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 100 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 potential 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 is the only chest that is not indicated on the map until you are in its vicinity. There are two of these chests each Helltide; you can locate them using the Helltide tracker.
**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.
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 is new in the Helltide for Season 4?
As well as titling this Season 'Loot Reborn', a big feature of the Patch 1.4 in Season 4 is '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. Unless I specify otherwise, everything new will apply 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. A warning to those who succumb to the temptations of Lilith. Whether you die, or the Hellborne die 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 drop from the Hellborne and can be used to perform an Accursed Ritual to summon a powerful Helltide boss the Blood Maiden.
The Accursed Ritual
It takes 3 Baneful Hearts to summon the Blood Maiden in the Accursed Ritual. These can all be collected by yourself, or as a collaborative measure 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.
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.
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.
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 so do keep an eye on the ground.
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, thus letting you reap more rewards from your time in the Helltide.
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.
