Diablo 4 brought modern sensibilities to the long-running action-RPG series, and it resulted in a refined gameplay experience with a surprisingly gripping story. But there was clearly more that could be done with the foundation it laid. One of those modernisms is Blizzard's approach to seasonal content--and at a time where it seems like every other game has battle passes and seasons of updates, there's an understandable hesitancy to buy in. Diablo isn't an exception, either, especially since Diablo 3 followed a similar pattern. However, like an MMORPG, Blizzard has an opportunity to expand on and improve Diablo 4 at a more iterative pace. Its first shot will be the upcoming Season 1--known as Season of the Malignant--which brings on a new wave of enemies, dungeons, gear, and story content.

Ahead of its July 20 launch date, we spoke with lead dungeon designer Michelle Piña and game director Joe Shely about how this first season is changing things up from a gameplay perspective. It seems that the focus is going to be on a tighter gameplay loop with regards to rewards and dungeon-crawling, but this all starts after finishing the main story, when a new plague spreads and morphs some existing monsters into what are called the Malignant.

In Diablo 4, Elite-level enemies are tough foes found throughout the world, but in this seasonal update, they have a chance of appearing as Malignant monsters. They're described as supercharged versions with new attack patterns and properties, and they can pop up in public events, normal dungeons, or Nightmare dungeons but will mostly be encountered in a new set of dungeons called Malignant Tunnels.