In a recent Diablo 4 PTR Campfire Chat livestream, the developers announced that the upcoming Season 5 PTR will be available to PC Battle.net accounts starting on Tuesday, June 25, and will last for a week.
At the same time, it has now been confirmed that Diablo 4 Season 5 itself will begin on August 6, and will end on October 8 when Vessel of Hatred goes live.
Why Introduce A New Endgame Mode?
Through the developer chat, we learned that the core of the new content in Season 5 PTR is about the new endgame mode, Infernal Hordes. This new mechanic will have players facing waves of enemies and choosing new powers between each wave. This mode will also introduce a powerful new boss battle that requires players to defeat three of the five resurrected members of Fel Council.
The developers pointed out that the lack of player feedback on the endgame inspired their creation of Pit mechanic in Season 4. So they chose to push the envelope further, adding a rewarding and very playable experience filled with stakes and waves of monsters that greatly increase the efficiency of players farming Diablo 4 Gold.
Since Diablo 4 doesn’t let players return to Hell after conquering the big bad like previous installments, the introduction of Infernal Hordes seems to be a suitable solution. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Infernal Hordes mode in Diablo 4 Season 5.
What Is Infernal Hordes?
Infernal Horde will invite players to participate in a wave-based mode with survival-like options between each wave. Notably, it will all culminate in a new boss encounter with Fell Council.
Throughout the event, players can expect to fight Hell’s Legions in Realm of Hatred and earn Burning Aether while doing so to unlock powerful new rewards and weapons.
In PTR, starting the event will first require users to complete a quest in Zarbinzet, where they will receive a Compass that can open a passage to Hell.
Unlike Sigils for Nightmare Dungeons, Compasses includes a starting difficulty, limited resurrections, and eight difficulty levels with escalating challenges and rewards.
As they progress, players can also upgrade Compasses using new consumables called Abyssal Scrolls.
How Does It Work?
Infernal Hordes will run in limited waves, each lasting 90 seconds. While fighting Hell’s Legions, players will collect Burning Aether, which can be used after successfully completing an attack.
Besides this, players can earn additional Burning Aether as rewards for killing Aether Fiends and Aether Lords, as well as destroying Soulspires and Aetheric Masses. Fortunately, every player will get their own Burning Aether, whether playing alone or in a group with friends.
When the timer runs out and all enemies are down, users will be presented with three Infernal Offers to choose from. Once a choice is made, the next wave begins immediately. Defeating all waves of a tier will open up Well of Hatred, where your fight with Fell Council will take place.
Infernal Offers & Spoils Of Hell
After completing waves, Hell will tempt players with Infernal Offers. The offers themselves consist of three Boons and Banes that affect the next round of play. One recent example we’ve seen players share is an Elite damage increase.
It’s worth noting that Infernal Offers stack across Hordes runs, meaning you can have multiple offers active at the same time. But what you get is up to RNG!
After each successful play, players will spend Burning Aether to unlock Spoils of Hell, four of which include:
- Spoils of Equipment
- Spoils of Materials
- Spoils of Gold
- Spoils of Greater Equipment (always guaranteed to get an item with Greater Affix)
Infernal Compass
Next, let’s take a look at Infernal Compass. As I mentioned before, there are eight different tiers of Infernal Compass, which scale with difficulty and World Tier.
Each Infernal Compass Tier will increase the number of waves, starting with five waves for Tier I through Tier III. The number will continue to increase until the player reaches a maximum of 10 waves with Tier VIII Infernal Compass.
Not only that, but Compass also affects the starting difficulty of monsters, as well as the potency of rewards. Note that it also reduces the number of resurrections.
Players will be able to upgrade their Infernal Compass using Abyssal Scrolls earned by upgrading tiers. It is worth noting that Infernal Compass will drop exclusively in Tiers I through III, and obtaining Abyssal Scrolls is a prerequisite for reaching the highest Tier VIII.
Note that Infernal Compass will work in the following levels and World Tiers:
- Tier I: Available at World Tier III
- Tier II: Available at World Tier IV
- Tier III: Available at Level 100
New Items To Farm
Besides this, Season 5 will also introduce over 50 new Legendary and Unique items, many of which can be farmed through Infernal Hordes.
Among them, noteworthy new items include Basilisk for Druids, Mortacrux for Necromancers, Third Blade for Barbarians, Umbacrux for Rogues, and Vox Omnium for Sorcerers. These additions once again expand Diablo 4's legendary and unique items and provide players with more powerful equipment options.
In short, the new end-game mode and a large number of updates coming in the new season will further enrich the gaming experience of Diablo 4 fans. With Infernal Hordes being available to BattleNet users on PC in PTR on June 25, let’s wait and see!
