The Season of Blood has begun in Diablo 4, and with it comes new seasonal content and mechanics that players can take advantage of throughout the season, and thanks to the changes to seasonal resets, it’s now easier than ever to get stuck in. This time around, it’s Vampiric Powers, which provides players with a ton of options to modify and power up their builds and character with devasting new passive effects.
With these powers comes some resources and conditions for unlocking and using these powers, and players might be a bit unsure how these new powers are unlocked or how the new Pact system works alongside them. To help make sure you make the most out of these powerful new abilities, we’ve put together this guide with all the details on Vampiric Powers and Pacts and explain how they work, how to unlock them, upgrade, and use them.
Related: Diablo 4 Season 2 – Best Builds For Each Class (Tier List)
What are Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 Season of Blood?
Vampiric Powers are the unique mechanics for Diablo 4 Season of Blood and give players a selection of new build-altering effects that can help increase their combat capabilities. These include extra healing, more crowd control, and damage increases.
There are 22 Vampiric Powers in the season, with seven major powers that need six Pacts to use, and 15 minor which require one to three Pacts. You can find and read up on all these powers in the Vampiric Powers tab located on your character screen, in a tab found on the left side before your main inventory tab. These are also class-agnostic, so you can use any powers you want.
What are Vampiric Pacts in Diablo 4 Season of Blood?
To use these Vampiric Powers in Season of Blood, you will need Vampiric Pacts. These resources can be found attached to your Head, Chest, Gloves, Pants, and Boots. There are three Pact types: Pact of Ferocity, Pact of Divinity, and Pact of Eternity, and each is required to activate your Vampiric Powers, with different powers having different costs.
Depending on the gear rarity and World Tier, you will have a different amount of Vampiric Pacts that can potentially be found on your gear. For World Tiers, it is as follows:
- World Tiers 1/2 – Maximum of 3 Pacts per item.
- World Tier 3 – Maximum of 4 Pacts per item.
- World Tier 4 – Maximum of 5 Pacts per item.
As for gear rarity, the Pact amount is as follows:
- Normal item – 1 to 3 Pacts.
- Sacred item – 1 to 4 Pacts.
- Ancestral item – 1 to 5 Pacts.
As a nice bonus, these Pacts all stack and add together, and are pooled together to make up your Pact total, meaning you don’t need to have the exact number of Pacts on a single piece of gear, as they all are grouped.
Additionally, players can find standalone Pacts in the world, which you can then attach to your armor, provided you have Pact slots available, to give them a bump if you need a specific one to use certain Vampiric Powers. You can also remove all Pacts from armor with Cleansing Acid, so you can tailor your gear to what you need.
How to Unlock and Equip Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 Season of Blood
To unlock these Vampiric Powers, you first need to progress in the seasonal questline and complete The Hunter’s Chase quest, which sees you and the Hunter Erys exploring a blood shrine and getting you your first power.
Once unlocked, you can begin unlocking and equipping multiple powers, which you can do by opening the Vampiric Power screen next to the inventory tab in your character screen. You then drag and drop the Vampiric Power you want into the Sanguine Circle, and if you have the Pacts required, it will activate. You can see what Pacts are needed on the power and the total number of Pacts you have equipped in the Vampiric Powers screen at the top, with the left number being the total being used by your powers and the right being the total you have of that Pact type.
To unlock and upgrade the powers, you’ll need to spend Potent Blood, a key resource for the season found during Blood Harvests, and complete the content within them. At the bottom of the Vampiric Powers screen, you will see an option to spend 25 Potent Blood, which will then present you with three random powers, some you may not have yet and others you can begin to upgrade. You then choose which to unlock or upgrade, and the process is done.
Like Gylphs, these powers require XP to upgrade, so if you are planning to power up a particular power, you will need to do this process a couple of times for it to upgrade and improve.
How to Get Potent Blood in Diablo 4 Season of Blood
Getting Potent Blood is relatively simple and involves participating in the seasonal content, specifically Blood Harvests. This activity is always active, so you never need to worry about finding it or waiting for it to appear. During the activity, you will have a few options to get this resource, including:
- Defeating enemies in the Blood Harvest area.
- Opening Seeker Caches with Seeker Keys by defeating Seekers and Elites.
- Freeing Prisoners with Seeker Keys.
- Defeating Bloodseekers, which can be found in the area or summoned with 15 Blood Lures at certain locations.
You can also find some from quests and other activities, though this will likely not happen as much.
Related: Diablo 4 1.2.0 Patch Notes – It’s Raining Blood
As an added bonus, these items and resources do not disappear between spawns, so if you have leftover keys or blood lures and you want to use them another time, you can!
