How Helltides work in Diablo 4 and how to spend Aberrant Cinders

Helltides are one of the coolest endgame features in Diablo 4, giving you a reason to explore the areas of Diablo 4 you’ve already visited many times before — such as The Fractured Peaks or Scosglen. Even better, Helltides are an excellent source for loot, and you can spend special currencies for a chance at items in a specific armor or weapon slot.

In this Diablo 4 guide, we’re going to go over everything you need to know about Helltides, including when Helltides spawn, the Threat system and Helltides Assault events, the Accursed Ritual, and what loot you can get from mystery chests.

Loot Reborn is the fourth season of Diablo 4 and introduces a myriad of changes and new content to the base game, chiefly to do with Helltides.

Helltides now appear on all World Tiers. Before, you could only participate in Helltides if you had reached World Tier 3. Now, even on World Tier 1 or 2, you can hunt down demons in this recurring event. On the other hand, you won’t receive the same types of rewards or the same density of enemies in the area. You can’t find roaming bosses as well. Lastly, the chests are all mystery chests.

As of season 4, you start seeing Helltides bounties, which are Tree of the Whispers bounties with a small fire icon.

Alongside these modifications, the Loot Reborn season also adds the Threat system and two new events that happen during Helltides: Helltide Assault and Accursed Rituals, which we’ve detailed below. Less dramatic additions to the Helltides involve enemies such as the Doomsayers, who summon Elite enemies after you interact with them.

On all World Tiers, Helltides will appear as a semi-permanent map feature. Each Helltide lasts for about an hour in a single zone, and then reappears in a new zone after a five-minute break.

If you open the map, Helltides are relatively easy to find, as an entire section of a region will turn blood red, like so:

Inside this zone, you’ll find a bunch of higher level monsters and even some new resource nodes, like Fiend Roses. When you kill enemies in a Helltide, or complete events, or do basically anything, you’ll earn Aberrant Cinders. These little red shards are extremely valuable, as you can spend them to get better loot.

The catch here is that Aberrant Cinder chests are expensive, and you lose half of your current Aberrant Cinders every time you die. The good news is that if you leave the Helltide area and come back while it’s still active, you’ll still have all your Cinders. Cinders only expire when the Helltide you received them from goes away.

Helltides became more dynamic as of season 4 due to the addition of the Threat system. As you engage with the content by killing demons and opening Tortured Gift Mysteries chests, the Threat meter, which is near the minimap, fills up.

The Threat meter has three levels, and for each one that you complete, your experience during the Helltide changes. While the rewards become better as you fill in the meter, the number of enemies you end up facing increases and they become stronger. In case you die, besides losing your cinders, the Threat meter goes back to zero and you need to start the whole process again.

But, if you completely fill up the Threat meter and survive the Helltide, you start the Helltide Assault event. At this point, in World Tier 3 and 4, you become Hell-Marked and a wave of enemies appears. Finishing them off is not the end of this phase though. After the wave, a new powerful enemy, the Hellborn, spawns. There are five variations of this enemy based on the classes available in the game, making every new assault a fresh experience. The Helltide Assault is over if you die or kill the Hellborn.

During the Red-Cloaked Horror’s Return event, which runs from Nov. 19 to Dec. 3 as part of the broader Return to Sanctuary event, you have a chance of encountering the Red-Cloaked Horror instead of a Hellborn while adventuring in Helltide. This winter-themed demon can drop extra materials — including bonus Cinders — and will drop a Gideon’s Brew. This special winter elixir will increase your damage, your experience gained, and earn you additional resource rewards.

The Red-Cloaked Horror can also appear in the Infernal Hordes activity and in dungeons.

The Threat meter and Helltide Assaults aren’t the only novelties introduced to Helltides in season 4. During Helltides, you have the chance to perform an Accursed Ritual.

During Helltides, you might find a new item called Baneful Heart, which you will mostly find as a drop from a Tortured Gift of Mysteries chest. While less common, Baneful Hearts might also drop from Doomsayers and Hellborne Demons. In both cases, there is no guarantee a Baneful Heart will drop.

To perform an Accursed Ritual, you need three Baneful Hearts, and more than one player can contribute with at least one heart. A marker beside your minimap will indicate how many hearts you have with you. With the exact number in hand, you need to look for the Accursed Altars that are indicated on the map by a demon head icon. Put one heart on each altar to start the invocation.

By completing the ritual, you’re swarmed by enemies and you summon a new powerful boss called Blood Maiden. Due to how strong this enemy is, players within your subzone receive a message about the ritual. They can join the fight even if they haven’t contributed to the ritual with a heart. However, the players who performed the ritual and turned the Baneful Hearts always receive bonus rewards after Blood Maiden is defeated.

As you’re adventuring through the Helltide — and if you just look at your map — you’ll see a variety of chests. On World Tiers 1 and 2, all chests, named Tortured Gift of Mysteries, are of the same type and you won’t drop endgame materials when opening them. On the other hand, on World Tiers 3 and 4, you find weapon chests, while others are “protection” armor chests.

If you go up to these chests, you’ll see a symbol floating above them, indicating what type of item (helmet, chest armor, one-handed weapons, etc.) will drop from the chest. On the two highest World Tiers, you can also find Living Steel Chests, which drop special endgame materials.

On World Tier 1 and 2, all chests cost 100 Aberrant Cinders to open, while on World Tier 3 and 4, each type of chest costs a different amount of Aberrant Cinders, as we’ve detailed below:

Each chest purchased drops multiple pieces of gear, and there’s a decent chance you’ll get more than one Legendary when you open one. This is a great way to specifically improve one piece of armor that you’re struggling to replace by running dungeons or completing other activities.

You may have noticed that one of these chests is not like the other. The Tortured Gift of Mysteries (also sometimes just called the “mystery chest” by the community) is actually the most worthwhile purchase during every Helltide. Our Tortured Gift of Mysteries guide can show you where to find them.