The Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred expansion comes out today!

The next Diablo 4 expansion is Vessel of Hatred, where we’ll journey to Torajan Jungles (known to the locals as Nahantu) chasing after Neyrelle in a continuation of the game’s story. And things are not looking good for our friend, who fled at the end of the original game, carrying Mephisto’s soulstone with her — something that was unlikely to end well.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred was expected to launch on October 7, 2024 at 4pm pacific — though there have been some delays.

If you thought the game was coming out on October 8, I can’t blame you; Blizzard has widely publicized October 8 as the game’s release date. However, it’s a global launch and if you’re in North America the game comes out on the seventh. Here are the exact times for launch in every region:

• Irvine, CA: October 7 at 4pm PDT
• New York, NY: October 7 at 7pm EDT
• São Paulo, Brazil: October 7 at 8pm BRT
• London, England: October 8 at 12am BST
• Berlin, Germany: October 8 at 1am CEST
• Istanbul, Turkey: October 8 at 2am TRT
• Seoul, South Korea: October 8 at 8am KST
• Sydney, Australia: October 8 at 10am AEDT
• Auckland, New Zealand: October 8 at 12pm NZDT

Diablo 4 Season 6 release date

With the launch of Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4 Season 5 will end and Diablo 4 Season 6 will begin. This makes for a slightly shorter Season 5, but we should have the usual three month runtime for Season 6.

This is the Season of Hatred Rising, and between the expansion and all of the changes to the base game this season, the season pretty much just follows the pattern of previous seasons. There’s a new event to do across the world, a new elixir, and a new reputation (the Zakarum Remnants) to earn rewards from.

During the season Realmwalkers — massive heralds of hell — will spawn every 15 minutes in one of the game’s original five zones, and once an hour one will spawn in Nahantu. These massive heralds of hell will lumber towards a ritual site, and you have to destroy their guardians and the hatred spires that surround them to take the creatures down. The first Realmwalker of the hour is always a Whisper, to help you rack up Whisper caches and gear.

When the Realmwalker dies, it leaves behind a portal to the Seething Realm, a dungeon that rewards Seething Opals, a new type of elixir that boosts experience gain as well as other effects. Different types of Opals can increase loot drops or reputation gain.

For more details on Vessel of Hatred, check out our other posts:

• What’s changing in Diablo 4 if I don’t buy Vessel of Hatred?
• We had a chance to play the Spiritborn early — here’s what we thought of the new class
• How to unlock the Spirit Hall, the Spiritborn class mechanic
• Runewords return to the franchise
• How to use the new Party Finder tool
• What are Mercenaries and why do I need them?
• What are Tenets of Akarat?
• Kurast Undercity is a new Rift-like game mode

Originally published November 3, 2023; updated October 7, 2024