As Diablo 4 approaches its June 6 release date, Blizzard Entertainment is unveiling more and more of the highly-anticipated sequel, and the recent topic relates to how the game handles its legendaries. The biggest change coming to the franchise is Diablo 4's open world, with the game significantly widening the scope of how much players can explore the reaped lands of Sanctuary. The choice to introduce open world has forced the development team of Diablo 4 to rethink many of its features, and thus the legendary items of Diablo 3 have evolved to fit the new exploration system.
The regions of Diablo 4 are filled to the brim with randomized dungeons, from seamless multi-level adventures to just a single room, and once players enter Diablo 4's endgame, they can look forward to Nightmare Dungeons as the instanced progression of choice to replace the Greater Rifts introduced in Reaper of Souls. Given the positive reception of Kanai's Cube in Diablo 3, Blizzard has decided to take the system a step further and make legendary powers untethered from legendary items.
In the latest Developer Update Stream, Diablo 4's Game Director Joe Shely and Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora joined Global Community Lead Adam Fletcher to discuss the Battle Pass system coming to Diablo 4, the duration of its Seasons, as well as the Codex of Power feature. Simply put, the Codex of Power is meant to replace the way legendary items worked in previous Diablo titles by becoming a catalog of Legendary Aspects that players can choose to imbue onto a piece of equipment.
Players can unlock new Legendary Aspects for the Codex of Power through completing certain dungeons for the first time, though this might not be the sole way of filling up the Codex. Legendary Aspects promise to change up the playstyle of Diablo 4's five classes, and the neat part about the system is that players will be able to target specific powers by running specific dungeons, stripping away some of the randomness that was so prevalent in Diablo 3. Moreover, obtaining a Barbarian Legendary Aspect on one's Druid or Necromancer will still allow a player to use that power on their Barbarian character later on.
Though the launch of Diablo 4 is still several months away, eager fans will be able to participate in Diablo 4's public beta testing very soon. Unlike the game's release, its open beta has no official date, but many projections imply that it will take place during the month of January. Until then, the developers at Blizzard Entertainment will continue to unveil Diablo 4's many features through blog posts and videos.
Diablo 4 launches on June 6, 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.