Dark Citadel is a cooperative endgame activity introduced in Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred DLC that requires 2-4 players to participate together. Therefore, in this ultimate PvE activity, you will team up with your friends to fight against tough bosses and take down hordes of enemies in three areas.
As we all know, Diablo 4’s lack of multiplayer functionality has always been criticized by many players. With the arrival of the new expansion, the game introduces the first multiplayer-focused content, Dark Citadel activity, which adds many challenging encounters and satisfies players’ desire to fight side by side with friends.
However, if you want to survive in Dark Citadel smoothly, kill all enemies and collect the dropped Diablo 4 Gold and loot, you must know the 3 final bosses in this endgame, namely Gorschak, the First Ascendant, Lorzuul, the Gorger, and Zagraal, the Eternal. In this guide, we will specifically introduce how you can win in the battle with these ultimate bosses.
Before You Start
Before you officially enter, I must remind you that whether you are playing with 1 player or 3 other players, you all need to split into 2 groups. Therefore, it is a significant advantage to play this game mode with voice chat, because effective communication is essential. Reasonable use of voice chat can make cooperation much easier. Of course, if you and your teammates have a strong tacit understanding, it may not be necessary. However, no matter how many players you play with, you all need to work together. Otherwise, it will be difficult or even impossible for you to defeat the last boss.
In addition, please note that before entering the game, make sure your character has a high health value, about 5k to 10k, and the movement speed is also fast, because these bosses have multiple attack modes, extremely powerful physical melee attacks, only by choosing the right character build and always being vigilant, you may be able to successfully challenge! Once you are ready, let’s get started!
Gorschak, The First Ascendant
For Gorschak, you will fight him in 3 phases.
First, you need to start the fight by killing two goons to free Gorschak. He is actually vulnerable in the first phase, and you can start the second phase immediately by reducing his health to 66%. Note that at this point, he will become invulnerable and activate the upcoming Impending Doom timer and summon Realm Guardians.
To make Gorschak vulnerable, you need to kill these Guardians to obtain Realm Shards and open a portal into Spirit Realm.
At this point, send 1 or 2 players into the portal. Player 1 will enter Spirit Realm, while Player 2 will stay in Sanctuary and prepare to teleport by killing Realm Guardians, collecting Realm Shards, and activating the portal after Player 1 obtains Soul Essence.
Meanwhile, always stay alive and run like crazy to dodge all boss skills, so we recommend that the fastest player stays in Sanctuary, and invest in Diablo 4 Gold to equip the best boots to increase your success rate. Then you need to make sure to leave at least one player who did not enter the portal, because this player needs to charge the portal again to bring back your teammates.
Now, for player 1, after entering Spirit Realm, you need to defeat 2 Ward Guardians to drop Wardstones and disperse 2 Searing Wards. This will spawn an elite enemy called Fragmented Soul of Gorschak, which will drop Soul Essence that you need to bring back.
Defeat it and pick up Soul Essence, then player 2 can now activate the portal to allow player 1 to teleport back to Sanctuary. Remember that players who enter Spirit Realm will be affected by the upcoming Impending Doom, so clear the area as soon as possible.
Once player 1 returns to Sanctuary, quickly deposit Soul Essence into Conduit of Souls to render Gorschak vulnerable.
Then, activate all the skills you have to reduce the boss to 33% health, after which he becomes invincible and the last phase begins.
The ultimate phase is identical to the second phase, so just repeat all of these steps to defeat Gorschak and claim Dark Citadel reward.
Once you complete Enclave of Strife for the first time at any Torment difficulty, you will be rewarded with a Helm of the Khazra Cosmetic, but if you complete it for the first time at Torment 4 difficulty, the cosmetic you receive will be Greater Helm of the Khazra. Although you won’t receive the cosmetic reward for completing it again later, the random Diablo 4 unique items drop is worth the effort.
Lorzuul, The Gorger
Next, let’s take a look at Lorzuul, the Gorger.
You will fight Lorzuul in 3 phases, and the boss is invincible for most of the fight. 4 Aimless Souls will spawn around the boss, and after defeating them, two Barrier Guardians with symbols will spawn, one on the left and one on the right, protecting the two Wardstones in the northwest and northeast rooms from the Soulbound Ward.
Therefore, we recommend that each player take one side, defeat Barrier Guardians to remove the corresponding symbol barrier, then enter the room and pick up Wardstone to place it in Soulbound Ward in the middle of the boss arena. You can use the portal to quickly move to the middle of the arena or quickly run to Soulbound Ward.
After placing the two Wardstones, the boss will become vulnerable, and it’s time to use your skills and spells to reduce the boss’s health to 66%!
Then Lorzuul will become invincible again and the second phase will begin, and Soul Consumed will appear next to the minimap.
Soul Consumed is an ability that Lorzuul can use to consume the souls around him to continuously increase his power. To prevent this, you need to send a member of your team to destroy the souls generated around the boss. If the souls consumed reach the maximum, Impending Doom will appear.
All you need to do in the second phase is to find and place 3 Wardstones in Soulbound Ward to make the boss vulnerable again.
Once you enter the second phase of the battle, you must split up and scout the outer circle of the arena to find three Barrier Guardians with symbols, which usually spawn in these places, but they are still random. You need to find and defeat three of them to eliminate the barriers with the corresponding symbols before you can enter the room to take Wardstones inside.
In the meantime, please be aware that Lorzuul will throw deadly Poison Meteor at you, so be sure to avoid being hit, otherwise you may die from poisoning. Of course, if you have enough Diablo 4 Gold, obtaining unique armor will greatly increase your chances of survival.
Remember that Barrier Guardians will not open the room closest to them. Instead, they will open the three corresponding imprint rooms located in the west, east, and north. In this phase, please explore, kill, and collect quickly!
Once you have placed all 3 Wardstones in Soulbound Ward, Lorzuul will become vulnerable again and will teleport back to the center of the arena. You can then start attacking Lorzuul to reduce his health to 33%, after which he will become invincible, heralding the start of the last phase.
The final phase is a combination of phases 1 and 2, just repeat the steps, kill the two Barrier Guardians that spawn on the left and right sides to eliminate the barriers of the corresponding symbols, pick up those Wardstones and place them in Soulbound Ward.
But this time, placing the first 2 Wardstones will not make the boss vulnerable. You must continue to explore and find the last 3 Wardstones to end Lorzuul’s life, and take the loot dropped by the boss before leaving the dungeon.
Just like before, your first completion of Labyrinth of Souls at any Torment difficulty will drop Gloves of the Khazra, while the first completion at Torment 4 difficulty may reward you with a Greater random armor part of Khazra Cosmetic.
Zagraal, The Eternal
Finally, we come to the center wing of Dark Citadel, Dominion of Zagraal.
Here you will fight Zagraal in 3 stages. You need to start the fight by killing two goons to free Zagraal. He is invincible during this stage.
Once the fight begins, he will immediately open a portal to Spirit Realm, and all players must follow him into Spirit Realm. There, he may take damage and will also start attacking you. At some point, Zagraal will be teleported to the edge of the arena and will start channeling red beams that deal high damage. You will need to dodge it in time.
Note that if a player misses the portal, you will need to wait for Teleport Guardian to appear, kill it, and it will open the portal to Spirit Realm for you. As soon as you enter Spirit Realm, you will start receiving stacks of Impending Doom, which will kill you when it reaches maximum. So, making sure this doesn’t happen, you need to leave Spirit Realm before it reaches maximum.
When you get Zagraal down to 66% health, he will become invincible, and you will then need to teleport back to the Throne Room, which requires at least 2 players to step on the pedestal at the top of the room to remove the barrier around the conduit. Then activate the conduit to open the portal back to Throne Room for the second phase.
Once you are back, a lot of monsters will spawn in front of you, and you must kill every monster in the area to activate Soul Siphons. Zagraal will then mark each player with a sigil. All you need to do now is recharge Soul Siphons.
When Soul Siphons are finished recharging, Ritual Guardian will spawn and drop a stone when they die, and the player with the corresponding icon above their head must pick up the matching stone dropped by each Guardian.
Once you’ve done that, Zagraal will jump back into the arena and start casting Soul Orbs, and you’ll need to kill Spell Guardian to get a Counterspell Stone to counter Soul Orbs back at him. The boss will then open the portal to Spirit Realm again, and do the same thing, dealing as much damage as possible.
During this time, just dodge his skills until you’ve drained his health to 33%. This marks the beginning of Phase 3, which is the same as Phase 2, so just repeat these steps to get rid of him.
Defeating all 3 wings each week will earn you a Dark Citadel Challenger’s Cache, which has a chance to drop a Greater random armor part of Khazra Cosmetic for you.
