The Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon is a place that you’ll need to delve into if ever you want to unlock World Tier 3: Nightmare. Our Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light guide details what you can expect from this corrupted place, as well as the objectives, bosses, World Tier 3: Nightmare, and other unlocks.
How to Complete the Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon for World Tier 3: Nightmare
Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light Requirements and Location
The Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon is located in Kyovashad, the capital of the Fractured Peaks. You can’t miss it, since you’ll visit it a few times during the story, and it gets marked on your map. However, the dungeon itself only becomes available after completing the campaign, making it an endgame activity.
This is also the Diablo 4 World Tier 3: Nightmare unlock method, as it requires you to clear the dungeon on World Tier 2 difficulty. The enemies here are level 50+, but it’s possible to complete this even at lower levels.
Collect Animus From Revenant Knights
Upon entering, you’ll need to collect Animus from Revenant Knights. These are large, armor-clad elites, often surrounded by numerous enemy mobs. Due to narrow corridors, you can funnel in these hostiles before unleashing your damaging area-of-effect (AoE) abilities. Once a Revenant Knight has been defeated, make sure you pick up the glowing mote on the ground to fill the progress meter.
How to Defeat the High Council
The Diablo 4 High Council boss encounter in the Cathedral of Light pits you against a Lord Commander, Devoted Champion, Grand Inquisitor, and Sacred Physician. These are the things you’ll want to be aware of:
- Sacred Physician – Has healing and protective abilities, which means you’ll want to prioritize this foe. Otherwise, the fight will take longer.
- Grand Inquisitor – This enemy uses magical attacks, but it’s not a huge threat. It can be taken out as you’re also beating down the Sacred Physician.
- Devoted Champion – This foe has melee attacks, often rushing your character. It can be a little annoying, but the Sacred Physician is still your priority.
- Lord Commander – This giant knight should be saved for last once everyone else has been eliminated. It has powerful melee swings, which can deplete a huge chunk of your HP.
In my case, I was maining a Necro, which meant that my undead minions were just running all over the place, aggroing different targets. I did focus on the Sacred Physician, but it was a hassle to try and get my minions to beeline for it. At the very least, they also presented themselves as tempting targets for the other hostile minibosses.
Slay All Enemies in the Reliquary of Erudition
After clearing the area of the minibosses and picking up your random loot, it’s time to go through the portal. This takes you to the Reliquary of Erudition, which is crawling with demons and undead. The goal here is to kill all enemies, down to the lowliest skeleton. You can only proceed further once every foe has been vanquished.
How to Defeat the Curator
Finally, you’ll go up against the Diablo 4 Curator boss. At level 50, it can be quite a challenge for underleveled and undergeared characters. The Curator has the following abilities:
- Spectral Wave: Its deadliest ability is the Spectral Wave. When you see it bring its arm out, multiple lines will appear on the ground, and these are followed by linear blasts. These will cause tremendous damage, especially if you’re positioned incorrectly and you get hit by more than one. Ideally, you’ll need to dodge and move to the back of your target. Then, you’ll want to prepare for the next two casts as well.
- Grasp of the Dead: The boss will periodically create wispy smoke circles on the ground. Eventually, spirits will attempt to pull you and slow you down. This can be a hassle if you’re trying to avoid Spectral Wave casts.
- Grave Grindstones: At lower health, it will create several rock formations that block your path. Again, this is mostly to cause a hindrance when you’re trying to move out of the way of Spectral Waves.
- Pulverize: Lastly, this is an AoE stomp that has a long wind-up time, and it must be avoided at all costs due to the high-impact damage.
As a Necro main, I mostly stayed out of the way, letting my minions handle the DPS. When Spectral Wave was cast, I dodged the first set, then I popped by Blood Mist for immunity, just in time for the second set. Other classes can also save their dodges and defensive cooldowns for these moments. The third set might still hit you, so be ready to use a potion or two.
How to Unlock World Tier 3: Nightmare in Diablo 4
After defeating the Curator boss, you’ll complete the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon. This lets you select the Diablo 4 World Tier 3 Nightmare from Inarius’ statue in Kyovashad’s main square. Advancing to World Tier 3 has various effects, including the addition of new endgame activities:
- Enemy buffs: By default, enemies will be level 53 or higher; additional elite affixes; +20% resistance.
- Enemy kills rewards: +100% XP given; +15% gold dropped.
- Sacred items and Unique items can drop: These are additional rarities and types of high-end items.
- Nightmare Sigils and Nightmare Dungeons: You can obtain sigils that add modifiers to dungeons, giving better rewards, and also allowing you to level up your Paragon Board Glyphs.
- Helltides: These are hour-long events that can happen randomly in certain regions. Partaking in these events yields high-end rewards and materials.
And that’s it. That’s how you complete the Diablo 4 Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon to unlock World Tier 3. For more gameplay mechanics and quests, our Diablo 4 tips hub has you covered.
