Diablo IV Wandering Death World Boss Guide

Death will not spare you for another year, not unless you beat it back to whence it came. One of the three world bosses, the repetitively titled ‘Wandering Death, Death Given Life’ claims a rightful place as one of the more difficult challenges in Diablo 4. But with great risk comes great reward, so fight on to pillage from the living dead.

World Bosses only appear once every 6 hours, and you can never be certain of which you are going to get, nor exactly when they will spawn. If you have completed the main story of Diablo IV, then you will get a notification 20 minutes before a world boss spawns with the location they will spawn in. Wandering Death will spawn in one of the following locations: Caen Adar in Scosglen, The Crucible in The Fractured Peaks, Fields of Desecration in Hawezar, or Sarran Caldera in The Dry Steppes. Once Wandering Death appears, you and any other Heros in the area have only 15 minutes to defeat them.

Once Wandering Death, Death Given Life spawns, you will notice 4 arrows spread equidistant along their health bar. These denote the 5 stages of their health. You’ll know you’ve moved to the next stage when the closest arrow turns up and goes grey. Each stage increases the Boss's threat, giving them access to more attacks and causing them to use their attacks more frequently. Beneath Wandering Death’s Health Bar is the Stagger Bar. Filling up the Stagger Bar will, naturally, stagger the boss. When Wandering Death is staggered, one of their arms will temporarily fly off, two Trapped Souls will spawn, and the Boss will stop moving, allowing for you and your allies to attack without reprisal. However, if you do free the Trapped Souls, you’ll do additional damage to Wandering Death.

But what about what Wandering Death can do? This World Boss has several abilities that can lead your hero to an early grave if not properly prepared, and being forewarned is being forearmed. Some of the attacks you should expect to encounter are:
Bone Tornado - These tornadoes spawn in numbers and slow you down in addition to doing some damage over time. Not dangerous in their own right, but in combination with Wandering Death’s other attacks, they can be deadly.
Death Grasp - Wandering Death will send out iron chains under the ground. When these chains retract, they’ll do a high amount of damage to anyone caught in their wake, in addition to dragging them closer to the boss.
Death Shout - An AOE centered on the boss. The closer you are to Wandering Death the further away you are pushed and the more damage you take.
Earth Slam - Wandering Death will slam their fists into the ground a number of times, and each slam does damage to those near, as well as sending out a wave of iron spikes that deal damage in their own right.
Bone Jail - A number of Bone circles will spawn on the map, trapping some of your allies inside. All trapped inside the Bone Jail will want to use their movement abilities or break through the wall of bone in order to free themself. Otherwise, the Jail will explode, dealing damage to those inside as well as those too close.
Death Beam - Multiple beams of Light emanate from Wandering Death as they begin to rotate. You will want to stay in between these beams, as getting hit by them can quite easily end your life.

Two important strategies to keep in mind are to stay close and position yourself on Wandering Death’s Flank. Many of their abilities are easier to avoid when closer to the boss, and some will simply not spawn that close to them, so staying close will keep you relatively safe. As for flanking, most of their attacks start from their front or back and continue on in a line, leaving the flank relatively untouched. This will change as the fight continues through the five stages, so don’t get too comfortable.

When Wandering Death is defeated, you will be greatly rewarded. Everyone who participates in killing a World Boss earns XP and Gold scaled to their level, Scattered Prisms which are used to improve your gear, as well as loot that can be up to Unique tier quality. If this is your first time defeating Wandering Death this week, you will also earn a Legendary Grand Cache. So make sure to try and defeat each of the three world bosses each week in order to maximize the loot you’ll receive. See you in Hell Heroes!