Vampiric Powers are the main gameplay innovation in the Season of Blood, season 2 in Diablo 4, and the best place to get the resources you’ll need to unlock and upgrade your vampiric powers are Blood Harvest events. Specifically, Blood Harvests are the best place to accumulate Potent Blood and Pacts, as well as generally being a good spot to hunt for loot, XP and Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers. This page will cover Blood Harvests in Diablo 4, including when they spawn, how to find them, how to farm Potent Blood, how to find Blood Lures and Seeker Keys, how to defeat Blood Seekers and open Seekers Caches.

Blood Harvests - Location and Overview¶

At a glance, Blood Harvest events are very similar to Helltides inasmuch as they both spawn in regions, altering the aesthetics, events, and enemies within for the span of an hour and offer unique rewards for participation. These include Blood Lures and Seeker Keys, which are the two currencies exclusive to Blood Harvest, similar to the Aberrant Shards you’ll find during Helltides. Blood Lures are used to activate Sanguine Altars, Blood Lure Receptacles, and Blood Wells, while Seeker Keys open Seekers Caches, which are roughly analogous to the Tortured Gift Chests you can find during Helltides.

As long as you’ve completed (or skipped) the main campaign, Blood Harvest events will spawn. Like Helltide events, Blood Harvests randomly afflict an area of the map and persist for an hour before moving. Unlike Helltide events, Blood Harvests are colored green on the map, and affect a much smaller area (typically only one named map region instead of several contiguous regions, like Helltides) and when one Blood Harvest ends, another will begin immediately. You’ll also keep your resources between Blood Harvests (Blood Lures and Seeker Keys), which makes them considerably more forgiving than Helltides. Also, instead of fighting cultists and demons, you’ll generally be fighting a mix of the native fauna and a variety of vampiric enemies. All in all, Blood Harvest events are great ways to grind out loot and XP, and you’ll need to complete them if you want to unlock and enhance your vampiric powers, but they’re no replacement for Nightmare Dungeons, as you won’t level up Glyphs by running Blood Harvests, and you won’t get endgame materials like Fiend Roses and Forgotten Souls.

It’s also worth noting that Blood Harvests always spawn with various objectives you can complete to earn Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers. Some of these are exclusive to Blood Harvest events, but others are standard fare - including ones that task you with killing certain types of enemies in the region or within a search area within the region. These can often be completed as you work on other objectives - or run around mindlessly slaughtering foes - and if you turn these in at the Tree of Whispers as you accumulate sufficient Grim Favors, you’ll magnify the rewards you earn for running Blood Harvests.

How to Farm Potent Blood¶

While the XP and loot you’ll gain from running Blood Harvests, there’s not a lot here that can’t be gained by farming other areas/activities… with the main standout being Potent Blood. To upgrade vampiric powers you’ll need to spend Potent Blood, and although you can get a bit from the odd reward cache, the best place to farm Potent Blood is during Blood Harvest events. The primary sources of Potent Blood are Blood Seekers and Seeker Caches, the former being powerful elite vampires that will attack you periodically (you can force some to spawn by using Blood Lures at Sanguine Altars or by enduring Vampiric Syphons). Seeker Caches can only be opened with Seeker Keys, which, as the name implies, are also often dropped by Blood Seekers. Aside from Blood Seekers - by far the best source of Potent Blood, either directly or indirectly - you’ll need to seek out Blood Wells, which sometimes spawn in Blood Harvests (these sometimes require you to expend Blood Lures to access). This all sounds more complicated than it really is - raise a ruckus in Blood Harvests and Blood Seekers will eventually spawn, either as a result of the carnage you’re unleashing or because you expended Blood Lures to draw them out. The more time you spend killing enemies in Blood Harvest events, the more Potent Blood you’ll end up with.

Blood Harvest Events and Hunter Acclaim¶

Aside from the aforementioned loot, XP, and Potent Blood, Blood Harvests are also a source of Hunter Acclaim. In a lazy homage to Van Helsing and his derivatives, the season quests revolve around hunters and their eternal struggle against things that go bump in the night. Outside the season questline, this is mostly handled via Hunter Acclaim, which you’ll earn by killing elite vampires and completing events during Blood Harvests. There are numerous Blood Harvest exclusive events, Corpse Piles, Injured Adventurers, Locked Cages, Monuments of Bone, Restless Spirits, etc., but most of these require you to either defeat a bunch of enemies and then click on the aforementioned object, or click on the object then defeat a bunch of enemies.

They’re not very in-depth, but they’re marked on your map with white diamonds and you earn Hunter Acclaim for completing them. You’ll be introduced to the Hunter Acclaim and the rewards you’ll get from earning it during the season quest Those Who Fight, which you should complete as soon as possible just to get acquainted with this feature. Simply put, kill vampires and complete events during Blood Harvests and you’ll earn Hunter Acclaim, which will unlock tiered rewards at various Hunter Acclaim Boards in cities throughout Sanctuary. These rewards typically consist of caches of loot that commonly include scaled loot and Potent Blood, but at Tier IV and Tier IX, you’ll earn the Sanguine Brace and Accursed Touch vampiric powers, respectively.

If you want to complete all the Hunter Acclaim Tiers (XVIII), expect to spend quite a few hours running Blood Harvest events.

What Are Blood Lures Used For?¶

The primary currency you’ll find during Blood Harvest events, Blood Lures are random drops from enemies. With the smothering enemy density during Blood Harvests, you’ll likely find at least one every significant encounter, with them dropping fairly regularly from elite enemies. Blood Lures can be used in a variety of ways, including:

• The season quest Those Who Fight requires you to hand a single Blood Lure over to complete it.

• Sanguine Altars will summon a pair of Blood Seekers at the expense of 15x Blood Lures. If you want to expedite the process of farming Potent Blood and Seeker Keys.

• Blood Lure Pedestals are arguably the ultimate goal of Blood Harvests, as you can spend 150 Blood Lures (50 in each Blood Lure Pedestal, of which there are always three arranged in a triangle) to summon waves of vampires, culminating in a fight with several “Ancients” - elite vampires with the pretense of being bosses. Defeat them and they’ll drop Potent Blood, Pacts, Seeker Keys and with any luck the odd legendary drop. The hordes of monsters that attack during this event will also likely drop some Blood Lures, but not nearly enough to replenish what you expended.

How to Find Seeker Keys and Open Seekers Caches¶

Blood Lures may be the core resource you’ll pick up during Blood Harvest events, but you’ll notice numerous chests scattered about as you explore afflicted areas. These Seekers Caches are the crude equivalent to Tortured Gift chests in Helltide events, with the same general idea - get a certain resource to open them and score the juicy loot within. Unlike Tortured Gift Chests, Seekers Caches drop loot relevant to the Season of Blood, namely Potent Blood, Pacts, and the odd randomized gear. Once you’re high enough level this will almost always be rare loot with a fair shot at a legendary popping out - well worth your time to open them.

To open Seekers Caches you need Seeker Keys, which are dropped by elite vampires - especially Blood Seekers. Blood Seekers effectively serve as minibosses for Blood Harvest events, and there are several ways to provoke them into attacking you. First, you can simply kill enough enemies and complete events during Blood Harvests. You’ll see several warning signs indicating how much attention you’ve drawn, starting with “The Vampires Have Noticed You” before culminating with “A Pair of Blood Seekers Are On Your Trail”. If you’re active in Blood Harvest events long enough, you’ll eventually stumble across some Blood Seekers. Second, you can brave Vampiric Syphon events, which drain your health as long as you remain near the syphon, but in the process, it lures vampires to you. Endure long enough and a Blood Seeker or two may show up. Needless to say, this is fairly risky, especially for classes that don’t have a way to soak damage or replenish their health. Third, you can simply use 15x Blood Lures at a Sanguine Altar, which will summon a pair of Blood Seekers. You’ll likely draw the ire of Blood Seekers (or get Seeker Keys as random drops) if you burn 150x Blood Lures at Blood Lure Pedestals.

Blood Seekers are effectively minibosses and have unique attacks that other elites in the game don’t possess, including a mage variant who tosses out something very similar to Frozen Orb… They’re not hard, per se, but they definitely have more staying power and offensive output than most of your random scrub elites. The risk is definitely worth the reward, however, and like most things in Blood Harvests, you’ll accrue Seeker Keys as you go about your business, and it shouldn’t be something you focus on.

How to Fight Ancient Vampires¶

Culling vampires, completing events, and collecting Blood Lures and Seeker Keys is all well and good, but eventually, you may find that you’re just stockpiling more Blood Lures than you can spend, and the challenge provided by Blood Seekers just isn’t doing it anymore. When that happens, it’s time to seek out the ultimate challenge offered by Blood Harvest events - fighting the Ancients. Not to be confused with the immortalized barbarian heroes on Mount Arreat in Diablo 2, these vampire Ancients are effectively the bosses of the Blood Harvest. Look on your map for a green-winged skull icon - often at the heart of the Blood Harvest - and head there to find three Blood Lure Pedestals.

Each of these pedestals demands 50 Blood Lures, and if you socket the required 150 Blood Lures you’ll summon waves of vampires. First trash mobs, but eventually elites will start to show, and finally several Ancients… and given the sheer amount of carnage you’ll have to inflict over the course of this event, you shouldn’t be surprised if some Blood Seekers show up, too. These critters have proper boss bars and everything, and all in all they’re roughly comparable to Dungeon bosses, but given their numbers and the rewards you can expect to get from killing all of them (we always walked away with several legendary drops!) makes this encounter more analogous to a Legion Event. Just be sure not to spend any Blood Lures until you have a full 150, as partial activations don’t count and, unlike almost anything else during Blood Harvest events, won’t carry over if the event ends.