The Butcher, a beloved and terrifying demon from Diablo series, makes a powerful return in Season 12, appearing as a new Lair Boss with a unique arena and abilities.
As the new endgame boss of Season 12, this is also the best way for players to obtain the new unique items. Furthermore, the drop rate for Bloodied gear is higher here, meaning that to obtain the strongest Diablo 4 items in Season of Slaughter, you’ll have to consider facing this old friend head-on.
Although the quest description mentions completing it on Torment 3 difficulty, based on our experience, we believe the Butcher battle is at least Torment 4 or higher, and even challenging The Pit 55 is much easier than facing him. However, don’t worry too much. The Butcher is so troublesome because he has an extremely high health pool, deals massive fire damage, but most importantly, his infuriating mechanics. However, once your Toughness is high enough and you’re familiar with his mechanics, you should be able to defeat him.
Here, D4gold will show you how to defeat The Butcher Lair boss and collect all the loot! This is something you’ll have to face in Season 12! Let’s get started!
The Butcher Location
First, as we mentioned before, the Butcher can only be found at Torment difficulty. Note that unlike all other Uber Bosses, The Butcher appears in Seasonal Realms.
Next, we can head to Broiler dungeon in Kehjistan region to find the new The Butcher Lair. You can choose to open the map and teleport to Chamber of Suffering waypoint, which is the nearest travel point to Broiler dungeon.
Summoning The Butcher & Lair Boss Keys
To summon The Butcher, simply interact with the summoning altar in the Broiler dungeon. However, like other Lair Bosses, unlocking The Butcher’s Hoard requires 3 Pounds of Flesh.
Pounds of Flesh are a new Lair Boss material introduced in Diablo 4 Season 12, obtainable only through participating in Bloodied activities. However, the enemies in these dungeons with Bloodied affixes are one level higher than the current Torment level, equivalent to Pit level 100 runs. If you don’t want to spend more time fighting these enemies, you can choose to buy Diablo 4 items directly from D4gold.com. Both Pounds of Flesh and other Lair Boss Keys can be found here!
Get ready!
Once you enter The Butcher’s arena, you’ll first notice how small it is. This is intentional, as a smaller space allows the Butcher’s attacks to easily cover the entire arena.
Therefore, before starting the battle, ensure you have a high level of fire resistance. We equipped 3 Royal Ruby gems, bringing our fire resistance to 175,000.
Also, ensure your base Toughness is around 100,000. Additionally, you’ll need to use Elixirs and Incense, and depending on your class, ensure you have items that boost health, armor, resistances, and primary attributes. For reference, we brought Soothing Spices, Reddamine Buzz, Elixir of Fortitude, and Ancient Times.
Best of all, if you own DLC and have unlocked the mercenary feature, we strongly recommend equipping Raheir as your reinforcement and selecting Bastion to help you survive better when injured.
The Butcher’s Attack Mechanics
Now turn your attention to The Butcher’s attack mechanics. D4gold shows you the best way to defeat this terrifying boss.
Basic Attacks The Butcher has three basic attacks. First, there’s the grappling hook, which will pull you towards him; second, a ranged attack where he’ll throw fireballs at you with his arms outstretched; and finally, a swinging attack that creates fiery fissures in front of him. These fissures are extremely deadly; if you don’t dodge, they will quickly burn you.
Phase One
Notice that when The Butcher says “Nowhere to hide” or begins slamming the ground, several fiery circles will appear in the arena, foreshadowing a fiery laser beam descending from the sky. Your task, of course, is to dodge these circles. But this won’t be easy, as The Butcher uses this skill frequently, so the circles will appear in various locations. Do your best to avoid them and don’t stop.
In the meantime, it’s highly recommended that you prepare armor with high fire resistance. Trust us, investing some cheap Diablo 4 gold in this is definitely worthwhile; otherwise, you might be easily taken down by a wave of fire attacks!
Of course, the problem doesn’t end there. While dealing with The Butcher’s various attacks, you’ll find that the arena is divided into four zones, some of which will randomly burn. If you stay in a burning zone for a few seconds, you’ll die, so you’ll usually only be able to fight in one or two zones.
Even if you carefully jump and fight your way through several areas, don’t underestimate him, because The Butcher, standing in the flames, will randomly throw hooks at you and drag you into the fire. If this happens, dodge immediately.
The best strategy to deal with him is actually surprising: get as close to him as possible. When this happens, the Butcher seems to stop using his more lethal attacks and only swings his weapon at you.
Phase Two
When you reduce his health to about 66%, his most lethal attack will occur. Basically, he will teleport to the center of the arena, and then some fire lasers will appear. If these lasers hit you, you will die instantly.
Not only that, the Butcher will also become invincible, and the arena will continue to burn, leaving you nowhere to escape. All you can do is run in the direction of the fire lasers, which is much easier than running through the gaps between the lasers. However, this also requires your character to have a high level of mobility, as sometimes you will need to jump over the lasers to avoid the burning areas. Also, try to run close to the edge.
Then, continue attacking The Butcher, staying close while constantly monitoring your health and using Health Potions as needed.
Phase Three
Once his health drops to around 33%, he will summon fire lasers one last time. The only difference is that two areas of the arena will ignite simultaneously. So the strategy remains the same: run along the edge of the fire lasers, and if you’re about to enter a burning area, jump back to avoid it.
While this fight is annoying, as long as you stay calm and skillfully dodge all the fire laser attacks, you can manage it, even if your Paragon level isn’t very high.
Unlock the Butcher’s Hoard
After defeating him, use 3 Pounds of Flesh to unlock the Butcher’s Hoard. Congratulations on unlocking Season Journey rank 6! When you claim your rank 5 reward, you’ll receive Bloody Billy, the new free pet for season 12, 4 Paragon Points, 2 Smoldering Ashes, and 2 caches.
As for other rewards, besides Bloodied gear which has a chance to drop, The Butcher is the only way to obtain entirely new unique items in Diablo 4 Season 12.
Finally, don’t forget that on Torment difficulty, we now also have a chance to obtain Doom Chest and win a free Doom weapon skin.
In short, that’s all D4gold wanted to share about Diablo 4 Season 12 The Butcher boss fight. Yes, this fight is indeed difficult, but the key is positioning and understanding the mechanics. As long as you follow our guide, defeating it is only a matter of time! Master the core mechanics now and turn the tables on the Butcher!
