Diablo Immortal: How to Find and Defeat Ancient Nightmare and Lord Martanos

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Diablo Immortal doesn’t always make the most out of its MMO design elements, but the game’s use of World Bosses is honestly pretty cool. There’s nothing like seeing a server full of players come together to defeat some of the biggest bads in the game. Of course, few World Boss fights in Diablo Immortal are as rewarding and confusing as the battles against Ancient Nightmare and Lord Martanos.

Affectionately known as the “Big Guy” and “Little Guy,” respectively, Ancient Nightmare and Lord Martanos are two big bosses that initially appear to be separate encounters but are actually tied together in some pretty interesting ways. Given how hard it can be to find those bosses and properly battle both of them, though, it’s understandable that many Diablo Immortal players still haven’t experienced some of the coolest and most lucrative World Boss battles in the game.

That being the case, here’s a look at how to find and defeat Ancient Nightmare and Lord Martanos.

Diablo Immortal: How to Find and Defeat Lord Martanos

To find Lord Martanos, head to the Frozen Descent waypoint near Zakarum Graveyard. Head down from the waypoint, and proceed west as soon as possible. You should run into a small indoor area conveniently known as Martanos’s Tomb. That’s your destination. 

In a somewhat confusing turn of events, Lord Martanos seems to spawn every 30 minutes. While that should mean he spawns every 30 set minutes in a formal hour (so 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, etc.) it’s sadly not impossible that his timer can be just a bit off every now and then. If you wait around this area long enough, though, you will be notified when he has spawned. 

The fight against Martanos isn’t especially difficult compared to some other Diablo Immortal bosses. His health pool is impressively large, but as long as you’ve got a little help from a few other players, you should be able to take him down through basic attack and defensive strategies. It’s even possible to solo him if you’re powerful enough (though that’s rarely an issue and obviously takes quite a while). 

While Lord Maranos can drop some random rewards, the thing you’re really interested in is his guaranteed drop: a Zakarum Sigil. Why is that drop so important? Well, it’s because they help you make the difficult battle against the Ancient Nightmare just a touch easier. 

Diablo Immortal: How to Find and Defeat The Ancient Nightmare

First off, you should know that the Ancient Nightmare can only be found every Wednesday and Friday at 12 pm, 8:30 pm, and 10 pm (local server time). If you’re trying to look for the boss at any other time, you’ll be sorely disappointed by what you don’t find. 

If you’re playing Diablo Immortal at the right date and time, though, then head to the Misty Valley area of Mount Zavain. The Ancient Nightmare patrols the area around the Misty Valley Waypoint. If you’re in the general area, you should receive a prompt indicating that the boss has been summoned and that you’re able to auto-navigate to it. Besides, the boss is a giant, Xenomorph-looking creature that is surrounded by a glowing shield. It’s kind of hard to miss. 

The fight against the Ancient Nightmare is a little tricky. The battle requires you to take out the Ancient Nightmare’s shield so that you can actually start damaging him. While the Ancient Nightmare’s attacks are pretty simple, it’s going to take you a long time to get that shield down and start chipping away at its health. You might start to think that the whole thing is impossible. 

It’s not, but if you want to make things significantly easier on yourself, you’re going to want to use the Altars found along Ancient Nightmare’s patrol paths. If you manage to activate one of those Altars when Ancient Nightmare is within the range of its effect (it’s a pretty short range), you’ll stun the monster and give everyone a chance to significantly lower its shield. 

While every Altar can be triggered for free the first time around, any subsequent activations of an Altar will require the Zakarum Sigil you acquired from Lord Martanos. Just make sure that Ancient Nightmare is still in range when you activate the Altar. If not, then you’ll waste your attempt. 

Now, it is technically possible to beat Ancient Nightmare without Sigils or the Altars. However, those mechanics will make the fight notably easier. Without them, you can expect to spend quite some time draining that thing’s massive health pool. 

In any case, Ancient Nightmare is vulnerable to the same series of attacks that every other creature is. With enough time and patience, you will eventually take it down. There’s really not much to this fight outside of being there at the right time and using the Altars when possible. 

Your rewards for downing Ancient Nightmare will vary (it drops a chest of gear whenever it falls), but the real prize is the creature’s seemingly guaranteed chance to drop Enchanted Dust. Depending on what difficulty you’re playing at and what point of the game you’re at, you might also get some additional rare drops. In any case, this is one of the few events in the game worth planning your schedule around.