Many new features were added to Diablo 4 with the start of Season 2 and Patch 1.2.0a, which both dropped around the same time. While the quality-of-life changes in Patch 1.2.0a can’t be understated, one of the biggest draws of Season 2 is the addition of Vampiric Powers. As soon as the first bits of loot start to fall you may start seeing weird icons on the bottom of armor - Pacts. Despite this early tease, more information isn’t immediately forthcoming, so to bridge that gap this page will provide information about how to unlock equipment and use it in The Season of Blood in Diablo 4.
How to Unlock Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 Season 2¶
After you complete or skip the campaign, the Season of Blood quest Blood Money will unlock, appearing in the city of Ked Bardu in the Dry Steppes. You need to complete this quest to unlock vampiric powers, and below you’ll find a brief walkthrough:
- Head north from the waypoint in Ked Bardu to find a notice board. Interact with it to read the “Magistrate’s Emergency Notice”.
- Head southwest and around the corner of a building to find the Magistrate’s Office. Enter and talk to Magistrate Oren.
- You now need to head to Vasily’s Reach, which is north of Ked Bardu, at the westernmost end of the Deep Forest region of Scosglen. It’ll be marked by a green circle on your map.
- Explore the northern end of the search area to find the Wayside Cave dungeon.
- Enter the dungeon and kill the enemies within. A mysterious voice will proclaim “One bite, and you are mine.” Cryptic.
- Return to the Magistrate’s Office in Ked Bardu, kill the vampires within, and talk to Hunter Erys.
- Search for clues by examining the Crude Journal, Blood-filled Well, and the Crumpled Note.
- Talk to Hunter Erys again.
The quest will end and despite Hunter Erys’ rather custodial command at the end, you’re under no obligation to do anything… except read the fancy tutorial that pops up announcing that you’ve unlocked Vampiric Powers.
How to Equip and Earn New Vampiric Powers¶
Now that you have access to vampiric powers, enter your inventory and press the 
button, which should take you to the new Vampiric Powers page, which has a lot going on, at a glance. Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll see two rows of icons, representing all of the vampiric powers in the game. Sadly, most of them are locked, save for one - Undying. Just a little snack to whet your appetite.
Equipping a vampiric power is simple enough, just select it and press the 
button and it’ll assign to one of the five vampiric powers slots above. You can equip any five vampiric powers at a time, with two caveats - you need to have the vampiric power you wish to equip unlocked, of course, and you need to have sufficient pacts of the correct type. Pacts can be found on nearly every piece of armor (helms, chest, gloves, pants, and boots) regardless of said armor’s quality. The number and type of pacts on each piece of armor vary, adding another layer of RNG to an already RNG-heavy affair. Furthermore, different vampiric powers require different types and numbers of pacts to equip; Undying, for example, requires one Pact of Eternity (skull) to be equipped. These Pacts can be on any piece of armor, and multiple pacts of the same type stack. For more information on Pacts, check out the [Pacts Explained] page.
As for unlocking new vampiric powers, there are two ways to do this - the most common way is by spending Potent Blood, a new resource that can drop from various sources - enemies (especially elite vampires, almost guaranteed to drop from Blood Seekers), loot Seekers Caches or as quest rewards from the various Season of Blood quests. If you’re serious about earning Potent Blood, you should seek out Blood Harvest events, which will be covered on their own page (see link). While this covers the vast majority of vampiric powers, some are only unlocked by completing specific quests in the Season of Blood questline - the exact means of unlocking each vampiric power is listed under the skill description, in gray italicized letters.
(1 of 2) When you spend 25 Potent Blood, you’ll have to pick one of three randomly selected vampiric powers to unlock,
When you spend 25 Potent Blood, you’ll have to pick one of three randomly selected vampiric powers to unlock, (left), or upgrade, if one of the randomly selected vampiric powers is already unlocked. (right)
How to Unlock and Upgrade Vampiric Powers with Potent Blood¶
As mentioned above, you farm Potent Blood, then spend it to unlock the vampiric power of your choice, provided it isn’t one of the vampiric powers that requires you to complete a specific Season of Blood quest to unlock… right? Well, no, things can’t be that simple. Diablo is an RNG-heavy game, so naturally, vampiric powers require more RNG. At the bottom of the vampiric powers screen you’ll see the text “Spend Potent Blood to upgrade or unlock powers.”, below which is a button prompting you to spend 25 Potent Blood.
This 25 Potent Blood will indeed allow you to unlock or upgrade any one vampiric power, but you don’t get to choose which vampiric power you unlock or upgrade. Instead, when you spend 25 Potent Blood three random vampiric powers will be picked, and you can select one of these. If the vampiric power isn’t unlocked, selecting it will unlock it, and if it is unlocked, selecting it will invest some XP into the vampiric power. Once unlocked, vampiric powers can be equipped, and if enough XP is spent (this will likely take a few selections) the vampiric power will be upgraded, increasing its effects without requiring more pacts to equip (for example, the vampiric power Prey on the Weak deals 8.0% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies at Lv1, an amount which increases to 12.0% at Lv2.).
25 Potent Blood isn’t a lot - you’ll get a few hundred on a good Blood Harvest run - but the randomness of the process ensures there will be plenty of waste. There are 22 vampiric powers, and if you find a full roster of 5 vampiric powers you want to use in a build, you’ve got a pretty good chance at least one will show up each time you spend 25 Potent Blood. If there’s one specific vampiric power you want to upgrade or unlock, your odds are a bit worse than 1-in-7, however. That being the case, it’s not a bad idea to stockpile the Potent Blood you find until you have access to all the vampiric powers you want for your build, completing enough of the Season of Blood questline to unlock them all and purchasing the rest via Potent Blood. This will make it more likely that there’s something worthwhile to select when spending Potent Blood, even if it’s not the exact vampiric power you want.
Now that you know how to unlock, equip, and upgrade vampiric powers, check out the following pages for more in-depth information on related topics, including:
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