Helltide events are one of the World Tier 3 (Nightmare difficulty) events you can indulge in if you want more gameplay options for grinding your way to greater levels of power. This page will cover how Helltide events work in Diablo 4, including how they spawn and how to obtain Aberrant Cinders and exchange them for Tortured Gifts.

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Helltide events are easy to spot on the map, thanks to their red highlight.

What Are Helltide Events in Diablo 4?¶

Helltide events can occur any time on overworld Sanctuary on World Tier 3. Nothing has to be done to trigger them, they activate on a timer and persist for one hour of real time. Blood raining down from the skies, rivers glowing with crimson, an unearthly red glow - it’s not difficult to spot when an area is afflicted with Helltide. Helltide events usually affect two contiguous subregions at a time - the Frigid Expanse and Sarkova Pass in the Fractured Peaks, for example.

Helltide events are clearly marked with a red highlight on your map, and have their own red icon that’ll display the time left in the event if you hover over it. To participate, just head to a subregion afflicted by Helltide and start killing and looting - it’s really that simple. Helltide events are less lucrative than, say Nightmare Dungeons, but they’re more freeform and lower stakes. Enemies are somewhat more dangerous in Helltide events, and there are even some Helltide specific bosses and hazards

How to Farm Aberrant Cinders During Helltide Events¶

When you’re in an area afflicted by Helltide, any source of loot - killing enemies, looting plants, ore seams, chests, completing events - all of it has a chance to net you Aberrant Cinders. These Aberrant Cinders are a special Helltide-only currency, and collecting them is pretty much the entire purpose of performing Helltide runs, as you can exchange accumulated Aberrant Cinders for weapons, armor and jewelry at various Tortured Chests scattered throughout Helltide-afflicted areas.

While pretty much any source of loot can yield Aberrant Cinders, keep in mind that the amount of Aberrant Cinders earned by a source is random and in no way strictly correlated with how rare, powerful or lucrative that loot source may otherwise be. Sometimes you’ll score several Aberrant Cinders from a trash mob, rivaling what an elite, Helltide boss or Resplendant chest may yield. If you want to accumulate Aberrant Cinders, kill everything, loot everything, and the cinders will flow. Just don’t die, as you’ll lose half of your held Aberrant Cinders upon death, and you cannot recover these lost cinders.

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(1 of 3) Any source of loot can yield Aberrant Cinders during Helltide events,

How to Get Tortured Gifts During Helltide Events¶

To obtain Tortured Gifts you’ll need to accumulate Aberrant Cinders (see above), which basically just requires you to kill and plunder in Helltide-afflicted subregions. Tortured Gifts are dispensed by chests located randomly throughout Helltide zones, and to find them you can scan the map and look for white chest icons (you’ll have to be fairly zoomed in, and the game will not pause just because you’re looking at the map - have to friends to cover you or be swift!).

There are several types of Tortured Gift chests: Protection, Weaponry and Jewelry. These are the only details you’ll see on the map, but when you actually get near the chest they’ll be further divided by type, and different gear costs a varying amount of Aberrant Cinders, as follows:

Since you can’t identify what each type of Tortured Gift chest will yield (a “Protection” chest may offer up any type of armor: Helmet, Chest Armor, Gloves or Pants, a “Weaponry” chest may be Light (one-handed) or Heavy (two-handed) and a “Jewelry” chest may be either Rings or Amulets) you may have to scour around the map, moving from chest to chest to find the specific type of item you’re looking for. This, of course, puts you at increased risk as you attempt to cash out, and even if you’re secure in your power, if a Helltide event expires, you’ll lose all accumulated Aberrant Cinders, so it may not be wise to be picky if you’re short on time.

Tortured Gifts, when purchased, are always [Sacred] items, meaning they should scale fairly well to your level, being statistically superior to gear found in World Tier 1 or World Tier 2 (assuming you’re at or above level 50). That said, Tortured Gifts can be either rare or legendary, with about a 50/50 chance for each.

One of the best rewards are the Helltide Mystery Chests, which we have a Helltide Mystery Chest Location Map here, helping you be more efficient with your total rewards and Cinder farms.

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(1 of 3) Helltide bosses spawn in three ways - elites can spawn from bombardments of brimstone,

Helltide Bosses¶

Helltide-afflicted zones have their normal enemies as well as a collection of demons and cultists not native to Sanctuary, but the real standouts are Helltide bosses - unique monsters that only spawn in Helltide-afflicted subregions. These come in a few forms; when you see fire falling from the sky, there’s a chance a named Helltide Elite enemy will appear (sometimes these hellfire barrages are merely environmental hazards), who, despite their pretensions, are just jumped-up Elites and nothing particularly fancy. You can also find certain events like Those Who Call the Storm, where, if the initial objectives are met, will spawn a Helltide Commander. These bosses will have a segmented health bar like a proper story boss or miniboss, and will drop a significant amount of loot when defeated.

Finally, there’s Kixxarth, Helltide Assassin. This boss spawns in every Helltide and can be found randomly roaming around a small part of it. It’s always a minimum of level 72, regardless of what your own level is, and while it’s not an offensive powerhouse, it’s incredibly durable and tenacious, and will quickly drain your resources if you insist on fighting it before you’re of a similar level. It’s best to just ignore this enemy until your DPS is sufficient to dispatch it in a reasonable time frame. Functionally Kixxarth is a good litmus test for whether you’re ready for World Tier 4 or not.