Bosses constitute major challenges in any story-based video game, with Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 no exception. One of the game’s earliest bosses is X’Fal the Scarred Baron, but how do you beat him in Diablo 4, and what do you receive for doing so?
How to Beat X’Fal the Scarred Baron in Diablo 4
As players work through Diablo 4’s prologue, they’ll have to navigate Icehowl Ruins after following a lead from villagers that there’s evil emanating from the POI. In the Ruins, there’s multiple foes to defeat and rooms to loot. Soon after, the Chamber of Calling is reached, where a Decapitated Priest can be found.
Interacting with the Priest summons X’Fal the Scarred Baron, Diablo 4’s first boss. He’s a tricky enemy to face, capable of spawning Hellions and dealing significant damage to the protagonist with his diverse attack repertoire. However, we found multiple tricks to taking him down promptly.
The first tip, and most important, is to attack him while he spawns Hellions. On occasion during the battle, X’Fal will be suspended in midair as he spawns Hellions in to attack the protagonist. We found he’s vulnerable while doing so and there’s plenty of time to deal damage with well placed attacks as he summons them. Once the Hellions are in the battle, we retreated and used our next two tips.
These are to lure Hellions away from X’Fal and to use the environment to your advantage. In the Chamber there are multiple structures that stop X’Fal being able to attack. We found that hiding behind one of these pillars and drawing the Hellions to our position meant they were easy to take out – and ensured we couldn’t be attacked by X’Fal as we dealt with the smaller creatures.
Our final tips are to attack the Baron while he is in the middle of his own attack. We found this particularly easy by making use of the ‘Evade’ ability, which is unlocked just prior to the boss battle. Darting to one side to avoid attacks saw the Baron enter an animation, from which we could easily move in from behind or the side to deal significant damage.
Finally, we made a real effort to use and loot Healing Potions that are dropped throughout the fight. These are spawned when you vanquish the aforementioned Hellions, replenishing your own supply of Healing Potions and ensuring you can stay healthy to take out X’Fal.
Once the boss has been defeated, players earn a large amount of Gold and XP, as well as some useful gear. For us, using the Barbarian class, this included the Club Weapon and Strider’s Shoes.
That’s everything to know about fighting and defeating X’Fal the Scarred Baron. As the first boss in Diablo 4, he shouldn’t pose too many problems for seasoned players. After defeating him players can continue with the prologue and aim to reach Kyovashad, where the game’s first act commences.
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