What are Malignant Hearts and how to get them in Diablo 4 Season 1

The first Season of Diablo 4 will feature new events that follow the ending of the game’s campaign. Season of the Malignant focuses on a new threat that has encroached Sanctuary, spreading like a disease. New monsters and gear with be available as you work to stop the Malignance from corrupting everything. Mentioned in the Diablo Developer Update Livestream, there are new items called Malignant Hearts. We’ll Explain what Malignant Hearts are, and how you can get them in Diablo 4 Season 1.

Diablo 4 Season 1: Malignant Hearts explained

During the Season 1 events in Diablo 4, cursed enemies will spawn that may drop a Malignant Heart. Malignant Hearts are powerful items that can highly enhance your character build. This is the new special item for the first season of Diablo 4‘s Battle Pass.

Screenshot via Blizzard

Once you get your hands on a Malignant Heart, you can place it into a Gear Socket. If using Gems and Skulls bores you, use this powerful item instead. In the livestream, the developers stated that there are 32 different types of Malignant Hearts. Each type has a different ability. Also, there are four different colors of Malignant Hearts. Their Sockets will only come in three colors, meaning the fourth type of Malignant Heart can go into any of the colors. The other colored hearts must attach to their correlated Socket color.

Now that you know what Malignant Hearts are in Diablo 4 Season 1, there’s something you should know about how you get them. You can’t simply pick up a Malignant Heart, you’ll need to use a new quest item, which is the ‘Cage of Binding’. Once you begin the ritual to take the heart, hoards of Malignant enemies will swarm you. Also, an even stronger version of the enemy you just killed will attack you. Take down all the enemies, and the ritual will finish. You’ll then receive a Caged Heart.

Diablo 4 is available on Battle.net.