Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred DLC is here, alongside season 6, and when you first boot up the game to select a character, you’ll have more to choose from than just your class and hairstyle. Once you’re ready to jump into the game, you’ll need to make one final decision: Do you want to play in the Seasonal Realm or the Eternal Realm?
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll explain what it means to play in the Seasonal Realm or the Eternal Realm, so you can make a choice and jump right into slaying monsters.
What’s the difference between Seasonal Realm and Eternal Realm in Diablo 4?
When creating your character, you’ll be asked to select a few “Gameplay Options” in the Finalize screen. Here you can tick a box denoting you’d like to play a Seasonal character or a Hardcore character (meaning death is permanent), or both, if you tick both boxes. As of season 6, Seasonal is ticked on by default, but you’ll enter the Eternal Realm if you untick that box.
The Seasonal Realm includes everything in Diablo 4 — both campaigns, the open world, everything — plus the most recent content additions, like the seasonal content that only exists for about 12 weeks. The Seasonal Realm is also the only place where you can progress your battle pass or the Season’s Journey.
The Eternal Realm is Diablo 4 without any seasonal bells and whistles — no battle pass, no Season’s Journey, no special seasonal mechanics. However, Blizzard typically adds some new content like Uniques and Legendary Aspects to the Eternal Realm each season, as well as mechanical add-ons like the new endgame bosses introduced back in season 2. All of the Vessel of Hatred content is available in the Eternal Realm, if you own it.
Should you choose Seasonal Realm or Eternal Realm in Diablo 4 season 6?
Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon
Despite Vessel of Hatred adding a whole new campaign and class, it also brings with it season 6, which adds the first themed season we’ve gotten in a few months: The Season of Hatred Rising. This adds a new activity and reward track where you chase down big portal monsters and attempt to enter their realm. As with previous seasons, we recommend you play the Seasonal Realm and experience making a new character — maybe even trying out the new Spiritborn class. The new seasonal mechanic is available from early on in the campaign, and can be played alongside the new content.
While the Seasonal Realm is the “intended” way to play Diablo 4 in season 6, there are a few more reasons to stick to the eternal realm with the Vessel of Hatred launch. While there are new mechanics, there’s also a new campaign to check out. Maybe you want to play that campaign with the same character you beat the original Diablo 4 campaign, to keep things canonical. You could even play on Eternal Realm for the new campaign, and then make a new Seasonal Realm character that skips both campaigns and goes right into the season 6 content.
However, if you decide to play in the Eternal Realm for any amount of time, keep in mind that you’ll be missing out on progression toward the season-specific rewards. As usual, there’s the season pass with all its cosmetics, plus the Season Journey, which can net you some key items for a build of Blizzard’s choosing.
Just know that, whatever you pick, you’ll only ever be able to play with characters in the same realm as you. So if you’re playing with friends, make sure you decide where you want to play first. This is especially important if you’re planning on playing the new Vessel of Hatred campaign with friends.
Is there ever a reason to choose the Eternal Realm in Diablo 4?
As previously stated, Seasonal Realm characters can only play with other Seasonal Realm characters, and the same goes for Eternal Realm characters. If you only want to jump in and play some dungeons with friends who are using an old Eternal Realm character, you shouldn’t make a Seasonal Character.
Similarly, you need to start a whole new character from level 1 to play in seasons. If you’re coming back to an old character and want to see what it’s like for that class after you level up a bit more, then you’ll need to play in the Eternal Realm or level up a new version of that class.
You also might want to play the Eternal Realm because you’re most of the way through the original Diablo 4 campaign already on an old character. So if you’re on act five of six on an Eternal Realm character, it’s probably worth finishing the campaign there first and then starting a seasonal character after you beat the Vessel of Hatred campaign.
And, finally, if you really hate the seasonal mechanic for the current season but you still want to slam through some Diablo dungeons, you can play in the Eternal Realm to avoid the new stuff. That is unless there isn’t much of a season theme at all, like with Diablo 4’s fourth and fifth seasons.
Going into this season, here’s the best Spiritborn build, all Tenets of Akarat locations, and guides on how to unlock Mercenaries and get more loot in Kurast Undercity.