Season 1 brings new items to Diablo 4. The most important of these are Evil Hearts, a new type of gemstone that is meant to enable new and stronger builds. Blizzard has now introduced the 4 types of hearts.
What kind of “gemstones” are these?
- Evil Hearts are the special game mechanic in Season 1. They are dropped by Evil monsters after a hard fight.
- You can use the hearts like gemstones in certain socket slots in amulets and rings, instead of the gemstones you would otherwise use.
- There will be 4 types of gemstones in similar categories as the legendary aspects: offensive (“devilish”), defensive (“brutal”), versatile (“cunning”), and ultimate or super (“filled with anger”). In total, there are 32 different gemstones.
What do the gemstones bring? The specific effects of the hearts are not yet known. Players suspect that they will function similarly to the legendary gemstones in Diablo 3, which have mainly supported rather than defined builds.
In the dev update for Season 1, lead game producer Tim Ismay mentioned that the new gemstones are “like legendary items, perhaps even more.” When you use them, they are said to allow you to create “ridiculously new, broken builds.”
Ironically, some of the best builds will likely be nerfed before Season 1. Once we know all the gemstones in detail, you will find a complete list here on MeinMMO.
Season 1: Hearts are supposed to be “like legendary items, perhaps even more than that”
Where do I get the gemstones? The hearts are dropped by Evil enemies and can be crafted at Cormond’s cart. Cormond is a new NPC who drives the new side story in Season 1.
Evil enemies are a new variant of elite enemies that can appear in infested areas. After you defeat such an enemy, it drops a heart. If you use it, a small event starts with an even stronger opponent. If you defeat this one, you will receive an Evil Heart.
Additionally, there will be new caves where you can specifically farm for such hearts and crafting materials for them. The crafting is supposed to work roughly like the seal system for nightmare dungeons.
Even before the start of Season 1, a new patch is set to be released on July 18th. This will introduce the Season and you can check out the new legendaries and uniques coming to the game. This is even possible on the Eternal Realm; you do not need a season character for this.
However, for other mechanics like the battle pass and the Evil Hearts, you will need to play the season. The important information about the season can be found in our overview:
Diablo 4 Season 1 Start: Everything about release, content, mechanics, and battle pass
