Diablo 4 Boss Ladder guide: Full endgame boss order explained

In Diablo 4 Season 8, the Boss Ladder saw some major changes, making the whole system much easier to take part in. One of the most important parts of the change was that players no longer need summoning materials to fight the boss. Now, you can just go in and fight them whenever you want, provided you’ve unlocked the Boss Ladder in the first place. However, you do need materials to open the treasure chest at the end. Otherwise, no loot for you.

We’ll go over which fights are available at each of the boss ladder tiers in Diablo 4, where they’re located, and what you need if you want to claim any of the loot available at these locations. If you’ve hit level cap and are ready for the next big challenge, this is it.

How to begin tackling the Diablo 4 Boss Ladder

Once you’ve reached Level 60 in Diablo 4, there’s still a bit of work to do before you begin the Boss Ladder climb. Below you’ll see the full requirements, if you want to start fighting enemies like Grigoire, or the new Urivar Lair Boss.

It's not hard to get into Torment - it's only hard to survive (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Reach Level 60
Complete Tier 10 of The Pit
Complete “Lair Bosses” quest in Tarsarak (Optional)

You don’t have to do the Lair Bosses quest, though. If you set yourself to Torment I difficulty, you can start diving into Lair Boss fights as soon as you’re ready. You’re going to want to start with Initiate Lair Bosses, and work your way up.

One final important note for the Diablo 4 Boss Ladder, if you want to fight the Pinnacle Boss, Belial, you need 2x Betrayer’s Husks. These only drop from Belial Ambush fights. Each time you defeat a Lair Boss, Mini Belial has a chance to spawn, and that’s where these drop.

1) Initiate Lair Bosses

It's easy to find boss lairs on the map - just look for the dungeon symbol with the red skull (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Initiate Bosses

Varshan (Malignant Burrow, Tree of Whispers)
Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint (Hall of the Penitent, Ked Bardu)
Beast in the Ice (Glacial Fissure, Fractured Peaks)
Lord Zir (Darkened Way, east of Kyovashad)
Urivar (Fields of Judgment dungeon, Nahantu)

The Initiate Bosses are the starting bosses in Diablo 4’s Boss Ladder. You don’t necessarily have to fight all of these, but each does have their own loot you may want to pick up in their loot table. Thankfully, all the bosses have had their locations made easy to find on the map. Just look for the Lair Icon in the above regions. They’re very easy to spot.

However, you’ll want to have the correct items if you want to claim the rewards from the Diablo 4 Lair Boss ladder fights. Below you’ll see what items you need, where to farm them, and what boss drops which Greater Lair Boss item.

Boss Fight	Requirements	Where to Farm	Important Drops
Varshan	12 Malignant Heart	Whispers, Open World drops in Helltides	Shard of Agony or Stygian Stone
Grigoire	12 Living Steel	Helltide Chests	Shard of Agony or Stygian Stone
Beast in the Ice	12 Distilled Fear	Nightmare Dungeons	Pincushioned Doll or Stygian Stone
Lord Zir	12 Exquisite Blood	Elites in Legion Events, Helltides, World Bosses	Pincushioned Doll or Stygian Stone
Urivar	12 Judicator's Mask	Helltides, Whispers, World Bosses	Abhorrent Heart or Stygian Stone

Stygian Stones are a very important, very interesting drop. They convert into any of the Greater Lair Boss keys, so they’re flexible and important. Otherwise, you have to farm specific bosses, depending on which Greater Boss you want to fight.

As for how long you should farm Initiate Tier bosses, that depends on what you want. If you're farming for specific loot in that tier, I'd farm here until you have it. If you're looking for loot from the Greater Tier, I'd farm these bosses until you have enough for several attempts at getting treasure.

One final note: You can fight these on any Torment difficulty level, but Torment III guarantees an extra Unique, and Torment IV will give 7 Uniques altogether.

2) Greater Lair Bosses

The number might be fewer, but the danger is greater (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Great Bosses

Duriel (Gaping Crevasse, Kehjistan)
Andariel (Hanged Man’s Hall dungeon, Kehjistan)
Harbinger of Hatred (Harbinger’s Den, Nahantu)

The Greater Lair Bosses take more effort, have more dangerous attacks, and are smaller in number: There are only three Greater Lair Bosses. I’m surprised Lilith didn’t get put into this tier. Instead, she’s ejected from the Diablo 4 Boss Ladder completely. At this point, you can fight any of the bosses, because none of them technically drop a key item for the Belial fight.

As stated above, any Lair Boss has a chance to have a Belial Ambush fight afterwards. That’s where you get Betrayer’s Husks to fight him. Thankfully, the required items for Duriel, Andariel, and Harbinger of Hatred are much lower, compared to the Initiate tier:

Duriel: 3 x Shard of Agony
Andariel: 3 x Pincushioned Doll
Harbinger of Hatred: Abhorrent Heart

3) Exalted Lair Boss

The Seasonal Quest version of Belial is in the same location as the Pinnacle Boss, but it won't count for defeating the Pinnacle Boss version (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Exalted Boss

Belial (Palace of the Deceiver, Kehjistan)

Belial, the Pinnacle Boss, is the toughest fight in the game, replacing Echo of Lilith. He’s a gigantic terror, and offers players their ultimate challenge. As long as you have the proper loot items, Betrayer’s Husks, it’s worth it to take on this fight.

However, he doesn’t have his own loot table, like the others. He will instead let you pick items from the loot tables of other bosses. Be warned though — Belial is definitely in a league of his own.

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 12 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

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Edited by Jason Parker