Shaun M Jooste 
It’s finally here, and it’s a vampiric gore fest! Diablo IV Season 2 launched on 17 October 2023 for PC and Console, and it changes a few of the mechanics while introducing a new storyline, creatures, bosses, and more! The season officially ends on 23 January 2024.
We’ve been playing the new Diablo IV Season 2: Season of Blood since it launched, and we’ve been having so much fun. If you haven’t tried it yet or you’re struggling to level up and reach World Tier 3, here’s what you need to know. Thankfully, it feels easier to progress this season than it did the previous one, and it’s more enjoyable!
Here are our top ten tips for Diablo IV Season 2: Season of Blood.
What awaits you in Diablo IV Season 2?
Before we jump into the actual guide for Diablo IV Season 2, let me share what you can expect from this season of blood and gore. Vampires have descended on Sanctuary, plunging the land into a new kind of darkness. Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll find with the new update:
- Defeat Lord Zir: Meet the new vampire lord who is the ultimate antagonist in this season’s story
- Command new vampire powers: This new game mechanic will give you and your companions new abilities
- New dungeons and cosmetics: As usual, there will be new dungeons related to the season, and you’ll receive new outfits to look like a vampire Nephalem!
- New bosses, glyphs, and powers: There are 5 new endgame bosses, while you’ll also receive new paragon glyphs with legendary abilities.
Are you excited yet? Let’s move on to the Diablo IV Season 2 guide!
Diablo IV Season 2 Guide and Tips
So, the Diablo IV Season 2 guide below is based on our personal experience. There are some gamers who are satisfied with just grinding dungeons to level up quickly, but that reduces the gaming experience. To make the most of the Season of Blood, here’s what we recommend you do.
1. Progress Through the Diablo IV Season 2 Storyline
It should be obvious that the first tip for Diablo IV Season 2 is that you progress through the story as quickly as possible. Lord Zir has released his undead minions on the land, and you need to save the people. At some points in the storyline, the game requires you to complete the seasonal chapter objectives before proceeding with the main plot.
Do these soon so you can face Lord Zir and level up quickly. Also, the storyline unlocks vampire powers and the Hunters’ Acclaim board, which we’ll discuss later.
2. Practice Clearing the Blood Harvest
One of the new Diablo IV Season 2 mechanics is called the Blood Harvest. You may recall clearing regions from malignant growths and creatures in Season 1. The Blood Harvest is similar, but with new tasks. Some objectives you may need to complete include:
- Rescuing prisoners
- Destroying structures
- Killing mages and crimson blades
- Killing Blood Seekers
- Summoning the Council of Blood and defeating the Ancients
Now, this final task is almost like the main boss event for Blood Harvest. As you kill vampires and destroy structures, you receive two items: Blood Lures and Seeker Keys. Blood Lures will aid in summoning Blood Seekers at locations marked with a seasonal chalice. If you saved up to 150 Blood Lures between you and your friends, you can place them in three Blood Pedestals, with 50 BL per pedestal.
Once you do so, you’ll summon three Ancients that are part of a vampire council. Defeating them is also part of your seasonal chapters. As for the Seeker Keys, these open gorgeous unique chests in the area that drop many unique items, such as BLs and Pacts. More on this later.
As a final note, you only have about an hour to clear a Blood Harvest. There’s a timer that counts down, and then the Harvest moves to a new region. The items you collect carry over to the new Harvest. Also, completing objectives counts towards your Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers.
3. Unlock Vampire Powers
I mentioned earlier that the storyline unlocks vampire powers. While you become a vampire early on in the story, your Nephalem blood, tainted with the power of Lilith, stops you from becoming completely undead. Instead, you remain alive and powerful and can now unlock vampire powers.
As you defeat vampires and their kin, you’ll receive Potent Blood. There’s a new inventory tab that appears, revealing the complete collection. Here’s what you’ll want to do to unlock and upgrade vampire powers in Diablo IV Season 2:
- Carefully read through all the powers and choose the five you like the most
- Obtain Potent Blood and spend it to unlock the five you desire
- Allocate the five powers to the Sanguine Circle glyph above
- Spend further Potent Blood to unlock and level up vampire powers
How the Diablo IV Season 2 system works is that you’ll need to choose one of three random vampire powers when you spend Potent Blood. If you haven’t discovered a power yet, there will be a lock symbol. If you have, you’ll see the icon for that power. Opening a locked power unlocks it for use, and opening an unlocked one upgrades it towards the next level. To move from level 1 to level 2, you need to upgrade that power five times. To move from level 2 to 3, you need to upgrade it ten times.
However, the selection of three powers is always random, so you’ll need to choose carefully. I first focus on levelling my active vampire powers, and if those aren’t in the selection, then anything closer to the next level will do.
There’s one more thing about vampire powers I need to explain. To activate a power, you need to gather three types of Pacts: Ferocity (the crown symbol), Divinity (chalice), and Eternity (skull). You can obtain these from the Blood Harvest of Diablo IV Season 2 by killing Blood Seekers and opening Seeker Chests with Seeker Keys.
Each vampire power has a specific combination of Pacts you need to activate it. Above the Sanguine Circle in your vampire power tab, you’ll see how many of each Pact you need in total for all powers to be active. So, how do you use these Pacts?
You place them on your armour. Each armour piece can take a certain number of Pacts, and some of them already have a few embedded. You can add more Pacts, or even use the Cleansing Acid to wipe the equipment clean and start all over again. This becomes a strategic game mechanic later on when you unlock more powerful vampire powers or armour pieces.
4. Complete Class Objectives
This tip for Diablo IV Season 2 carries over from Season 1. When you begin the Season of Blood, you’ll have to create a brand new character. That means, you’ll need to start from level 1 and rise in the ranks again. Fortunately, many of the zone rewards remain, such as unlocked regions on the map, statues of Lilith, and so on. Unfortunately, the side quests are wiped clean to zero.
Now, each class has its own character storyline we recommend you complete as soon as it’s available. For instance, I played as the Druid, so when I reached level 15, I needed to clear the Scosglen stronghold, save the druids, and sacrifice Druidic offerings to the spirit animals to receive more buffs and powers. As soon as your class objective unlocks, I recommend you complete the relevant quest.
5. Challenge the World Bosses
Here’s another tip that carries over into Diablo IV Season 2. Every now and again, a World Boss will appear somewhere on the map for you and other players to defeat. When you reach level 40 or higher, it may be beneficial to start engaging in these battles for massive rewards. However, wait until other players join you, as going solo isn’t a good idea.
For the Season of Blood, we have new endgame world bosses, to keep a lookout for those when you hit the higher World Tiers.
6. Complete Seasonal Chapters
One aspect of Diablo 3’s seasons that I hated was that the chapters remained the same in each of them. It became a dull grind in the end that was really predictable. Activision Blizzard listened to the players’ suggestions, and that means new chapters for Diablo IV Season 2!
There are now vampire-specific chapter objectives to work through among the standard tasks for Diablo IV Season 2. We still need to clear some cellars and reach certain levels, but the vampiric quests make it more fun this season. My experience so far is that Chapters 1 – 4 are much easier to work through than in Season 1.
7. Satisfy the Tree of Whispers
Besides the Blood Harvest, there are still roaming regional challenges for different areas, such as defeating bandits, finding corpses and killing the rising Elite, and so on. Both the Blood Harvest and the normal Grim Favor quests will grant you favours, which fill up the bar at the bottom of the map until you have ten. Head to the Tree of Whispers, and it will give you exciting rewards as usual. Once you hit World Tier III, these may include Sacred items. You’ll also receive plenty of experience to help you level up.
8. Raise your Hunters’ Acclaim Tiers
Let’s return to tips that are specific to Diablo IV Season 2. Once you progress far enough in the storyline, you unlock the Hunters’ Acclaim board that appears in the city surrounded by the Blood Harvest and also in the main city within Dry Steppes for the Season of Blood: Ked Bardu.
As you kill and destroy vampires and their structures, you may notice the words “Hunters’ Acclaim” appear with a number. That’s how much acclaim you’ve received for performing these tasks in the Blood Harvest. The board has various tiers on it, plus an indication of how much acclaim you need to unlock the next tier. It’s just another way of levelling up and receiving awards just for playing the game!
9. Count Your Season’s Blessings and Unlock Paragon Skills
We’re back to standard gameplay tips from Season 1, but with something new for Diablo IV Season 2. There are new vampire-specific paragon glyphs and abilities to unlock after you hit level 50. You’ll want to put your concentration on these to prepare for those world bosses. Also, remember to claim your Season’s Blessings in the Season Tiers, which unlock at different character levels.
These Blessings and Glyphs will help you power up, especially for one specific vampire power: Accursed Touch. While you’re defeating vampires, you and your companions curse some of them and then capture up to 8 souls. If you use the right class ability attached to this curse, you unleash all the souls to attack enemies around you.
Now, with the help of new powers, you can increase the power of this attack. Even if you’re fighting a challenging Elite, you can watch as the health drastically drops from this potent attack.
10. Complete the World Tier Capstone Dungeons
The final tip for Diablo IV Season 2 is to clear the World Tier Capstone Dungeons as soon as you reach the correct level. Don’t wait to get the next World Tier level, as you’ll unlock more power enemies and items to level up much faster and finally reach the endgame. While this tip may not be as exciting as the others, it’s still necessary that you include it in your journey within Season of Blood.
How Diablo IV Season 2 Changes the Way We Play
Before I end my Diablo IV Season 2 guide, I wanted to explain how much this season has changed how I play for myself. In Season 1, I was focused on Legendary armour and weapon powers that helped me fight the Malignant. While this is still the case, there’s one dynamic that’s changed my approach: the Vampire Pacts.
In the first season, my only real concern when it came to Legendary powers was making sure I extracted and imprinted them whenever I found a better, more powerful item. I still need to do so, but the Pacts now come into play. When you change armour, the list of available Pacts you have on you changes based on the ones embedded in your suit. What this means is that you may not have enough of a specific kind for all your vampire powers.
That’s why collecting as many Pacts as possible becomes necessary, especially in the beginning. As an example, you might come across a Legendary suit that gives double the armour and a unique power you really want. However, the embedded pacts are completely different from the ones on your suit, so you may lose active vampire powers. What this means is cleaning the Pacts from the new suit, and then embedding the ones you need in the right quantities.
It becomes even more challenging and entertaining when you need to imprint a Legendary power you like while also needing to change the Pacts just so you can wear the new item. Out of all the new creatures, story elements, and other changes, this one has the highest impact on my gameplay in Diablo IV Season 2.
Are You Ready to Conquer Diablo IV Season 2?
As you can see, I’m thoroughly enjoying Diablo IV Season 2. There’s still so much to do, but I wanted to share my experience over three days of gameplay. It quickly becomes addictive, and I still have to collect Undead Souls in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer, an event that’s almost over. However, I don’t really want to leave Sanctuary at this point.
I hope this Diablo IV Season 2 has helped you, and you have plenty of fun clearing the lands.
