Heralds Guide

Step 1: Drawing Ire

Each elite kill has a 2% chance to trigger a “You draw the ire of a Herald!” message. This does not spawn a Herald yet — it gives you a “stack” that enables the next step.

• Ire stacks up to 5 times
• Stacks persist between Terror Zones within the same game session
• Stacks are shared among all party members
• Ending the game resets all stacks and tier progress

Step 2: Herald Spawn (Conversion)

After drawing ire, each newly spawned monster you encounter has a 1% chance to be converted into a Herald. You will see “A Herald is hunting you in <zone>” when this happens.

• Conversion only applies to newly spawned monsters — already-loaded areas cannot produce Heralds
• The 1% check is per monster, so entering a dense area with many monsters makes spawning very likely
• Multiple ire stacks can produce multiple Heralds in one area
• Each Herald killed advances the tier — kill Tier 1 to unlock Tier 2, and so on

Getting two “Herald Hunting” messages at once spawns two Heralds of the same tier. For maximum efficiency, spawn and kill Heralds one at a time to properly advance through the tiers.

Heralds have a Unique Factor of 989 — higher than most bosses. This gives them a better chance to upgrade items to Unique quality once the base item is determined. Both MF and player count matter for maximizing Sunder drops, but player count has the larger impact.

Canyon of the Magi + Tal Rasha’s Tombs stands out with ~73 elites per zone — the highest of any Terror Zone. This gives the best odds of reaching Tier 4–5 Heralds from a single TZ rotation.

The Problem: Uneven Shard Distribution

The Shard treasure class assigned to a monster depends on its level. Since nearly all Terror Zone elites are level 81+, they almost always use the Act 1 treasure class. This creates an uneven drop ratio of roughly 5:3:2:2:1 across the five shard types.

For every 10 full TZ game clears, you can expect approximately: 28 Act 1 shards, 17 Act 2, 11 Act 3, 11 Act 4, and only 6 Act 5 shards.

The Herald system rewards organic farming, not dedicated grinding. Every 30 minutes a new Terror Zone rotates in your game. If it happens to be one your build can farm — go for it. If not, continue your normal farming (Mephisto, Chaos, Cows, Pit, etc.) and let Heralds come naturally. Drawing ire is a game state that persists — once you draw it, you can spawn the Herald in any future Terror Zone.

Not all Terror Zones are equal for every build. Check which damage types are effective in each zone using the Terror Zone Tier List. The colored dots show which elements encounter the fewest immunities. If your build uses Lightning and a zone shows Lightning as effective, the fire/cold immunes there are likely breakable by Infinity.

Example: Tal Rasha’s Tombs has fire and lightning immunities that are broken by Infinity’s -17% conviction. The remaining monsters have no fire/lightning immunity at all, making it excellent for builds using those elements.

Each area has a cap on random elite spawns (e.g. Tal Rasha’s Tombs: 7–9). But some elites are guaranteed — like the treasure room pack. These guaranteed spawns don’t count toward the random cap until you load them.

The trick: Clear the main area first. The game will hit its random elite cap across the open zones. Then go to the guaranteed spawn rooms (treasure rooms, dead ends with preset packs). These spawn on top of the cap, giving you ~15–20% more elites per zone.

Conversely, if you already hit the elite cap early (e.g. Arcane Sanctuary after one wing), don’t keep clearing empty corridors. Move on.

Once you draw ire, you control where the Herald actually spawns by choosing which unexplored area to enter next. The Herald converts a random monster from the newly loaded pack — so the Herald inherits that monster type.

Key insight: A Tier 5 Fallen is far easier to kill than a Tier 5 Moonlord or Soul. If you’ve terrorized an entire act, go to the area with the easiest monster types for your build. If the current zone has dangerous monsters, consider waiting 5 minutes for the next TZ rotation. There’s no rush — your ire stacks persist.

The two Sunder drop paths respond differently:

Single player tip: Farm on P1 for speed to spawn Heralds faster. Swap to P8 only when a Tier 4–5 Herald actually spawns. The special drop table at P8 gives ~1:200 odds per kill. Adding 500 MF on top only improves that to ~1:184 — negligible. Wear your strongest gear instead.

If you’ve drawn ire and are sitting on Worldstone Shards, consider cracking one to terrorize an entire act. This gives you a massive pool of elites (~160–230 per act) to spawn and progress through Herald tiers. Combine this with zone maxing and choosing easy monster areas for your highest tier spawns.

An Infinity Nova Sorceress was tested farming Heralds on P1, swapping to P8 only for Herald fights. Result: 267 elite kills across ~52 minutes to reach and kill a T5 Herald. First ire triggered after just 12 elites. The T5 Herald was spawned as a Fallen pack (chosen intentionally for easy combat) and killed in seconds. The hardest fight was actually a T3 Herald with full lightning immunity — not the T5. Smart zone choice matters more than raw power.