Diablo 4 Season 3 introduces companions, a new type of dungeon, and evil robots
Diablo 4's Season of the Construct has finally been detailed, and there's a lot to sink our teeth into.
Season of the Construct has been officially unveiled as the next Diablo 4 season, and Blizzard has dropped a load of details about the new questline, dungeon type, new monster family, battle pass and much more.
Season of the Construct kicks off Tuesday, January 23 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm UK. Let's dig into what's been revealed.
As you may have seen in the Season 3 reveal trailer, Season of the Construct centres on Zoltun Kulle's Loom, an ancient device that's been captured by evil forces working for the Demon Malphas.
Season 3 questline
The questline of Season 3 focuses on the Loom, a device of Kulle's creation. The Loom has been captured by evildoers doing the bidding of the demon Malphas. Ayuzhan, who co-created the device with Kulle, is the new NPC, who will be your guide to usurping their plans.
You'll manage your operation from a town underneath Kehjistan called Gatehall. This is also where you'll gain access to Vaults, a new type of dungeon. Each Vault has Constructs running amok, and a few elemental Hazards to worry about. As you might have guessed, Malphas is the big baddie of this one, and you'll fight him in a new boss fight at the end of the quest.
Diablo 4's first companion
Season 3 introduces the first AI companion to the game, in the form of Seneschal Companion, itself a Construct. The Seneschal will help you fight, and you'll be able to customise and augment it to create the perfect killing machine.
To do this, you'll need Governing Stones, and Tuning Stones. Governing Stones is what lets you choose the attacks it has at its disposal, while Tuning Stones add utility to and augment the same attacks. Your Seneschal Companion can have up to two Governing Stones (one for each attack), and six Tuning Stones (three augments each).
Season 3 has a total of 12 Governing Stones, and 27 Tuning Stones of varying rarities to acquire and equip. Each one can also be levelled up, similar to Season 2's Vampiric Powers. You can also fuse together dupes to get XP to use towards levelling up a stone.
Unlike the companions seemingly coming to Diablo 4 with the Vessel of Hatred expansion, the Seneschal Companion will only be available to use during the season.
A new type of dungeon: Vaults
Vaults is where you'll mainly find the Governing Stones, and Tuning Stones you'll use to build your own Seneschal Companion. Completing a Vault earns you one random Tuning Stone, and you can find more in Wardwoven Chests. Tuning Stones are also part of the Season Journey, so you'll get them there, too. Within the Vaults themselves, defeating enemy Constructs grants Shattered Stones, which you can later craft into either Governing or Tuning Stones at any Jeweller.
Each Vault was made to protect Kulle's handiwork, so they're full of Hazards - alongside the corrupted Constructs themselves. If you convert enough Pearls of Warding (a new currency), you can be granted Zoltun’s Warding, which unlocks loot within the Vault, but its boost diminishes every time you die to the Hazards.
Each Vault has a boss, and if you defeat it while having your Warding intact, you'll unlock the aforementioned Wardwoven Chest. Pearls of Warding can also be used to increase the risk upon entering a Vault.
World Tier 3 is when a more difficult version of Vaults - Nightmare Vaults - are unlocked. Similar to Nightmare Dungeons, they're triggered using Vault Sigils, which turn a normal Vault into a Nightmare Vault. The sigils can also be crafted using Pearls of Warding.
Arcane Tremors
Also new in Season of the Construct are what's called Arcane Tremors, which basically send out waves of Constructs to the overworld of Diablo 4. They'll spawn with traps, and Elite Constructs, which, when defeated, earn you Shattered Stones.
Taking down Elite Constructs is also how you get the aforementioned Pearls of Warding. Each Arcane Tremor is connected to a Vault. Defeating the Vault's Herald Construct shuts down the tremor.
A new monster family
In case it wasn't clear, Constructs are the first post-launch monster family to come to Diablo 4. Constructs are basically robots, so they're not re-skinned versions of any of the existing enemies. They come in a variety of forms that mimic enemies you may have seen elsewhere in Diablo 4's world.
Constructs can also have different elemental effects, which is yet another thing you'll have to contend with when fighting them.
The Gauntlet
As previously revealed, The Gauntlet is a leaderboard-driven challenge dungeon similar to Diablo 3's Greater Rifts. Unfortunately, The Gauntlet won't be quite ready for the launch of Season 3 next week, and will instead arrive at some point during the season.
More details will be shared closer to its release, but for now, Blizzard confirmed that Gauntlets will rotate weekly, and provide players with a fixed dungeons where everyone will compete for a spot on the leaderboards.
The highest scorers on the weekly leaderboard will earn a place in the Hall of the Ancients.