Season 15 has added Soul Splinters to Diablo 4, which are items that can be socketed into Jewelry.
There are a total of 8 Soul Splinters in the game, each with a different power:
- Anguish – Gain Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance, but Primary Resource Costs are increased.
- Damnation – Killing an Elite pack increases Monster Power by 1 and Experience gained by 25%.
- Hellfire – Deal increased damage but lose 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- Lies – You gain 100% increased Gold and Crafting Material drop rate and 25% bonus Experience, but you are always Weakened and Vulnerable.
- Mother – You are Unhindered, and touching enemies makes them Vulnerable. After touching x amount of enemies, you are Stunned for 4 seconds.
- Pain – You gain 25% Damage Reduction, but lose 30% Movement Speed.
- Sin – You gain 50%[+] Maximum Life, but your Maximum Primary Resource is reduced by 30%.
- Black Soulstone – Killing enemies increases your damage dealt and damage taken.
Each Splinter, in addition to providing a power, also provides a Resistance and has an associated Element that matches each type of Gem available in the game.
- Anguish – Fire Resistance – Ruby
- Damnation – Shadow Resistance – Amethyst
- Hellfire – All Resistances – Diamond
- Lies – Cold Resistance – Sapphire
- Mother – Physical Resistance – Skull
- Pain – Poison Resistance – Emerald
- Sin – Lightning Resistance – Topaz
- Black Soulstone – All Stats – No associated Gem
Splinters also have 4 rarities, and the higher rarities either provide stronger benefits or reduced downsides.
- Lesser Splinter – Magic
- Splinter – Rare
- Greater Splinter – Legendary
- Abyssal Splinter – Unique
You can combine 5 Splinters of the same type in the Horadric Cube to upgrade their rarity. For example, 5 Lesser Splinters of Anguish will turn into a Splinter of Anguish, and 5 Splinters of Lies will turn into a Great Splinter of Lies.
These Splinters can provide a huge boost to both your damage and survivability, so let’s take a look at the best ways to farm them:
Nightmare Dungeons
One of the best ways to farm Splinters is from Nightmare Dungeons that have Gem Reserve affixes. The chests inside the dungeon that drop the gems will also have a chance to drop the Splinter that corresponds to that elemental type.
For example, a Nightmare Dungeon with the Topaz Reserve affix will have a chance to drop Splinters of Sin.
Escalation Sigils are especially strong for this, as each dungeon increases the potency of these affixes, resulting in more Splinter drops. This can also be combined with the Branching Pathways War Plan Node to make finding the right affix easier by providing multiple choices.
Undercity
Kurast Undericty can also provide a way to farm Splinters through the Cabochon Merchant. This merchant is spawned by selecting the Bauble Day War Plan node and slaying a Portal Prankster inside Undericty. The merchant sells Splinters for gold.
This can be combined with the Gutter Filth War Plan node to increase the chance of getting a Portal Prankster.
Uber Prime Evils
The last method of farming Splinters is by defeating the Uber Prime Evils.
Check out our guide on how to activate the Pandemonium Event and defeat the Uber Prime Evils.
This will always drop a random Unique Splinter, fast-tracking you to the highest rank. However, farming the materials required to activate the event can take a long time.