Torchlight Infinite's new season is the high-speed ARPG's most popular yet

A new Torchlight Infinite season has begun, and it’s already become the free Steam game’s most popular launch ever. It might not have quite the hardcore clout of Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2, but every Torchlight Infinite update brings big improvements to the table, and I’m pleased to see it growing gradually with each one. The new ‘Lunaria’ season introduces a whole new endgame farming system, a potion-slinging character, a way to turn bosses into temporary allies, and a whole heap of visual and UI improvements. It’s brought the game to its highest player count yet, right on day one, and I can see why.

I’ll always show up for a Torchlight Infinite update. While it doesn’t typically draw me in for as long as the likes of Path of Exile 2, developer XD packs in a ton of additions and changes for each new season. This time, the main mechanic is Lunaria, which Community Manager Andre describes as “a very straightforward and high-output farming loop.” When you’re in the Netherrealm, TLI’s endgame, you’ll encounter special statues that you can awaken with a musical strum. This summons a huge burst of monsters for you to bring down and claim a wealth of rewards.

The more statues you awaken at once, the higher your combo count will rise – meaning more monsters, a bigger drop multiplier, and more prizes. Alongside this come random events, such as Lunar Radiance, which spawns a valuable golden statue on the map, or Moonlit Revival, which turns all Lunari creatures on the map back into statues and refills the zone, giving you the opportunity to score an even bigger haul. It’s exactly the kind of min-max farming that makes the best games like Diablo so satisfying.

Ramping things up even further are Rhapsodies, which add another layer of potential variance to Lunaria grinding. Lunar Reverberation gradually ramps up the statue density by spawning replacements, but the area of your activation ring gradually shrinks. Moonrise Rhapsody removes the energy cost of activating a group, and you can spawn a Moonlight Casket packed with loot spawns if you’re able to ramp up the number of statues you activate with each consecutive strum.

The Creation Engine is another new mechanic that’s sticking around permanently. Find these dotted around the map and deal with the sentries that guard them, and you’ll be able to convert the nearby Creation Crystals into plenty of loot. You’re able to configure the Creation Engines through a series of Netherrealm talent nodes if you enjoy making use of them. There are some basic buffs on offer, alongside more high-value power-ups if you’re prepared to invest more heavily in the system.

Across the endgame more generally, some of the most punishing affixes have been adjusted so that they aren’t quite as demanding on your survival skills. They’ll now test your damage output more closely instead. If you enjoyed last season’s Vorax mechanic, where you built custom beasts in test tubes before battling them in an arena showdown, it’s been added to the core game, along with its Grafting system. XD has rebalanced it somewhat to represent its more permanent status. There’s also a new boss rotation for the Supreme Showdown.

On the hero side, the new addition is Scent Weaver Sage, who abandons traditional healing skills in favor of a set of elixirs. While other heroes are able to use ‘elixir skills,’ which have been separated out as a new mechanic that replaces the old potion system, Sage can dynamically adjust the recipe in her Scent Bottle based on what she needs in combat. She can be specialized either as a Scholar, converting her base stats into amplified elixir effects, or a Mad Scientist, which lets you bring an extra offensive flask into battle.

Beyond that, you can look forward to a whole heap of updates across the rest of the roster. This includes hero trait reworks, new summoning mechanics, more damage-over-time options, and a new framework for traits. Modularization is the most exciting of these, which allows you to build your own copies of recently felled bosses, turning them into modified variants that will fight alongside you. There are 20 of these to start with, and plans for more in future seasons.

Renewed Memories is an expansion to the Hero Memories system, and allows you to add ‘revival’ effects to each of your Memories. These aren’t mutually exclusive, allowing you to stack up power. This overhaul is designed to both grant more cost-effective options in the early and mid-game, and a much bigger affix pool at the top end, including a range of hero-specific trait affixes that are tailored to each individual character.

There are plenty of quality-of-life improvements across the patch notes as well. After last season’s big visual overhaul, XD is continuing to polish its UI and menus. Wisdom of the Gods Thea and Wind Stalker Erika have both been given visual upgrades, alongside a range of monsters and skill effects. The search function has been improved, as has filtering in the Trade House. To celebrate Torchlight Infinite’s third anniversary, the game’s main theme has been re-arranged and re-recorded by a studio orchestra for “a more expansive and cinematic feel.”

The Torchlight Infinite ‘Lunaria’ season is live now, and you can play for free on Steam. There’s also a ‘Midas Touch’ event currently running, where you can complete objectives for various rewards. The update has brought the game to a new lifetime peak of 26,618 players – making this the fifth consecutive season launch on the rise. I’m pleased to see that; while TLI’s free-to-play foibles can be a little more frustrating than PoE’s at times, there’s no question that XD is putting in plenty of effort to keep improving its game.