Diablo 4: Temple of Rot Stronghold Guide

Many Strongholds in Diablo 4 have some extra objective beyond simply killing everything sight, and many also have a dungeon or other additional reward tied to them. The Temple of Rot has neither. It’s a straight-up meat grinder with tons of powerful enemies, one of the most frustrating bosses I’ve had the displeasure to fight, and no additional rewards besides what the boss itself drops. We’ll cover how to beat everything in the Temple of Rot in this guide.

Related: How to Unlock World Tier 4 in Diablo 4 by Primagames

How to Beat the Temple of Rot Stronghold in Diablo 4

There are no special tricks or strategies to taking down the Temple of Rot. This Stronghold is different in that it seems to be one of the larger gear checks you can discover before you even reach the midgame of Diablo 4.

Located in the western Dry Steppes, this place has enough enemies at a high enough power that one misstep will send you back to the respawn area, and the boss has two different forms, with two full health bars to deplete. If you aren’t properly geared (and I certainly wasn’t), dealing with everything here is a massive pain.

To open the way to the boss of the Stronghold, you need to slay four Cannibal Champions. You’ll know what to look for, as the Champions are marked as mini-bosses on the minimap.

If you’re approaching the Temple from the northeast, they show up in a rough square and are marked as yellow circles on your minimap. They can be hulking brutes or fast-acting goatmen, but they’re constantly surrounded by around ten trash mobs that do nothing but get in your way.

Before you hit the boss room after killing the Champions, head to the northernmost section of the Temple for an Altar of Lilith that provides a single Paragon point. If you aren’t level 50 yet, this point won’t be immediately useful, but once you hit that threshold and start your midgame grind, you’ll want as many of them as you can.

With all four Cannibal Champions dead, it’s time to head for the boss room, a two-form affair against Molqarth, the Hungerer, and then the Spawn of Molqarth. Don’t expect an easy fight against either, but the Spawn encounter is one of my least favorite fights for reasons we’ll discuss below.

How to Defeat Molqarth and the Spawn of Molqarth in Diablo 4

The fight against Molqarth, the Hungerer, is pretty straightforward. He’s a massive meat puppet with two morningstars who will chase you around the arena, spamming the same two attacks. Unfortunately, both attacks can two-shot you if you’re not adequately geared.

• Morningstar Strike: His default, Molqarth, simply walks up to you and whacks you with one of his weapons. What makes the attack annoying is it has strong tracking, meaning dodging to one side or behind the boss will see him swing around to still hit you. Dealing with this attack consistently means dodging away from him or face-tanking it.
• Three Waves: Molqarth winds up and hits the ground three times. The first sends out two waves at an angle with a large opening in the middle. The second also sends out two waves, but the opening is smaller. The third and final part of the attack is a single wave that travels direct in front of Molqarth. The hitbox for these waves is a bit longer than the wave’s model, so just because you’re behind it doesn’t mean it won’t connect. Molqarth doesn’t track you with the waves, so if you can get behind him or to his side, he’ll be easy to damage.

After you deplete Moqarth’s health bar, the Spawn of Molqarth will appear, a spider-like creature with three attacks and the ability to spawn an infinite number of flies.

The flies are by far the worst part of this fight. Their hitbox, like the waves, is larger than the swarm’s model, and being within it slows your character significantly, making you an easier target. And like the first part of the fight, the Spawn can easily one or two-shot you if you aren’t careful. Here are the Spawn’s attacks.

• Scratch: The Spawn of Molqarth’s default attack, it scratches at you with one of its claws as it chases you. The attack has a deceptive range, and the Spawn is just a bit faster than your default movement speed, meaning you’ll want movement speed buffs to stay ahead of it.
• Blight Spit: The Spawn of Molqarth spits out a dozen pools of poisonous blight, covering more than half of the arena in damage-over-time-fields. Thankfully, they’re small and spread out enough that avoiding them is pretty easy.
• Pounce: Probably the Spawn of Molqarth’s most annoying attack, as it can do it multiple times in a row from any distance, the pounce has a little bit of tracking, a small AoE when the boss lands, and can easily deal half your health in damage or more. Dodging to the side is the only way to guarantee you avoid the pounce, as the hitbox extends the entire length of the attack, so dodging into it is a no-go. Dodging away is also dangerous because if you mistime it, the boss will still hit you.

Don’t expect the Moqarth fight to be easy if you go into it without a proper in-progress build and a good amount of damage output. I died more against the boss than at any other point thanks to an unoptimal setup. Also, I’m stubborn, but that’s a separate issue.

With everything said and done, you should now have completed the Diablo 4 Temple of Rot. For more coverage of Diablo 4 and its masses of content, check out our guides to the Acts of Atonement side quest, how to reset dungeons, and more in our D4 guides hub.