How to get & use Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4
New in Season 1: Season of the Malignant, Malignant Hearts are mighty gem-like items that you can use to boost the capabilities of your character. Malignant Hearts won't exist in Diablo 4 forever, so it's pertinent that you hunt them down and collect the best ones while you can. This primer will teach you how to get and use Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4.
How to get Malignant Hearts
When Diablo 4 Season 1 kicks off on July 20, 2023, visit Cormond in Kyovashad to start the Season’s Questline. Cormond will train you to capture Malignant Hearts.
To get Malignant Hearts, you must slay Malignant Monsters. Naturally, Malignant Monsters are classified as Partly Corrupted and will drop Malignant Hearts when defeated. However, to capture a Malignant Heart, you have got to perform a ritual with the Cage of Binding.
Click to enlargeUsing a Cage of Binding on a Malignant Heart will revive the Partly Corrupted foe in its Fully Corrupted form. Best the reanimated monster to claim its Malignant Heart once and for all.
Malignant Hearts are only available in Diablo 4 Season 1. To participate in Season of the Malignant and start collecting Malignant Hearts, you must create a new character on the Seasonal Realm. And to create a Seasonal character, you need to have completed the game on the Eternal Realm with at least one character.
Once the Season ends, your character and all its progress will transfer to the Eternal Realm. Most everything you collected, including your Seasonal stash, will transfer over too. However, Season-specific items like Malignant Hearts are considered Seasonal content and are not accessible on the Eternal Realm.
What are Malignant Hearts?
Malignant Hearts are a new socketable item exclusive to Diablo 4 Season 1: Season of the Malignant. Essentially, Malignant Hearts are souped-up gems that you can socket into Infested Sockets in rings and amulets.
How to farm Malignant Hearts
While you can get Malignant Hearts by slaughtering any Elite with the Malignant affix, the best spot to farm Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 is in Malignant Tunnels.
Malignant Tunnels are new dungeons available throughout Sanctuary, where you can find loads of Malignant Monsters. Also, if you bring in an Invoker, which you can craft using salvaged crafting materials from Malignant Hearts, you can farm specific types of Malignant Hearts.
How to use Malignant Hearts
In total, there are 32 different Malignant Hearts spread across four categories. Each Malignant Heart offers new and unique bonuses that can shape character builds.
The categories of Malignant Hearts can be distinguished by their colouring. Likewise, the Infested Sockets you find in jewellery in the Season of the Malignant also sport colours. To use Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4, insert Malignant Hearts you find into rings and amulets that feature Infested Sockets corresponding to the colours of your Malignant Hearts.
Click to enlargeWrathful Malignant Hearts are the rarest and most powerful category of Malignant Hearts and can fit into any colour Infested Socket.
Once you insert a Malignant Heart into an Infested Socket, you can replace it, but you can't ever remove it.
That's all there is to Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4. Start socketing your gear with Malignant Hearts when Diablo 4 Season 1: Season of the Malignant drops on July 20, 2023.
Discover how to unsocket gems in Diablo 4.
