SERESGENUS EPHEMERALITY Hearts Guide: What Hearts Are and How to Use Them

Quick answer

Hearts in SERESGENUS: EPHEMERALITY are the five world-key items — the Verdant Heart, Frost Heart, Dune Heart, Elder Heart and Magma Heart. The Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma Hearts drop from their worlds' regional bosses, and inserting a Heart in the base (home) portal in the starting area opens travel to the next world.

• Each later Heart drops from its world's regional boss — the run shows the Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma Hearts dropping this way; it does not show which fight yields the first (Verdant) Heart.
• Carry the Heart to the home portal, hold it out, and hold F to insert it.
• An inserted Heart lights up a portal slot and lets you step through to the next world.
• The first Heart you set in the home portal also earns the Heart Setter badge.

Hearts are the gates between worlds in SERESGENUS: EPHEMERALITY. A run moves through a chain of worlds, and each world beyond the starting isle stays closed until its Heart is set in the home portal. That makes the five Hearts — Verdant, Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma — the items that carry a run from its first island all the way to The Abyss.

What a Heart is

A Heart is a world key you hold as an item. There are five of them, one per world in the progression: the Verdant Heart, Frost Heart, Dune Heart, Elder Heart and Magma Heart. The supported use is always the same: take the Heart back to the base (home) portal in the starting area, insert it, and step through to the next world.

The home portal itself is a large stone frame with diamond-shaped slots. Each Heart you insert lights up its slot and turns the portal surface into a travel surface you can step through.

Where Hearts come from

Four of the five World Hearts are shown dropping from regional bosses. One reviewed solo run on Normal difficulty recorded these drops:

• Frost Heart — from Cryost, Warden of Rime in Frost Veil
• Dune Heart — from Khleorn, The Mobile Castor in Aridune
• Elder Heart — from The Firstborn Wyrm, Eldest of the Elder Forest in Elder Forest
• Magma Heart — from Vulkaris, The Living Volcano in Vulkaris

The Verdant Heart is the first one used, and that run shows it held out at the portal for the very first insertion — the run shows boss drops only for the Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma Hearts, and it does not show which fight yields that first Heart. For the fights themselves, the bosses guide goes world by world.

How to insert a Heart at the home portal

Every Heart is used the same way, and always at the home portal in the starting area. Stand at the frame with the right Heart held out and the game prompts you — for the first Heart it reads 'Hold out the Verdant Heart at the portal and hold F'.

Mechanic flow

1. 1

   Hold out the Heart at the portal

   Stand at the home portal with the world's Heart held out; the insert prompt appears on screen.

2. 2

   Hold F to insert it

   Holding F inserts the Heart and lights up one of the portal's diamond-shaped slots.

3. 3

   The portal turns into a travel surface

   The surface changes and names the destination, for example 'Step into the portal to travel to Frost Veil'.

4. 4

   Step into the portal

   Walking into the active portal travels to the named next world.

The same insert-and-travel sequence repeats for every Heart in a run; only the Heart and the destination change. The step-by-step walkthrough lives on the how to set a Heart page, and the home portal guide covers the portal itself.

The five Hearts in run order

The chain below follows that same solo run on Normal difficulty. Each inserted Heart opens the next world on the list.

Data table

Order

1

Heart

Verdant Heart

Opens travel to

Frost Veil

Where it comes from

Not shown — used first, at the starting portal

Order

2

Heart

Frost Heart

Opens travel to

Aridune

Where it comes from

Cryost, Warden of Rime (Frost Veil)

Order

3

Heart

Dune Heart

Opens travel to

Elder Forest

Where it comes from

Khleorn, The Mobile Castor (Aridune)

Order

4

Heart

Elder Heart

Opens travel to

Vulkaris

Where it comes from

The Firstborn Wyrm, Eldest of the Elder Forest (Elder Forest)

Order

5

Heart

Magma Heart

Opens travel to

The Abyss

Where it comes from

Vulkaris, The Living Volcano (Vulkaris)

Data table

Order	Heart	Opens travel to	Where it comes from
1	Verdant Heart	Frost Veil	Not shown — used first, at the starting portal
2	Frost Heart	Aridune	Cryost, Warden of Rime (Frost Veil)
3	Dune Heart	Elder Forest	Khleorn, The Mobile Castor (Aridune)
4	Elder Heart	Vulkaris	The Firstborn Wyrm, Eldest of the Elder Forest (Elder Forest)
5	Magma Heart	The Abyss	Vulkaris, The Living Volcano (Vulkaris)

A run begins on Verdant Isle, so these five Hearts open the five worlds beyond it. With the Magma Heart inserted, the portal leads to The Abyss — the last world in the order, and the point where that run's summary read '6 of 6 worlds opened'. The worlds guide breaks down the destinations.

The Heart Setter badge

Setting a Heart in the home portal doubles as an achievement: the first time you do it, you earn the Heart Setter badge. It comes early in a run, since the first insertion is what opens the way off the starting isle.

How Hearts fit into a run

Hearts are the spine of run progression: beat the regional boss of the world you are in to get its Heart — the run shows the Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma Hearts dropping this way — carry the Heart back to the home portal, insert it, and move one world forward. The insert itself never changes — the same hold-out-and-hold-F sequence works for the Verdant, Frost, Dune, Elder and Magma Hearts — so once you have set your first Heart, every later gate is familiar. What changes is the destination, one world further each time, until the Magma Heart opens The Abyss.

If you are planning a full route, the how to win a run guide puts the Heart gates in the context of the whole run, and the beginner guide covers the early game that leads up to your first insertion.