A Timed Endgame Event from Season of Blood
The original Abattoir of Zir was a 25-tier seasonal dungeon challenge with ten-minute runs. It ran December 5, 2023–January 23, 2024. The final enemies were Zir’s Bloodseekers; this was a different activity from summoning Lord Zir for his boss loot.
Blizzard’s BlizzCon 2023 announcement placed the event in the Seasonal Realm and recommended well-equipped level-100 characters. This guide covers that original, closed Season 2 event.
The Original Access Route
Blizzard’s launch instructions described this sequence:
- Prepare in World Tier IV and complete every Season Journey chapter. Chapter completion unlocked the Bloodforged Sigil recipe.
- Craft the Bloodforged Sigil at the Occultist. It opened the Visceral Channel in Ked Bardu.
- Enter the challenge and complete its timer. Kill enough enemies to summon the final Bloodseekers, then defeat them within the ten-minute run.
Level 100 was Blizzard’s recommended preparation. Unlocking the recipe depended on the listed World Tier IV and Season Journey conditions.
How a Successful Tier Advanced the Character
Success unlocked the recipe for the next tier’s Bloodforged Sigil, progressing up to Tier 25. The first successful tier also unlocked the Tears of Blood Unique Glyph.
Completing a tier, crafting the next sigil and improving the Glyph served different purposes: access, another attempt and character progression. Unlocking a harder recipe did not establish that the same character could complete that difficulty.
The Tears of Blood Glyph
The original Level 1 illustration below shows a radius of four and a damage bonus for Core Stats purchased within its range. Blizzard explained that this Glyph needed substantially more experience than an ordinary Paragon Glyph; deeper Abattoir tiers supplied more Glyph XP.
December 8 Changed the Launch Difficulty
The launch overview compared the first tier with a Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeon. Blizzard’s December 8 Hotfix 2 then moved the starting difficulty near Nightmare Tier 90, reaching the Tier 100 comparison by Abattoir Tier 5 and the previous tuning by Tier 10.
That hotfix also reduced incoming damage by up to approximately 20%, removed Vampiric and Suppressor affixes from Bloodseekers, and increased higher-tier Glyph XP. A launch-day difficulty description and a later clear therefore referred to different conditions.
For practical context, the historical strategy guide separates launch tips from those changes. The completion-reward reference covers the dated equipment report and Glyph XP examples, while the five-class build directory identifies the dependencies behind contemporary builds.
