Diablo 4 Helltide: Timer & Tracker

Want to take your game to the next level? After finishing the campaign, it can be hard to understand what activities are the most rewarding in Diablo 4. Enter Helltides.

Diablo 4’s endgame has a lot to offer, but Helltides are particularly rewarding, engaging, and fun. This guide covers everything you need to know to get the most out of them.

Diablo 4 Helltide Tracker: Spawn Alert

Diablo 4’s Helltides are region-wide events that occur at the same time worldwide, every 2 hours and 15 minutes. Offering top-tier rewards, including rare endgame materials, Helltides are reserved for players that have reached World Tier 3 difficulty.

How often do Helltides spawn?

Unlike World Bosses, which only spawn 6 times per day, Helltides occur every 2 hours and 15 minutes and last an hour. The game will explicitly tell you whenever a Helltide is by adding a marker to your Map. But if you happen to be offline and want to be informed whenever a new Helltide is about to occur, we have you covered.

Daily reminder that:

💀 Helltides appear every 2 hours 15 minutes
⏰ Next one is about to start in 2 minutes!

Good farming 🫡 pic.twitter.com/x8Z15kr0I5

— Diablo Alerts | World Boss & Helltides ⏰ (@DiabloParagon) October 13, 2023

When is the next Helltide?

Unlike other games that make no effort to alert you when a global event occurs (looking at you, Destiny 2), Diablo 4 will very prominently alert you whenever a Helltide becomes active. All you need to do is open your Map to see exactly where the Helltide is taking place (by looking for an alert and a highlighted area in red).

🛑 Be aware that you’ll need to have unlocked World Tier 3 in order to see these notifications in-game.

Helltide tracker, Diablo 4

What is a Helltide: Aberrant Cinders and Chests

A Helltide is a Diablo 4 event that occurs in World Tier 3 difficulty (or above) that takes over an entire region and fills it with tougher enemies and better loot. Defeat enemies to earn Aberrant Cinders and use them to open Mystery chests full of top-tier loot.

Defeated monsters in a Helltide drop a unique currency called Aberrant Cinders. These are extremely important, as they will allow you to open Helltide Chests. The catch is that dying will result in you losing half of your Aberrant Cinders. Also, all of your Aberrant Cinders will disappear the minute the current Helltide is over. This means you have one hour to farm as many Cinders as possible and spend them before the Helltide ends.

With the release of Season of Blood (S2), Helltides are becoming more rewarding than ever:

• The Experience rewards for opening Helltide Chests have been increased by +375% in World Tier 3 and +750% in World Tier 4.
• Helltide Cache rewards now provide a +20 Item Power vcalue.

These changes, combined with previous buffs to Helltide XP and enemy density should finally put it on par with Nightmare Dungeons as one of the most rewarding endgame experiences in Diablo 4. Also remember that starting Season 2, Helltides will also reward resources to summon an Endgame Boss, in this case, to summon Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint.

Helltide rewards, Diablo 4

Spending your Aberrant Cinders

After you’ve gathered enough Aberrant Cinders, you can use them to open Mystery chests. These are peppered throughout the Helltide region and will have clear names that tell you what kind of loot they can offer:

Each chest contains several pieces of gear and you can expect at least two legendaries per chest. Chests also have an icon that specifies exactly what slot or piece of armor they reward (helmet, legs, one-handed weapons, etc). This is particularly useful when trying to upgrade a specific slot that is lagging behind the rest.

Mystery Chests, Diablo 4

Mystery Chests

The best use of your hard-earned Aberrant Cinders is the Mystery Chests, officially called “Tortured Gift of Mysteries,” in-game. These chests are more expensive to open, but they offer by far the best rewards. Each region has four different spawn locations and two Mystery chests active at any given time. Kehjistan, however, will always have three active Mystery Chests and 5 to 6 potential spawn locations.

Your turn

Are you busy diving into Diablo 4’s endgame content? Don’t forget to keep an eye on our World Boss tracker and Nightmare dungeon guide.