It can be claimed that Diablo 4 is predominantly a gear-focused RPG. Being able to upgrade and maximise the power of your equipped items is critical to progressing your character and pushing end-game content.
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The primary way to do this is with multiple rare materials, one of which is Forgotten Souls. Difficult to acquire but necessary for fully upgrading your gear, they form a key component of a completed end-game build. This guide will explain exactly what Forgotten Souls are used for, where you can find them, and the best farming strategies for quickly increasing your haul.
Forgotten Souls are one of the most important end-game currencies in Diablo 4. They are used for upgrading Sacred and Ancestral items to their maximum upgrade levels. This is extremely important for your progression as upgrading an item gives a flat increase to all its stats, which is especially powerful on Weapons thanks to their Weapon DPS stat.
Upgrading to these final tiers will take quite a few Forgotten Souls, so you will want to farm up a large amount, as well as make sure you have enough Gold for the payment cost.
Alongside item upgrades, Forgotten Souls can also be used to Enchant an item. Performed at an Occultist NPC, this means rerolling one of the stats on the item into a randomised new one. When you are trying to find a perfectly statted item, being able to swap out a useless stat for your best-in-slot is very strong and can turn a decent item into an amazing one.
While this system predominantly costs large amounts of Gold, it will also take one Forgotten Soul every time you wish to reroll, a cost that can easily rack up due to the random nature of Enchanting.
Although Forgotten Souls are critical for end-game progression, they can only be gathered from one source; Helltide zones. Helltides are not always active, making the acquisition of Forgotten Souls a bit tricky. Add to that the low drop chance and you're looking at one of the premium currencies in Diablo 4.
Helltide zones are only available on World Tier Three and above, meaning you will have to first complete the Main Story Campaign in order to access them. Once you're at the appropriate world level, you might have to wait until a zone is currently active.
During a Helltide, you have two primary goals. The first is to collect Aberrant Cinders from enemy mobs, chests, and events. These will fuel your Tortured Chest hunting. Tortured Chests are large red boxes that are scattered around the zone - they vary in the type of items provided, but all have a chance to drop Forgotten Souls. Alongside being a great way to farm some gear, they are a fairly reliable way to garner Souls, especially if you can track down the Tortured Gift of Mysteries. They require 175 Cinders to open but give more Forgotten Souls than the regular chests.
Tortured Chests appear on your map once you're inside a Helltide, showing what type of item it will grant you upon being given the appropriate amount of Aberrant Cinders.
Your second priority is to find and mine Screaming Hell Veins. These will always drop Forgotten Souls but can be tricky to spot as their spawns are limited. As you ride around the Helltide zones, try to keep an eye out for these purple mining nodes, as if you're lucky, they can be a quick way of grabbing some much-needed currency.
NEXT: Diablo 4: How To Farm Baleful Fragments