It’s been less than a month since Diablo 4 Season 8 was officially released, and Season 9’s content is already beckoning. Season 8’s Boss Powers are fun, but not great, and its partnership with Berserk IP is even more disappointing.
Thankfully, Season 8 is a short-term season, and Season 9 will be officially released in early July. A lot of content about Season 9 has been announced in Campfire Chat on May 22. More specific content can be experienced in PTR Patch 2.3.0 from Tuesday, May 27 to Tuesday, June 3.
Season Powers: Horadric Spells

First up is Horadric Spells, which, like Boss Powers, are special powers in Season 9. It differs from Boss Powers, and it is divided into three types:
- Catalysts: Equivalent to Mian Boss Powers
- Infusions: Change the damage type caused by Catalysts
- Arcana: Add modifiers to Catalysts
You can equip one Catalyst, one Infusion, and three Arcana. Arcana is divided into three different qualities: Magic, Rare, and Legendary. Catalysts are the core of Horadric Spells, while Infusions and Arcana can change their power.
Although it is slightly more complicated than Boss Powers, the actual experience in the game must be not much different from Boss Powers, and I believe that you who have experienced several seasons must have realized this early. However, Infusions allow Horadric Spells to be more flexible in builds, which is definitely better than Boss Powers, because Boss Powers have a fixed damage type.
Horadric Strongrooms
The new feature added in Season 9 is Horadric Strongrooms, which will appear randomly in Nightmare Dungeons. Think of them as potent micro-dungeons.
Once you enter a nightmare dungeon, you may occasionally come across a Horadric Gateway with noticeable lights and sounds. After clearing out the demons along the way, you can enter it and find Horadric Strongrooms.
After you find a Horadric Strongroom, you can choose to open Strongroom and then meet the requirements of Horadric Pillars. You need to kill monsters according to the requirements before the timer reaches zero. After meeting the requirements, you can get rich rewards, including unique items, Diablo 4 gold, and materials.
Horadric Pillars are divided into different types and different requirements. The higher the difficulty, the more Horadric Pillars will appear. High-quality Horadric Pillars have more difficult requirements and better rewards.
Although the appearance of Horadric Strongrooms is random, there are still some ways to increase the probability of their appearance.
- 1. Play Nightmare Dungeons on Torment difficulty. Horadric Strongrooms are most likely to appear on Torment 4 difficulty.
- 2. Upgrade Wayfinder with Horadric Phials, which can enhance it to find Horadric Strongrooms. Horadric Phials are the special currency of season 9.
- 3. Use the Nightmare Dungeon Sigil with Horadric Strongrooms affix.
You can choose to complete all Horadric Pillars. Each Horadric Pillar will require you to kill demons, and each demon will provide you with 2 Horadric Attunement and extend the timer by 10s.
There are also Shrines scattered in Horadric Strongrooms, which can provide you with some buffs to help you kill demons.
To leave Horadric Strongrooms, you must first defeat the boss that appears. Before you can, you choose between several Horadric caches. The more Horadric Attunement you get, the better the rewards in the treasure chest.
Nightmare Dungeon
Season 9’s Nightmare Dungeon has not changed much, but it adds a new endgame activity. Three nightmare dungeons will be combined, and each one is more difficult than the last. You must carefully choose each affix, because the affixes of these three dungeons are stacked together.
As an upgraded version of the normal nightmare dungeon, it is more difficult and has better rewards. Besides a large amount of gold, the probability of dropping unique items here is also higher.
You must defeat the final boss Astaroth, and his three-headed hellhound mount to leave this dungeon. Astaroth and his mount have independent health bars. If you kill the three-headed hellhound in battle, Astaroth will fall to the ground and fall into a short stiffness. You can take this opportunity to deal a lot of damage to him, and then the three-headed hellhound will revive with full health.
At a certain stage in the battle, Astaroth will jump off the three-headed hellhound and besiege you with it, which will bring significant challenges.
Therefore, you need to kill Astaroth as quickly as possible in this battle, either by aiming your skills at him as much as possible, or by bursting out a lot of damage while he is down.
Nightmare Dungeon Affixes
Nightmare Dungeons added new affixes in Season 9:
- Horadric Reserves: Generate more bonus rewards in loot boxes: Gem fragments, gold, Obols, seasonal currency, resources.
- Equipment Delve: Collectibles in the dungeon, they can upgrade treasure chest rewards: weapons, jewelry, armor.
- Power Shrines: Shrines generated in the dungeon: Artillery, Blast Wave, Channeling, Lethal, Protection.
- Forgotten Wisdom: Experience has a chance to be generated when killed, and experience wells will be generated somewhere in the dungeon, increasing the experience value when killing.
- Treasure Breach: many gilded gremlins will invade the dungeon.
The main changes in Season 9 are concentrated in the dungeons. Although the rewards are better, the difficulty is also higher. Before challenging, players should be prepared and bring enough consumables.














