Diablo 4Oct 30, 2026 6:00 pm CT

Face the twin Reapers in Diablo 4 Season 16– now live on the PTR

By Cory Taylor

The next season of Diablo 4 is coming soon, sending players to tackle not one, but two fearsome Corrupted Reapers. If you want to get your hands on testing Season 16 updates, the Public Test Realm for it is live right this very moment. Running until November 3 at 10am pacific (1pm eastern), players who are interested in checking out the upcoming changes and mechanics have the weekend (and a bit more) to test the upcoming season. Don’t feel like you’re going to have to spend a lot of time leveling up either; you’ll be able to grant yourself max level and all sorts of goodies to properly test out end-game systems.

Season 16 will be improving on the War Plan system that was introduced with the Lord of Hatred expansion. You’ll now be able to improve your selections of War Plan nodes to better target the activities you’re interested in playing. With enough points invested, you’ll also have a better choice over the loot you earn by completing those activities. You’ll also be able to respec nodes with Marks of Wisdom, so if you like four out of five of the activities, you can adjust it to be all things you like. No more having to eat your vegetables to get your dessert, just all dessert — all the time!

Tyrael will also be offering you Boons that help to further adjust your rewards and playstyle over all. This season he’ll offer you four things that will improve seasonal rewards.

(Official Post)

In Season 16, the four paths are as follows:

Curious Addition: Modifies the Purveyor of Curiosities to increase chances for a second item, and offer either new item types or improve the chances for higher-quality items. You can also select an options to make the Purveyor far more expensive, but increase the likelihood of getting Ancestrals.
Merchant of Mystery: Adds a new merchant at Torment difficulty selling caches for Forgotten Souls. Invest points to increase the chances of Ancestral Caches. Select a path to buy caches with Runes or Gems or increase the amount and quality of Ancestral Caches on offer.
Scent of Gold: Increase the amount of gold and experience you get. One path also increases the number of Horadric Cube materials and Gem Fragments you find, and the other improves monster drops of Gold and Gems. You can also increase your chances of finding a Legendary.
Trash for Treasure: Transmuting costs at the Alchemist are reduced, and you can choose to invest in a better chance for Forgotten Souls. The first path gives more Obducite and Scrolls of Restoration, and the other gives monsters a chance to drop more Obducite and Salvage. At the end, salvaging Ancestral Items gives a chance to grant a Scroll of Restoration. It also opens a new Horadric Cube recipe, Greater Temper, which upgrades the Tempered Affix on an item to a Greater Affix for the cost of 30 Scrolls of Restoration and 1,000 Obducite.

Boon choices will be changing with every season to better tie in with the new mechanics they offer, while the current seasonal blessings that players purchase with Smoldering Ashes earned through the season journey will be now be the same options every season.

Players will need all the help they can get to brave Pandemonium and face the Reapers with no fear; luckily, they’ll have some Horadric help to be the victors. The new Horadric affix on gear will work with your talisman to buff your set bonuses, or even count as one of the seals necessary to activate the bonus. You’ll have greater freedom over the sets that you use and be able to squeeze in extra set powers where possible.

The developers have also heard how much everyone has been enjoying the current Season of Hell’s Legacy and all of the various secrets and throwbacks that are present in it. Some of the features from the season will be carried forward, but Blizzard hasn’t said which ones yet. We’ll stay tuned for more info and update you when we know.

Season 16 is expected to launch with all of these features in early December.

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