! You have to work to earn your bearded-and-built friend. But the rewards and sense of accomplishment are worth it. Go forth and slay!

Updated February 21, 2023