With Season 5, the “Infernal Hordes” came to Diablo 4. There you can not only get loot, but also important mats for crafting. You could previously only get these in the hardest dungeon.
The Hell Hordes are the new endgame activity in Diablo 4 that came into play with the new Season 5. There you fight against waves of monsters and collect “Burning Aether”. You need this for rewards that you can collect at the end. There are different types of reward chests that you can choose from depending on your needs:
From world level 4 onwards you get access to the Pit, the endgame activity where you get important mats for “masterworking”. Recently players have been trying to figure out what the most efficient way to farm the mats in the Pit is. With the infernal hordes, however, there seems to be no reason for the Pit anymore.
Why does this make the pit unnecessary? In the Hell Hordes, at world level 4, you will receive exactly the crafting mats you need to complete your items: Obducite, Ingolith and Low Iron. In addition, you will even receive Stygian Stones from the mats chests at higher levels, which you can use to summon the level 200 bosses.
The rarity of the mats depends on which level of the Infernal Hordes you are doing. For example, at level 3 you will get Obducite, while at level 5 you will get Ingolite and at level 7 you will get Low Iron and Stygian Stones. So as soon as you feel strong enough for higher levels, you should try them out.
Diablo 4: Developers offer insight into the Season of the Infernal Hordes
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Over 770 Niedereisen in one go
Does this really work? In a YouTube video, Diablo expert “Rob2628” shows a run through the Hell Hordes at level 7, in which he collected 637 ether. Beforehand, he upgraded his compass so that he could fight 9 waves of monsters instead of 6. When selecting the waves, he focused on the “Hellborne”, which drop more ether.
At the end he opens numerous chests with mats, each of which “costs” 20 ethers; he receives 25 Niedereisen from each chest. In addition, several Stygian stones and Abyssal scrolls drop, which you can use to upgrade the compasses for the Hell Hordes. During his playthrough he collected over 770 Niedereisen.
Here is the direct comparison per run:
While the pit is criticized and described as repetitive, many players praise the infernal hordes. Content creator and necro expert “MacroBioBoi” writes on X that the “Infernal Hordes” are the most fun he has in Diablo 4. They are a “perfect mix of chaotic rogue-lite and reward in this ARPG.”
What do we need the pit for? Rob also has this question. He wonders what the pit runs are still good for, since the main reason for masterworking was the mats. In his YouTube video, he says that the infernal hordes are the new meta for farming. Additionally, they are not only seasonal, but are a permanent fixture in Diablo 4.
The Diablo expert notes that players can upgrade all their gear much faster if they farm mats in the “Infernal Hordes” instead of in the pit. You can find out how to unlock the Infernal Hordes activity and where to get compasses to open it here: Diablo 4: Infernal Hordes – Everything about quests, compasses and loot in the new endgame activity