[GameSpot] - Diablo 4: How To Get Smoldering Ashes And What To Do With Them In Season 1

[343iBot]

Diablo 4 Season 1 has arrived, bringing the first big content update to the dungeon crawler. Season 1 features new quests, seasonal objectives, and Malignant Hearts, a new item that is socketed like gems but provides more unique and powerful bonuses. In addition to all of the new contents and items, there is also a new system for boosting your seasonal character called Smoldering Ashes. This new currency can be used to gain passive boosts for the rest of the season.

How to obtain Smoldering Ashes

Smoldering Ashes aren't an in-game drop, but instead tied to battle pass progression. There are 20 Smoldering Ashes spread out across the 90 battle pass tiers. All Smoldering Ashes are free-tier rewards and do not require you to purchase the battle pass. The battle pass is progressed by earning favor, which is awarded by killing monsters, completing quests, and completing objectives with a seasonal character. Favor is also awarded for completing seasonal objectives.

Each Smoldering Ash has a character level requirement to use, with the first one locked at level 40, so you will need to progress your character level as well.

All Smoldering Ashes bonuses

Smoldering Ashes unlock passive bonuses that should make progression easier.

There are five different bonuses to pick from, with each one offering four tiers to upgrade, likely meaning that there is exactly enough Smoldering Ashes to max out each bonus.

• Urn of Aggression: Boost to XP earned from monster kills (3% per rank)
• Urn of Bargaining: Boost to the amount of gold earned from vendor sales (5% per rank)
• Urn of Reclamation: Boost to the chance of rare materials from salvage (10% per rank)
• Urn of Prolonging: Boost to the duration of all elixirs (15% per rank)
• Urn of Malignance: Boost to the chance of powerful Malignant Heart drops, after campaign completion (5% per rank)

Best Smolder Ash bonuses to pick first

As for the best bonuses to pick early on, there are two that stand out as strong contenders for your early Smoldering Ashes. First is the Urn of Aggression, which boosts the amount of XP earned from killing monsters. While the percentage is rather low compared to some of the others, the earlier you pick up the bonus, the more mileage you get out of it. Second is the Urn of Malignance which offers a boost to the drop chances for powerful Malignant Hearts, which are supposed to offer build-altering bonuses. Getting these drops earlier in the season will allow you time to tinker and experiment with different builds.

View the full article