Diablo 4’s Battle Pass to be for cosmetics only

Diablo 4’s developers confirm that the Battle Pass will not be needed for progression or as a paid shortcut to faster leveling.

Diablo 4 will not follow in the footsteps of Diablo Immortal, which released a premium Battle Pass soon after launch. Many players felt like they needed to buy the pass in order to progress or level up quickly in the game. The decision proved controversial when the free-to-play mobile Diablo title first launched and also raised concerns that Diablo 4 would do the same.

Diablo Immortal has since fixed most of the practices that could be considered questionable, but anxiety surrounding Diablo 4’s release has remained. Fortunately though, in an interview about the game’s progress, Blizzard has confirmed the premium Battle Pass will only offer cosmetic rewards in Diablo 4.

Diablo 4 won’t encourage players to spend money to progress faster.

“The Battle Pass is not used to gate any content like things you’d actually do as part of your game experience during a season when a Battle Pass might be active,” developers said in a conversation with Dexerto. “The Battle Pass provides cosmetic rewards for players to engage with.”

They went on to say that some aspects of the pass can result in an experience bonus, but that this will be part of the free Battle Pass that all players have access to, and therefore won’t need to be purchased.

“There are some things you can unlock in the Battle Pass that will accelerate your progression.
But they are always free, they are all in free track. For example, there’s a monster kill XP bonus you can get in the Battle Pass free track, but that requires escalating player level in order for it to be unlocked for your character.”

This will be welcome news for anyone who was worried that Diablo 4 would repeat some of the mistakes made by Diablo Immortal.