Five Endgame Encounters Arrived with Season of Blood
Diablo 4 Season 2 launched on October 17, 2023 with five repeatable endgame boss encounters: Echo of Varshan, Grigoire, the Beast in the Ice, Lord Zir and Duriel. They connected existing activities to boss-specific materials and more targeted Unique farming.
Blizzard’s Season of Blood overview made the encounters available in both Eternal and Seasonal realms. Their access rules depended on World Tier and materials. This is the original 2023 system; subsequent seasons changed boss access and rewards.
Which Activities Opened Each Boss?
Two encounters were available in World Tier III. World Tier IV added the other three and supplied the Grigoire/Varshan components needed for Duriel.
| Boss | Original World Tiers | Material source |
|---|---|---|
| Echo of Varshan | III and IV | Body parts from Whispers; World Tier IV also required a Malignant Heart. |
| Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint | III and IV | Living Steel from Helltide. |
| The Beast in the Ice | IV | Distilled Fear from Nightmare Dungeons, used to craft a Glacial Fissure sigil. |
| Lord Zir | IV | Exquisite Blood from World Bosses and Legion Events. |
| Duriel | IV | Mucus-Slick Eggs from Varshan and Shards of Agony from Grigoire, both fought in World Tier IV. |
The original summoning and location reference gives the exact quantities, lairs and separate World Tier III/IV offerings. The conditions had to be met again for each attempt; opening a lair once did not make later summons free.
The Beast’s Farming Threshold Was Different from Its Crafted Sigil
Blizzard’s overview listed Tier 30 or higher Nightmare Dungeons as the Distilled Fear source. The crafted Glacial Fissure Nightmare Sigil was Tier 31, as recorded in the original access reference. The farming threshold and the resulting boss sigil’s tier described different things.
Likewise, the consumable Malignant Heart used to summon Varshan belonged to the boss-material system. It was different from the socketable Hearts of Season 1.
Duriel Was the Original Uber Unique Target
Among these five bosses, Blizzard identified Duriel as the encounter that could drop Uber Uniques. Zir and the Beast had their own rewards rather than acting as additional steps in the original Duriel material chain.
The complete original item-to-boss tables show the specific pools and overlapping regular Uniques. Boss-specific pools did not mean every listed item appeared in only one pool. Blizzard also described some boss-exclusive rewards and possible cosmetic drops, rather than guaranteed rewards on every kill.
The Leveling Estimate Was About the Journey to 100
The accompanying Developer Update described the journey to level 100 as about 40% faster. Its changes included increased monster XP after level 50, incense XP and revised stacking of elixir and seasonal bonuses with World Tier bonuses.
That was a description of the overall leveling changes, not a flat 40% XP buff applied to every activity. The boss ladder supplied more endgame goals alongside that leveling overhaul.
