How to create a seasonal character in Diablo 4
And should you skip the campaign when you do?
Now that the first season of Diablo 4 is here, you might be wondering how to start a seasonal character. It's fairly straightforward but it does differ slightly from the previous game, so you might be wary of wasting time sculpting the ideal necromancer in character creation, only to discover that you missed a vital setting back on the class select screen.
If you've been getting ready for Season 1, you should've collected all the Altars of Lilith and completed the campaign on one character at least. Don't worry if you haven't though as you can still do both now, it just means it will take away from the time that could've otherwise been spent on seasonal activities.
If you're ready to know more, here's how to start a seasonal character in Diablo 4, and whether or not you should choose to skip the campaign.
How to start a seasonal character in Diablo 4
Creating a seasonal character in Diablo 4 is largely like creating a regular one. On the character select screen, hit the Create New Character button above your existing list of characters. Proceed to choose your class, body type, and all the other important distinguishing features that you need to make it truly feel like your own—or just hit the randomise button and hope for the best.
Once you choose a name and go to Finalise, you'll see two check boxes under Gameplay Options. Here you can choose to play a hardcore character—if you die, your character gets deleted—and you can also opt to skip the campaign, a choice which you can read more about below.
Once you've selected—or not selected—those options, hit Start Game, and you'll be prompted to choose a realm. This is the part that determines whether your character is seasonal or not. If you want to start a seasonal character, pick the Seasonal Realm on the left and then continue to choose the difficulty. You will then enter the game as a fresh level one character. See you on the other side!
Should you skip the campaign in Season 1?
If you've beaten Diablo 4's main campaign on any character on your account, you can skip it with others you play. During the character creation process, there's a box you can tick if you want to skip the campaign on your new character, seasonal or otherwise. It feels like a pretty big decision—and you can't reverse it once you've locked it in—so what should you do?
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If you want to get stuck into the seasonal content, your best bet is to skip the campaign so you can jump straight into it at level one. If you don't, you'll need to go through the entire story, which is likely to take you up until around level 45 before you can even get a look at the new stuff the season offers.
Either way, once you've locked in your decision and created the character, you're stuck with it. If it's early days, there's nothing stopping you from making another and choosing the other option if you really feel like you messed up.
Diablo 4 Sorcerer build: Element-ary
Diablo 4 Barbarian build: Stay buffed
Diablo 4 Rogue build: Need for bleed
Diablo 4 Druid build: Air and weres
Diablo 4 Necromancer build: Stay undead
Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.
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