Dan Tanguay, Design Director on Diablo, explained how splinters of evil work at the Diablo IV: What’s Next panel at BlizzCon 2026. The three dark wanderers who came back from the dead are still tormented by the Prime Evils, and that connection is what the season asks you to break. “You need to defeat each of these three dark wanderers in the season and then retrieve a splinter of evil from them. Think of it kind of like an echo of a soulstone,” Tanguay said.
You then choose one splinter to bear and gain some of that Prime Evil’s power. His example was the splinter of destruction: bear it and you get Baal’s signature power, which you can upgrade. Beyond the power, each splinter also lets you upgrade what Tanguay called war plans and modify your activities, so that each choice plays differently across the season.
Bearing a splinter carries a risk. You have to fend off echoes of the Prime Evils, who may come back and attack you for trying to use their power. The host pointed out that the ambush bosses on the test server were hiding exactly this, that it was the Prime Evils coming to hunt players, and Tanguay answered, “Yeah, sorry about that.” The b-roll shown for it was labeled Echo of Prime Evil Ambush.
Only Baal’s power was described in this part of the panel. What the other two splinters grant, and whether the choice can be changed during the season, was not said.