Where to find world bosses in Diablo 4 — plus some tips to survive the experience

World bosses are a new addition to the franchise in Diablo 4, designed to be “truly gigantic, horrific monsters” so large that the in-game camera zooms out so you can see the whole battlefield. After a few weeks of the live game, it’s clear to all that world bosses are no joke.

Let’s review the where to find world bosses in the live game, how to unlock them, and some quick tips for your reference!

Who are the world bosses and how do you unlock them

There are currently three world bosses in rotation: Ashava the Pestilent, the Wandering Death Given Life, and Avarice the Gold Cursed. Each brings unique abilities to the fight, but there are a few universal facts. Your first kill of each boss during the week will give you a bonus spoils cache. Repeated kills of the same world boss will still grant you progress towards the Tree of Whispers.

World boss events are visible after you finish the main campaign, through Act 6 and the epilogue, or if you skip the campaign entirely. Once unlocked, world boss events will show up on your map roughly every 3.5 hours. Keep an eye on the world map. A special event icon will show up on the map an hour before it spawns, telling you exactly when and where to find the boss. Additionally, you’ll see broadcast alerts at the top of your screen: the first, when the one hour ‘heads up’ starts, and the second when the boss is spawning in 15 minutes.

Where to find world bosses in Diablo 4

World boss encounters are open-world events, where you and your fellow denizens of Sanctuary pull together to defeat the massive invader. According to the devs, these bosses will “take more than the people in your party to fight it.” That said, you shouldn’t have trouble because Diablo 4’s multiplayer features mean the fight is open to you and 11 other players when a world boss spawns (splitting off to a new ‘instance’ for each grouping). The following are the locations where world bosses may spawn:

• Fractured Peaks
  • Boss arena: The Crucible
  • Closest waypoints: Bear Tribe Refuge, Yelesna
• Kehjistan
  • Boss arena: Seared Basin
  • Closest waypoints: Tarsarak, Jirandai
• Scosglen
  • Boss arena: Caen Adar
  • Closest waypoint: Corbach
• Dry Steppes
  • Boss arena: Saraan Caldera
  • Closest waypoints: Hidden Overlook, Nevesk
• Hawezar
  • Boss arena: Fields of Desecration
  • Closest waypoint: Zarbinset

Some of these locations may have closer waypoints that are locked behind Strongholds, so we did not include those options.

Tips for fighting world bosses in Diablo 4

Fighting world bosses require focused awareness, as players have to be careful to watch for its attacks and dodge appropriately. Practice with the game’s Evade mechanic, which lets you quickly dodge away from danger. Being quick with this action is a must to avoid the massive damage this world boss could dish out. Gear that gives you extra evade charges or reduces the evade cooldown helped as well. being mindful of the mechanics and getting out of the way of attacks is crucial with both boss encounters throughout Act 1 story quests and dungeons. Dodging behind the boss during an ability prevents one-shots.

World boss fights are not a one-shot and done, and you may not have enough health potions (by default) to just heal through the damage. Pay attention to the world boss action bar — each milestone / breakpoint in the fight is represented in the boss bar in the top of the screen with a red triangle pointing down. As each milestone is reached, the triangle reverses (pointing up) and turns gray; when this happens, the boss drops health potion charges in the surrounding area to top you up while kicking off an additional mechanic.

These milestones are critical for your survival for a second reason — the newly added stagger mechanic. Stagger is a way for players to bring their controlling effects (such as stuns) to the boss fight. In the past, these abilities would not have any effect but with stagger, crowd controls accrue on the boss and fill up the Stagger bar (showing as a thin yellow bar under the boss’ health bar when charging up).

Once the stagger bar is filled, it turns blue and immediately begins counting down, with a starting window of at least 12 seconds. During this time, the boss is staggered and  you have an open window to absolutely blast at the boss without it retaliating. This is the perfect period for slamming Ashava with your ultimate skills! Stagger can also mitigate the boss’ more dangerous attacks; with Ashava, this means a smaller radius during the second sweep arc, giving you a bigger window to dodge from lethal damage.

Finally, it’s really important to stick out the fight; do your best to not teleport away. You run the risk of losing your instance of the world boss fight if you open a town portal for repairs. Yes, your gear may end up entirely in the red and desperate for repair; don’t fall to temptation! Stick it out and apply as much damage as you can.

TL;DR tips:

• Watch the moves telegraphed by the boss and evade behind the boss.
• Monitor the boss’ health bar for both milestones and stagger progress.
• Eye the ground for health potion charges once the milestone arrow flips.
• Use your control effects on the boss to contribute to the stagger meter.
• Unleash hell when boss is staggered (meter bar flips from yellow for charging to blue counting down).

When we had our first glimpse of world bosses at BlizzCon 2019, we knew they would be killer.  They’re huge, menacing, and ready to murder a whole heap of players. World bosses are another example of Blizzard embracing the “large and open” concept. But world bosses are only one of the dangerous encounters you might run into while exploring — like in all Diablo games, you should beware of the Butcher. All of these dangers remind players that Sanctuary is no longer safe, no matter where you roam. And if you see a world boss that’s ten times your side, you may want to run for it.

Originally published November 9, 2019; updated October 18, 2023