The early parts of Diablo 4 are a bit on the easy side, which is appropriate given how little you’ll have to work with and how unfamiliar you might be with how your chosen class operates. By the time you reach Vhenard, one of Lilith’s servants and a misguided mother, the training wheels are off.
Vhenard’s arena is small, its enemies many, and there are additional sources of incoming damage you’ll be hard-pressed to avoid. We’ll cover how to beat all three of Vhenard’s boss fight phases in this guide.
How to Beat Vhenard, Phase One
Vhenard’s first phase is a tutorial for the next two. While you can hurt her directly, you need to kill the enemies she summons to deplete her health bar. Here, she’ll only summon a pair of Hell Spawn, lesser winged demons linked to Vhenard’s shield via a blood tether.
Hell Spawn alternate between shooting lighting orbs at range and slashing at you with their claws in melee. While they’re not too threatening on their own, but they have a lot of health, and you need to kill both to progress to the next phase.
The real problem at this point and all subsequent phases are the spinning beams of energy that emanate from Vhenard’s blood shield. Not only will these chunk your health, but they’ll also give you the Vulnerable status, making your defenses weaker across the board.
You can dodge through them or avoid them with movement, and you’ll need to learn to do so fast while doing damage to the two Hell Spawn. I was playing Sorcerer for my fight, and I recommend either Ice or Fire, as the first offers a bit of survivability and crowd control, while the second provides sheer damage.
How to Beat Vhenard, Phase Two
The second phase of the fight is an expansion of the first. This time, three Hellspawn will appear to power the boss’s shield alongside five Hellion beasts. Remove the Hellions quickly, as they’re only a distraction. The Hell Spawn will now shoot multiple electrical orbs at a time, and with three of them present, expect there to be plenty of those to avoid.
The spinning laser beams are now made up of two lengths of energy connected by a central point, and running into one of them only causes it to disappear, leaving the other one to continue to move toward you.
Vhenard sends out two or three beams at a time, and if you’re unlucky they’ll cover the entire width of the arena. Use your dashes liberally but cautiously, as you only have two, and despite their short cooldown, you don’t want to be stuck with no movement abilities.
How to Beat Vhenard, Phase Three
Vhenard’s third and final phase is the most chaotic of all. On top of the three Hell Spawn, and five Hellions, you’re now also dealing with a Pit Beast – a miniboss whose bulk takes up about a quarter of the arena.
Focus fire on the Pit Beast and Hellions first, as the former has a huge cleaver he’s just waiting to slash you with, and taking a hit from him will deal significant damage. Thankfully, the Hell Spawn don’t gain any additional orbs in their ranged attacks.
The spinning laser beams, however, have changed again. They now come out in groups of three connected to a single point like they’re the spinning inside of a triangle. As before, taking a hit from one beam won’t stop the others from spinning, and Vhenard sends out two or three simultaneously.
To beat this third phase, you need to stay on the move, and rather than keeping your eyes on the enemies, pay attention to the location of the lasers and the blood tethers between Vhenard and the Hell Spawn. Use every AoE attack in your arsenal, if you have them, and if you’re more of a single-target specialist, but down the high-value targets — the Pit Beast and Hell Spawn — as fast as you can.
Don’t worry too much if you die a few times trying to take down this phase. You’ll need to do the fight from the start again, but I found the second instance of the fight much more manageable, as I better knew when I needed to heal when to run, and when to attack.
