Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred Expansion Launches April 28 — New Class, Campaign, and Endgame

Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, the game's second major expansion, launches on April 28, 2026 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Following the success of Vessel of Hatred, which reinvigorated the game's player base in late 2024, Lord of Hatred promises the most substantial content injection Diablo IV has received since launch — a new playable class, a full campaign act, sweeping endgame changes, and quality-of-life improvements that address long-standing community feedback.

The Spiritborn Class Evolves

Lord of Hatred's headline feature is the evolution of the Spiritborn class, first introduced in Vessel of Hatred. The expansion adds a new Spirit Guardian — the Serpent — bringing the total to five. The Serpent Guardian channels poison and shadow damage, offering a playstyle built around damage-over-time stacking, evasion, and debuff application. Early preview builds suggest the Serpent is particularly effective in endgame group content, where its ability to reduce enemy resistances benefits the entire party.

Existing Spiritborn players can access the Serpent Guardian immediately upon purchasing the expansion, and Blizzard has confirmed that the class's skill tree has been expanded with 15 new active skills and 20 new passive nodes distributed across all five Guardian paths. This deepens build diversity significantly, and theorycraft communities have already been speculating about hybrid builds that combine the Serpent's poison synergies with the Jaguar's speed-focused toolkit.

For players who have not yet tried the Spiritborn, the class remains one of Diablo IV's most distinctive additions. Its martial arts-inspired combat animations, unique resource system, and Guardian-swapping mechanic set it apart from the traditional class roster, and the Serpent expansion only strengthens its identity.

A New Campaign Act

Lord of Hatred adds Act VII to Diablo IV's campaign, taking players to the Burning Hells in pursuit of Mephisto himself. The campaign act spans approximately eight to ten hours of story content, with the narrative picking up directly from where Vessel of Hatred's storyline concluded. Blizzard's narrative team has promised a darker, more personal story that explores Mephisto's manipulation of mortal agents and the consequences of Neyrelle's choices from the base game.

The new zones include the Halls of Anguish, a sprawling dungeon complex within Mephisto's domain, and the Blighted Reach, an open-world zone on the borders of the Burning Hells that introduces new environmental hazards and traversal mechanics. The Blighted Reach is roughly the size of the Dry Steppes, giving endgame players a substantial new area to farm and explore.

Cinematics for the expansion have been produced by Blizzard's in-house animation team, and early previews suggest they match the quality of the base game's exceptional pre-rendered sequences. Voice acting features returning cast members alongside new performances, with Mephisto's characterisation described by Blizzard as "the most terrifying villain we have ever brought to screen in Diablo."

Endgame Overhaul

Perhaps more significant than the new content is the endgame restructuring that Lord of Hatred introduces. The Pit, Diablo IV's primary endgame dungeon system, receives a complete overhaul. The new version, called The Infernal Pit, replaces the existing tier system with a more granular difficulty scaling that adjusts dynamically based on party composition and gear level. This means solo players and groups of varying sizes should find appropriately challenging content without needing to manually adjust difficulty tiers.

Helltide events have been expanded with new event types, including Siege events where players defend NPC encampments against waves of demonic assaults, and Corruption Rifts that spawn randomly within Helltide zones and offer concentrated loot rewards for completing timed challenges. These additions address the community's feedback that Helltides, while rewarding, had become repetitive after hundreds of hours.

Itemisation changes are extensive. A new tier of Mythic Unique items has been introduced, sitting above current Unique items in power level. These are extraordinarily rare drops — Blizzard estimates that an average player will see one every 50 to 80 hours of endgame play — and they feature build-defining effects that open up entirely new playstyle possibilities. The loot filter system has also been improved, with more granular control over what appears on the ground and a new auto-salvage option for items below a player-defined quality threshold.

SEA Pricing and Battle.net Availability

Lord of Hatred is priced at USD 39.99 for the standard edition, with a USD 59.99 Deluxe edition that includes a battle pass, cosmetic armour set, and an exclusive mount. For Southeast Asian players, Battle.net regional pricing applies. Malaysian players can expect pricing around RM 169 for the standard edition, with Singapore pricing around SGD 54.90 and Philippine pricing around PHP 1,990.

Battle.net is fully available across Southeast Asia, and Diablo IV's SEA player base has grown significantly since the game's launch. The Singapore server cluster, which services much of the region, has maintained stable latency for players in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, typically ranging from 20ms to 60ms depending on location and ISP.

Console players in the region can purchase the expansion through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Marketplace, with regional pricing available in supported currencies. Cross-play and cross-progression between PC and console remain fully supported, meaning SEA players who split their time between 平台 can continue their progress seamlessly.

Pre-Order and Early Access

Pre-orders for Lord of Hatred are available now. Players who pre-order any edition receive immediate access to a Mephisto-themed cosmetic wing back attachment and a title. The Deluxe edition offers 72-hour early access, allowing players to begin the new campaign on April 25 rather than April 28.

Blizzard has also announced a returning player incentive — anyone who has not logged into Diablo IV in the past 90 days receives a free cosmetic bundle and a catch-up experience boost that accelerates levelling to the current endgame threshold. This initiative targets lapsed players who dropped off after the base game's initial content cycle, and it is a smart move given the competitive April release calendar.

What This Means for the Season Structure

Lord of Hatred launches alongside Season 9, which Blizzard has dubbed the Season of Hatred. The seasonal theme integrates directly with the expansion content, meaning free-to-play seasonal mechanics are available to all players, while the expansion content (new class features, campaign, zones) requires a purchase. This maintains Blizzard's established model of ensuring the seasonal live-service content remains accessible while gating premium content behind the expansion price.

The Season of Hatred introduces a new seasonal mechanic called Corruption Marks, which are earned through endgame activities and can be spent at a new NPC vendor to target-farm specific item slots. This is a direct response to player feedback about loot acquisition feeling too random, and early community reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred launches April 28, 2026 on PC (Battle.net and Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.