Diablo 4 Reliquary system replaces the Battle Pass (but is still a lot like a battle pass)

The Diablo 4 seasonal Battle Pass system is getting a glow-up starting with Season 8, which starts on April 29. In its initial form (launched in Season 1), Diablo 4’s Battle Pass featured linear progression that let players unlock cosmetic rewards through seasonal play — but reaching later rewards certainly caused a bit of heartburn. Now called Reliquaries, the new system lets you choose the rewards you want and unlock them in any order, giving players much more choice. And if you just want one reward from the Reliquary? You can earn and unlock that reward without grinding through 90 tiers of a battle pass.

The system seems to solve some problems with the existing battle pass grind, but it’s not quite intuitive. So let’s walk through it. Here what’s changing with the Diablo 4 Battle Pass system, and what you can expect from Reliquaries.

What are Reliquaries in Diablo 4?

Think of each Reliquary as a catalog of rewards, letting you pick the rewards you want and unlock those rewards in any order you want. Some Reliquaries may be available for free, but some you’ll need to unlock with the real money currency Platinum, much like you used to unlock the paid battle pass in the original system.

There are two types of Reliquaries: Battle Pass (available each season) and Event (limited time event rewards, like the upcoming Berserk collab). The Battle Pass Reliquaries may vary by season — Season 8’s options are Belial’s Return (free), Weapons (200 Platinum), Beasts (500 Platinum), and Armor (800 Platinum) — and they’re only available during the season.

If you want to buy all of those Reliquaries, you can buy the Premium Battle Pass Bundle (1000 Platinum) or the Deluxe Battle Pass bundle (2800 Platinum), which adds some bonus rewards. These are the Deluxe Battle Pass extras for Season 8:

• Guise of the Deceiver armor set immediate unlock for each class (instead of progressing through each Reliquary)
• Deceiver’s Final Form Wings for each class
• Orinocta the Owl pet

Be aware that you must decide whether to buy the bundle or buy individual Reliquaries immediately: once you buy a Reliquary, the option to buy the bundle will no longer be available, so you can’t change your mind later.

Price-wise, the Battle Pass bundle is the equivalent of the original Premium Battle Pass, while the Deluxe Battle Pass is the equivalent of the Accelerated Battle Pass, but instead of tier skips it now contains additional cosmetics.

How are rewards unlocked in Reliquaries?

Like the previous battle pass system, you’ll need to play the game to unlock the rewards in a Reliquary. As you play through the season, killing monsters and completing quests, you’ll earn Favor Tokens. (The Reliquaries menu shows your progress towards obtaining your next token.) Each reward in a Reliquary costs a certain amount of tokens, and you’ll be able to choose to unlock any reward in any order.

You can hold up to 99 Favor Tokens at a time and must spend some before you’re able to accrue more. Up to 99 Favor Tokens can be saved for future seasons, rewarding the efforts of one season in future seasons — though it isn’t clear if there’s a cap on how many you can earn every season.

Each Reliquary also has a bonus item that’s unlocked when you’ve purchased everything available in that Reliquary, with no associated cost. It’s up to you whether you want to buy a Reliquary to just get that one or two rewards, or whether you want to finish it to collect the bonus items as well… though because the bonus items in each seasonal Reliquary form a unique armor set, you’re certainly encouraged to buy all of them and complete them.

Be aware that unclaimed Reliquary rewards will disappear at the end of the season, and their bonus items with them. Sadly, the Battle Pass FOMO continues.

What are the Season 8 Reliquary rewards?

While we don’t have the exact details on every reward, here’s an overview of the rewards available in each Reliquary:

• Belial’s Return (free): A Town Portal cosmetic, Weapon Cosmetics, Horse cosmetics, and Platinum. Gloves belonging to the Guise of the Deceiver armor transmog set are the Bonus Reward.
• Weapons: Weapon cosmetics to support many class fantasies. Boots belonging to the Guise of the Deceiver armor set are the Bonus Reward.
• Beasts: Mounts, Mount cosmetics, and a Pet. Legs belonging to the Guise of the Deceiver armor set are the Bonus Reward.
• Armor: Cosmetic Armor Sets for each class and a Town Portal cosmetic. The Chest and Helm belonging to the Guise of the Deceiver armor set are the Bonus Reward.

Each premium Reliquary also includes one free weapon cosmetic that you can unlock with Favor Tokens, even if you don’t purchase the Reliquary.

How are Reliquaries different from the current Battle Pass?

The current Battle Pass system is pretty typical as passes go: a linear progression of rewards unlocked from tiers 1 to 90 through seasonal play. The free option only contained 28 rewards, which included some transmog options and Smoldering Ashes (which unlocked Seasonal Blessings buffs). The premium option (1000 Platinum for the Premium Battle Pass, 2800 Platinum for the Accelerated Battle Pass) comprised the other 62 tiers, with a variety of cosmetic rewards, including two transmog sets, accompanying weapons, emotes, town portal skins, tombstone skins, a mount and mount armor, emblems for your character pane, and Platinum. Rewards unlocked relatively quickly as you progressed through the seasonal journey, but it still meant a slog if you wanted rewards at the end of the Battle Pass.

But Reliquaries offer non-linear progression, so your efforts can go towards the specific rewards you want. The free Reliquary replaces the non-premium Battle Pass option and adds some Platinum to the somewhat sparse rewards on the original free track. The additional Reliquaries for Season 8 have a scaling Platinum cost of 200 / 500 / 800 Platinum, or can be bought in a bundle for 1000 Platinum.

One of the biggest, most subtle shifts is which players have access to the Battle Pass system. The Battle Pass and its rewards have previously been restricted to seasonal players. This new Reliquary system is accessible by players on both the Seasonal and Eternal realms, although the rewards rotate for both from season to season — meaning Eternal players now need to keep an eye on the season schedule.

What’s happening to Smoldering Ashes and Season Blessings?

Smoldering Ashes to unlock Season Blessings used to part of the Battle Pass, but now they’re moving to the Season Journey. You’ll earn them as you progress through the journey and unlock Season Blessing buffs as you go. It’s a change that makes a lot of sense with the nature of these buffs, which were always season-specific boosts that didn’t quite fit into the array of cosmetic rewards on the Battle Pass.

What’s happening to Battle Pass tokens?

Battle Pass tokens obtained from purchasing the game or expansion will be automatically exchanged for a Reliquary token or Platinum on April 28. These will be changed based on the token type:

• Premium Battle Pass Token converts to Reliquary Premium Battle Pass Token
• Accelerated Battle Pass Upgrade Token converts to 1,800 Platinum

Ultimately, all of these changes seem positive (if perhaps overly complicated), but we’ll see how the new system feels when it’s rolled out with Season 8 later this month. See you in Sanctuary!