Smoldering Ashes in Diablo IV – Explained

Before we had much to go on regarding Diablo IV’s Battle Pass, many players were (somewhat understandably) quaking in their boots in fear of “pay-to-win” rewards sprinkled throughout. Battle Passes often have a free tier and a premium tier – with only the best rewards being locked behind the illustrious paid track. There’s only one thing in the Diablo IV Battle Pass that grants the player power of any kind: Smoldering Ashes. Let’s learn about them together.

What are Smoldering Ashes in Diablo IV?

Smoldering Ashes are available in the Battle Pass of Diablo IV, but are found only in the Free track. This means you aren’t limited in obtaining them if you don’t feel like paying for the Battle Pass. You might also be wondering about “tier skips” – wouldn’t these grant Smoldering Ashes more quickly to those who pay? Well, luckily Blizzard have a solution for that as well: level-gates.

Related: Diablo IV Release Date – Everything You Need to Know

As you can see above, the “Free” Smoldering Ashes have a lock icon indicating the player needs to be a certain level before they can even retrieve them from the Battle Pass. This means those who opt to pay for tier skips won’t be able to get them early. So how do they affect gameplay?

Seasonal Blessings

Seasonal Blessings are purchased using Smoldering Ashes, and grant small, account-wide buffs to the player throughout the duration of the season.

As you can see above, these buffs are anything from increased XP from monster kills to obtaining more gold from selling items to vendors. These are the only system linked to the Battle Pass that affects gameplay – and as you can see there’s no way to benefit from spending money in Diablo IV (as of now, anyway).

I hope this assuages some concerns regarding Diablo IV’s paid Battle Pass – ones which were somewhat warranted given the disastrously pay-to-win Diablo Immortal. Luckily, it looks like we’ll all be on an even playing field when Season 1 kicks off shortly after launch.