Diablo 4 Lair boss rework, explained

Modified Mar 13, 2025 15:09 IST

Diablo 4 Lair boss — The Lair boss system has received several noteworthy changes in Diablo 4 — here's what you need to know (Image via Blizzard Enteratinment)

Diablo 4 is putting some major effort into redoing how the Lair boss system is going to work in Season 8. This will make the system easier in several ways while also preventing players from trying to cheat their way into loot by not sharing agreed-upon summoning materials. Some of the summoning materials still exist, only they work in a completely different manner, serving a different purpose — making sure you get loot in your runs. Between this, new bosses at the lower levels, and a brand-new pinnacle boss, there’s a lot to be excited about.

This system is available to test in the current PTR server, and the new Lair boss rework will hit officially when Season 8 drops in Diablo 4. Admittedly, that has been delayed for a little bit, but ultimately, I think the shift to late April is a good idea, given how packed the month promises to be.

How the new Diablo 4 Lair boss rework works in Season 8 and beyond

The Lair boss rework in Diablo 4 fixes and improves how players tackle the various ladder bosses that exist in the game. Players can only face them in Torment I or higher and feature all the familiar names, with a few extras added in.

That’s right, Season 8 added a few more bosses to the game. To make the system a bit easier to grasp, the bosses have been put into three categories: Initiate, Greater, and Exalted.

Here's a handy chart for all the Diablo 4 lair boss tiers (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Initiate Bosses: Beast in the Ice, Grigoire, Lord Zir, Varshan, and Urivar (only for those who have Vessel of Hatred)
Greater Lair Bosses: Andariel, Duriel, and Harbinger of Hatred (only for those who have Vessel of Hatred)
Exalted Lair Boss: Belial, Lord of Lies

Loot has been changed as well in some very important ways for the Diablo 4 Lair boss rework. Perhaps the biggest change is that, instead of using summoning materials to summon the boss, you’ll use ingredients to create Lair Keys that are used to open the Boss Hoard (chest) at the end of the fight. This means you can go fight, say, Grigoire to see if you’re strong enough to handle the encounter before you use materials on the Lair Key.

Each boss now needs a specific item for you to make their Lair Key, making things clear-cut and easy to understand. All Lair Bosses have specific items you’ll need to farm, and the Initiate bosses also have a chance to drop Stygian Stones. These can be converted into a Lair Key for any of the Greater Lair boss Hoards in Diablo 4. Here are the items you need:

Varshan: Malignant Heart
Grigoire: Living Steel
Beast in the Ice: Distilled Fear
Lord Zir: Exquisite Blood
Urivar: Judicator’s Mask
Duriel: Shard of Agony
Andariel: Pin-Cushioned Doll
Harbinger of Hatred: Abhorrent Hearts
Belial, Lord of Lies: Betrayer’s Husk

These Lair Keys also stack up to 99, so you don’t have to worry about inventory management quite as much. Once you’ve defeated a Lair boss in Diablo 4, anyone who has a Lair Key can open the treasure chest, and claim their own specific loot. This stops players from trying to game the system and ninja their way to some loot.

This is something discussed in the developer’s notes — there was a lot of feedback of players agreeing to help pay for the cost, and then just claiming the loot and leaving. That’s what ultimately led to the Lair Key addition. Lair Keys can be traded though, so you can still carry people.

It's a minor, but important change, to have extra info on the map screen about these locations (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

When you open a Hoard, the first Unique that drops will be from their specific Loot Table. Other Uniques have a 50% chance to drop from the general Unique pool, as well.

The system does reward grouping though, as there is a 33% chance per additional party member to drop an extra Unique item from the boss table pool. There has been one minor change though — Torment IV drops five Uniques now, instead of six.

Another useful change is that the Lair Boss locations show the required items you’ll need for the Lair Key, and once you’ve visited/discovered a Lair Boss location, you can teleport directly to that spot instead of having to do all the tedious traveling you had to in previous iterations of Diablo 4.

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features

Edited by Ripunjay Gaba