We haven’t heard from the Butcher in a good long while. The scourge of earlier seasons, putting fear into non-op builds’ bones, the big red demon was basically the face of Diablo 4 for quite a while. As the power kept creeping up each season, he became less and less of a threat and more of a mild nuisance, even if you weren’t rocking the very best build.
The Return to Nightmare
In Season 9, the other big red is back to at least some significance. He’s haunting Nightmare Dungeons these days, specifically those connected together in Escalating Nightmares. There’s a special affix that appears on connected sigils that can spawn the Butcher in the Astaroth fight! Kurocero87 came up against exactly this and had a pretty hairy time defeating all three bosses: The Butcher, Astaroth, and the Amalgam of Rage! But it sure makes for an entertaining video!
The Butcher also isn’t the only help Astaroth can get with this affix, as players have reported being invaded by the Helltide assassin, Kixxarth! Luckily, his insane health pool from Helltides does not come with him, and he’s actually manageable.
So if you run into these extra bosses in your already double-boss fight with Astaroth, good luck!
