I am thinking to pick this up, but curious about a few things and too lazy to look into it myself.
1. Is this online only or can be played offline/single player?
2. Do I pay once for the game and play it throughout from start to end or do I have to buy a season pass in the future?
Appreciate any insight into that. Thanks!
You do need an always on internet connection but it is mostly a single player game. Although you will see other characters like in town and close to town but they do not interact with you unless you want to pursue to interact with them so as to play with one another to fight a world boss or just to team up. While in dungeons though it is just you alone unless you choose to team up with someone to take down there with you. If you want to cut down on the amount of other players you see in town you can go into settings and deselect Crossplay and this will limit the number of other players you see. They do this so as to give you a choice as to whether or not you wish to play with others or go single player, if you do play with others the most your team can be is 4 players.
Seasons in Diablo 4 will be quarterly, with the first coming in “mid to late July” — a matter of weeks after the game’s launch on June 22. You’ll need to complete the game’s campaign on one character before you can access it. The season will introduce fresh questlines, separate from the campaign narrative, as well as new gameplay features that will change the experience of leveling and developing your new character — all of which will be exclusive to the season and will be retired at the end of the three months. Your seasonal character, however, will be moved to the Eternal Realm at the end of the season, where it will remain playable. Each season will also bring standard patch content like balance changes and quality-of-life improvements.
As for the battle pass, it will have three versions: free, premium, and accelerated. The free version has 27 tiers and rewards players with cosmetic items only and Smoldering Ashes, a resource that can be spent on XP and gold boosts, and other bonuses for your seasonal character. These boosts come with level requirements and are only available from the free battle pass.
The premium battle pass has 63 more tiers which reward you with cosmetics unique to that season and platinum currency that can be spent at the game’s shop. The accelerated pass is the same, but allows you to skip forward 20 tiers and comes with a special cosmetic. The premium and accelerated passes will cost the platinum equivalent of $9.99 and $24.99 respectively.
The shop only sells cosmetic items for customizing the look of your character. These are all grounded in Diablo 4’s dark fantasy aesthetic and, unlike the cosmetic rewards available from the battle pass, are often class-specific, allowing you to further “reinforce the fantasy of your choice for your character,” as Blizzard put it. The shop’s stock will consistently rotate, and your purchases will be available for any character of that class on your account, as well as across different platforms.
I hope that answered your question, let me know if you need more help.