Yesterday, Sony announced that PlayStation Plus is getting some big games to celebrate the service’s 15th birhtday. One of the big additions to the subscription service is Diablo 4. You can read our four star review of Blizzard’s latest take on the ARPG at the link if you’re keen to know more about the intricacy and depth of this mammoth effort in the dungeon-crawling genre.
PlayStation has chosen a good time to get this game into the hands of more Diablo-curious players. The game’s eighth season, Belial’s Return, is almost over. As it often goes, the next season has already been in the works for a while, and Blizzard even let players test out its core elements well ahead of launch via the game’s public test server. So we have a good idea of what to expect when Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim drops into the live product.
The title of the new season was revealed back in April when Diablo 4’s slim roadmap was first made public. While a final livestream ahead of launch is scheduled for this Friday, much of what matters has been known about, and in the hands of players, for a while.
My take? Diablo 4 is firmly in its treading waters era. The initial plan was for Blizzard to deliver one expansion each year. That only lasted for a single year, and it gave us Vessel of Hatred, the game’s only expansion, released in 2024. Blizzard reneged on its promise when it revealed that 2025 won’t actually see the release of a new expansion, with the next one instead set to launch sometime in 2026.
That shift immediately made seasons more valuable, and inevitably saddled them with expectations the developer simply won’t – and can’t – live up to. Belial’s Return had a shorter runtime than Diablo 4’s earlier seasons, and it felt like Blizzard was eager to turn players’ gaze onto Sins of the Horadrim.
So, with an influx of new players coming via PS Plus, can Blizzard keep the excitement levels high for both new and returning players? That depends on how much any of the following excites you.
Horadric Spellcraft
Taking command of new powers has become an expectation of each new season in Diablo 4. The game has flipped between Vampiric Powers, Witchcraft Powers, and even Boss Powers more recently.
Horadric Spells are the new powers of Season 9, in keeping with the season’s Horadrim theme. Though the specifics are different, Horadric Spells rely on a structure anyone who played past Diablo 4 seasons should be very familiar with.
The system allows you to create spells derived from three pillars: Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana. The base of a spell is its Catalyst, which you can then change and modify with an Infusion. Arcana is the most advanced component, and it allows you to adjust the spells’ effects beyond what the other two are capable of.
Each Horadric Spell can hold up to three Arcanas. As the most powerful component, Arcana comes in three rarities (Magic, Rare, Legendary), and they can only be found within Nightmare Dungeons. Catalysts, and Infusions, however, will be earned through the standard Seasonal Quest.
Horadric Strongrooms
A key item you also get as part of the Season 9 Seasonal Quest is the Wayfinder, which acts as a compass of sorts that points you to vast repositories of Horadric magic known as Horadric Strongrooms.
Strongrooms are found within Nightmare Dungeons (can you see the focus on dungeons in S9?), and your chances of running into one go up the higher your difficulty level (Torment, etc.), and the more upgraded your Wayfinder.
A Wayfinder’s ability to detect Horadric Strongrooms can be boosted by investing Horadric Phials into it. This is one of the new season’s currencies. Deeper into Diablo 4’s endgame, you may even find Nightmare Dungeon Sigils with affixes that guarantee Horadric Strongrooms within.
Strongrooms offer a new, time-limited challenge. Once located – and unsealed – you’re given a set amount of time to clear the area so you can claim what it holds. After a brief combat ritual, the real decision-making will begin when you’re presented with Horadric Pillars.
Those are effectively modifiers you have some control over. The higher the challenge, the better your rewards. After making your choice, your goal will be to satiate the Horadric Pillars as you kill demons. Horadric Attunement is a loot buff that can be earned, but you can also find Sacrifice Shrines within that could give you an advantage.
At the end of each Horadric Strongroom, you’ll need to fight a boss to reach your reward. That takes the form of a Horadric cache, which contains what you’re looking for. The rewards within scale with the amount of Horadric Attunement earned in that Strongroom.
New activity: Escalating Nightmares
There are yet more reasons to descend into dungeons in Season 9. The new Escalating Nightmares endgame activity is essentially an expanded form of Nightmare Dungeons. Every Escalation is made up of a chain of three, with difficultly going up as you clear each one.What’s interesting here is that Nightmare Dungeons affixes stack, meaning your third will have the affixes of all three of them, making the third and final Nightmare Dungeon a suped up, nightmarish experience.
Similar to standard Nightmare Dungeon Sigils, starting this activity requires an Escalation Sigil, which can be found in the Horadric caches you get for clearing Strongrooms (starting at Torment 1).
And if that’s not enough, there’s a major boss fight that awaits at the end of the third dungeon in the chain.
Astaroth
Yes, the boss you’ll be fighting to cap off the gruelling journey of running through three Nightmare Dungeons back-to-back – with stacking affixes, no less – is none other than Astaroth himself.
If you played the Diablo 4 campaign, you’ll no doubt remember that fight. This was one of the campaign’s most memorable spectacles, and players have been asking Blizzard to bring that fight into the post-game. With Season 9, we all get our wish.
This is the version of Astaroth riding the hellhound Amalgam, and the fight even has an interesting mechanic, beyond what was in the campaign. During the fight, Astaroth will dismount, meaning you’ll be fighting it and Amalgam simultaneously.
Crucially, however, you’ll need to split your attention between them, because slaying Amalgam before Astaroth will only take it off the board briefly, as it will respawn after a brief window if its master remains alive.
Horadric Jewels
Blizzard is bringing back some of the ideas that players loved from previous seasons into Season 9. Another reward you could get after completing a Strongroom is Horadric Tomes, which, when consumed, let you craft your very own Horadric Jewels.These are socketable items – essentially much more powerful gems. Some complement your Horadric Spells, and others will simply add more effects to your existing attacks or trigger upon enemy deaths.
Horadric Jewels can be crafted using the Wayfinder, and you’ll need Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments to do so. Once crafted, you’ll be able to socket them into Amulets, and Rings.
Dungeon updates for Seasonal and Eternal Realms
The focus on dungeons in Season 9 manifests in more ways, too, that benefit players on the Seasonal as well as Eternal Realms. Some quality of life improvements include the ability to activate Nightmare Sigils from within Nightmare Dungeons after the dungeon has been completed, meaning you won’t have to exit that one to enter another.
You’ll also find new positive affixes, which will be included on Nightmare Sigils.
Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim arrives in Diablo 4 on Tuesday, July 1.
