Diablo 4’s Season 1: Season of the Malignant is coming on July 20, offering players a new end-game experience to help progress their builds and characters. The new seasonal affix brings a new tide of enemies to defeat, alongside a new item from them called the Malignant Hearts. It will be a major part of the season, offering new buffs to gear and leveling up alongside you as you encounter more enemies. Here’s everything we know so far from the Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts mechanic.

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Here’s a look into what you can expect from Malignant Hearts in Season 1 of Diablo 4. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts: What We Know So Far¶

As it stands, we only know what the Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts is based on the campfire chat on July 6, aka a livestream from Blizzard’s Diablo team talking about Season 1. So far, we know that:

1. Malignant Hearts are found on Partly Corrupted enemies, typically found in Malignant Tunnels.

2. Malignant Tunnels are a type of dungeon content exclusive to Season 1, where you will find many Malignant Threats.

3. When you defeat a Malignant threat, you will use a season item called a Cage of Binding to capture the heart.

4. Capturing Malignant Hearts becomes an item you can use on your gear in special types of gem slots.

5. Each heart can become one of 32 types, each belonging to one of four themes of powers. Each one provides a unique bonus to enhance builds and playstyles not already in the game. Therefore, these hearts will offer some interesting build experimentation as the season progresses.

On a final note, Blizzard mentioned that Malignant Hearts will grow in strength the more you encounter Malignant types of Creatures. So, the more you progress through the season and find new enemies and defeat them, the further the Hearts grow stronger. It feels like another end-game system akin to Glyphs, albeit, for gem slots rather than Paragon board slots.

At the time of writing, we are yet to know what all the types of Malignant Hearts are. When we get our hands on the season’s update, we will provide a table we will update over time, showcasing all the effects of each heart and its type. But for now, the wait for Diablo 4 Season 1 begins.