Invokers hold the key to summoning powerful foes and rare rewards in Diablo 4’s first season. Understanding how to craft and use them can mean the difference between wasting resources and dominating the new endgame encounters.
Unfortunately, the game doesn’t explain Invokers too well, and you might be confused in the early hours of the season – especially if you didn’t tune into Blizzard’s recent announcement livestreams. But that’s where we come in.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll teach you how to use Invokers, how to find them, and how to craft with Ichor in Season of the Malignant.
What are Invokers and how do you get them?
Invokers are consumable items in Diablo 4 Season 1 used to activate Malignant Outgrowths at the end of Malignant Tunnels, summoning elite enemies that drop Caged Hearts with powerful buffs. Craft Vicious, Brutal, and Devious types at Cormond’s Workbench using Malignant Ichor gathered from tunnel enemies, while Wrathful Invokers require first obtaining an Uncertain Invoker that transforms upon use. Match the Invoker’s color to the Outgrowth-such as Brutal for Brutal Outgrowths-to trigger the event and claim rewards.
Invokers are consumables in Diablo 4 season 1, and you can use them in the new Malignant Tunnel activities – several of which are scattered around Sanctuary, and are denoted with a normal dungeon icon adorned with a green leaf on the world map.
Once you finish a Malignant Tunnel and “Dungeon Complete” flashes across your screen, a passageway in the Tunnel will open up. If you follow this new path, you’ll find a room with a Malignant growth event in the center, surrounded by two colored Outgrowths – a Wrathful “Super” Outgrowth and one of the other three Outgrowths: Brutal, Devious, or Vicious.
If you stab a Brutal, Devious, or Vicious Invoker into its corresponding Outgrowth, it will summon a giant monster. Killing that monster will net you a Malignant Heart that corresponds to the Invoker you used. This is a way to partially guarantee yourself a Malignant Heart of a specific type without having to rely purely on crafting. There are also Wrathful Invokers, but they’re very rare, particularly in the game’s early levels.
You can find Invokers around the world, like in Malignant Tunnels, but you can also craft them at Cormond’s workbench in Kyovashad. To craft them, you’ll need quite a bit of Ichor, which is its own complex system in Season of the Malignant.
How do you find Ichor to craft Invokers and Malignant Hearts?
Ichor can be gathered by salvaging Malignant Hearts that you don’t intend to use. Each salvaged heart provides specific types of Ichor tied to its color, which are needed to craft Invokers for targeted encounters. Focus on farming Malignant Tunnels and defeating corrupted elites, as these offer a steady supply of hearts. Keeping a balance of different Ichor types will help ensure you can create Invokers for any heart variant you want to summon.
Ichor comes in three flavors, which match the three Malignant Heart types: Brutal, Devious, and Vicious.
You’ll need all three types to craft an Invoker – 50 Ichor that matches the type of Invoker it is, and 20 of the other two flavors. To craft Malignant Hearts, you’ll need 35 Ichor each of the colors you’re not trying to craft. So if you’re crafting a Brutal Caged Heart you’ll need 35 Devious Ichor and 35 Vicious Ichor.
You can collect Ichor in one of two ways. The first is to simply find it lying on the ground after killing monsters. It’s a common drop from any and all creatures inside Malignant Tunnels, so that’s a great place to start if you need to craft the Brutal Malignant Invoker for Cormond.
The second way to collect Ichor is to Salvage Malignant Hearts at Cormond’s workbench. This works just like salvaging gear in Diablo 4. It’s worth noting that if you salvage a piece of gear that has a Malignant Heart in it, you will get Ichor. But if you replace a Malignant Heart with another in the same piece of gear, you won’t get Ichor.
Best Malignant Tunnels to farm Invoker materials
Ravening Pit and Dindai Hollow stand out as top Malignant Tunnels for farming Invoker materials like Malignant Hearts and Ichor in Diablo 4 Season 1.
Top Farming Spots
Ravening Pit in Dry Steppes offers high mob density, early Elite Hearts for quick drops, and a short “Slay All Enemies” layout ideal for salvaging into Ichor. Dindai Hollow nearby provides similar fast clears with strong XP and Heart yields from Champions and bosses.
Outgrowth Focus
The Boiling Wound excels for Invoker use on Outgrowths due to its ultra-short path, perfect for burning through crafted Invokers to target specific Hearts without much combat farming.
Tips
Prioritize World Tier 4 for Wrathful Heart chances without Invokers in spots like Ravening Pit; loop these tunnels for steady materials to craft at Cormond’s.
Which tunnels drop the most Malignant Hearts per hour
Ravening Pit delivers the highest Malignant Hearts per hour in Diablo 4 Season 1 due to its fast clear times and reliable elite spawns.
Top Tunnel
Ravening Pit in Dry Steppes allows 45-70 second runs with 3-5 Hearts per clear by prioritizing named Malignant elites and events, yielding about one Heart every 10 minutes or 6 per hour on average. Data from 58 runs shows a 10.34% drop rate per tunnel.
Strong Alternatives
Bedeviled Grotto and Boiling Wound excel for speed, matching or exceeding Ravening Pit in short tunnels with consistent 3-4 Hearts per run across 60 tested tunnels. Dindai Hollow adds high XP alongside solid Heart drops from Champions.
Optimization Tips
Skip full clears-dash to elites and Outgrowths in World Tier 3-4; reset via death or logout for Wrathful chances without Invokers.
