Diablo 4's Season 4 is called 'Loot Reborn' because it makes big changes to the entire game

Diablo IV, Season 4: Loot Reborn will begin on May 14, 2024, and it will present a significant overhaul to many of the game's systems, including the endgame, itemization, crafting, leveling, and putting together a demon-slaying build. Throw in The Pit of Artificers, which sounds a lot like Diablo 3's Greater Rift system and revamped Helltide events, and Diablo IV is on track to become a whole new game in a few weeks.

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With loot and items making up a big part of Diablo's action RPG fantasy, 'Loot Reborn' is bringing permanent and fundamental changes to how that will work. General items, including Legendaries, will now feature fewer, more meaningful affixes and stats and drop less frequently.

Customizing an item to make it more personal arrives with the new Tempering system that allows you to apply Weapons, Offensive, Defensive, Mobility, Utility, and Resource stats and abilities to items. In addition, the new Masterworking system is the endgame upgrade process that makes your gear more powerful.

Here's a look at a Legendary Item before and after the Tempering process.

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There's a lot more to it than this, including the introduction of 'Greater Affixes' that can randomly drop (as part of an item) to make items more powerful. Blizzard's blog post goes into great depth, covering all the changes that have been tested with the community as part of a recent and, by all accounts, successful PTR (Public Test Realm) test period.

One new addition in the update is the introduction of the Season 4 theme or story, which revolves around the Iron Wolves. "The Iron Wolves are a band of noble Mercenaries in the South, seeking to protect the common people of Sanctuary and hold themselves to a higher code of honor than other mercenary companies of similar mettle," Blizzard writes. "Mysteriously, members of their ranks have been dying under suspicious circumstances - seek out the source of this slaughter to earn the Iron Wolves' favor."

So it sounds like there will be a Seasonal questline, but the game-changing stuff will be left to the Loot Reborn overhaul, the revamped Helltides, the new Pit time-based dungeon runs, new bosses, and more. All of these will become permanent fixtures of the game going forward. In addition, the Loot 2.0 overhaul will set the tone for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred expansion that will be released later this year.