Season 13 completely changed how Lair Boss rewards work, especially now that older boss materials are no longer used to open hoards after fights.
Items like Malignant Hearts, Distilled Fear, Living Steel, and other former boss materials have been shifted away from the old hoard-opening system entirely.
Instead, players now use Lair Keys, Greater Lair Keys, and Betrayer’s Husks depending on the type of hoard they want to unlock.
Lair Boss Key Changes
Older summoning materials such as Malignant Hearts, Distilled Fear, Living Steel, and Exquisite Blood have now been converted into Boss Trophies.
These Boss Trophies are mainly used through the Horadric Cube system to obtain rewards connected to their related bosses instead of opening hoards directly.
Because of this change, most endgame boss farming now revolves around collecting the correct hoard keys rather than stockpiling separate boss materials.
How To Open Lair Boss Hoards?
After defeating a Lair Boss, you can interact with its hoard chest to spend the required key and claim the rewards inside.
Initiate Lair Bosses require a regular Lair Key to open their hoards, while Greater Lair Bosses require Greater Lair Keys instead.
Belial’s Hoard works differently and requires Betrayer’s Husks rather than standard Lair Keys to unlock his Hoard after defeating him at the Palace of the Deceiver.
How To Get Lair Keys?
Lair Keys can be obtained from Torment difficulty activities, Key Spoils from War Plans, World Bosses, Legion Events, Tree of Whispers caches, and the Undercity of Kurast.
Greater Lair Keys mainly come from Key Spoils earned through War Plans and by opening Initiate Lair Boss hoards.
Betrayer’s Husks are obtained from Belial, Lord of Lies, who can ambush players after opening an Initiate or Greater Lair Boss Hoard.
Lair Boss Hoard Rewards
Lair Boss Hoards contain some of the best endgame rewards in Season 13, including class-specific Uniques, Mythic Uniques, crafting materials, and progression loot.
Different bosses have their own targeted Unique drops, allowing players to repeatedly farm specific encounters for the items they actually need.
Higher-tier bosses usually offer stronger rewards overall, especially encounters tied to Greater and Exalted boss progression.
What Happened To Old Lair Boss Keys?
Older boss materials, such as Malignant Hearts, Distilled Fear, Living Steel, Exquisite Blood, and similar items, are no longer used to open Lair Boss hoards in Season 13.
These former boss materials have now been converted into Boss Trophies, which are mainly used through the Horadric Cube for boss-related rewards and crafting options.
This change removed the older system where every boss needed its own separate summoning material, making Lair Boss progression much simpler overall.
Verdict
The new Lair Boss system is much easier to understand now that most of the old boss materials are no longer tied directly to opening hoards.
Regular Lair Keys and Greater Lair Keys now handle most of the progression flow, while Belial remains the main exception through Betrayer’s Husks.
Once you get used to the new key structure, farming targeted Uniques and endgame boss rewards becomes far more straightforward in Season 13.
