Everything you need to know about Diablo 4's new Helltide open world events.
The Diablo 4 Helltide Reborn event is an essential part of season 4 Loot Reborn and has been dramatically improved since the action RPG's launch. These timed events in the open world are a buffet of XP, loot, and materials that everyone needs to sustain their trek to level 100.
The rewards for doing Helltide are crucial, whether you play in the current seasonal realm or the eternal realm. Slaying monsters during these events earns you heaps of XP and lets you pick up a unique currency to unlock chests filled with loot and valuable materials. Because of this, Helltides are the best way to level up in Diablo 4.
Some of the materials you earn from Helltide events can be used to summon bosses who will drop Uniques and Uber Uniques. You can also earn Murmuring Obols by completing events while you're there, letting you gamble at the Purveyor of Curiosities. As long as your character can defeat high-level monsters, the Helltide is the most lucrative event in the game.
The Helltide Reborn event only appears on your map after you've completed Diablo 4's campaign or have skipped it. If you've never played Diablo 4 before, you have to finish the story's prologue (up to reaching Kyovashad city) before you can skip the campaign on the character select screen or when you make a new character.
Then, you can join Helltide from level one on all world tiers, with Nightmare and Torment world tier having more monsters and Tortured Gift chests.
Your goal in a Helltide is to gather as many Aberrant Cinders as you can to open Tortured Gift chests for loot. Aberrant Cinders aren't permanent, however. You lose 50% of them when you die and you lose all of them when the Helltide event ends. They won't go away when you teleport to a town, but you can't hold onto them for the next Helltide.
Helltide monsters will always be three levels higher than you, but won't exceed level 50 in Adventurer world tier and Veteran world tier. As you defeat them, a threat meter will fill up on the right side of your screen. Monsters will periodically ambush you as your threat increases, and when it's full, a series of ambushes will occur, ending in a confrontation with an especially tough enemy called a Hellborne. The meter will only reset once the Hellborne spawns or if you die.
The Helltide Reborn events periodically takes over one of the five regions of Diablo 4's world map for 55 minutes and fills it with high-level monsters. Then, once the event ends, there'll be a short five-minute break before another one pops up in a new region. This means you've got limited time to grab your Aberrant Cinders and spend them at the chests before they disappear. If you're wondering when the next Helltide is, I'd recommend bookmarking this Helltide Event Tracker site so you know exactly when.
Like Blood Harvests in season two, you can use a new Helltide-specific material to summon the Blood Maiden; a new boss who drops tons of valuable loot. Tortured Gift chests, Hellborne, and Doomsayers (kneeling NPCs who trigger a demon ambush) drop Baneful Hearts, which you can use for Accursed Rituals at spots on the map marked with an white horned demon icon (orange means it's been activated).
To summon the Blood Maiden boss, you need to place one Baneful Heart on each pedestal at an Accursed Ritual location. You need three Baneful Hearts in total, but other players can activate the pedestals too. Anyone who spends their materials to summon the boss receives bonus loot.
The Blood Maiden drops tons of loot in general, but she specifically drops Exquisite Blood for summoning Lord Zir and has a chance in Torment world tier to drop random other boss-summoning materials.
All you have to do is kill monsters, complete events, and interact with various objects in the environment to earn Aberrant Cinders. They drop everywhere and are impossible to miss, but there are a few methods you can try to get them as fast as possible.
Here are the best strategies for farming Aberrant Cinders efficiently:
