Despite numerous ass-kickings last season, the Diablo 4 Varshan boss is back, and all it takes to say hi is to gather his Malignant body parts and chuck them in a special altar. Alongside Grigoire, the Varshan boss is one of the first you can fight while on Nightmare world difficulty, not least because his materials are easy to gather.
Still, since the Torment version of Varshan also drops Mucus-Slick Eggs—one of the two materials required to summon Duriel—it might be a bit of a waste to fight this boss early and use up what you’ve gathered. If you’re curious what Unique items Varshan drops, have a browse of our Diablo 4 boss loot tables.
Otherwise, here’s how to gather Malignant body parts and summon Varshan.
Where to find Malignant body parts
Image 1 of 2
Unlike other bosses such as The Beast in the Ice, there are actually a few different ways to get hold of the Malignant body parts you need to summon Varshan.
Here are your options:
- Complete Whispers: Opening the caches you earn from the Tree of Whispers has a chance to give you a selection of Malignant body parts. You unlock the tree after you finish the campaign and it’s pretty easy to do Whispers while also taking part in activities like Helltide or Blood Harvest.
- Kill Grotesque Debtors: These special elite enemies spawn randomly and drop Malignant body parts. While you’ll get a little notification if one is about to appear nearby, the most consistent way of finding them is after you defeat a world boss, or when they sometimes spawn during the Blood Harvest event.
- Visit the Alchemist: Malignant Hearts are one of the materials you need to summon Varshan, but you can also convert them into any of the other three materials at the Alchemist. By the same token, you can craft Malignant Body Caches using the other three parts which will provide a random material.
The rarest material to find seems to be the Malignant Hearts which most often drop from the Grotesque Debtors enemies that appear after you defeat a world boss.
How to summon the Varshan boss
Image 1 of 2
Even though you can fight Varshan on either Nightmare or Torment world tier, he’s the only boss whose summoning cost doesn’t increase as you move between them.
The main difference between world tiers is that Varshan also drops Mucus-Slick Eggs—a material to summon Duriel—if you fight him on Torment.
To face Varshan you’ll need:
- One Gurgling Head
- One Blackened Femur
- One Trembling Hand
- One Malignant Heart
He’s also the easiest of the bosses to get to. Simply head into the Malignant Burrow by the Tree of Whispers and fight through a few corridors to find the arena and the Malignant Altar. Deposit your materials to start the boss.
If you were playing during the Season of the Malignant, Varshan hasn’t changed all that much. The main thing you need to watch out for are his delayed AoE attacks where he lights the arena floor red before exploding it. You can completely avoid these, however, if you stand to the far left or right of the arena when he starts casting. He’ll also periodically summon a few elites, but these are easy to deal with since Varshan stops attacking for a short while.