With the imminent release of Diablo 4's first season, players may want to set some things straight with their main characters in order to get as big of a headstart as possible. Everyone might be getting punted back to level 1 at the beginning of Season of the Malignant, but that doesn't mean new characters will start out completely fresh.
While the fancy gear and broken builds that players have collected and assembled during the first pre-season period won't be useful in Season of the Malignant, there are a few things that will carry over once their first seasonal character steps foot in Sanctuary. Here are the things players need to do in order to prepare for Diablo 4 Season 1.
Diablo 4: What Carries Over Between Seasons?
Blizzard confirmed in their July campfire live stream that the main things that will carry over from the pre-season to Season of the Malignant are map progress and Altar of Lilith completion. Players will start their new journey with the fog of war lifted on areas their main characters have already visited, and any Altar of Lilith they've previously touched will grant their bonuses to seasonal characters right from the start.
Also, players who have completed the main story will be able to skip the campaign on their seasonal characters. Existing players should already be done with this step, but those who are just starting out may want to hurry things up if they plan on participating in Season of the Malignant.
Unlock Altars of Lilith is highly recommended since the majority of them provide stats that will make the early leveling process fly by more quickly. All four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Willpower) contribute to a character's combat effectiveness—starting out with high levels of these means players will be able to challenge higher-level enemies earlier and clear content much more efficiently.
Since Altar and map exploration progress will carry over to seasonal characters, players might start their new characters at level 7 while sitting on a sizable pile of gold and bonus skill points thanks to Renown rewards. Blizzard did not confirm this, though the running theory among community members is that players may collect Renown rewards as soon as they get into the new season.
Blizzard announced that for any of this progress to carry over, players must log into Diablo 4 before Season of the Malignant starts using the character they've made the most progress with. This is to ensure that the game saves the account's progress in order to account for seasonal characters.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.