Helltides are one of the endgame activities in Diablo 4. Simply put, Helltides are areas in the world where enemies become stronger than normal, and bosses can appear to make things more dangerous. However, you can get some good rewards from these, which includes the means to enchant your gear.
How to Unlock Helltides
Unlocking the Helltides is simple — you just need to unlock and be playing in World Tier 3 or 4 (we have a guide on Capstone Dungeons if you need help unlocking these Tiers). Once unlocked, a large area of the map will be highlighted red, and have an event over it called “The Helltide Rises”. The location of the Helltide will rotate every hour, at the start of the hour.
As of Season 4, there is a lesser version of Helltides available in World Tiers 1 and 2. There are a few differences to this version compared to the full Helltides:
- Tortured Gifts are Mystery Chests instead
- There are no roaming bosses
- Monster density is adjusted to match how it would be in Tiers 3 and 4
Helltide Events
Enemies within a Helltide will be set to be 3 levels higher than you are. On top of this, there are a couple of different events that can appear exclusively in these areas (as well as normal Local Events):
- Roaming Boss
- Portal Invasion
Roaming Boss
The Roaming Boss is a special boss, Kixxarth, that you can find roaming around the Helltides. This is a fairly tanky boss, and will use two primary attacks on you:
- Aggro Pounce – Kixxarth will chase you down and attack several times.
- During this attack, he will leave behind a crimson trail that will damage you if you stand in it.
- Doomfear – An AoE attack that inflicts Fear on anyone hit.
The fight will probably take some time, but as long as you have some mobility ready to avoid Aggro Pounce and heal up after being Feared, he will eventually go down.
Portal Invasion
Portal Invasions, on the other hand, will have you fight Occulists and monsters to stop a ritual, while destroying the portals that are created during the event. culminating in fighting a Helltide Commander Boss. This Boss will essentially be a random boss from a dungeon, and you will have to defeat them within a time limit.
Helltide Threat
While battling in a Helltide, you will generate Threat. This will determine the power and frequency of monster ambushes you will encounter.
- The amount of Threat you generate consistently scales with the health of slain monsters.
- There are 3 Tiers of Threat you can have.
- Note that you will become Hell-Marked at Tier 3.
- Once you reach Tier 3, you will briefly be caught in an ambush frenzy of maximum enemy density. This culminates in fighting a Hellborne spawn.
- The Hellborne spawn you face will depend on what Class you are.
- Your Threat will reset upon activating the ambush, or from dying.
Accursed Ritual
To begin the Accursed Ritual, you will need Baneful Hearts. There are a few different ways to obtain them:
- Tortured Gifts
- Hellborne Demons
- Doomsayers
- Small chance of dropping from Local Event chests when achieving Mastery
- World Bosses that spawn within the Helltide
- These will drop 3 Hearts
Once you have 3 (or 2 if you’re in World Tiers 1 or 2), you can take them to an Accursed Ritual. Once started, you will be swarmed in a demonic ambush, which ends with fighting the Blood Maiden. During the ritual, other players in the subzone will be alerted, and they can join in the fight to help.
Rewards (Tortured Gifts)
Going through Helltides can give you some great rewards, which are tied to Aberrant Cinders — a special currency that can be found in Helltides from both the monster drops and by completing events. Aberrant Cinders can be used to open Tortured Gifts, which are treasures spread throughout the affected areas.
Tortured Gifts can drop several things:
- Fiend Roses
- Forgotten Souls
- Living Steel
- Equipment
Tortured Gifts are the only way to obtain Fiend Roses and Forgotten Souls. These materials are needed to enchant your gear at the Occulist, so these are very important resources to obtain. You can also find Living Steel in these chests, which are needed to summon the boss Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint.
Each Tortured Gift will also have a specific gear slot linked to it — this means that if you are looking for gear in a particular slot, you can search for Tortured Gifts link to that slot to give you a more focused form of gear farming.
