With the arrival of Season 8: Belial’s Return, Diablo 4’s endgame/ladder bosses have gotten a new rework to change how things are done.
This allows you to focus on working your way up to the more difficult bosses and racking up more rewards through a new system.
Vast changes have been added, making fighting bosses and obtaining loot from them simpler while also making the grind worth the trouble.
Requirements To Challenge Lair Bosses
Challenging Lair Bosses now requires that you are on Torment I or higher to fight them as this will cause their lairs to appear on the map.
This means that you will need to progress up to the point where you complete the Pit of the Artificer (Tier 10) after reaching Level 60 to start fighting endgame bosses.
Back then, you would need Boss Summoning Materials to fight bosses, but this is no longer needed and instead, Lair Boss Keys are used to obtain more rewards.
Adjusted Boss Tiers
The bosses have now been grouped into 3 different tiers, which are Initiate, Greater, and Exalt Lair Bosses, which have scaling rewards based on each tier.
Intermediate Bosses
- Beast in the Ice
- Grigoire
- Lord Zir
- Varshan
- Urivar (Vessel of Hatred Owners)
Greater Lair Bosses
- Andariel
- Duriel
- Harbinger of Hatred (Vessel of Hatred Owners)
Exalted Lair Bosses
Lair Boss Loot
Instead of the need for Boss Summoning Items to challenge a Lair Boss, you may now fight them right away by interacting with their altar.
What happens after a boss is defeated is that a chest called a Hoard will appear when they are defeated, which contains a ton of loot from the boss.
These need to be opened with Lair Boss Keys, which are the previous Boss Summoning Items that you would obtain in the previous seasons.
Lair Boss Keys may drop from certain activities or may be obtained through Transmutation done at an Alchemist.
Opening a Hoard chest requires a certain amount of Lair Boss Keys depending on the tier of the boss that you are fighting.
The following is the amount of Lair Boss Keys needed to unlock Hoards:
- Initiate – 12 Lair Boss Keyes
- Greater – 3 Lair Boss Keys
- Exalted – 2 Lair Boss Keys
The type of Lair Boss Key needed will depend on which boss you will/have defeated, which are the Boss Summoning Items. (Boss Summoning Items are now Lair Boss Keys)
To know more about how to get Lair Boss Keys, check out our guide below:
Belial Ambush
While opening any Hoard chest, there is a chance for Belial, Lord of Lies, to appear and ambush you, giving you a chance to defeat him.
Defeating Belial will allow you to obtain his Lair Boss Key for the Palace of the Deceiver (Betrayer’s Husk) which will allow you to open his Hoard.
Verdict
In the previous seasons, you would have to work your way up to certain bosses to get Boss Summoning Items for another boss and this used to be tedious.
Now, the Boss Summoning Items are the Lair Boss Keys and the whole endgame boss system has a simpler type of progression.
Obtaining Lair Boss Keys is not that hard as you can either find them by doing certain activities or opt for Transmutation at an Alchemist if you have the right materials.
