Diablo 4 will let you transform into its most fearsome demon, the Butcher, in an experimental mini season before Lord of Hatred drops

With a little over a month before Diablo 4's second expansion, Lord of Hatred, comes out, Blizzard seems to be experimenting a little with the game's usual seasonal format. The next season, which starts on March 11, will focus on slaying hundreds of demons in a row and eventually becoming a demon yourself.

You won't become just any demon though. Kill enough monsters quickly enough and you'll transform into the Butcher, Mr. Fresh Meat himself, with a whole new set of abilities. The Season of Slaughter will introduce a unique open world event where killing monsters will drop a currency you can cash in to become the Butcher.

Diablo 4 may have changed a lot over the years, but it still has the most absurdly grotesque names you can think of, so you won't be surprised to learn that monsters drop "Meaty Offerings" that need to be turned into a "Shrine of Slaughter" to enter Butcher mode. Blizzard hasn't said what kind of skills you'll get to play with when you're a Butcher, but there's no way it won't involve hooking enemies into you and chopping them up with your cleavers.

The Butcher event will only show up in regions taken over by the enhanced Helltide monsters. Unfortunately, this means you won't be able to fight the Butcher as the Butcher because he can only ambush you inside dungeons. It will be possible to fight against another player who has turned into a Butcher in the PvP areas. A unique version of the event where repeated kills turn you into the Butcher will spawn in them, giving you an actual reason to visit these normally empty zones.

Playing as the Butcher will presumably make it much easier to mow through enemies and activate the season's unique powers by maintaining a killstreak. For the duration of the season, you'll build up a killstreak as you slay monsters and activate unique buffs on special "Bloodied" items. These can give you things like movement speed, cooldown reduction, and a higher chance to drop specific items.

With the Lord of Hatred expansion coming out so soon, I was ready to put Diablo 4 on hold for a bit, but the amount of bizarre stuff Blizzard has packed into this season has me excited to at least try it out. I feel like it's intentionally playing with some ideas that might show up again in the future, like the new "Bloodied Sigils" that essentially increase the difficulty of dungeons and bosses higher than you can normally go. It's a great time to experiment with some new ideas before the expansion drops on April 28.

The Season of Slaughter begins on March 11 and will kick off with a week-long event where you can play a paladin for free without having Lord of Hatred pre-ordered.