As we finally venture into Diablo 4 Season 8, Blizzard is overhauling the Season Journey to make your progression smoother than ever. You can now obtain more Smoldering Ashes sooner, and use them to activate the new game-changing buffs much earlier. With D4's challenge set to ramp up as Belial, the Lord of Lies, returns as the new pinnacle encounter, I'm certainly pleased to hear that I'll be getting bonuses sooner in Season 8.
Wherever you are in Diablo 4, the Season Journey is vital to your success. Blizzard's progression system has a series of chapters to complete, with each giving you a slate of rewards. One of these is Smoldering Ashes, which you can spend on specific blessings to provide buffs on your adventure. Maybe you'll boost the chance for certain caches to drop, or even increase how often Belial appears after defeating a Lair Boss – the choice is yours.
Blessings turn the RPG into a much smoother experience, and you need Smoldering Ashes to get the most out of them. That's why, starting with Season 8, Blizzard is redistributing how you get these Ashes across the Season Journey, to give you the resource at a faster rate.
Going forward, you'll get two Smoldering Ashes when completing chapters two and three. You can also expect three Ashes up to chapter seven, with an extra Ash available via a chapter objective.
"The prior reward structure held a good majority of Smoldering Ashes and the Seasonal Pet Reward (Iris) behind chapter seven of the Season Journey," Diablo 4's director of social, Adam 'PezRadar' Fletcher, writes.
"We have made updates on the backend to redistribute these earlier in the Season Journey. These changes will be in effect immediately at the start of Season 8 on Tuesday April 29. Due to the way this was updated prior to the start of the season, players will see incorrect tooltips and information on the Season Journey until we can get another client update out post Season 8 launch.
"We believe these changes will make progression and earning Iris more accessible to players jumping into the new season. We will have more news once we have additional information on the client update to address the in-game tooltips to represent this change."
Don't forget to check out all the Diablo 4 classes if you're diving back in for Season 8, to ensure you can handle whatever Belial throws at you.
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