What are evil hearts in Diablo 4? Following the events of the Diablo 4 storyline, a new curse known as Malignance has begun to spread to all living creatures in Sanctuary. This curse turns its host into a bloodthirsty being, making enemies more powerful than ever.
The first season of Diablo 4 is almost upon us, introducing evil mechanics, an all-new story, and access to the battle pass. In the new season, any elite enemy has a chance to become Evil. If you take down one of these enemies in Diablo 4, you gain access to a powerful Evil Heart that has the potential to create stronger Diablo 4 final builds to take on the Evil army.
How to get evil hearts
To get an Evil Heart, you must kill an Evil enemy and capture it using the Binding Cage.
These enemies can be identified by their growths in addition to their name, which should classify them as evil. Killing one of these enemies drops the Evil Heart from it, giving you a chance to capture it by performing a ritual using the Cage of Binding quest item.
Prepare by healing yourself before beginning the ritual, as this triggers a sequence that draws all nearby evil to you. This also includes a stronger version of the Malignance enemy you just defeated, so be careful as this is an easy way to get yourself into trouble if you’re not paying attention. Killing all enemies during the ritual rewards you with a Caged Heart.
How to use evil hearts
Evil hearts can be socketed into specific pieces of equipment, similar to gems in Diablo 4. There are 32 evil powers that provide the user with new legendary abilities. Each heart you collect is associated with a color indicating what type of equipment you can use the ability on. For example, Brutal Hearts are blue and can only be used in Infested slots found on blue rings and jewels.
There are four colors of Evil Hearts, but there are only three-color sockets. The fourth color of Evil Heart is extremely rare, as it can be placed in any color slot. You can increase your chances of receiving rare evil hearts as you progress through the campaign. Also, the higher the Diablo 4 world level you are in, the higher your chances of earning high-quality evil hearts.
How to use Evil Tunnels
Once you finish the content in the last season, you can break down your older and less powerful Evil Hearts into crafting materials. These materials can be used to create summoners, special items that can only be used in the evil tunnels. Endgame players can use these tunnels to fight evil enemies right away to farm evil hearts.
There are only a handful of evil tunnels scattered around the Diablo 4 map, so you’ll need to locate them first. At the end of the evil tunnel, you can use your summoner on an excrescence to increase your chances of finding specific types of evil hearts. The color of the growth determines what color the heart drops, making it easier to farm the items you seek. Unlike the evil hearts found in the wild, you don’t need to perform the ritual to acquire the heart when it drops.
That’s all you need to know about Diablo 4’s Malignant Heart mechanics. Learn more about Diablo 4 Endgame by checking out our guide to make sure you’re not missing out. We also have a guide on the best Diablo 4 builds if you’re interested in learning a class that can zip you through the entire campaign.