If you’re a die-hard Diablo 4 fan and have been playing since its initial release, you’ll be familiar with Strongholds that made their return in Vessel of Hatred DLC. Strongholds are mini-dungeons in the game that have the unique ability to change the map.

There are three Strongholds in Nahantu, the first DLC for Diablo 4, and this guide will show you where to find them and what rewards you can get once you’ve explored them.

Chakhir

First up is Chakhir, located in the western corner of Seven Stones. Your main goal in Chakhir is to clear the debris and discover the source of the toxic magic that powers this Stronghold, so you’ll need to find all the brewing cauldrons in it and destroy them.

These brewing cauldrons are protected by enemies called Cauldron Keepers, which you’ll need to defeat before you can break the cauldrons’ protective barrier. In addition, you need to clear Befouled Briars before you can start destroying the brewing cauldrons.

After dealing with the brewing cauldrons, you can go to the middle of the area to kill a small boss called Darm. Although Darm is not an enormous threat to you, you need to be careful to stay away from the flowers that appear on the ground because they will explode and cause some damage when you step on them.

After you successfully defeat Darm and pick up the loot and Diablo 4 Gold, you can enter the room to defeat the other four Falo Blooms and their leaders Sinerat and Skerg. It should be noted here that you will fight Sinerat and Skerg at the same time, so make sure your agility is strong enough.

In addition, the fire in the arena and the exploding flowers will also pose a certain threat to your health, so you need to pay attention to them at all times. After you successfully defeat them, you can go to Wanderer’s Shrine to claim your 100 Renown reward.

Kichuk

The second Stronghold is called Kichuk and is located on the northeastern edge of Teganze Plateau. For this Kichuk, all you need to do is clear Lacuni that is attacking the area, and you also need to free the villagers from the cages.

After you have taken all the villagers away from Lacuni attack wave, the next goal is to go to the caves to prevent the village from being attacked again. There will be many pillars blocking you as you travel through the caves and find a suitable settlement. You need to destroy them.

It is important to note that there will be circles next to the pillars. You need to stay away from them as much as possible, otherwise you will take unpredictable damage. After you destroy all the pillars in the cave, you need to run back to the entrance before the timer runs out. If you fail to get out of the cave at the specified time, you will be threatened by a large amount of falling rocks.

After you have settled all the villagers, you need to return to the village and go to the circle that appears on your mini-map. This is where the boss of this Stronghold, Kirma, is located. After you deal a certain amount of damage to Kirma, it will disappear for a while and reappear in front of you with sufficient health.

In short, the battle between you and Kirma will be divided into two stages, and its health will return to normal in the second stage. After you successfully defeat Kirma in the second stage, you can go to Wanderer’s Shrine to claim your 100 Renown reward, and you have unlocked a Waypoint.

Festering Dark

Unlike the previous two Strongholds, Festering Dark has some unique mechanics that make it more complex and difficult to navigate without a guide. This Festering Dark is located in the southern part of Restless Canopy and has only one entrance.

When you enter Festering Dark, you will see a pickup lantern lying on the ground. This is the main goal of this Stronghold - to take the lantern to the braziers throughout Festering Dark and light them. However, if you accidentally lose the lantern, you can also activate the rune to make it reappear.

It should be noted that when you pick up the lantern, you cannot attack enemies; when you take damage, any key will make you put the lantern down and start fighting. When you finish the fight, you can pick up the lantern along with Diablo 4 Gold reward.

After you light a brazier, the lamp will start to move on its own and guide you to the next brazier that needs to be lit. After enough braziers are lit, a small boss named Vesicator will appear and you will have a simple challenge. When you light the braziers in the last area called Gates of Necropolis, it means that you are about to start the ending battle.

When you light this brazier, Maleficium will appear in front of you. When fighting it, you need to keep an eye on the circles on the ground and the lines in the arena. These two seemingly insignificant graphics will cast vigorous attacks. In addition, you need to lead Maleficium to a bright place as much as possible, because only here can it be damaged.

When Maleficium’s health is less than 50%, it will extinguish all nearby braziers and become completely invincible. At this time, you need to run to the braziers quickly that are not covered by its dark energy and launch the last attack on it at these places.

Once you’ve successfully defeated Maleficium and cleared the other obstacles in this Festering Dark, you can head to Wanderer’s Shrine to claim the final 100 Renown and Gates of Necropolis Waypoint rewards, plus you’ve unlocked Betrayed Tomb dungeon.

The above are the specific locations and clearing methods of the three Strongholds in Nahantu in Diablo 4’s first expansion Vessel of Hatred, as well as the final rewards. I hope you can run these three mini dungeons easily and quickly according to the guidance of this guide, and wish you a happy time in the new DLC!