War Plans

3:42 War Plans are Diablo 4's endgame system since Lord of Hatred (Apr 27, 2026): at the Command Table in Temis you build a playlist of up to five activities from six endgame modes (the Pit, Infernal Hordes, Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, Lair Bosses and the Kurast Undercity), play them in one chain, claim the War Chest at the end and earn points for a tree of modifiers for each activity. Blizzard's developers explain it in this clip over images of the War Plans screens: "pick what you want, pick your rewards, and jump in", with trees that "change the rewards, tweak the monster spawns, even bring features from one activity into another". War Plans need the Lord of Hatred expansion and open after its campaign; since Season of Hell's Legacy (Sep 15, 2026) your characters in the same partition share their War Plans progress.

Quick facts

How to start War Plans

Finish the Lord of Hatred campaign, then travel to Temis, the capital of Skovos, and use the Command Table to create a War Plan (Blizzard, Apr 23, 2026). Blizzard's launch overview lists War Plans under "Lord of Hatred Expansion: Requires Lord of Hatred Purchase", so a player with only the base game or Vessel of Hatred runs the same activities directly instead. Once one character has finished the campaign, new characters can start with "Story Complete: Endgame", and older ones can skip the campaign at character select. Patch 3.0.2 (May 13, 2026) added a Teleport to an active War Plan that takes you to the current objective, or to Temis when no plan is running.

Building a plan

10:11 A War Plan is a path of activity nodes on a board: you choose the nodes by the rewards they show, and once one activity is done you teleport straight to the next; if you have no sigil or key for it, War Plans make one on the fly (Blizzard, Apr 23, 2026). IGN's reviewer calls it "a curated playlist of activities" in this clip and names the gain: "you no longer need to hunt for nightmare dungeon keys or manually walk over to helltide events". Completing every activity in the plan unlocks the War Chest in Temis, and plans also pay Cube Spoils, one of the main sources of materials for the Horadric Cube (Crafting). Whispers of the Dead are not nodes of their own: they double up with whatever activity you pick and still earn progress. Experience from War Plans rises with Torment level; patch 3.2.1 raised it again and doubled the orbs from a node at Torment X and above from 2 to 4.

The six modes are:

• The Pit, the timed, tiered dungeon for Masterworking materials and Glyph upgrades
• Infernal Hordes, the wave mode with Burning Aether and the Fell Council
• Helltide, the open-world event; in War Plans its objective is a set number of Cinders, 75 in Normal through Penitent and 250 in Torment I and up since patch 3.1.0
• Nightmare Dungeons, including Escalation Sigils since patch 3.1.0
• Lair Bosses (Bosses)
• The Kurast Undercity, Vessel of Hatred's time-attack dungeon

Activity trees and modifiers

30:26 Every War Plans activity has its own activity tree. Playing an activity earns Activity Points for that tree, and executing plans levels up the Command Table, which opens "deeper progression and more choices" (Blizzard). In this clip from the Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight, Blizzard's developers say the trees let you customize how each activity plays and make the endgame easier to learn for new and returning players. The examples Blizzard gave on Feb 11, 2026: a randomly spawned Butcher in your Pit runs who ends the run when killed, Lair Bosses who invade other activities or send their minions, Duriel replacing the Blood Maiden in Helltides and Lord Zir sending Bloodseekers into the Pit. Later patch notes name more nodes, such as Greed is Good (a portal to a goblin realm in Nightmare Dungeons), Hellmouth in Helltides and Choron's Soul in the Pit (Blizzard).

Playing War Plans in a party

11:25 At launch each player's War Plan was their own, and IGN's reviewer called it a "pretty fatal flaw": in a party only the leader's next activity advanced, so the others felt like "a second class citizen" seeing a fragment of the rewards. Blizzard answered in patch 3.1.0 (Jun 30, 2026): parties can now generate "fully shared War Plans boards that have completely synchronized progression and objectives" (Blizzard). The whole party must be in Temis; one player picks New Plan For Party, which costs 2 Marks of El'Druin and starts a vote, and if everyone accepts, that player's new board is pushed to the others, whatever their War Plans level or Torment.

Shared War Plans

27:51 Since Season of Hell's Legacy (Sep 15, 2026), War Plans reputation is shared across characters. Blizzard's designers say in this clip that it was planned for Season 16 and moved up to Season 15 after feedback since Lord of Hatred's launch, so that you no longer start over on a new character. Characters share progress when they match in all three partitions:

• Eternal or Seasonal
• Non-Hardcore or Hardcore
• Normal or Solo Self Found

Each character still has its own planner to spend the shared points, as with shared Paragon points. At the change of season, War Plans points from Season 14 characters moved to the matching Eternal characters and added together. Hardcore rules are stricter: only living characters carry points over, so from Season 15 Blizzard suggests keeping a second living Hardcore character in the same partition, even a level 1 "storage" character, to carry a dead character's points to the Eternal Realm (Blizzard, Sep 12, 2026).

Seasonal War Plans

9:41 Seasons add their own War Plans options. In Season of Hell's Legacy you carry one of three Splinters of Evil, and as Blizzard's designers explain in this clip, the Splinter you bear gives you its Prime Evil's power and lets you "upgrade war plans and start modifying your activities". Each Splinter has its own reputation track and changes two modes: Diablo's Splinter of Terror changes Helltide and Infernal Hordes, Baal's Splinter of Destruction the Undercity and Lair Bosses, and Mephisto's Splinter of Hatred the Pit and Nightmare Dungeons (Blizzard).

Changes since launch

• 3.0.2 (May 13, 2026): Teleport to an active War Plan; many fixes for modifiers that could be farmed.
• 3.1.0 (Jun 30, 2026): party boards; more experience at Torment VIII and up; more rewards for Infernal Hordes; Helltide objectives counted in Cinders; new options for longer Helltides and Escalation Sigils (Blizzard).
• 3.2.1 (Sep 15, 2026): Shared War Plans; more experience, scaling "heavily with Torment levels"; orbs from Magic, Rare, Legendary and Mythic experience nodes doubled (Blizzard).

What Blizzard plans next

29:28 At BlizzCon 2026 Blizzard's designers called War Plans a priority for future seasons and named "playlist customization, supporting even more seasonal variety, and building out even more War Plans endgame" (Blizzard, Sep 13, 2026). No date for those changes had been announced as of Oct 21, 2026. For everything else after the campaign, see Endgame.

Frequently asked questions

How do you unlock War Plans in Diablo 4? Finish the Lord of Hatred campaign, travel to Temis and use the Command Table; Diablo 4 characters made with "Story Complete: Endgame" after one campaign clear can use it at once.

Do Diablo 4 War Plans need Lord of Hatred? Yes. Blizzard lists War Plans among the Lord of Hatred features that require the expansion; without it you can still play the Pit, Infernal Hordes, Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, Lair Bosses and the Undercity on their own.

Are Diablo 4 War Plans shared between characters? Yes, since Season of Hell's Legacy on Sep 15, 2026: Diablo 4 characters share War Plans progress when they match in Eternal or Seasonal, Hardcore or not, and Solo Self Found or not, while each keeps its own planner.

How many activities are in a Diablo 4 War Plan? A Diablo 4 War Plan chains up to five activities chosen from six modes: the Pit, Infernal Hordes, Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, Lair Bosses and the Kurast Undercity.

Can you do War Plans in a party in Diablo 4? Yes. Since patch 3.1.0 (Jun 30, 2026) a Diablo 4 party in Temis can vote for New Plan For Party, which costs 2 Marks of El'Druin and gives everyone the same board with synchronized progress.

What is the War Chest in Diablo 4? The War Chest is the reward chest in Temis that a Diablo 4 player claims after completing every activity in a War Plan.

Sources

• Catch Up on the Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight, Blizzard Entertainment, Feb 11, 2026
• Prepare for the Reckoning: Lord of Hatred Draws Near, Blizzard Entertainment, Apr 23, 2026
• Diablo IV Patch Notes (3.0), Blizzard Entertainment, Apr 27 to Jun 10, 2026
• Hunt the Death Cult in Season of Death Awakening, Blizzard Entertainment, Jun 23, 2026
• Diablo IV Patch Notes (3.1), Blizzard Entertainment, Jun 30, 2026 (read Oct 20, 2026)
• Celebrate 30 Years of Diablo in Season of Hell's Legacy, Blizzard Entertainment, Sep 12, 2026
• Diablo IV: What's Next Panel Recap, Blizzard Entertainment, Sep 13, 2026
• Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Gameplay Overview, GameSpot, Feb 11, 2026 (video)
• Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight, Diablo, Feb 11, 2026 (video)
• Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Review, IGN, 2026 (video)
• Diablo IV | What's Next Panel | BlizzCon 2026, Diablo, Sep 13, 2026 (video)