Blizzard’s ongoing action-RPG saga against demonic forces continues in the third season of Diablo IV, Season of the Construct. The new seasonal content brings a new questline, new dungeons, and new unlocks. I returned to Sanctuary with the Diablo IV Season of the Construct Battle Pass to take on new evil forces in some swanky new gear.

The Season of the Construct Battle Pass is 90 tiers worth of transmogs and bonus items: cosmetic armour, mount armour, weapon skins, a few emotes, and, to top it off, portals and headstones. Every Diablo player has access to 28 free tiers throughout their season journey. For those willing to shill out a premium battle pass for 1,000 platinum (AUD 14.95) or the Accelerated Battlepass for 2,800 platinum (AUD 37.45), there are another 62 tiers of goodies to unlock.

This season is all about mechanised marvels called Constructs, mechanical creatures taking the form of scorpions, spiders, and other insects alongside the usual demonic beings. Alongside new allies, your hero is tasked with the ultimate goal of preventing the demon Malphas from getting his clutches on ancient tech, known as the ‘Loom’, that, as usual, would result in the domination of Sanctuary by malicious forces.

The questline involves the usual rounds of fetch quests, investigations, and decimations of waves on enemies. The most notable in-game additions are the new Arcane Tremor events in the world and Vaults, dungeons wrought with traps, just like Malphas likes his death caves. Thankfully, with a spider-bot-like construct companion of your very own, ‘The Seneschal’, there are more ways to make short work of hordes of constructs and fiends. The companion can be decked out with offensive and defensive augments thanks to magical stones from completing quests and as mostly dungeon drops.

My seasonal character focus was on the Sorcerer class, one of the best-dressed classes in Diablo IV, and the Battle Pass transmogs add even more threads to her wardrobe. Weapon and armour cosmetics can be class-specific or multi-class and fall under a few different sets, including Awoken, Artificer and Adamant armour sets and various weapon designs. I did enjoy the Spheral and Fabricate transmogs; they went nicely with most of my outfits. While it takes a bit to collect each piece in a set, the gear looks lovely mixed and matched with all the standard armour pieces, so it doesn’t look too out of place while you wait for the complete ensemble.

Working through the battle pass can be a bit of a grind, but by the end of the Seasonal Questline, with very minimal time on side quests or events, I was at level 40. The Season of the Construct adds a wealth of extra ways to earn EXP with the addition of Arcane Tremors and Vaults for the devout Diablo players; they could easily hit tier 90 by April 16 2024, when the season ends. Given the stacks of new gameplay content, I might make it to the end of the Battle Pass track before the season ends.

All the gear has a somewhat mechanical feel to it, right down to the Clockwork mount skin and the elaborate Adamant armour set. The package is decent, but I wouldn’t say there was anything I absolutely must have. I would be much more inclined to throw some platinum towards some super cool cosmetics in the shop. The Battle Pass grants 700 worth of platinum, but from what I can tell, it doesn’t cover the cost of a single vendor item.

While there’s quite a variety of cosmetic types, it can feel more quantity than quality. The class-based emotes, headstones, and portals are decent ways to further differentiate your playable character from others, but nothing stands out as incredibly noteworthy. With the introduction of The Seneschal, I would have loved some cosmetics to make the critter my own. I miss the days of having a pet, like in Diablo III, and their tendency to hoard gold. Add that into the construct and more ways to customise how the construct looks and plays, and I think I’d be keener to power through the tiers.

Overall, the Season of the Construct brings quite a few quality-of-life changes that make revisiting Diablo IV worthwhile. The Battle Pass has some reasonably attractive cosmetics to unlock, but nothing stood out as a “must-have”. For fans looking to get back into it with a brand new look, you might find value in the Battle Pass, but even if the Battle Pass doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, I would recommend the Season of the Construct as an excellent time to get back into Diablo IV.

Written by: Yasmin Noble