Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Is 5 Days Out — Here's Your Complete Pre-Launch Checklist

Five days. That's all that stands between Diablo IV players and Lord of Hatred, Blizzard's most substantial expansion for the action RPG since launch. Mephisto, the Warlock, a new region, and an overhauled endgame progression system all arrive April 28. If you want to be ready from minute one, here's exactly what to do before the expansion goes live.

✅ 1. Complete the Base Game Campaign

Lord of Hatred picks up directly from the events of Diablo IV's main story. You don't technically need to finish the campaign to access the expansion's content, but the narrative context matters — and the expansion's story draws specifically on what happened in the base game's ending. If you've been using Season content as your primary Diablo IV loop and the campaign is sitting at 80% done, this week is the time to close it out.

✅ 2. Get a Character to Level 100

The expansion's endgame systems are designed for characters who have completed the levelling journey. A character at level 80 or 90 can be boosted through the remaining levels relatively quickly — Nightmare Dungeons remain the fastest XP source in Season 4, and running them with a friend halves the time investment.

If you don't have a character close to 100, now is also a great opportunity to try the Warlock. The new class starts at level 1 and cannot be boosted into the expansion's content — if Warlock is the character you want to experience Lord of Hatred with, start one now and run it through the Season 4 levelling content to build familiarity with the kit before the expansion's encounters scale to it.

✅ 3. Pre-Load the Expansion

Pre-loading is available on most platforms now. Diablo IV's expansion files are not small — on PS5 the download runs approximately 35–50GB depending on your existing installation state. Starting the download before April 28 means you're ready to play the moment it unlocks rather than watching a progress bar while your friends are already in Skovos.

On PC via Battle.net: open the launcher, find Diablo IV, and the pre-load option should appear in the options dropdown. On PS5 and Xbox: find the expansion in the store, select it, and pre-load from the product page.

✅ 4. Clean Out Your Stash

Lord of Hatred's endgame overhaul introduces new item systems and gear categories. It's worth auditing your current stash now — salvage gear you're not using, clear out Forgotten Souls and crafting materials you've accumulated, and make space for the new item types the expansion introduces. Running into an expansion with a full stash creates unnecessary friction.

✅ 5. Know the Warlock's Role

Based on pre-release coverage, the Warlock is a high-complexity class built around managing multiple offensive systems simultaneously — dark spells, summoned entities, and debuff stacking on enemies. It rewards players who can track multiple combat threads at once. The class is specifically designed to feel different from the Necromancer (which also uses dark magic and summoning) through its focus on applied corruption rather than undead armies.

A second new class has not been officially named — the embargo holds through the expansion launch. Community speculation based on silhouettes and PTR leaks points toward a faith-based melee archetype, but this is unconfirmed.

✅ 6. Note the Switch 2 Timeline

If you're primarily a Switch 2 player, Blizzard confirmed last week that Lord of Hatred is coming to Nintendo's platform later in 2026 — not on April 28. No specific date has been given. The Switch 2 version will mark the first major Diablo title on Nintendo hardware since Diablo III's Switch port in 2018.

What Time Does It Unlock?

Blizzard has not officially confirmed region-by-region unlock times for Lord of Hatred at the time of writing. Based on Blizzard's historical practice for Diablo IV releases, expect a region-staggered launch beginning at midnight Pacific Time on April 28 — meaning East Coast players in the US unlock at 3am, UK players at approximately 8am BST, and Central European players at 9am CEST. Watch Blizzard's official channels for the final confirmed unlock schedule.

What's Coming After Launch

The expansion's roadmap beyond launch day hasn't been detailed, but Blizzard has confirmed that Lord of Hatred introduces new Season structures that will fuel post-launch content for Seasons 5 and 6. The Warlock is expected to receive dedicated Season content after launch, and the Skovos region's endgame systems are designed for ongoing replay across multiple Seasons.

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred launches April 28, 2026 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Switch 2 version later in 2026.

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