Diablo 4 Season 1 new Malignant features explained: Caged Hearts, Infested Sockets, more

Diablo 4’s first seasonal content update is right around the corner launching on July 20. Blizzard has released a ton of new info, the most intriguing of which is the first season’s core theme and mechanic: Malignance.

In the Developer Update announcing Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant, devs promised new legendary gear, new boss fights, and balance changes. On top of that, players can expect to engage with a new series of mechanics that devs describe as “a really fun and exciting way to add power to your character.”

The season’s self-contained story looks to have your character(s) teaming up with Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light. You’ll work together to stop a festering curse plaguing the lands of Sanctuary.

This curse is corrupting the hearts of monsters across Sanctuary twisting them into powerful savages. Cormond has found a way for you to rip the Malignant Hearts from these enemies and use them in your efforts to stop the curse.

Contents

• Malignant Monsters
• Caged Hearts & Malignant Powers explained
• Infested Sockets & categories
• Caged Hearts & crafting
• Invokers & Malignant Tunnels

What are Malignant Monsters in Diablo 4?

As players progress through Sanctuary’s Seasonal Realm, they will encounter Malignant Monsters. Elite Monsters have a chance to spawn corrupted with Malignance. These enemies will be covered with growths and have additional powers.

Malignant Monsters are a multi-stage encounter and are only Partially Corrupted when they initially spawn. Upon defeat, a Partially Corrupted Malignant Monster will drop an item called a Malignant Heart.

Players can use a new item called a Cage of Unbinding on a Malignant Heart to summon a more powerful Fully Corrupted version of the same Malignant Monster. When bested they will drop the true prize, a Caged Heart.

Caged Hearts & Malignant Powers explained

Caged Hearts are items that can be socketed into gear like Gems. Unlike Gems, however, Caged Hearts offer Malignant Powers akin to the Legendary Affixes of the base game. Devs have said in the stream that in some cases, these Malignant Powers are “more powerful than Legendary Powers.”

There are 32 different types of Malignant Hearts, each with a different Malignant Power. At the time of writing only one Malignant Power has been revealed: “Critical strikes electrically charge the enemy for 2.89 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and other charged enemies dealing 64 Lightning damage.”

Malignant Hearts will become more powerful as you collect them from higher-level enemies and in higher World-Tiers. They have four color-coded categories that correspond with similarly coded Infested Sockets.

Infested Sockets & categories in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant

Infested Sockets on gear come in three color-coded categories corresponding to the three color-coded tiers of Caged Hearts. A fourth “very, very rare and powerful” category of Caged Heart called a Wrathful Caged Heart will slot into any Infested Socket regardless of its color.

Developers have confirmed that any socket applied to gear in the seasonal realm via vendors will be randomly assigned a colored socket. The currently revealed categories and their corresponding colors are:

• White – Viscious
• Blue – Brutal
• Any – Wrathful

Developers very specifically mentioned only Jewelry when discussing Infested Sockets. It has been confirmed that they are found on and can be applied to Rings and Amulets. We will update this section if it is revealed that other items can be socketed in this way.

Caged Hearts & crafting

As you progress your character and they grow in power, older Caged Hearts will be outstripped by new ones you collect. You can sacrifice old or incompatible ones for a crafting resource that will allow you to create Invokers.

Invokers are special items that will allow you to farm specific categories of Caged hearts in a more targeted way. This is done in special locations called Malignant Tunnels.

Invokers & Malignant Tunnels: How to farm Caged Hearts in Diablo 4

Dungeons around Sanctuary will randomly be assigned the status of Malignant Tunnel. Developers have likened this mechanic to Trre of Whispers bounties.

These dungeons will spawn Malignant Monsters at a higher rate but more importantly, they house something called Malignant Outgrowths. These will appear at the end of Malignant Tunnels and are colored to match the categories of Caged Hearts and Infested Sockets.

In current clips from the developer stream, it appears there will be more than one color of Malignant Outgrowth per dungeon. Players can select one based on their needs and use an Invoker to summon an enemy that guarantees a Caged Heart of the Outgrowth’s color.

We’ll keep updating this guide as more information becomes available in the lead-up to Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant and beyond.

For more Diablo content, check out some of Dexerto’s other Diablo 4 guides below:

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