This is a guide about Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1, including what they are, how to use, salvage, craft, farm them and some farming tips. If you are interested, keep reading.
What Are Malignant Hearts?
Malignant Hearts are a new feature introduced in Diablo 4 Season 1, also known as the Season of the Malignant. They are corrupted hearts that can be obtained from certain enemies and used to imbue weapons and armor with powerful effects. There are four types of Malignant Hearts, each with different rarity and potency:
• Vicious: The most common type, grants minor bonuses to damage, defense, or utility.
• Brutal: The second most common type, grants moderate bonuses to damage, defense, or utility.
• Devious: The third most common type, grants major bonuses to damage, defense, or utility.
• Wrathful: The rarest and most powerful type, grants unique and legendary bonuses to damage, defense, or utility.
Each type has a different color and effect, and can only be socketed into jewelry with matching sockets, except for Wrathful Hearts, which can go into any socket. Some examples of Malignant Hearts are:
• The Barber: A Wrathful Heart that causes your attacks to deal additional damage over time and explode when the target dies.
• The Picana: A Wrathful Heart that causes your attacks to chain lightning to nearby enemies and stun them.
• The Gizzard: A Devious Heart that causes you to regenerate health and resource when you deal damage.
• The Eye of Etlich: A Devious Heart that causes you to take reduced damage from ranged attacks and reflect them back to the attacker.
How to Use Malignant Hearts?
To use a Malignant Heart, you need to have a jewelry piece with an infested socket of the same color as the heart. You can find or craft jewelry with infested sockets at Cormond's wagon, which is located near the seasonal hub in Scosglen. To socket a Malignant Heart into a jewelry piece, you need to perform a ritual using your Cage of Binding, which is an item that you get after completing chapter 1 of the Season Journey. The ritual will consume the Cage of Binding and the jewelry piece, and create a new jewelry piece with the Malignant Heart socketed into it.
To unsocket a Malignant Heart from a jewelry piece, you need to salvage it at Cormond's wagon. This will destroy the jewelry piece and return the Malignant Heart to your inventory.
How to Salvage and Craft Malignant Hearts?
If you have unwanted or duplicate Malignant Hearts, you can salvage them for Ichor at Cormond's wagon. Ichor is a new resource that can be used to craft new Malignant Hearts. You can salvage any type of Malignant Heart for Ichor, but the amount you get depends on the rarity. For example, salvaging a Vicious, Brutal, or Devious Heart will give you 5-15 Ichor, while salvaging a Wrathful Heart will give you 2-5 Ichor.
To craft a new Malignant Heart, you need to have an empty Caged Heart and enough Ichor. You can get an empty Caged Heart by salvaging an imbued weapon or armor at Cormond's wagon. You can also buy an empty Caged Heart from Cormond for 1000 Diablo IV gold. To craft a new Malignant Heart, you need to select an empty Caged Heart and choose one of the four types: Vicious, Brutal, Devious, or Wrathful. The cost of Ichor depends on the type you choose. For example, crafting a Vicious Heart costs 10 Ichor, while crafting a Wrathful Heart costs 50 Ichor.
The result of crafting a new Malignant Heart is random, meaning you can get any effect within the chosen type. However, you can reroll the effect by using another Caged Heart and more Ichor. You can also upgrade an existing Malignant Heart to a higher rarity by using another Caged Heart and more Ichor. For example, upgrading a Vicious Heart to a Brutal Heart costs 15 Ichor.
How to Farm Malignant Hearts?
There are two main ways to farm Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1:
• Defeat corrupted Elites across the map: these are enemies with a purple glow and a skull icon on the minimap. They have a chance to drop any type of Malignant Heart, but the higher the difficulty level, the higher the chance of getting a rare or legendary one. You can find corrupted Elites in any zone or dungeon, but some areas have more spawns than others. For example, the Fractured Peaks zone has a high density of corrupted Elites, especially in the Velkhova Church Undercroft dungeon.
• Travel into Malignant Tunnels after finishing the story content: these are special dungeons that can only be accessed after completing the Season 1 questline. They have a higher spawn rate of corrupted Elites and a guaranteed spawn of a Brutal, Devious, Vicious, or Wrathful Malignant Elite at the end. You can find Malignant Tunnels in any zone or dungeon, but some are better than others for farming Malignant Hearts. For example, the Dindai Hollow and The Boiling Wound dungeons are small and easy to clear, and have a high chance of spawning a Wrathful Malignant Elite.
Tips and Tricks for Farming Malignant Hearts
• Use a Malignant Invoker before entering a Malignant Tunnel: a Malignant Invoker is an item that can be used to increase the chance of spawning a Wrathful Malignant Elite in a Malignant Tunnel. You can get a Malignant Invoker from corrupted Elites or from Cormond's wagon for 5000 gold. You can only use one Malignant Invoker per Malignant Tunnel, and it will be consumed upon use. Using a Malignant Invoker can greatly increase your chances of getting a Wrathful Heart from a Malignant Tunnel.
• Join a party to share Invokers and Hearts: when playing online with other players, you can share the benefits of using a Malignant Invoker and getting a Malignant Heart. If one player uses a Malignant Invoker in a Malignant Tunnel, all players in the party will have an increased chance of spawning a Wrathful Malignant Elite. If one player gets a Malignant Heart from a corrupted Elite or a Malignant Tunnel, all players in the party will get the same Malignant Heart. This way, you can save your resources and get more Malignant Hearts by cooperating with other players.
• You can farm specific Malignant Tunnels that have high mob density and elite spawns. Some of the recommended Malignant Tunnels are Dindai Hollow and The Boiling Wound. These tunnels have small map layouts and elites that spawn at the start. You can run through the starting area and skip normal mobs to look for Malignant Elites. Then you can leave the dungeon via the action wheel and reset the dungeon on the map screen. This method should get you about three Malignant Hearts in 1-2 minutes.