A release date for Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion has been announced. Alongside this announcement, the expansion has opened up for pre-purchase.
Vessel of Hatred Release Date
Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred will be released on October 8, 2024.
This is just shy of a year and a half from Diablo 4’s original launch. This also means they’ll likely launch it alongside Diablo 4’s sixth season. This would make it a huge day for content, whether you get the expansion or not.
Additional Details from the Trailer
As the name of the expansion heavily implies, we’ll be tracking down Neyrelle in the jungles of Nahantu to save her from Mephisto before he corrupts her. She’s even shown briefly succumbing to his control in the trailer through a lot of manipulation.
Though not a whole lot is shown in terms of any new game systems, this trailer and the pre-purchase bonuses alongside it have confirmed a few details.
New Pets System
Pets are being added to Diablo 4. Much like Diablo 3, they will loot Gold and Materials for us.
Pre-purchasing the expansion will instantly unlock a Snow Leopard Pet. Additional pets are also available as part of the different tiers of Expansion as well.
Not ready to commit to the expansion just yet? You can still claim a pet in Kyovashad by completing the “Faithful Companion” Quest, which grants you a free dog companion named Asheara.
All of these pets are available now, enabled with today’s patch.
New Class: Spiritborn
While there are no gameplay details on the class itself just yet, we do have a name and a visual appearance. Both of these are confirmed by the inclusion of the Pre-purchase information.
We have a whole article covering the Vessel of Hatred Expansion Editions covering them in greater depth.
As for the Spiritborn, they appear to be similar in appearance to Diablo 2’s Amazon class, also wielding a javelin or polearm. Their eyes also glow, which could be a strong indicator that this will be more of a caster class rather than physical. Only time will tell what they’ll be capable of.
As confirmed in a follow up video on the Diablo Youtube Channel, we’ll get more details on the Spiritborn on July 18, 2024.
UPDATE: You can learn more about the new class Spiritborn from our breakdown of the live stream.
New Mercenary System
Pets aren’t the only companions we’ll have once Vessel of Hatred goes live. As shown on the teaser screen when logging in, mercenaries will also be returning.
While we don’t have full details on them just yet, we’ll likely see more information as we draw closer to the release. For now, we can only expect them to behave much like the Mercenaries of past Diablo titles.
Endgame Co-op PvE Content
As teased in a blog, there seems to be a new endgame activity coming with the expansion as well. While they didn’t share any details, they did share an image.
It’s hard to speculate what exactly this content will be based on the image. It at least looks to be a multi-stage encounter. Whether it is a massive dungeon, a raid-like encounter, or something entirely different; it should hopefully be interesting, to say the least.
