Diablo 4 World Boss times, locations, and rewards

World Bosses are one of the coolest features in Diablo 4. They’re massive, epic boss fights that you can battle alongside multiple other players. Right now, Diablo 4 features three such World Bosses: Ashava, Avarice, and the Wandering Death. Once per week, you can defeat a World Boss for a chest filled with rare loot.

In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll tell you where and when World Bosses spawn, give you tips on how to beat them, and outline what you’ll get for succeeding.

World Boss spawn times in Diablo 4

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

As of season 2, Diablo 4’s World Bosses now spawn every three and a half hours, rather than every six hours. Patch 1.2 also made it so the World Boss icon will appear on the map a full hour before it spawns, rather than just thirty minutes, and the game will notify all players of an impending World Boss 15 minutes before the fight starts.

While the timing of World Bosses is like clockwork, the actual time of the day when the World Bosses appear is not, and will shift over the course of days and weeks.

World Bosses spawn locations in Diablo 4

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Each of the five regions has an arena that acts as its own little subregion, and any of the three bosses can spawn in each arena. If you’re looking for a World Boss spawn notification, make sure to scan around the entire map and check all the arenas.

• The Crucible in the Fractured Peaks
• Caen Adar in Scosglen
• Saraan Caldera in the Dry Steppes
• Seared Basin in Kehjistan
• Fields of Desecration in Hawezar

As far as the World Bosses you’ll go up against, there are currently only three:

• Ashava the Pestilent
• Avarice the Gold-cursed
• The Wandering Death

Each of these bosses drops the same loot. However, there is a small chance for each of the bosses to drop a unique cosmetic — like horse armor — exclusive to them.

How to defeat World Bosses

Each World Boss in Diablo 4 is unique, and their difficulty will vary greatly depending on the quality of your gear and the World Tier you’re fighting them on. Still, we’ve found that, for ranged characters, the best strategy is to max out your range and dodge away from the boss when they use a sweeping attack. Melee characters have the exact opposite situation, and the safest place on all three bosses is directly under them. You can still get hurt in either of these scenarios if you aren’t paying attention, but you’ll have a better shot at survival.

World Bosses were menacing in the Diablo 4 beta, and posed a serious threat. In the full game, however, they typically fall over very quickly, especially if luck out and manage to have some high-level players fighting alongside you. This is not the super-scary, 15-minute Ashava you may have faced during the beta. So keep that in mind and don’t be afraid to play aggressively.

It’s worth noting here that Blizzard increased the health and damage of all world bosses in patch 1.2, so they shouldn’t fall over as quickly as they did in the past.

World Boss loot, rewards

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Each World Boss is timed, and will disappear in 15 minutes if you fail to kill it. But if you manage to succeed, it will drop a wide variety of items for you, including Legendaries and Uniques. World Bosses can also drop a unique crafting resource — Scattered Prisms, which you use to add gem sockets to items. According to the patch notes, World Bosses saw a “significant” increase to their rewards in the season 2 patch, so they should be more lucrative than ever before.

The first time you kill any World Boss for the week, you’ll get a weekly bonus chest filled with Legendaries and powerful items. As of season 2, these caches no longer have any kind of level requirement to open.