Diablo 4 Beta: How to Find and Fight the Butcher

Some traditions in the Diablo games, just like the Lord of Terror himself, never die. The iconic Diablo boss The Butcher is a prime, and evil, example of that concept. While he was missing from Diablo 2, he returned for seconds in Diablo 3, and The Butcher will also come bearing a platter of pain in Diablo 4. If you plan on playing that game’s Open Beta, you can even sample this boss before the game’s retail release. You just have to get a little lucky (or unlucky) to find and fight him.

As Diablo veterans probably remember, The Butcher was the very first boss players faced in the original Diablo. This demon quickly left an impression thanks to all the NPCs who built him up by talking about him, his unique room filled with butchered corpses, and his haunting catchphrase of “Ahh…fresh meat!” Unfortunately, Diablo 4 doesn’t give The Butcher anywhere near as much fanfare.

To find the Butcher in the Diablo 4 beta, you’ll just need to keep running dungeons. The Butcher is treated as a rare, random spawn in the game, so players have no control over where, when, or even if The Butcher will appear. He just spawns in any random dungeon room (save the boss room). The only warning that The Butcher is approaching is the rattling of his chains and the grumblings of…well, The Butcher himself. And if that didn’t tip players off to the fact that they were in trouble, his warcry of “Fresh meat” sure did. Odds are The Butcher’s spawn pattern will remain unchanged during the Open Beta, so the best way to find him is to keep resetting and running dungeons.

According to everyone who has been ambushed by The Butcher during the Early Access beta, this random boss is one tough slab of meat. He had a ton of health and chewed through player health pools with his oversized cleaver. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he could even bullrush players with a charge attack, reel hapless gamers in with his chain hook, and stun them before going in for the kill. Attacking The Butcher head-on was a death sentence, and, to make matters worse, if players died or took too long killing him, The Butcher left, and gamers had to go through the hassle of waiting for him to spawn again. Maybe he left his oven on?

To defeat The Butcher, most gamers and outlets recommended fighting him at a distance (or with DPS-heavy builds for Barbarians since that class isn’t good at long ranges). Players had to stay on the move and attack The Butcher from the side or from behind. Most importantly, players recommend saving your movement and defensive skills for The Butcher’s charge ability since it’s an almost guaranteed one-hit kill. To even the odds and split up The Butcher’s attention, players have even tried to gang up on him as a group. Unfortunately, those dungeon divers couldn’t make the fight easier by grinding levels since Diablo 4 utilizes level scaling.j

If you really want to defeat (or survive against) The Butcher, though, you could take advantage of an exploit that Early Access players used to cheese the demonic super boss. Apparently, The Butcher has trouble with doorways and glitches out whenever he tries to chase players through one. Blizzard probably will fix this exploit for the Open Beta, but it never hurts to give it a shot if you’re running out of better options.

During the Early Access beta, anyone who defeated The Butcher was rewarded with a ton of gold and experience points, in addition to no more than two Legendary items. The Butcher’s loot table also included the Unique Butchers Cleaver: a powerful axe that Fears and Slows enemies by 70% for four seconds every time players deal a Lucky Hit. Blizzard might tweak The Butcher’s drops and the Butcher’s Cleaver’s stats for the Open Beta, but you should still expect to receive some impressive loot for killing him.

Best of luck during the Open Beta and the official launch of Diablo 4. Since The Butcher can show up anywhere in any dungeon, you will need it.