Diablo 4 Season 4 dragged me back despite the rampant overgrowth of currencies to keep track of

GamesRPGDiablo 4Diablo 4 Season 4 dragged me back despite the rampant overgrowth of currencies to keep track ofWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Blizzard)

A sorceress in dark eyeshadow

The number of currencies you’re expected to collect in modern games seems absurd, but never more so than when Diablo 4 gives them names like anguished goth poetry. To open your Tortured Gifts you need Aberrant Cinders, and while you’re hunting for those you should be looking out for Baneful Hearts, which can be used at Accursed Nests to summon a boss who can be killed to farm Exquisite Blood.

And yet here I am in Season 4 running Helltides to collect Fiend Roses. They got me, and all they had to do to win me over was give me a bunch of free stuff—and speed up the levelling.

This season is subtitled Loot Reborn, and the focus is on giving players more and doing it faster. It arrived at the same time as a temporary game-wide 50% boost to gold drops and a 25% boost to XP, and the difference that makes is remarkable. I’m on my third character now, so being able to race up the levels is a delight. I just want to unlock all the skills now, don’t make me wait.

When I see a treasure goblin, my sorcerer wails on them with lightning that crawls along the ground like electric worms just like in the original Diablo, and when they run away I teleport alongside to smack my Arc Lash in their face until they give up their loot, which now includes a bonus bag you can open to make it rain again—a little delayed gratification to save for when you’re in town so you don’t overfill your inventory. It feels good, especially compared to how stingy Diablo 4 was at launch.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

A red portal in Hell

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And then, story out of the way, I jumped into a Helltide, a monster-rich environment that boils Diablo down to purest clickfrenzy. Freeze some imps, teleport to a succubus, drop a big electric AoE, collect loot, rinse and repeat. Turns out if you call a Skinner Box a Gloom Casket or a Dismal Receptacle or something, I will happily climb inside and turn out the light.

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