Diablo IV’s fifth season brings in roguelite ‘Infernal Hordes’ mode

Diablo IV’s fifth season of post-launch content will bring aboard a roguelite mode tasking players with cutting down hordes of enemies before taking on tougher foes for bigger spoils.

The mode is called Infernal Hordes, Canonically speaking, players are entering the Realm of Hatred by using an Infernal Compass, which are items dropped by endgame boss-level characters and found in the Nightmare Dungeon, Whispers, and Helltide events.

These Infernal Compasses span eight tiers of difficulty, and start at five waves of enemies for the first three tiers, capped at 10 waves for tier 8. The tiering system also increases the starting difficulty of monsters — but also the potency of rewards received.

The horde waves last 90 seconds each, and they all pay off in Burning Aether, which players can use to buy up better gear to prepare for the next stage of an Infernal run. Each stage will include an “Infernal Offer” that offer different rewards. Of course, the better the reward, the harder the difficulty.

Defeating all of the waves leads the player into the Well of Hatred to battle the Fell Council, a series of minibosses chosen at random. Wipe them out, and you get Burning Aether to spend on Spoils of Hell — equipment, material, gold, or better gear.

Infernal Hordes begins on Diablo IV’s public test realm on Tuesday, June 25, and will run until July 2, for those wishing to test out the idea. After that, it won’t be available again until season 5 goes live. That hasn’t been officially announced, but season 4 ends in early August, so it will probably be around that time.

Blizzard has much more about Infernal Hordes and other changes coming in its patch notes for the season 5 public test realm.

When does Diablo IV Season 5 begin?

Diablo IV launched in June 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game’s first full expansion, Vessel of Hatred, was announced two weeks ago during the Xbox Game Showcase. That will launch Oct. 8, and it’ll cost $39.99 (with two special editions costing more). Season 6 of Diablo IV is expected to launch on the same day as Vessel of Hatred.

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