How to get Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1

❘ Updated: 2023-08-20T18:54:00

Diablo 4 corrupted enemy and malignant heart

Blizzard

Diablo 4 Season 1 revolves around the newly-introduced Malignant Hearts, and if you’re wondering what they are and how to get them in the game, then we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about Malignant Hearts.

Season of the Malignant brings new challenges, characters, and areas for players that already beat the main campaign in Diablo 4. Alongside the new features, a new type of item called Malignant Heart has arrived in the game.

Here’s everything you need to know about Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1, including how to use them, how to get them, and what each Malignant Heart does.

What are Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4?
How to get Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4
How to get Cage of Binding in Diablo 4
How to salvage Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4
Every Malignant Heart in Diablo 4

What are Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4?

Malignant Hearts are a new type of item introduced in Diablo 4 Season 1 that is placed in jewelry sockets and provide powerful enhancements. Collecting these helps players upgrade their builds with powerful buffs.

The first season of Diablo 4 features 32 Malignant Hearts across four categories:

Vicious (Orange, Offensive power)
Brutal (Blue, Defensive power)
Devious (Pink, Utility power)
Wrathful (Black, Super)

How to get Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4

Malignant Hearts will help you improve your builds in Diablo 4.

Slay corrupted enemies

To get Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1, players will have to slay Partly Corrupted enemies, a type of Malignant Monster, who will drop a Malignant Heart. Once the corrupted enemy is defeated, players need to capture the Heart by performing a ritual with the Cage of Binding, an item they can get during Season 1’s campaign.

Trying to capture the Heart will cause the Partly Corrupted enemy to be reborn as a Fully Corrupted enemy, even tougher than before. Once defeated, a new version of the Malignant Heart will drop. This is the one players will be after since it can be placed into special Infested sockets in the Jewelry, replacing Normal Gems.

Explore Malignant Tunnels

Another way to get Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 is by exploring the brand-new Malignant Tunnels. There are six of these dungeons spread across Sanctuary and they’re plagued with all kinds of enemies and tough Malignant Monsters, and replaying them is encouraged.

It’s important to note that these Tunnels will be available for players that complete the main storyline of the Season of the Malignant. That means you’ll have to try to defeat every Malignant Monster you can during your adventure to stock up on Malignant Hearts.

Create Malignant Hearts

Finally, Diablo 4 players can create Malignant Hearts with a new resource called Ichor. Taking Ichor to Cormond’s Wagon will give you the opportunity to exchange it for a random Malignant Heart that scales to your level and will be either specific to your Class, or can be used for any Class.

If you want to create a random Heart of a specific type, you’ll need to spend “35 Ichor of the other two primary-colored Hearts.” If you want to craft a Vicious Heart, for example, you’ll need to spend 35 Brutal Ichor and 35 Devious Ichor.

How to get Cage of Binding in Diablo 4 Season 1

Players need the Cage of Binding to get Malignant Hearts.

In order to get the Cage of Binding and start capturing Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1, players will need to head to Kyovashad and play through the Burning from Within questline. Here, former priest Cormond will train you to capture the Malignant Hearts.

How to salvage Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4

Malignant Hearts can be salvaged in Diablo 4 Season 1, and to do so, you just need to exchange them at Cormond’s Wagon for Ichor “of a corresponding color.”

As explained by the developers, “salvaging each Vicious, Brutal, and Devious Heart will provide you with 5-15 Ichor, with Wrathful hearts providing 2-5 Ichor of all other Heart types.”

Every Malignant Heart in Diablo 4: Class & buff

Malignant Hearts are collectibles from Malignant enemies in Diablo 4.

Thanks to Blizzard, here’s a breakdown of every Malignant Heart in Diablo 4 Season 1:

General

The Picana (Vicious, Offensive): Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.
The Dark Dance (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.
Tempting Fate (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
The Lionheart (Brutal, Defensive): You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier.
Revenge (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
Prudent Heart (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): You become Immune for 2.0-4.0 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds.
Determination (Devious, Utility): Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3.0-8.0% increased Resource Generation.
Retaliation (Devious, Utility-World Tier III): Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you.
The Calculated (Devious, Utility-World Tier III): After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds.
The Malignant Pact (Wrathful, Super): Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
- Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed.
- Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource.
- Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage.
Creeping Death (Wrathful, Super): Your damage over time effects are increased by 30-40% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take 110-130% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
The Barber (Wrathful, Super-World Tier III): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.

Barbarian

Focused Rage (Vicious, Offensive): After spending 100-60 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%.
Resurgent Life (Brutal, Defensive): While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources.
Punishing Speed (Devious, Utility): Your Skills have a 20-30% chance to Knock Down all enemies for 1.25 seconds when that Skill’s Attack Speed is higher than 35-20%.
Ignoring Pain (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68.

Druid

The Moonrage (Vicious, Offensive): Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves.
The Agitated Winds (Brutal, Defensive): When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10-20 seconds.
Inexorable Force (Devious, Utility): Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active.
The Unconstrained Beast (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): When you are hit with a Stun, Freeze or Knock Down effect, there is a 40-60% chance to automatically activate Grizzly Rage for 3 seconds.

Necromancer

The Sacrilegious (Vicious, Offensive): Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
The Decrepit Aura (Brutal, Defensive): When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
Frozen Terror (Devious, Utility): Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.
The Great Feast (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Each Minion drains 1.0-2.0 Essence per second but deals 50-75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second.

Rogue

Cluster Munitions (Vicious, Offensive): Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26-32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.
Trickery (Brutal, Defensive): When you use a Subterfuge Skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6.0 seconds dealing 680-1020 Shadow damage. Cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
The Clipshot (Devious, Utility): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies.
The Vile Apothecary (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.

Sorcerer

Tal’Rasha (Vicious, Offensive): For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.
Spellbreaking (Brutal, Defensive): After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds.
Spite (Devious, Utility): When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds.
Omnipower (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3.0-5.0%.

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