Season 39 'Shades of the Nephalem' started on June 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM PDT/CEST; Blizzard set its end for September 27, 2026 at 5:00 PM PDT (September 28, 2:00 AM CEST). It is followed by Season 40 'Light's Calling' from October 2, 2026, 5:00 PM local time. With Season 39, Blizzard re-runs a theme that originally debuted in Season 22 — and, as in Seasons 22 and 33, it comes with a second change that reaches much further into build design: a fourth slot in Kanai's Cube.
This also ended Season 38 'Ethereal Memory', which ran from March 27 to June 21, 2026. Ethereal items only dropped during the season and did not carry over to non-seasonal heroes.
Shadows of the Past
The season theme is called Shadows of the Past and works about as directly as it sounds: activate a shrine or pylon and a shadow clone of your own class appears to fight at your side.
- The clone uses a build picked at random from three presets for your class
- Its power scales with your character — the stronger you get, the harder it hits
- It lasts one minute, or until your character dies
In practice, shrines turn into a resource-management decision. Grabbing a pylon in an empty corridor wastes most of the clone's minute. Popping it in the middle of a dense pack hands you close to a second source of damage.
The fourth slot in Kanai's Cube
The second addition looks small on paper but is the genuinely interesting one for build tinkerers: in Season 39 Kanai's Cube has an additional fourth slot.
- The fourth slot offers the same choices as the first three
- It cannot be stacked with them — running the same power twice gains you nothing
- Blizzard explicitly frames the goal as more creative freedom in character builds
For most set builds the obvious answer is the Ring of Royal Grandeur: it lowers the set requirement by one piece and hands you back a full gear slot. Builds bottlenecked by a cooldown — Uliana's Stratagem with Seven-Sided Strike, for instance — take the matching weapon power instead. Almost all of our build guides now name the power we would put in the fourth slot.
Haedrig's Gift in Season 39
Completing chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Season Journey grants three gifts that together make up a full class set. Only one set per season can be unlocked this way — Hardcore and non-Hardcore combined.
- Barbarian: Wrath of the Wastes
- Crusader: Roland's Legacy
- Demon Hunter: Unhallowed Essence
- Monk: Raiment of a Thousand Storms
- Necromancer: Bones of Rathma
- Witch Doctor: Helltooth Harness
- Wizard: Tal Rasha's Elements
Important: what counts is the class of the character you open the gift with, and all three gifts have to be opened on the same character.
Seasonal achievements
The achievements rotate again. Season 39 brings five challenges:
- Sprinter/Speed Racer — the entire campaign from Act I to Act V at level 70 in under one hour
- Avarice/Avaritia — a 50 million gold streak outside the Vault and the Inner Sanctum
- Boss Mode/Worlds Apart — every boss at max level on Torment X in under twenty minutes
- The Thrill/Super Human — a level 45 Greater Rift solo with no set items equipped
- Masters of the Universe/Masters of Sets — eight different Set Dungeons at Mastery rank
Extra stash tab
If the Season Journey has not yet earned you five stash tabs, Conqueror tier unlocks another one. Eight objectives are required: a level 70 Nephalem Rift in five minutes on Torment XIII, three legendary gems at rank 55, two seasonal achievements, Malthael at level 70 on Torment XIII in 1:30, Greed on Torment XIII, a level 60 solo Greater Rift, augmenting an ancient legendary with a rank 50+ gem, and a reforge in Kanai's Cube.
Cosmetic rewards
As usual, older rewards return — this time from Season 15 onward. On top of that come the chest and glove slots of the exclusive Conqueror set plus portrait frames themed around the Eternal Conflict. Collectors get the pet Belphegor, travelling along as the keeper of your coins.
Two more items are new for finishing the Season Journey: the pet Corvus Cadaverous and the portrait 'Laurels of Knowledge'.
Everything about Season 39 is collected on our Season 39 overview.
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