Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts guide

Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts - a rogue stands next to a glowing malignant heart hovering above the snow — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts are new in Season 1 and can be added to jewellery to provide powerful bonuses. The Season of the Malignant, the first season of many coming to Diablo 4, centres around Sanctuary's monsters and the corruption that seems to be infecting the hearts of some of them. Obviously, we're more than happy to take it off their hands—or out of their chests, in this case—and insert it into our new gear to claim the powerful bonuses they offer.

Malignant Hearts are similar to gems in that they require a socket to be inserted into, but the boons they offer work more like the powers from Aspects, rather than just the flat stat bonuses that gems offer. If you're ready to learn more, here's how Malignant Hearts work in Diablo 4.

Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts: How they work

Malignant Hearts are best thought of as a grisly type of gem that offers a unique bonus to your character. There are 32 Malignant Hearts in total and they come in four different varieties, each one associated with a bonus type and colour. They can only be slotted into jewellery with a socket of the same colour, though there is one exception, which can bypass the colour requirement.

Here are the different Malignant Heart types and their corresponding types:

Vicious (Red): Offensive bonus
Brutal (Blue): Defensive bonus
Devious (Purple): Utility bonus
Wrathful (Any colour): Super Power

Where to get Malignant Hearts

Once you've completed the first few objectives of the new seasonal questline, which introduces you to Cormond, he'll train you in the ways of capturing these hearts from Malignant monsters so you can insert them into jewellery and become more powerful yourself.

While Malignant monsters can be randomly found out and about in Sanctuary, your best bet will be to find them in the Malignant Tunnels dungeons, another new addition to the season.

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Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.