Strongholds are some of the tougher content you’ll face as you explore the world of Diablo 4, boasting a minimum enemy level or, if you’re above the minimum, everything is two levels higher than you. The Kor Dragan Stronghold, one of three in the Fractured Peaks, offers a massive challenge — it’s filled with vampires, infinitely spawning blood-empowered enemies, and plenty of Elite-level minibosses. We’ll cover how to beat it in this guide.
How to Complete the Kor Dragan Stronghold in Diablo 4
Beating Kor Dragan in Diablo 4, located northwest of the Fractured Peaks, is one big bloodbath. The Stronghold is home to vampires, bloodbound warriors, and giant Vampiric Incubators.
To open the path to the boss room, you’ll need to destroy all three Incubators, marked as small diamonds on your minimap and surrounded by large yellow objective markers. To destroy the Incubators, you need to blow up the two smaller Vampiric Corruptions connected to them. You can track where these Corruptions are via the large veins on the ground connecting Corruption to the Incubator.
There are three Incubators in Kor Dragan, and each time you destroy one, a Sanguine Champion miniboss will spawn. These guys have spears and tower shields, and they aren’t afraid to use them, either. A shield bash will send you flying and stun you for five seconds, so if you haven’t cleared the mobs out and the bash lands, you might be heading back to the respawn screen. Ask me how I know.
The three Incubators near the south and north entrances and inside the keep at the northwest portion of the Stronghold. After clearing all three, head to the northern part of the area and destroy the last bit of corruption blocking the hall to the boss, a vampire lord named Nilcar, Forgotten Bishop.
How to Beat Nilcar, Forgotten Bishop in Diablo 4
Nilcar, boss of the Kor Dragan Stronghold, has three phases, and while his attacks don’t change, the cadence of the fight does. Nilcar has two attacks to worry about.
- Blood Shot. Nilcar shoots a large clot of blood at you, dealing heavy damage. The clot moves slowly, so it is fairly easy to dodge.
- Blood Barrage. After a short windup, Nilcar shoots dozens of smaller blood clots at you for about five seconds. His aim will track your location, so you can run in any direction to avoid the barrage.
The real threats in this fight are the three Elite mobs Nilcar will progressively bring in to fight you. Which one he chooses is random, but by the end of the encounter, you will need to fight all three at once alongside the boss.
- The Sanguine Adherent. In my run, this mace-wielding maniac had a Corruption modifier, meaning not only did his attacks deal damage over time, but if he hit me, he left a corruption pool behind, making maneuvering in the tiny arena a pain.
- Sanguine Inquisitor. An elite version of the mage enemy you fought while clearing the Vampiric Corruption outside, this enemy constantly summons spears from the sky.
- Sanguine Knight. With its heavy shield, longspear, and the ability to summon a damage-preventing barrier, you’ll want to deal with this enemy as soon as it appears.
The catch to the Elite mobs is that they don’t immediately die after defeating them. Instead, they’re stunned until Nilcar revives them, so you’ll have to combine keeping them out of the fight and dealing damage to the boss. If your build isn’t quite up to snuff, expect to die at least a few times as you learn how the fight flows (or doesn’t). I died several times trying to get the cadence down.
If any of Nilcars minions are still up when he falls, they will as well, so if you want to focus on the boss at the expense of his minions, you can, but that does take the difficulty up quite a bit. As with many of the content in Diablo 4, how you conquer Kor Dragan Stronghold is up to you.
