Diablo is about to enter a new era with Season of the Malignant when it launches on July 20. It’s the series’ first stab at a seasonal model and will feature a battle pass and some new challenges, along with story content. But if you haven’t played Diablo IV in a little while, you might find a nice surprise once you jump in: Extra Renown.
Patch 1.1.0a for Diablo IV on both PC and console are setting the stage for the game’s first season, and there are some notable changes. As with any patch, some changes might be more welcome than others, but a bonus to Renown, which you’ll earn for completing quests and going about your usual busywork throughout the world, certainly ranks among the nicer updates to the game. Renown stacks to give you extra gold and skill points, among other boons. It’s a pretty valuable way to increase in power, so any bonus to these rewards is much appreciated, especially since this latest patch applies the bonuses retroactively, meaning you’ll get more for stuff you’ve already completed.
Diablo IV’s patch reduces the grind—dramatically
Details on extra Renown can be found in Blizzard’s patch notes about halfway through. Here are the numbers:
- Side Quest Renown reward values increased from 20 to 30.
- Dungeon Renown reward values increased from 30 to 40.
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It’s Diablo, so numbers going up always means good, but the fun part in this update is that the change is retroactive. So any quests and activities you’ve previously done will see their Renown rewards adjusted accordingly.
What does that look like in the real world? Well as Kotaku’s Eric Schulkin found, his Renown in one region went from 60 to 320 overnight. In another, it jumped from 220 to 580. And that’s not the only increase to rewards. XP gains from the Whispers of the Dead endgame activity also went up. In one instance, we saw a typical reward of 132,000 XP for turning in Whispers go up to 661,000 XP. Unfortunately, as some have noted, decreased XP rewards for killing higher level monsters might outweigh endgame and Renown gains.
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While this is great for previously completed and future activities, it also makes Diablo IV less grindy than it was at launch—something which’ll be great considering we’ll have to make new characters for each season pass.
Diablo IV’s Season of the Malignant goes live on July 20, 2023.
Update 7/19/2023, 12:20 PM: Fixed an incorrect detail about XP rewards for killing higher level monsters.
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