Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is the first expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo IV. It launched on October 8, 2024, alongside the game’s Season of Hatred Rising, and continues the story left unresolved at the end of the base campaign. After the Wanderer helped defeat Lilith, Neyrelle escaped with the soulstone containing the Prime Evil Mephisto. The expansion follows her into Nahantu, a jungle region on Sanctuary’s southern continent. Mephisto, once the Lord of Hatred, seeks to exploit Neyrelle’s isolation and suffering while rebuilding his influence. The campaign’s central conflict is Mephisto’s increasingly direct corruption of his young unwilling hostage.

Nahantu is not merely a new backdrop: its locations include the port city of Kurast and the decayed remains of Travincal, places with major roots in Diablo II’s Act III. The expansion uses its dense forests, ruins, and coastal settlements for a campaign that puts Neyrelle’s fate ahead of Lilith’s earlier war. Players meet new regional factions, including the Spiritborn, warriors tied to Nahantu’s spirit guardians. Their traditions and the region’s culture are central to the expansion’s setting, rather than being a detached side area. The journey also confronts the enduring consequences of carrying a Prime Evil within a soulstone.

Vessel of Hatred introduces the Spiritborn, Diablo IV’s first new class since launch. Spiritborn characters fight with glaives, quarterstaffs, and polearms, and draw power from four Spirit Guardians: the jaguar, gorilla, eagle, and centipede. Players can select a primary guardian and later combine its bonuses with another through the class’s Spirit Hall system. The expansion also adds mercenaries, companions recruited in Nahantu who can accompany a player and use assigned skills. The endgame Dark Citadel is a cooperative dungeon designed for groups, while Kurast Undercity offers timed runs with selectable tributes and bargains. Runewords return in a new format.

The expansion arrived with broader changes to Diablo IV’s progression and exploration. Players gained access to a new Nahantu region, additional dungeons, strongholds, and side content, plus an expanded level cap of 60. The Paragon system was adjusted so Paragon levels continue after level 60, and the difficulty structure was reorganized around Torment tiers. Vessel of Hatred also introduced runes and runewords as socketable item mechanics, letting players pair a Ritual rune with an Invocation rune to trigger specified effects. Its campaign ends with Mephisto still a threat, deliberately establishing a continuation rather than closing the Prime Evil’s story outright.