Made to Suffer: Pain and Anguish Descend on Lut Gholein

Pain and Anguish tighten their hold on Lut Gholein in our next major update. Continue the Nation of Agony story in the new Made to Suffer quest, explore the High Ward, and confront the empowered forces of Andariel and Duriel in Twisting Torments. This update also introduces the Enigma Latera and Prong Crag Legendary Gems, brings the Nephalem theme back to Battlegrounds with several gameplay improvements, celebrates the season with returning Autumn Festival activities, and delivers updates to Iben Fahd's Sanctum, player inspection, quest difficulty, event navigation, class balance, and more.

As with previous content updates, there will be server maintenance starting on September 16, 2026, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. PDT for Oceania, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe servers, and on September 17, from 1 a.m.-3 a.m. PDT for servers in the Americas. After the maintenance has concluded, all items mentioned below will be live-specific dates for any features going live afterward are provided below.

Codex

Darkness Takes Hold of the Jewel of the Desert

Explore Lut Gholein's New Activities

Battlegrounds Refresh, Seasonal Updates, and 2026 BoR Roadmap

New Gems, Upgrades, and Elder Rift Updates

Earn the Ghost of Ashwold Skin for Free

Quality of Life Improvements and Class Balance Changes

Bug Fixes

Darkness Takes Hold of the Jewel of the Desert

Twin evils are shattering the Jewel of the Desert. As the story of Nation in Agony continues in Diablo Immortal's next main quest, you'll gather more allies, including luminaries from Diablo II's Act II, to face these overwhelming foes. Your journey will take you to iconic locations from Diablo's past, as well as newly imagined portions of the city, including the High Ward surrounding Sultan Jerhyn's palace, as you seek a way to reach and defeat the evils below and within Lut Gholein. Yet Pain and Anguish are tightening their grip on this place - and, more importantly, on its people. What will it cost you to confront a darkness embedded in every heart and every home? The "Made to Suffer" quest line is available to all players that have reached level 60, though you will experience some spoilers if you play without completing "The Taking" and "Bloodied Jewel."

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Explore Lut Gholein's New Activities

Explore the High Ward

With the release of "Made to Suffer" we're making a new region of Lut Gholein available to explore. The High Ward is a lavish area of the city surrounding Sultan Jerhyn's palace. This center of commerce has attempted to resist Andariel's occupation of the city, but demons and servants of Anguish nonetheless patrol the streets and watch from high perches. The High Ward includes new bounties, objectives, and vicious wanted monsters.

Enter the City of Pain

From September 17 through September 30, complete activities across the new Main Story, Lut Gholein, Battlegrounds, dungeons, and more to earn City of Pain Tokens.

Players can earn up to 1,300 Tokens each week and exchange them for rewards in the Treasure of Hope, including Sacred Chests and Legendary Equipment.

We've designed the event objectives to overlap with your exploration of the expansion, helping you progress and earn rewards naturally as you experience the new content.

Replay Nation of Agony's Bloodied Jewel Questline

The "Bloodied Jewel" questline can now be replayed through the Adventurer's Book at Cain's Workshop.

Heroes Journey: Chapters 5 & 6

Players will be able to unlock Chapters 5 & 6 of the current Hero's Journey. You cannot make progress towards the activities in these chapters without completing the previous chapter (ie. chapter 4 must be completed to make any progress in chapter 5; chapter 5 must be completed before you can make any progress in chapter 6).

• Chapter 5 Rewards:
  • Aspirant's Key*30
  • Hilts*900
  • Legendary Crest (bound) *1
  • Gold*50,000
• Chapter 6 Rewards:
  • Aspirant's Key*36
  • Hilts*900
  • Legendary Crest (bound)*1
  • Portal*1

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Battlegrounds Refresh, Seasonal Updates, and 2026 Bout of Realms Roadmap

Nephalem Visual Battleground Theme Returns

Battleground Theme Refresh

The demonic invasion theme introduced a much stronger environmental identity to Battlegrounds, along with several gameplay and layout changes. As we reviewed the experience and player feedback, we found that some of these changes improved the overall Battleground experience, while others introduced unintended gameplay or readability issues.

With the demonic invasion coming to an end, our goal for this update is not simply to revert the Battleground to its previous state. Instead, we want to return to the familiar Nephalem visual theme while keeping the improvements that worked and removing elements that negatively affected PvP combat.

Visual Theme & Combat Readability

The Battleground will return from the demonic invasion environment to the previous Nephalem-themed visual style.

One of the issues we observed with the demonic environment was that its strong red visual treatment could make enemy indicators, skill effects, and other combat information harder to distinguish during intense fights. Returning to the Nephalem environment should provide a cleaner visual backdrop and improve overall combat readability.

Small Demons & Demon Gates

Small Demons and their associated gates will be removed.

Although these enemies helped reinforce the fantasy of a battlefield under demonic invasion, their presence could unintentionally interact with player skills and class mechanics. In some cases, players could benefit from targeting or hitting these PvE enemies during what is primarily intended to be a PvP engagement.

Removing them allows us to keep the focus on player-versus-player decision making and combat, rather than having PvE units unexpectedly influence the outcome of an encounter.

Retaining Wider Roads

The wider road layout introduced with the demonic invasion will remain.

This change provided players with more space to maneuver, reposition, and engage around objectives, and we believe it improved the overall flow of Battleground combat. Since this improvement is not dependent on the demonic theme, we want to preserve it as part of the returning Nephalem Battleground.

Central Nephalem Mechanic

The central gameplay mechanic introduced during the demonic invasion will also remain but will be adapted to fit the returning Nephalem theme.

Previously, defeating the central Greater Demon eventually enabled players to summon Nephalem Spirits. We want to preserve the Nephalem-summoning portion of this experience while removing its dependency on the demonic invasion fantasy.

In the refreshed Battleground, this mechanic will instead be connected to the Sacred Guardian, allowing us to retain the gameplay value of the mechanic while making its presentation consistent with the returning theme.

Reduced Battleground Season Duration

Starting with the next Battleground season, we're shortening the season's length from 10 weeks to 8 weeks.

With shorter seasons, players will be able to progress through Battleground ranks and earn seasonal rewards more frequently. Over the course of the year, this means more Battleground season rewards overall, while also giving players more opportunities for a fresh start on the climb to Legendary.

We've also seen that many players complete the majority of their rank progression earlier in the season. By shortening the later portion of each season, we hope to keep the Battleground experience and progression feeling more active and rewarding throughout the year.

Bout of Realms Season 8 Blog: 2026 Roadmap

Only a few months remain in 2026, and events for Bout of Realms and Challenge of Equals are now available! We listened to player feedback on delivering major tournament dates as early as possible. While this is rather late, you can anticipate all of 2027's tournament dates in full early next year. Visit our separate communication to learn more.

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New Gems, Upgrades, and Elder Rift Updates

Enigma Latera (5 Star)

Periodically gain Enigma, causing your next Primary Attack cast to unleash Cruel Enigma that chains through up to 6 nearby enemies, lasting 3 seconds. Cruel Enigma increases the damage you deal to afflicted enemies, while also reducing the damage they deal to you, stacking for each beneficial effect they have up to a maximum of 6 times. Additionally, Cruel Enigma siphons several seconds of one non-Skill beneficial effect from an afflicted player and grants you that effect for the same duration. Cannot gain Enigma more often than once every 9 seconds.

Resonance Gems: Tundra Blight, Fading Nostrum, Stubborn Oracle, Void Spark, Fated Trail

Enigma Latera Trial

Players can temporarily try a Rank 10 version of Enigma Latera in dungeons, Elder Rifts, and zone activities for approximately 1-hour.

Duration: September 17, 2026 through November 4, 2026

Prong Crag (2 Star)

While in combat you gain Resolve for 6 seconds, increasing your damage done when you take damage from a single hit that exceeds 10% of your maximum Life while also reducing your damage taken from that source, stacking up to 3 times. Additionally, Resolve also increases your Critical Resistance. Cannot gain resolve more often than once every 20 seconds.

Resonance Gems: Faltergrasp, Tundra Blight, Rampart Torch

Progressive Upgrades for Normal Gems

Normal Gems now have Progressive Upgrades like Legendary Gems. Starting at Rank 6 you can begin Progressive Upgrades, giving you smaller incremental increases to stats at more accessible breakpoints.

Drop Pool Dates Extended

We're extending the dates of the Drop Pool from September 17 to December 17.

Featured Gem Pool

When selecting the new featured Legendary Gem pool, there is a 50% chance to pull Enigma Latera.

Duration: September 17, 2026 after maintenance through December 17, 2026.

Standard Pool Changes

Enigma Latera and Prong Crag have been added to the pool.

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Earn the Ghost of Ashwold Skin for Free

We heard you loud and clear. It wouldn't be a 30-year celebration of Diablo whenever rewards aren't for everyone.

As part of the franchise's 30-year anniversary, players have the chance to claim Ghost of Ashwold skin at the end of the event!

Earn Legendary Equipment in Twisting Torments

Twisting Torments is a new zone event set in the Rocky Waste subregion outside Lut Gholein. As Andariel and Duriel battle to see which evil reigns supreme, their hellish influence bleeds into Sanctuary. Every Tuesday, Lut Gholein will be invaded by either Andariel or Duriel. The event will be available throughout the entire day, but only on that Tuesday of the week. Minions of Pain and Anguish will swarm to sites of their master's power outside the city and be empowered with new affixes, such as the Chains of Anguish and the maggot-spawn of the Pain Burrows, while the event is active.

During the event, players will need to defeat enemies at three altars. Once three altars have been destroyed, a Lieutenant will appear. Defeating the Lieutenant will grant rewards. Defeating the Lieutenants of Duriel and Andariel will also provide increased rewards, including a weekly Legendary equipment drop.

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Quality of Life Improvements and Class Balance Changes

Iben Fahd's Sanctum Improvements

We're making improvements to Iben Fahd's Sanctum to provide more opportunities to earn Culling Stones and progress your Legacy of the Horadrim.

With this update, players will be able to open additional chests after completing the existing daily chest openings. The number of additional chests available will vary based on the age of your server, with more available on older servers.

Our goal is to help players progress their Legacy of the Horadrim more efficiently, particularly on established servers.

Whispers at the Eastgate Monastery

Pain and Anguish spread throughout Sanctuary. You can return to Eastgate Monastery to speak with some of the rogues suffering from Andariel's presence.

Improved Phantom Market Face Cosmetics

We are introducing a new set of polished face templates as the default foundation for future Phantom Market cosmetics. Each cosmetic can build on these faces with unique makeup and thematic details, helping maintain consistent character appeal and visual quality across future releases.

Player Inspection Improvements

When inspecting another player's profile, you can now see the full array of cosmetics and portals, special effects, and other cosmetics equipped.

Difficulty mode switch feature for Main Quest Dungeons

After repeated defeats in an instanced quest, you'll now have the option to lower the difficulty and continue without restarting. This update makes it easier to enjoy quest content at your preferred pace and challenge level.

Event Tab UX Improvement

Add event categories and sub-tabs to the Event tab to improve event organization and navigation.

Raid the Vault - Improve Hidden Passage visibility and spawn rate

We have moved the location of the Hidden Passage to the middle of the path, making it a little less hidden. Additionally, we have changed the use requirements to no longer require 4 players to activate; it still requires all members of your party to enter.

Engine Update - Visual Improvements

• 100 Affix effects have been reworked.
• Improved lighting and volumetric fog across more than 10 zones.
• Visual effect clutter reduction
• Enhanced terrain textures and water reflections.

Visual fidelity may vary per device.

Class Balance Update

We are planning to make balance adjustments to the following classes:

• Barbarian
• Blood Knight
• Crusader
• Druid

You can view the changes on our forums site here.

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Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the missiles did not properly track targets during Strafe when the Demon Hunter Legendary Essence [Covert Equalizer] was used with [Turmoil].
• Fixed an issue where the additional damage from the Mistblade Legendary Essence [Bloodscent] could trigger even when the Crosswinds did not hit enemies affected by Bleeding.
• Fixed an issue where the third kick could not trigger the mystic kick effect when the Monk Legendary Essence [Clashing Sky] was used with [Undue Censure].
• Adjusted the description of the Druid Legendary Essence [Eternal Cycle] to accurately reflect its actual effect. (The skill effect itself has not been changed.)
• Fixed an issue where the Drenched effect applied by certain Tempest Legendary Essences did not affect Bosses.

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