How to conquer the Hawezar Strongholds in Diablo 4

One of the most interesting new features in Diablo 4 is Strongholds, areas overrun with enemies that you can conquer to discover new dungeons, towns, waypoints or just areas slightly less overrun with monsters. There are three Strongholds in Hawezar, and they’re full of angry ghosts, angry snakes, and demons of unknown mood who are all two levels above you, which can make them something of a challenge. You’ll probably want to conquer them eventually, though, if only for for the Renown — a whopping 100 per stronghold.

Tips for clearing Strongholds

Every Stronghold will be teeming with enemies, strong mini-bosses (Elites), and a major boss fight at the end. If you are a solo player, Strongholds present a particular challenge due to the high level of enemies and the massive groups of mobs. While there’s no level requirement for any Stronghold in the game, you’ll want to have strong AOE damage and some crowd control to manage the packs you run into. No matter what class you’re playing, unlocking your Ultimate ability before trying any Strongholds can be a big power boost that will help you tear down enemies. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by waves of mobs, so take it slow and be careful.

On the defensive side of things, boots with an extra evade charge can be extremely helpful to let you jump out of the way of boss (and mini-boss) abilities. But any movement abilities will help you out here, since dodging big attacks will keep you alive. Elixirs, too, can make a difference: look at what you have in your inventory and bulk up your resistances to damage done by enemies in the Stronghold or increase your damage to enemies in the Stronghold. Even if it’s not a huge buff, it will help.

If you want to clear these Strongholds quickly, however, it is best to run them with a friend or two. Going with a group makes this challenging content much more forgiving. If you’re still leveling up, you might also want to consider dropping to World Tier 1 to conquer them; they’re still going to be two levels higher than you, but it doesn’t seem like as much of a challenge when you’re on the game’s easiest mode.

And one very important thing: after you clear the Stronghold, be sure to interact with the Wanderer’s Shrine, which officially “conquers” the Stronghold. If you leave without hitting the shrine, the Stronghold will reset and you’ll have to start over.

Hawezar Strongholds

• Crusader’s Monument
• Eriman’s Pyre
• Vyeresz

Crusaders’ Monument

• Location: Due north of Zarbinzet
• Objectives:
  • Search the Monument
  • Purge the Monument of undead
  • Investigate the Graverobber’s corpse
  • Retrieve the Exhumed Crusader’s Skull
  • Place the Crusader’s Skull in the Ritual Brazier
  • Find the Stolen Crusaders’ Skulls
  • Place the Crusaders’ Skulls in the Ritual Brazier
  • Slay the Crusader Champions
• When conquered: Remains hostile.

Search the Monument

Simply make your way to the center of the monument to begin the next step.

Purge Monument of undead

In the center area you’ll find an elite monster leading a group of skeletons. Kill them all to complete this step.

Investigate the Graverobber’s corpse

There should be a Graverobber lying nearby in the center area. Interact with it to cause it to drop an Exhumed Crusader’s Skull.

Retrieve the Exhumed Crusader’s Skull

Pick up the skull. Once you do that, the ghost of Sir Trystan will appear and angrily tell you to let his brothers rest. Put him to rest.

Place the Crusader’s Skull in the Ritual Brazier

Put Trystan’s skull in the brazier. When you do, several Vengeful Spirits will spawn; slay them and move onto the next step.

Find the stolen Crusaders’ skulls

You’re now going to want to check other Graverobbers around for more skulls — four in total. Do not bother checking the ones along the path immediately around the center; these will just drop some gold or a potion and usually will also spawn an angry ghost. Instead, check the ones in the rooms that are around the outside edge of the path. You’ll know you found the right ones when an Exhumed Crusader’s Skull drops, which will spawn a named ghost when you pick it up. Once you have all four, head to the center again.

Place the Crusaders’ Skulls in the Ritual Brazier

One by one, put the skull in the Brazier. Each time you do, one of the three ghosts for the final fight for this Stronghold will appear, although for now they are non-hostile and non-interactable. You’ll also spawn several Vengeful Spirits; take each crowd out before burning the next skull. When you burn the fourth skull, you’ll start the final boss fight — and, unfortunately, also spawn several Vengeful Spirits on top of it.

Slay the Crusader Champions

You will start out only facing a single ghost, Sir Thom. He has a couple of different attacks — a frontal thrust with his spear (that deals damage in a cone) and an attack where he marks a line on the ground then causes damage there a few seconds later. Once Sir Thom goes down, the other two ghosts will stand up — Dame Maryam first, then a short while later Sir Morholt.

Dame Maryam only has one attack; she will cause a series of projectiles to circle around you, then abruptly change directions and beeline for you. Just dodge them when they do that. She’ll also teleport away. As for Sir Morholt, he’s similar to Sir Thom, although with a ground effect ability that strikes in three lines at once rather than just straight in front of him.

Once you beat all three of them, it’s time to head back to the Wayfarer’s Shrine and ring it to conquer the Stronghold. It’s southeast of the fight arena — you probably passed it on the way into the zone.

Eriman’s Pyre

• Location: East-northeast of Wejinhani
• Objectives:
  • Speak with the Spirit of the Pyre
  • Slay the Fallen Overseer
  • Retrieve the Villagers’ Remains and use them to extinguish Eriman’s flames
  • Extinguish Eriman’s Pyre
  • Slay Duz’Agur, Eriman’s Bane
• When conquered: Remains hostile; unlocks the Oblivion dungeon.

 Speak with the Spirit of the Pyre

Head to the center of town, taking out the few Fallen you’ll find along the way, and head for the central fire. You’ll know it when you see it, because it’s connected to the other parts of this ruined town by five fiery lines which connect to fires that block off the other areas. Talk to the fire to hear some bluster from the demon inhabiting Eriman.

Slay the Fallen Overseer

An elite Fallen Overseer and some friends will spawn nearby; slay them all and pick up their quest item, a Villagers’ Remains. (Notice how when you pick these up a few ghosts spawn. Creepy!)

Retrieve the Villagers’ Remains and use them to extinguish Eriman’s flames

In the middle of the orange lines connecting the central pyre to each of the outer parts of town is a small orange circular fire. Use the Villagers’ Remains on these and it’ll extinguish the fire blocking that part of town. Head out there and kill an Elite to get another Villagers’ Remains, then head back and put out another fire, kill another elite, get another remains, and so on. Rinse and repeat until you’ve opened every section of town, killed the final Elite, and have a final Villagers’ Remains.

Extinguish Eriman’s Pyre

Walk up to where you talked to the Spirit of the Pyre and interact with it to try to put out Eriman’s Pyre. Unfortunately, it won’t be that easy.

Slay Duz’Agur, Eriman’s Bane

The demon inside Eriman wants to pick a fight first. It’s a lot like the boss of a typical Fallen dungeon, although it also has a move where it will make the central pyre shoot fireballs in a circle around the arena. It’s not too difficult, as far as stronghold bosses go. Once it’s down, Eriman will finally have a moment of peace, and forgive his neighbors to boot. You can then head to the Wanderer’s Shrine and ring the bell to conquer the town.

Vyeresz

• Location: East of Zarbinzet, west of Backwater, or south of the Ruins of Rakhat Keep. It’s about equidistant between the first two.
• Objectives:
  • Explore Vyeresz
  • Find and destroy the Serpent’s Eyes
  • Open the Serpent’s Eye Door
  • Survive the Cultist Onslaught
  • Explore Vyeresz Temple Ruins
  • Slay Dianthus
• When conquered: Becomes a town with vendors; unlocks a waypoint and the Shadowed Plunge dungeon.

Explore Vyeresz

Head to the center of town to find a Serpent’s Eye sitting on an altar in front of a door. Crush it to start the next objectives. Before you do, though, you may want to stop in the southwest part of town, where you’ll find two bound prisoners. Free these and they’ll turn out to be Crusader NPCs who will follow you around and fight enemies until they inevitably die to a poison cloud of some kind. It’s a neat little touch that you don’t see in any other Stronghold.

Find the destroy the Serpent’s Eyes

There are two of these — one to the east and one to the northwest, both inside buildings so you won’t be able to see them from the outside. Head inside each one, kill an Elite snake enemy inside, and crush the stone. Once you have both of them, head back to the center.

Open the Serpent’s Eye Door

The Serpent’s Eye Door will now be unlocked. Use it and …. it’ll drop about two feet, then begin slowly chugging open.

Survive the Cultist Onslaught

In the meantime, while the door works out its issues, you have cultists to take care of, including a few Elite Nangari snakemen. Once you take out all of the cultists, the door will finally open to the second half of the Stronghold.

Explore Vyeresz Temple Ruins

There’s a fair amount you can explore back here if you want to open some treasure chests or find the Altar of Lilith, but if you want to find the boss and finish the Stronghold, just head straight ahead as far as you can go.

Slay Dianthus

In the final room, you’ll find Dianthus, a giant Nangari boss who uses both the Longfangs’ bite-stun attack and the Oracles’ projectiles — though he has some new tricks, like firing them in a circle. Defeating Dianthus will then let you head back out to the Wanderer’s Shrine to conquer the town.