Diablo 4 fans are counting down to the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion for PS5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series consoles and PC. The first major Diablo 4 expansion has an October 8 release date on all platforms. The DLC has a midnight launch time for fans living in the UK, while US fans can start playing at 4pm PDT/7PM EDT on October 7. The expansion will be accompanied by a big new update, which not only lays the foundation for the new Vessel of Hatred content, but also adds new content and gameplay tweaks to the base game. Indeed, all Diablo 4 players will need to download the update, whether you've purchased the expansion or not. The Vessel of Hatred Standard Edition costs £34.99 on PS5, while the Deluxe Edition is available for £49.99. You can save money on the Deluxe Edition by purchasing discounted PlayStation Store credit from CD Keys below.

After purchasing a top-up card from CD Keys, the retailer will send you a link with the code that can redeemed on the PlayStation Store.

Once you've added the credit to your PlayStation account, you can pick up the £49.99 Standard Edition of the game, having only actually spent £44.99.

If you have pre-ordered Vessel of Hatred then pre-loading is available ahead of the game's midnight launch. Downloading the game early will ensure you're ready to play once the clock strikes midnight.

Vessel of Hatred introduces a new story campaign, which takes place directly after the events of the main game. However, while Blizzard recommends completing the original campaign first, you can actually start from the beginning of the Vessel of Hatred story.

The expansion takes place in the Nahantu Region, where its people are tasked with stopping Mephisto from spreading his evil.

As part of the expansion, fans will be able to play as the new Spiritborn Class, battling new monsters, bosses and other enemies in exclusive new dungeons and other locations.

Needless to say, the expansion is also accompanied by an update, which is available to download now.

The new update increases the max level, adds a new difficulty system, reworks item quality and lots more. You can check out the patch notes below.

Diablo 4 vessel of Hatred update patch notes...

NEW CONTENT FOR ALL PLAYERS

• New Max Level: 60

• New Difficulties System

• New Paragon Max Level: 300

• Paragon System Changes

• Item Quality Rework

• 2 New Character Slots

• New Class Skills and Passives for each Class

• New Party Finder Feature

• New Seasonal Content

• New Season Rewards (Season Journey, Battle Pass, Reputation Board)

Balance Updates

Runewords

Magic Runes of Ritual

• Cir: (Cast same non-channeled skill 3 times)

- Offering gained increased from 25 to 50.

• Cem: (Evade)

- Offering gained increased from 50 to 75.

• Moni:(Cast after moving)

- Offering gained increased from 10 to 25.

- Interval increased from 0.2s to 0.25s.

• Yax: (Use healing potion)

- From 100 to 200.

Rare Runes of Ritual

• Noc:(Hard CC enemy)

- Offering gained increased from 5 to 10.

• Neo:(Deal damage and take none for 5 secs)

- Time needed to not get hit reduced from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.

- Offering gained reduced from 300 to 200.

• Poc:(Every 5% resource spent)

- Offering gained increased from 2 to 5.

Runes of Invocation

• Vex: (+3 to all skills)

- Duration increased from 5 to 7s.

• Xan: (Critical overpower)

- Offering requirement reduced from 900 to 800.

• Gar: (Gain Critical Strike chance up to 10 stacks)

• Xal: (Max HP)

- Duration increased from 4s to 6s.

• Qua: (Movement speed, up to 5 stacks)

- Movement speed increased from 6% to 7% per stack.

• Tec: (Earthquake)

- Rune version damage increased from 82% to 280%.

• Tun: (Stun Grenades)

- Rune version damage increased from 20% to 325%.

• Ton: (Meteorites)

- Offering requirement reduced from 25 to 20.

- Rune version damage increased from 50% to 216%.

• Tal: (Pestilent Swarm)

- Rune version damage increased from 100% to 300%.

Sorcerer

Unstable Currents

• The tooltip for Unstable Currents has been updated to state "unleashed" instead of "is also cast."

Lightning Spear

• Only 12 Lightning Spears can exist at one time. Any new ones created will destroy the oldest one.

Passives

Enlightenment

• No longer gains stacks from automatic casts, and can only occur every 0.2 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Splintering Energy

• Tooltip now properly conveys critical damage scaling.

• The effect can now only happen every 0.2 seconds but will deal extra damage for each trigger missed while on cooldown.

Aspect of Elemental Constellation

• Damage increased to 50-1050% Weapon Damage from 50-70%.

Unique Items

The Oculus

• Teleport Size affix replaced by Chance for Teleport to Deal Double Damage.

Flamescar

• Incinerate Size affix replaced with Chance for Incinerate to Deal Double Damage.

Fracture Winterglass

• Cooldown Reduction for Conjuration skills affix has been swapped with the inherent All Resistances affix.

Tempering

• A new utility recipe for Incinerate Size, Meteor Size, and Firewall Size has been added.

• A chance for Inferno to Deal Double Damage tempering affix has been added to Pyromancy Augments: Fiery.

• Lightning Spear double cast tempering affix changed to Chance for Lightning Spear to Deal Double Damage.

Paragon

Burning Instinct Legendary Node

• Cap increased from 80% to 90%.

• Now requires 30 Intelligence for every 2% instead of 20.

Infernal Hordes

• Greater Chest of Equipment cost increased from 60 to 200.

• Scrolls of Restoration have been added to the loot table.

• Chest of Materials have been reworked to consume all remaining Aether.

• Chest of Equipment has been removed.

• The Council Boss now drops guaranteed Legendary items with Infernal Hordes Affixes.

• The Greater Chest now contains a guaranteed Ancestral Legendary.

• Both the Chest of Materials and Chest of Gold now consume all remaining Aether rewarding Gold or crafting materials (including Masterworking Materials) the more Aether is spent on the chest.

• The Item Chest has been removed.

• Infernal Compasses can no longer be crafted.

• Infernal Compasses are now rare drops found in Torment Difficulties only.

• The number of waves will be randomly rolled on Infernal Compasses, and all runs of Infernal Hordes will have a maximum revive count of 4.

• The difficulty of the Infernal Horde will be determined by the Difficulty Level (Torment I, II, III, or IV).

• The number of revives is now limited to 4 across all Torment Difficulties.

User Interface and User Experience

• A new key-binding has been added to change from run to walk.

• Paragon Level now displays properly on character nameplates, such as in the menu or friends list.

Miscellaneous

• Paragon Level now displays properly on character nameplates, such as in the menu or friends list.

• Gems and Runes can be freely swapped without needing to visit the Jeweler.