What is the Helltide in Diablo 4?
Helltides are a world event that turns a region of the map into a hellish landscape of high monster density and raining Hellfire. While that doesn't sound the most welcoming of areas, you'll want to spend a lot of time in the Helltides to level up fast in Diablo 4 and gather crucial materials. They are marked on the map as red zones and last 55 minutes with a 5-minute downtime. Following which the next Helltide will move to a different map area.
Once exclusive to World Tier 3 and 4, the Helltides are now available to all players from World Tier 1 and above.
What am I supposed to be doing in the Helltide?
The base Helltide activity is just to kill hordes of Lilith's demons and gather a currency named Aberrant Cinders. You will see icons on the map for chests named Tortured Gifts, and you use the Aberrant Cinders to open these.
In World Tier 1 and World Tier 2, the Tortured Gift chests will all be Mystery chests, costing 75 cinders to open. In World Tier 3 and 4 the chests will be specified as to what type of loot they contain, so boots, weapons, jewelry etc. There are also two other chests, the chest of Living Steel which contains a crafting material you need for the Boss Ladder, and chest of Mysteries.
*The Tortured Gift of Mysteries contains a mixture of items and rare crafting materials. These chests used to be hidden until you were in the vicinity, but are now clearly indicated in Orange. They are more expensive but give better loot overall.
**The Chest of Living Steel drops 3 Living Steel in World Tier 3, and 5 in World Tier 4 but also has a chance to drop another 5 in World Tier 4. All chests will drop at least 1 Living Steel but this one has it in abundance. In my experience, this chest isn't worth grabbing now that Living Steel drops regularly from other chests too at a cheaper rate, and you can get Living Steel from completing the reputation board (Called Mother's Gifts in Season 5)
Can I keep left over Aberrant Cinders for another Helltide?
No. The Aberrant Cinders does not stay in your inventory when the Helltide is over, so spend them and spend them wisely! If you die in the Helltide you automatically drop half of your Aberrant Cinders and cannot recover them.
What other activities are available in the Helltide?
As well as titling Season 4 'Loot Reborn', a big feature of the Patch 1.4 we got in Season 4 was 'Helltide Reborn.' Taking inspiration from the Blood Harvests in Season of Blood, we now have a bunch of new activities to do in the Helltide as well as collecting Aberrant Cinders. These are permanent changes that have been kept into Season 5 and beyond with just a few tweaks.
Unless I specify otherwise, everything here applies to both Eternal and Seasonal Realms.
Hellborne and the Threat Meter
Killing enemies and opening Tortured Gifts will now fill a personal Threat Meter. Once the threat meter is full, you will become Hell Marked, and an ambush of lethal enemies is triggered, which you must survive through as the Threat Meter drains back to zero. When your Threat Meter is fully depleted, a Hellborne will spawn to challenge you.
The Hellborne are fallen corrupted heroes of Sanctuary and will have the abilities of 1 of the 5 classes. This is a warning to those who succumb to the temptations of Lilith. Whether you die or the Hellborne dies first, your threat meter will then reset and so begin the process anew. Your Threat Meter carries over from one Helltide to the next.
Tip: If you want to build your Threat Meter quickly, seek out Hellspires. These small tower-like structures activate a huge wave of demons to fight. There are also Ravenous Soulspires, which drain your health; you can chug potions to stay alive as long as possible to get rewards.
What are Baneful Hearts in Diablo 4?
Baneful Hearts are a material that drops from the Hellborne and Tortured Chests and can be used to perform an Accursed Ritual to summon a powerful Helltide boss, the Blood Maiden.
The Accursed Ritual - How to Summon the Blood Maiden
It takes 2 Baneful Hearts to summon the Blood Maiden in the Accursed Ritual in World Tier 1 and 2. It takes 3 Baneful hearts in World Tier 3 and 4.
These can all be collected by yourself or collaboratively with your party or other players. This material persists after the Helltide, so don't worry if you have any left at the end of the 55-minute timer.
How do I get Baneful Hearts in Diablo 4?
Baneful hearts drop from opening Tortured Gifts (the chests in the Helltide), and by defeating Hellborne enemies. You don't need to have 2 or 3 yourself, if you are in a party you can all contribute to the summoning ritual.
The Accursed Ritual site will be clearly marked on the map, head there, and deposit the hearts in the 3 pedestals to start the ritual. Other players in the region will be alerted to come and help you with the fight. After fighting a few waves of enemies, the Bloodmaiden will appear.
How to defeat the Bloodmaiden in Diablo 4
- The Bloodmaiden will cast a ring of fire, use your movement skill to keep inside it as only the ring itself will do damage.
- The Bloodmaiden will also cast circles of fire directly on top of the player, keep moving when this happens as she will cast 4 in succession and they will detonate. 4 detonations at once can instantly kill you and any nearby players.
- As the Bloodmaiden's health depletes, and you'll see the markers on her health bar, she will place fire circles from which spawn Helborne Disciples, and flee to let them do the dirty work. Kill these as fast as possible to continue the fight.
Completing Whisper quests within the Helltide
The Tree of Whispers rewards you by completing tasks around the map in exchange for it's rewards. The Helltide has made this easier than ever with now having many Whisper quests within it that can be completed in tandem. For example you may have a Whisper quest to collect 250 cinders, and one to kill 150 demons. Since cinders drop from demons, you can knock out both of these quests at the same time.
Once you have collected enough Whisper quest completions (10) the regions Whisper quest icons will turn grey, at which point you need to teleport to the Tree of Whispers and hand in for a cache. Do this as soon as you are able so you can teleport straight back to the Helltide and complete more! Whispers plus Helltide is the best way to level fast in Diablo 4.
Beware the Hellworms
Occasionally, Hellworms will spawn from the ground and spit out more demons, that must be really angry after being sat waiting in a worms small intestine. As your threat meter increases, you will see more of these and they can knock you off your mount, but it's worth it for the crazy mob density.
Doomsayers, Hellspires and other events
There are a bunch of other mini-activities dotted around the Helltide for you to be aware of and engage with when you see them, as they often will help you complete your Whispers and reward you with Cinders. Doomsayers are praying cultists you can disturb to summon a powerful Elite or sometimes even a Treasure Goblin. Hellspires and Soulspires are structured mini-events where you kill waves of enemies and try to survive in a health-draining circle, and there are Portal Invasions. If you see Occultists in the Helltide performing a ritual, killing them spawns an Invasion Portal, which summons, you guessed it, more demons. Defeating the waves will spawn a Helltide Commander Boss who will drop extra Aberrant Cinders, gear and Murmuring Obols.
What is a Profane Mindcage?
In short, a demon brain. This is a consumable that will drop for Seasonal Realm players only. Eating these delicious brains will increase the level of monsters in the Helltide for you and you alone by 10 levels, thus letting you reap more rewards from your time in the Helltide.
You can now stack Profane Mindcages, so make the Helltide as difficult as you feel you can manage — but bear in mind if you die, these effects do not persist after death, so you will need to consume again if that happens.
Diablo 4 is available on Xbox, Windows PC and Playstation consoles. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and also available on Xbox Game Pass.
