Soul Shards

"With the upcoming 25th Anniversary of the Diablo Franchise, we wanted players to delve into the darker side of the Nephalem's past. In Season 25, players can embrace evil by infusing themselves with the essences of the Lords of Hell. Players will embark on their Season Journey to discover and upgrade demonic Soul Shards based on the seven Lords of Hell. By embodying a Prime and Lesser Evil, players will inflict new forms of pain and suffering on the demons of Sanctuary. We can't wait for players to get their hands on Soul Shards to start unlocking their true power."

- Developer comments^(src)

Hellforge Ember

Soul Shards are a type of soulstone.

After the destruction of the Black Soulstone, lingering fragments of the artifact containing the essence of the Great Evils persisted in Sanctuary. These Soul Shards (effectively a type of soulstone) thus contained great power—the power of the Evils themselves. A number of nephalem were able to find and wield these shards, but they had to be careful, given the allure of such power.

In-game

Soul Shards are socketable items exclusive to Seasons 25 and 30. Players can find 7 unique Soul Shards, based on the Lords of Hell, which give players demonic new powers. One of 3 Prime Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Helms and one of 4 Lesser Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Weapons. Each Soul Shard can be upgraded three times using a new seasonal-exclusive consumable, the Hellforge Ember.

Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers can drop from anywhere in Sanctuary, but Soul Shards have a higher chance to drop from Bosses. Soul Shards cannot be traded, but can be salvaged or utilized in Caldesann's Despair. You may only equip one Prime Evil Soul Shard and one Lesser Evil Soul Shard at a time. Lastly, Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers only drop in Seasonal play, and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.

Types

Prime Evil Soul Shards

The following Soul Shards can be socketed into Helms:

Fragment of Destruction

Shard of Hatred

Sliver of Terror

Lesser Evil Soul Shards

The following Soul Shards can be socketed into Weapons:

Dregs of Lies

Essence of Anguish

Remnant of Pain

Stain of Sin

Ranking

Each Soul Shard starts out with a rank of 0, and they have a maximum rank of 3. Each type of Soul Shard has its own set of legendary affixes. As the gem is ranked-up, stat buffs will increase and more of the affixes will be unlocked.

Rank	Unlocked Bonus
0	A unique power based on the Shard type
1	Bonuses of all 5 standard gem types for its slot, at slightly higher than "Perfect Royal" level
2	An additional random stat bonus: Prime - One core stat, All Resistances, Armor, or Ranged or Melee Damage Reduction Lesser - Attack Speed, Damage, Crit Chance, or one Damage Element
3	A second unique power based on the Shard type

Caldesann's Despair Recipe

Depending on the rank of the Soul Shard, it replaces the need for a legendary gem.

Rank	Equivalent Legendary Gem Rank
0	50
1	75
2	100
3	125

Development

The Red Soul Shard was added with patch 2.4.3 (season 9). It is the first and only head-socketed Legendary Gem, based on Diablo's soulstone which Aidan thrust into his own head. The seasonal Soul Shards would later emulate this concept with another shard for Diablo (the Sliver of Terror), and expand it with two other head-socketed gem-like shards for the other two Prime Evils as well as weapon-socketed shards for the Lesser Evils, although these shards are not actually Legendary Gems.

Ethereal Items of Season 24 had affixes similar to those that would appear on Soul Shards in the subsequent season. The Soul Shard concept made the affixes more versatile by making them socketable on any weapon or helm, rather than being bound to a particular weapon.

The Soul Shards themselves were introduced as the unique mechanic for the Season 25 theme, "The Lords of Hell". This was the first of the seasonal themes to be repeated, in Season 30.

Trivia

• All three Prime Evil Soul Shards match the appearance of the corresponding Soulstones seen in Diablo II.
• As depicted in Diablo II, Baal's soulstone was embedded in the chest of Tal Rasha, while Mephisto's stone was fragmented and pierced the hands of members of the High Council of Zakarum, including his host Sankekur. Nonetheless, the in-game soul shards all socket into helms, likely to keep the usage of the items simple (and because Gloves cannot be socketed).
• The Lesser Evils did not have their own Soulstones in game. However, Diablo III established that all their souls were absorbed in the Black Soulstone, which the Soul Shard lore blurb implies might actually be the source of these shards rather than the original Prime Evil soulstones.