Helltides are special zones in Diablo 4 that can be extremely rewarding if you know what to look for. This guide will provide the necessary information to get the most out of them.
What are Helltides
Helltides are special zones that are created on the world map filled with Cultists and Demons. Monsters found within the Helltide will always be three levels above us, making them a great option to grind levels and items.
They even have unique World Events with bosses as well as unique materials and items to pick up.
These zones have special loot chests that drop plenty of valuables, from elixirs to gear and even Boss Summoning Materials. These are often the big objectives for Helltides, and we’ll cover them more shortly.
How to Access Helltides
As of Season 4, Helltides are accessible once a character has completed the campaign, this also makes them accessible to characters that have skipped the campaign as well.
Once we’ve completed the campaign or skipped it, check out the map to find the Helltide Zones when they’re active. Helltides will be active in only one region at a time, swapping every hour.
Helltides always begin every hour, on the hour, and last 55 minutes. This gives us nearly a full hour to get all the rewards we can from this content.
Helltide UI Explained
While inside the Helltide, there will be additional UI elements shown next to our map. Something that looks like the image below.
At the top of this UI is the time remaining for the current Helltide. Outside of this, this information can be found by hovering over the Helltide Marker on your World Map.
Just below that are the Helltide Currencies; Aberrant Cinder (Left) and Baneful Hearts (Right). These are currencies we’ll want to keep track of as we slay enemies in the Helltide, and we’ll explain these in the section below.
Helltide Threat Meter
The final part of the UI is the Helltide Threat Meter. This meter will continue to fill as we slay enemies without dying. Unlike with Aberrant Cinders, this meter will fully reset on death.
This meter consists of three segments, each increasing the aggression and density of monsters in the Helltide. In addition to this, as each segment fills, it will immediately spawn additional monsters near us. The additional enemies from the scaling aggression will often be spawned on us by a Hellwyrm.
Once filled, it will slowly begin to drain. Much like when it fills, while it empties it will summon enemies. When we survive this duration, a Hellborne will be summoned to fight us.
These Hellborne are Special Elites, similar to the Blood Seekers from Season 2’s Blood Harvests. They take the form of the currently available player classes. There is more information regarding these foes in the section detailing the Helltide below.
What to Look for in Helltides
Helltides are packed with many interesting events and encounters, but these are the main things we should look for when diving into them.
Aberrant Cinders
Aberrant Cinders are a special Helltide-only currency that will expire when a Helltide ends. These can be earned by doing anything in the Helltides, with varying amounts based on what you do.
Should we die at any point in a Helltide, we will lose half of our currently held Cinders. This value is also reset to zero when the Helltide ends in preparation for the next Helltide.
This currency is used exclusively to open Tortured Gifts, special Helltide Chests that allow us to target farm gear and other useful items. We’ll go in-depth later on the best ways to collect these Cinders.
Below is a quick table of approximately how rewarding each activity inside a Helltide zone can be.
Activity name
Expected Cinders
Roughly Estimated
Defeating Enemies
~20% Chance to drop 1 Cinder
Defeating Elite Enemies
100% Chance for 1 Cinder
Defeating a Helltide Harbinger
100% Chance for 3+ Cinders
Defeating a Hellborne
100% Chance for 5+ Cinders
Completing an Event
~10 Cinders per Mastery Chest
Completing an Accursed Ritual
25+ Cinders per Ritual
Assisting Iron Wolves
5-10 Cinders per event
Tortured Gifts
There’s only one major priority when it comes to Helltides, Tortured Gifts. These require you to collect many Abberant Cinders from enemies to open for a variety of loot. But there are several ways to get them, including methods that farm other useful items at the same time.
Tortured Gifts are one of a few sources of targeted loot farming. They come in several varieties which affects their contents. There are also a couple of special ones that take a ton of Cinders to open but often have better rewards.
Below is a table listing their names, costs, and contents in World Tiers 3 and above. All chests will cost 75 Cinders in lower Difficulties.
| Chest Type | Cost* | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Tortured Gift of Light Weaponry | 125 | One-handed Weapons and Off-hands |
| Tortured Gift of Heavy Weaponry | 150 | Two-Handed Weapons |
| Tortured Gift of Helmets | 75 | Helmets |
| Tortured Gift of Chest Armor | 75 | Chest Armor |
| Tortured Gift of Leg Armor | 75 | Leg Armor |
| Tortured Gift of Boots | 75 | Boots |
| Tortured Gift of Gloves | 75 | Gloves |
| Tortured Gift of Rings | 75 | Rings |
| Tortured Gift of Amulets | 125 | Amulets |
| Tortured Gift of Mysteries | 250 | Assorted Items |
The Tortured Gift of Mysteries used to have the draw that it was the main source of several powerful Elixirs.
After the Season 4 Rework, they now simply have a higher rate for Legendary and Unique Items. This often means they’ll regularly drop 3-5 Legendary Items each in higher Difficulties.
The big draw of using these early on in character progression is they always contain a guaranteed Legendary starting around level 25-30. During early levels, they will have Guaranteed Rares instead, giving earlier access to them.
These also grant a pretty significant amount of Experience early on, which cements Helltides as a great leveling option.
Helltide Events
Helltides are packed with small one-off events that give various rewards. While most of these often aren’t worth going out of the way for, if you see them they are worth grabbing instead of just passing by.
In addition to these smaller events, Helltides also have their own exclusive World Events as well which culminate in a boss encounter with a Helltide Commander. While these aren’t unique, being mostly copies of existing bosses, they’re a fun encounter.
We’ll go deeper into all of the unique events later in the guide, but these are often worth doing when you come across them.
Helltide Harbingers
Harbingers are special Elite monsters that are found in the Helltides. These are functionally just normal Elite but often drop several Aberrant Cinders, rather than a single one.
They also have a high chance of dropping Forgotten Souls in World Tiers 3 and 4, a material used while Crafting Sacred and Ancestral items.
For more information regarding crafting, check out our Crafting Guide, which breaks down everything you need to make the best use of the crafting systems.
These foes also drop a special Elixir called a Profane Mindcage. This Elixir will increase the level of all monsters in the Helltide by 10. This effect will be capped at level 50 for World Tiers 1 and 2, Level 70 for World Tier 3, and 110 for World Tier 4. Unfortunately, this Elixir is currently only available during Season 4.
Helltide Events
Helltides have a lot going on in them amongst the chaos. A large part of Helltides are participating in these activities, both big and small. These often count towards Whisper of the Dead objectives, making them worth seeking out when you can.
Accursed Ritual
As of Season 4, Helltide has a unique boss encounter in the form of an Accursed Ritual. The location of this ritual is in two set places per Helltide region, one of each of the Subzones the Helltide covers.
To initiate an Accursed Ritual, you (or other players) need to deposit a total of three Baneful hearts into the altars in the center of the Ritual Site. Doing so will spawn a Blood Maiden.
The Blood Maiden themselves can often hit quite hard if we’re not capped on Armor or Resistances. However, their attacks are slow and telegraphed, mostly only being a real problem when other people inevitably flood into the area.
The real threats are often the groups of Hellborne they can summon. Starting at 75% Life remaining, the Blood Maiden will disappear and drop a trail of four meteors, each dealing high damage and spawning a Hellborne. With several of them active, things will get very chaotic. However, if you’re capable of taking them out quickly, it keeps things manageable.
Doomsayers
One of the more notable events of the Helltide is the Doomsayers added with Season 4. They are cultists that worship demons out of fear, and are found rarely within Helltides.
These Doomsayers will always perish when you interact with them but turn into one of the following encounters in doing so:
- Normal Demon
- Elite Demon
- Helltide Harbinger
- Treasure Goblin
- Loot Explosion
- Sacrificial Goat (Cinders)
Out of these options, having the Doomsayer turn into a Treasure Goblin or a Loot Explosion will be ideal. Treasure Goblins will always drop a Legendary Item after Level 15, while the Loot explosion will include various resources as if opening a Tormented Gift, also including a Legendary in later World Tiers.
Iron Wolves Support
As of Season 4, the Iron Wolves can be found in Helltides. They’ll often be in danger or request assistance with repelling the Helltide assaults. Similar to the small events of Season 2’s Blood Harvests, these are often quick events with small rewards.
Typically the reward consists of a small amount of Abberant Cinders and maybe a couple pieces of gear. The big draw for completing these however is they are often a Whispers of the Dead objective.
Whichever kind of assistance you end up providing for them, they’ll often grant you some items and Abberant Cinders as a reward. Most of these never take long, so they’re worth the quick detour or pause. The only one that takes a bit longer also spawns a ton of Demons on you, often resulting in even more Cinders and other loot.
Spire Events
Spires in Helltides come in three flavors: Hellspires, Ravenous Soulspires, and Spires of Corruption. Each is a mini-event and they’re great farming targets, with the main rewards being tons of Aberrant Cinders.
Hellspires will create a zone around them that will end the event early if you leave it. While you remain in the zone, it will constantly summon enemies. In addition to the enemies, it will place Fire AoEs on the ground.
Once the event is roughly halfway done, it will begin to spawn Elites more frequently while shooting out flames that rotate around the spire and sweep the zone until the event ends.
Ravenous Soulspires work similarly to Hellspires, creating a zone around it that will end it early if you leave. However, instead of fire, we’ll be constantly dealt Physical damage over time as the enemies are summoned.
This Damage over Time effect will ramp up the longer you stay in the zone up to the point it ends. We’ll need high Life, Healing, and Shielding to handle the later stages of this ramping damage.
Spires of Corruption work a bit differently. There is no Zone to stay in, but they will also create much larger zones of Shadow Damage, similar to those of the Hellspire.
It will also summon enemies much like the other two, but the biggest difference is that it can be destroyed. Once destroyed, it will immediately summon an Elite or Helltide Harbinger at random.
Helltide World Events
Hettides are home to a few World Events that are unique or changed specifically for Helltides. The two main World Events end with Boss Encounters referred to as Helltide Commanders. Below is a table detailing the basics of these events.
For more information on all the Events in Sanctuary, check out our Diablo 4 Events Guide. This covers every Event you can see in the Open World and Dungeons.
| Event Name | Objective | Mastery |
|---|---|---|
| Portal Invasion | Destroy all 7 Portals and Defeat the Helltide Commander | Defeat the Helltide Commander within the time limit. |
| Those Who Call the Storm | Destroy the Effigies to end the Storm and Defeat the Helltide Commander | Defeat the Helltide Commander within the time limit. |
The Helltide Commanders themselves take the form of rather common Dungeon Bosses. Below is the list of the existing ones.
| Name | Enemy Type |
|---|---|
| Delakzus, Helltide Commander | Tomb Lord |
| Cruxx, Helltide Commander | Chief Marauder |
| Skeizal, Helltide Commander | Tomb Lord |
| Zurden, Helltide Commander | Elias Clone |
| Nemnos, Helltide Commander | Blood Bishop |
Kixxarth the Helltide Assassin
Despite often being lumped in with and often considered a Helltide Commander, Kixxarth is not considered a Helltide Commander. This misconception comes from an early Seasonal Journey task from Season 1 where he was included with the Helltide Commanders.
This is instead a roaming boss that patrols along set paths in the Helltide. He takes the form of the Fly Warrior boss that appears in multiple dungeons. He uses all the same attacks as that boss.
Out of all Helltide content, Kixxarth is probably the least valuable enemy to deal with unless we’re over-geared and instantly defeat it for a pile of Aberrant Cinders. Otherwise, he’s a massive damage sponge and time-waster. He may have a rare drop, but otherwise drops little of value.
Farming the Helltide
Through the early game and well into the later stages, Helltides are insanely valuable content to participate in. They provide a lot of resources, gear, and most importantly a way to target farm gear when necessary.
When and Why to Farm Helltides
As stated previously, Helltides are valuable up to the later stages of the game. They do fall off in value much later on, but often not until World Tier 4.
During early levels, these are easily the best way to level and gain experience. Provided we don’t die in the process, the Cinders we farm up will even keep us sufficiently geared up as well. As we reach a higher level we’ll also start getting Legendary items frequently.
Once we get into higher Difficulties, the main draw for Helltides is Forgotten Souls. This is a resource we’ll need a fair bit of to keep upgrading and crafting our Legendary Items. While we’ll get some in the lower World Tiers, they’ll be way more plentiful with the increased density that comes with these higher World Tiers.
Once we’re into Torment Difficulties and stocked on resources, there’s not much reason for us to visit the Helltides besides occasionally restocking. We can also use the Tortured Gifts to try to target farm upgrades for a specific slot, but there are better ways to do this.
How to Farm Helltides
When it comes to farming in Helltides, there are a couple of ways to go about it. These can vary in effectiveness, but honestly, do what’s more fun for you. Just remember to always grab Doomsayers and your Tortured Gifts as you farm!
Event Hopping Method
The most common way is to hop from event to event, racking up both Aberrant Cinders and Murmuring Obols. This is a great way to not only get Helltide Resources and target farm items with Tortured Gifts but to also get Obols to use for even more target farming.
For this, you’ll just move from Event Zone to Event Zone on the map, completing them as they pop up. This tends to be slower, but also farms multiple resources at once, making it a great option.
High-Value Event Method
Not all events in the Helltide are made equal, some will provide way more cinders than others and make them worth grabbing every time you find them. Which ones will we want to look for? Here’s a quick List:
- Hellspires
- Ravenous Soulspire
- Waves of Darkness World Event
- Jar of Souls World Event
- Insatiable Hunger World Event
Why these events? Mob Density. All of the events listed have nearly endless spawns, making them exceptionally good for farming Cinders. It’s a bit more relaxed than just wandering around and slaying everything in the way, plus you still get some obols from the World Events.
Blood Maiden Method
Once you’re geared up and can take on the Blood Maiden easily, they become a decent way to farm Cinders, among other things. Though, the faster you can defeat them, the better it tends to be.
Since the event starts with multiple waves of enemies, it works similarly to the previous method. However, you’ll need a ton of baneful Hearts to do this for an extended period. The only downside is that if you have trouble surviving and defeating the Blood Maidens, it will take longer than the other methods.
