Starting with Season 8, Diablo 4’s Battle Pass system is replaced by a new system, Reliquaries. This guide explains its features and differences from the old Battle Pass System.
What are Seasonal Reliquaries
Seasonal Reliquaries, or simply Reliquaries, are a new implementation of the Battle Pass System that previously existed in Diablo 4. They offer a similar reward to the previous system, but work differently.
Each Season has a Free Reliquary, named after the season, as well as three Premium Reliquaries unlocked with the Premium Battle Pass. Additionally, there may be Event Reliquaries that run simultaneously with the Seasonal Reliquaries.
Free Reliquary
The Free Reliquary doesn’t cost us anything to start and often includes the “off-theme” cosmetic items, or those not directly related to the current Season. This includes a handful of Weapons, Armor, Mounts, or other Misc. Cosmetics as well as 200 Platinum.
Fully completing the Free Reliquary also earns a piece of the Seasonal Bonus Armor Set, or the fancy set you’d previously get for completing the Battle Pass.
Premium Reliquaries
Each set of Premium Reliquaries is separated into three groups of items: Armor, Beasts, and Weapons. Each offers items that mostly fit that category to unlock with Favor Tokens, as well as another piece of the Seasonal Bonus Armor Set for acquiring all items from each.
Unlike the Free Reliquary, Premium Reliquaries do not contain Platinum, meaning the amount of earnable Platinum from this Battle Pass System is much lower, approximately a quarter of what was obtainable previously.
Each can be purchased individually, with Armor costing 800 Platinum, Beasts costing 500 Platinum, and Weapons costing 200 Platinum. They can also be purchased as a bundle for the same 1,000 Platinum that the old Premium Pass cost. This makes them roughly 15 USD when bought separately, or roughly 10 USD when bundled.
Event Reliquaries
Event Reliquaries are also typically free, but unlike the rest of the Reliquaries, do not allow us to spend Favor Tokens to unlock them. Instead, they have unique currencies, tied to the event’s theme.
The special currencies used by Event Reliquaries will only drop when defeating Elite Enemies, and often require several hundred to complete the Reliquary, despite how few items are in them. Thankfully, Elites are plentiful in higher difficulties and are relatively quick to farm out.
Much like other Reliquaries, these also have a Bonus reward unlocked by completing the reliquary, which will vary from event to event. However, compared to other Reliquaries, they will not last for the entire season, instead lasting around 30 days.
Unlocking Reliquary Rewards
To unlock any item from a Reliquary, we need to acquire the required number of Favor Tokens or the Event Currency required for the respective reliquaries.
Favor Tokens are earned by defeating monsters or completing quests. They can build up pretty quickly when actively playing, and we can hold up to 99 of them at a time.
Favor Tokens will also carry over from the previous Season as well, allowing us to get a head start towards next Season. Every unspent Favor Token up to our cap of 99 will carry over.
Then we open the Reliquary we want an item from, select the item we want to redeem, then select the “Redeem for Favor Tokens” option from the purchase menu. As if selling the Premium Reliquaries wasn’t enough, they do give the option to directly buy items too, similarly to the previous Battle Pass allowing us to skip tiers.
If you want to avoid the hassle and are playing on PC, right-clicking the Item we want skips the extra popup. This not only allows for quicker redemption but also effectively removes the option of spending Platinum for an item instead.
The rewards of each reliquary have varying prices, with Misc. Cosmetics like Portals or Mount Armor, as well as weapons costing up to 5 Favor Tokens. While the “big ticket” items like Armor cost 15 Favor tokens.
Unlocking Reliquary Rewards is the biggest difference between the previous Battle Pass system and this new Reliquary System.
One advantage of this Reliquary system is that, unlike the very rigid structure of most Battle Passes found elsewhere, we’re able to freely pick and prioritize the rewards we want when we want them. No more waiting until Pass level 75 or so to get that last shiny weapon or Mount.
What is the Season Journey
The Season Journey is a set of in-game tasks to complete, which offer various rewards, as well as items to help a character progress and gear up. These Tasks are grouped into Chapters, comprised of multiple Objectives.
Despite the overhaul to the Battle Pass System to the Reliquary System, the Season Journey remains a big part of the seasonal content, but it has also changed its structure a bit.
Journey Chapters and Objectives
Each Seasonal Journey is broken down into Chapters, consisting of seven Chapters which cover different stages of progression. Below is a breakdown of what to expect from each Chapter.
| Chapter | General Goals * |
|---|---|
| One | Defeat Monsters, Gather Resources, and Explore Seasonal Content and Start Seasonal Reputation |
| Two | Learn about Tempering and Aspect Imprinting while furthering progress in Seasonal eputation |
| Three | Further Seasonal Progress, Reach Level 60, and Explore Endgame Activities before entering Torment I |
| Four | More Seasonal Progress, Introduce endgame upgrade systems of Masterworking and Paragon to prepare for Torment II |
| Slayer | Take on Torment II, including Endgame and Seasonal Activities to prepare for Torment III |
| Champion | Take on Endgame Activities in Torment III and finishing Seasonal Reputation while pushing us toward Torment IV |
| Destroyer | Take on Torment IV with Endgame Challenges for bonus rewards. |
Season Journey Rewards
Each Chapter of the Season Journey is further broken down into Objectives, and each Objective consists of a set of 2-6 Tasks related to the Objective. Both Chapters and objectives include various rewards, detailed below.
| Chapter | Chapter Reward | Objective Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| One | Archetype Cache | Seasonal Cache 2 Journey Caches |
| Two | Archetype Cache 2 Smouldering Ash | Seasonal Cache 2 Journey Caches |
| Three | Archetype Cache Seasonal Title 2 Smouldering Ash | Seasonal Cache 3 Journey Caches |
| Four | Greater Archetype Cache Lair Cache Seasonal Emblem 3 Smouldering Ash | Seasonal Cache 3 Greater Journey Caches Lair Cache 1 Smouldering Ash |
| Slayer | Greater Archetype Cache Lair Cache Seasonal Mount Trophy 3 Smouldering Ash | 2 Seasonal Caches 2 Greater Journey Caches Lair Cache 1 Smouldering Ash |
| Champion | Greater Archetype Cache Greater Lair Cache Seasonal Pet 3 Smouldering Ash | Seasonal Cache 4 Greater Journey Caches 1 Smouldering Ash |
| Destroyer | Resplendent Spark Seasonal Completion Title and Emblem | 1 Smouldering Ash |
Archetype Caches provide a handful of gear to equip, with most being legendary items with an Aspect corresponding to the Class that opens it and the Archetype chosen for that season. The Greater Variation of these Caches awards Ancestral Legendary Items with the same conditions.
Journey Caches provide Rare and Legendary Gear, Elixirs, various resources, as well as Currency for the current season. The Greater version of these Caches awards Ancestral Legendaries and higher quantities of all other resources.
Lair Caches are a replacement for the previous Boss Summoning Caches, as they grant a ton of Initiate Boss Lair Keys as well as some unique as if defeating an Initiate Lair Boss. The Greater version of this cache awards Greater Lair Keys and Uniques as if slaying a Greater Lair Boss.
For more information on Boss Lairs, check out our Boss Lair Rewards List, which details the revamped Bossing Endgame Activity and summarizes the rewards available.
Resplendent Sparks are a very limited resource used to craft Mythic Items, which, outside of the Season Journey, can only be obtained in two ways: Defeating Echo of Lilith in any Torment Difficulty (once per season) or by salvaging Mythic Items.
For more information on crafting Mythic Items, we recommend checking out our Runewords Guide and List, which details how to use Runes alongside Resplenent Sparks to create any Mythic Item.
