Diablo 4 Season 7: Lunar Awakening Guide

Jonas Author

Created - 07.02.2025 Updated - 10.02.2025

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The Diablo 4 Season 7 Lunar Event is a refreshing way to get into Sanctuary. There’s lots of things to do and more rewards to get, and we know you’re excited for all of them. But without a proper plan, you might end up inefficiently farming the event for those amazing rewards.

Worry not though, as we’ve got you covered. Whether you’re looking to buy D4 gold or just need help with some challenging things in the game, we got it. Now, here’s what you need to know about the Lunar Event.

Diablo 4 Season 7: Lunar Awakening Guide – Getting Started

To begin your journey in Diablo 4’s Season 7 event, Lunar Awakening, you need to head to the top-left corner of Ked Bardu. Once you arrive, speak with the NPC located there to start the quest.

The dialogue hints at something significant, mentioning that “the moon looks ripe as if you could pluck it off the vine.” While the quest dialogue is interesting, the objective itself is straightforward—your primary goal is to defeat monsters while being empowered by the Lunar Shrine.

After initiating the quest, your next step is activating the Lunar Shrine and taking down waves of enemies. The process is simple—once you activate a shrine, you’ll receive a temporary buff that enhances your abilities, allowing you to efficiently clear out enemies.

The event offers a variety of cosmetic and in-game rewards, some of which are completely free. Here’s what you can expect to earn:

• Mount: A free horse mount is available as part of the rewards.
• Resplendent Spark: This is also given for free, an essential crafting material.
• Trophies & Weapon Skins:
  • A bow skin
  • A wand skin
  • A two-handed axe skin
• Tempering Materials: These are necessary for crafting and upgrading your gear, including manuals for tempering.
• Body Marking/Tattoo: This free tattoo is an unexpected but welcome addition to your customization options.
• Additional Free Rewards: Various other bonuses, such as materials for crafting, are also included.

The event itself isn’t hard. But if you’re struggling with the enemies and the event mechanics, try to shake up your D4 Legendary Gear first.

One of the major highlights of the event is the Lunar Shrines, which significantly boost your XP gain. When you activate these shrines, you will receive a 100x XP multiplier, making them an excellent source of experience points.

While exploring, you might also come across undocumented changes introduced with this update. One of the more important ones is the increased drop rate for altar spawns, which has been raised from 5% to 6%.

Additionally, if you use a potion, this rate doubles, making it even easier to farm materials. The Lunar Awakening update applies to both Seasonal and Eternal Realms, meaning you can participate in the event regardless of whether you’re playing a seasonal or non-seasonal character.

What’s In The Update?

Graphical Updates and Fixes

Some players have reported issues with new visual effects, particularly contrast and brightness inconsistencies. If you’re experiencing this problem, you can adjust your settings:

1. For Console Users:
   • Navigate to Settings & Graphics
   • Locate the Enhanced Visuals option
   • Adjust or disable it if necessary
2. For All Platforms:
   • Go to Options & Graphics & Calibrate Brightness
   • Toggle the latest update setting to fine-tune brightness levels

If you’re playing on console and notice a strange contrast issue, these settings should help you fix it.

Armory Bug & Additional Patch Notes

Currently, the Armory feature is bugged, meaning that loading saved profiles does not work as intended. This issue has been widely reported, but there is no official fix yet.

Aside from the event, this update also includes a balance patch. While we won’t go into full details here, a dedicated breakdown of the balance changes is available elsewhere.

Testing XP Gain & Shrine Frequency

With all these new mechanics in play, one of the main questions is: How effective is this event for XP farming? To test this, we activated several shrines and monitored XP gain. The results so far suggest that players are seeing massive XP spikes, dealing millions to billions of damage thanks to shrine buffs.

Additionally, we’re keeping an eye on how frequently these shrines appear. Since shrine activation is a core mechanic in this event, the spawn rate directly impacts how beneficial the event is for farming XP and loot.

There’s also a new interactive element introduced—some shrines appear to charge up before activation, which adds a unique layer to shrine-based gameplay. Once active, these shrines provide a massive damage and XP boost, making them crucial for efficient farming.

If you use these XP boosters and a quick guide to leveling, you’ll reach the max levels in Diablo 4 in no time.

Discovering the Artillery and Snake Shrines

While progressing through the Lunar Awakening event, you’ll encounter various new shrines, including the Artillery Shrine and the Snake Shrine. These shrines provide powerful buffs that enhance your abilities during battles.

• Artillery Shrine – Grants extra firepower, making combat encounters significantly easier.
• Snake Shrine – Offers unique combat benefits that increase survivability and attack potency.

One key thing to note is that these shrines don’t grant extra legendary drops, but you will naturally acquire more legendaries as you progress through the event and complete the bounty board.

The map now features a purple star marker indicating shrine locations. This is a new feature, making it easier to track and prioritize shrine activations. Since shrine buffs don’t last forever, it’s crucial to activate them at the right time to maximize efficiency.

Bounty Board System and Hidden Changes

The bounty board system has been revamped in this update. Upon reaching Tier 1, you’ll notice new visual changes and UI elements. Some players have observed different artwork for rings and gear, which suggests Blizzard has introduced stealth updates that weren’t explicitly mentioned in the patch notes.

• Completing tasks on the bounty board grants you additional rewards.
• The visual updates include fresh designs for certain gear pieces.
• Some unlisted improvements add surprises to the gameplay experience.

One potential mechanic tied to these updates is the Restless Rot boss fight. After clearing enough enemies, a mechanic seems to trigger, possibly tied to the bounty board progression.

Shrine Mechanics and Pit Testing

Since shrines play a major role in this update, it’s important to test their efficiency in various areas, especially the Pit—a crucial location for endgame players.

• Shrine Buffs in the Pit: While not confirmed, it’s worth testing if the Lunar Shrines appear in the Pit, as it would greatly boost farming efficiency.
• Tracking XP Gains: With shrine multipliers active, the event presents an opportunity to farm massive amounts of XP.

To maximize progress, it’s best to prioritize shrine activations while tackling event objectives. An important question many players have is whether shrines can be reactivated after their duration ends.

Some games allow shrines to reset over time, and this update appears to introduce a similar mechanic. Testing is needed to confirm how frequently shrines respawn and whether they can be reactivated.

Bug Fixes and Class Buffs

Several bug fixes have been introduced in this update, affecting different aspects of gameplay. If you play a Necromancer or Barbarian, you may notice improvements in performance, particularly due to:

• Fixes related to the Ring of Mendeln, which directly affects Necromancer builds.
• Adjustments to Hota Barbarian, making it slightly stronger.

Additionally, Blizzard has added more raven spawns, which seem to play a minor role in the new seasonal mechanics.

If you’ve prepared well for Diablo 4 Season 7, then you shouldn’t have any issues with these changes are they’re pretty minor.

New XP Rewards in Nightmare Dungeons

One of the major areas of interest is whether the XP boost from shrines carries over to Nightmare Dungeons. Since Nightmare Dungeons are one of the most efficient ways to farm XP, confirming this interaction will be crucial for leveling strategies.

Tracking Progress and Understanding the New UI Elements

The update introduces a new progress bar that fills up as you complete event objectives. However, there’s no clear explanation about what this progress bar specifically tracks.

• The bar might be related to boss spawns, requiring players to complete objectives before triggering a major fight.
• Alternatively, it could be linked to shrine interactions or a hidden event mechanic.
• Hovering over the bar doesn’t currently provide details, so further testing is needed.

New Timer System for Events

A new timer feature now appears in the top-right corner, labeled "Head Hunt." This timer indicates when an area will change, allowing players to:

• Plan their objectives accordingly—if only a minute remains, it may not be worth starting a lengthy task.
• Optimize efficiency by focusing on quick event completions before the zone refreshes.

This quality-of-life improvement helps players manage their time more effectively while participating in Lunar Awakening activities.

Farming Grim Favors Efficiently

If you want to farm Grim Favors efficiently, the best strategy is to rotate between different areas once you complete quests like "Kill 150 Monsters." These objectives tend to be the fastest, especially for optimized builds that can one-shot enemies.

• High-damage builds can clear out areas quickly, making these bounty tasks the most effective for farming.
• Shrine activation should always be prioritized before engaging in monster fights to maximize rewards.

Claiming Rewards and Opening Loot Chests

After completing several event objectives, you can claim rewards from the bounty board. Instead of opening them immediately, a good strategy is to save them up for a large loot opening session.

• The first chest reward primarily contains crafting materials, rather than high-tier gear.
• If you’re looking for legendary items, waiting and stacking multiple rewards may be a better approach.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Lunar Awakening event is the reward track. As you progress, you’ll start receiving Magic Rune Caches, which are not particularly exciting at first.

• These Magic Rune Caches mainly contain magic-quality runes, which don’t seem useful at first glance.
• However, later in the reward track, you’ll unlock the "Gift from the Ancestors," which contains:
  • Legendary Items
  • Tempering Manuals
  • Rare and Legendary Runes

Since earlier caches only contain magic runes, this suggests that later rewards will likely include legendary runes as well.

One of the major goals of the event is earning the Resplendent Spark, which is necessary for crafting and upgrading high-tier gear. Alongside that, you also gain Tributes, which are another form of valuable currency.

These two caches appeared as final rewards, reinforcing that players can expect even better loot further down the event track. If you’re looking to build powerful classes like the Necromancers, now’s the time to do them.

Farming For Lunar Favor

If you’re looking to maximize your shrine activations and gain favor quickly in the Lunar Awakening event, there are three effective methods to farm shrines efficiently. These strategies will help you earn the Resplendent Spark, horse mount, and other event rewards as fast as possible.

Method 1: Farming Shrines in Nightmare Dungeons

A tried-and-true method from previous seasons is utilizing Nightmare Dungeon Sigils to force shrine spawns while earning bonus XP. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Craft Nightmare Dungeon Sigils

• Go to the Occultist and craft Nightmare Dungeon Sigils to generate Nightmare Dungeons.
• Look for dungeons that have the "Ancestors' Favor" modifier.
• These dungeons increase XP by 10% and have a high chance of containing shrines.

Step 2: Avoid Non-Linear Dungeons

• Do NOT use Nantu Dungeons for this method.
• Nantu Dungeons have complex layouts, meaning shrines can be hidden in difficult-to-reach locations.
• Instead, stick to streamlined Nightmare Dungeons where paths are more direct and you’re forced to visit specific locations.

Step 3: Target Specific Dungeon Types

• Blind Burrows is a great example of a streamlined dungeon where you’re required to move through infested villagers to progress.
• These types of dungeons are ideal because they funnel you toward shrines naturally.

Step 4: Focus on Shrine Discovery First

• When entering a dungeon, prioritize finding the shrine before killing too many enemies.
• Clearing too many mobs too early can result in missing out on the shrine’s XP boost.
• Since most dungeons have two levels, check both areas for shrine spawns.

Step 5: Using the Shrine Effect Efficiently

• If you find the shrine toward the end of the dungeon, don’t waste it.
• After activating it, teleport out immediately to a Hell Tide or seasonal event zone, where enemy density is higher.
• Your Shrine effect persists even after teleporting, allowing you to continue farming XP efficiently elsewhere.

Step 6: Monitor XP Gains

• Even a 10% XP boost is worth pursuing, especially when aiming for Paragon 300.
• If you’re Paragon 249 with 70+ hours of gameplay, you still have a long way to go, making any XP boost crucial.

Step 7: Shrine Tracking & Consistency

• Testing so far shows that every 20 dungeons run contained at least one shrine, proving that this method is reliable.
• If you don’t find a shrine in the first half of the dungeon, check the second half before deciding to reset.

Step 8: Shrine Persistence & Seasonal Area Farming

• After activating a shrine, quickly teleport to a high-density zone like:
  • Seasonal Areas
  • Hell Tides
  • Other dungeon hubs
• The shrine effect remains active for over a minute, letting you take advantage of boosted XP in better farming zones.

Method 2: Exploring Seasonal Zones for Shrine Spawns

One of the simplest and most natural ways to find shrines is by roaming the seasonal zones. Unlike dungeons, shrines can spawn in the open world, meaning you don’t have to enter instanced areas to find them.

Step 1: Explore Seasonal Zones

• Shrines naturally appear throughout the open world, making it possible to find them without any special setup.
• Simply move through the seasonal zones and keep an eye out for shrines that pop up along your path.

Step 2: Take Advantage of Shrine Persistence

• If you activate a shrine, you can wait until the timer expires and immediately look for another one.
• The open-world nature of shrines means that you can continue chaining shrine effects without stopping.
• For example, a Channeling Shrine may remain available even after your first shrine expires, allowing you to activate another buff instantly.

Step 3: Track Shrine Locations & Keep Moving

• As you move through the seasonal zones, keep an eye on high-density areas where shrines tend to spawn.
• Shrines aren’t fixed in place, meaning you may encounter them randomly as you explore.

Step 4: Use World Events for More Reliable Shrine Spawns

• While shrine spawns in seasonal zones are random, there is a more reliable way to ensure shrine access—participating in world events.
• World events tend to include pre-set shrine spawns, giving you a guaranteed way to benefit from their buffs.
• Focusing on world events increases your chances of getting consistent shrine activations without relying on luck.

This method is a great alternative for those who don’t want to run Nightmare Dungeons but still want to farm shrines efficiently. Nightmare dungeons can be challenging and if you don’t have enough D4 money to keep your stack full, However, there is one more method that provides even faster shrine access, which we’ll cover next!

Method 3: Using World Events for Guaranteed Shrine Spawns

If you want precise control over shrine farming, leveraging world events is the most efficient strategy. This method ensures consistent shrine appearances without relying on random spawns.

Step 1: Use D4 Planner to Track World Events

• Open D4 Planner (an external tool) to display all world event locations on the map.
• World event locations are hard-fixed, meaning they always spawn in the same places.
• Identify the best world event clusters where multiple events occur close together.

Step 2: Choose a Seasonal Zone with High Event Density

• For example, in the Field of Giants (a seasonal zone), there are four potential world event spawns.
• Locate an area where multiple events are nearby, allowing you to rotate through them quickly.

Step 3: Ride to the Nearest World Event

• When you arrive at a world event location, check if it is active.
• If the event just ended, wait for the next spawn or move to the next closest event.
• World events have a chance to become Lunar Shrine events, which is exactly what you’re farming for.

Step 4: Check Multiple Events in Sequence

• If the first event isn’t a Lunar Shrine, immediately move to the next nearest world event.
• Keep checking until you find an active Lunar Shrine event.
• There can be multiple Lunar Shrine events in a single area, meaning you don’t have to rely on just one.

Step 5: Optimize Your Route for Efficiency

• Ideally, choose an area where world events are close together, so you don’t waste time traveling between them.
• Areas like Fetid Wetlands or other zones with 3-4 close world events are excellent choices.
• Avoid locations where world events are too spread out, as excessive travel time reduces efficiency.

Step 6: Maximize XP by Combining with Hell Tide Farming

• If possible, try farming Lunar Shrine events in Hell Tide areas.
• Hell Tides provide higher enemy density, which allows you to gain even more XP when using the Lunar Shrine buff.
• This strategy ensures that you’re pushing favor progress as quickly as possible.

Enjoy The Lunar Event Now!

The Lunar Event is a fun one, and we’re hoping that Blizzard introduces more of these in the future. Once you’re done with the Lunar Event, start building your Spiritborn class next as it’s one of the best this season.