Nihlathak is found below Nihlathak’s Temple in Act 5 which is reached via the red portal via Anya in Harrogath and after you encounter Pindsleskin. This is part of the Betrayal of Harrogath quest.
Nihlathak’s Temple consists of three levels, Halls of Anguish, Halls of Pain, and Halls of Vaught. Nihlathak can be found on the third level, the Halls of Vaught.
Nihlathak Notes
When encountering Nihlathak he will summon a mob of minions but has no attack method other than an Arctic Blast spell. He will however use Corpse Explosion to detonate fallen monsters. These will deal fire and physical damage
TO mitigate damage from the corpse explosions, players can destroy corpses, especially with ranged skills or cold attacks to shatter them.
Nihlathak casts the following skills:
- Summon Minion — Nihlathak will summons a new minion periodically, during a long battle. The second you kill it, he’ll usually hit the body with Corpse Explosion.
- Minion Frenzy — Just like an Overseer, Nihlathak can drive his minions into a frenzy, causing them to charge and attack at an increased rate of speed.
- Speed: +80%
- Attack value: +80%
- Defense: +50%
- Damage: +100%
- Corpse Explosion — 10-20% of the monster’s full hit points are released as 50/50 fire/physical damage.
- Arctic Blast — A chilling column of frost; same as the Druid skill but more damaging.
- Teleport — Nihlathak moves short distances during the battle, usually when besieged by melee attackers. He does not heal when he teleports.
Statistics
- The Treasure Class/Rune drops listed are the highest Treasure Class/Rune Group a normal monster of that type can drop.
- Champions and Bosses can sometimes drop from the next higher TC.
- The max TC/Rune possible depends on which level a monster spawns in, and can vary slightly from the listed values (monsters that spawn in later levels can drop higher level items).
| Name | Level | Experience | Hit Points | Speed | Max TC/Rune |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nihlathak | 7 | 39/Dol, 60/Ist, 87/Zod |
Offence
Nihlathak’s stats are entirely preset, like an Act Boss’. He does not gain random modifiers on Nightmare or Hell.
- Nihlathak has no melee attack. His damage comes from his Arctic Blast and the Corpse Explosion he can cast on dead monsters.
- His corpse explosion deals 10-20% of the dead monster’s full hit points (the damage is 50/50 physical/fire). This is a huge nerf from the 60-100% damage it did prior to v1.09, and largely explains why he is now an interesting monster, instead of an instant death machine.
- Nihlathak’s minions are Ice Spawn. Their hit points, by difficulty level: 408-507 / 1480-1850 / 4292-7152. On Hell one Corpse Exploded deals 429-715 to 858-1430 damage, 50/50 divided into physical and fire.
- Nihlathak can corpse explode any monsters in range, and may turn his ire upon the corpses of other monsters that spawn on the level.
| Name | Arctic Blast |
|---|---|
| Nihlathak |
Defences
Nihlathak does not regenerate hit points.
- Drain Effectiveness tells what % of a character’s mana and life steal apply to that monster. 100 is all, 0 is none.
- Chill Effectiveness tells what % of a character’s cold length applies to the monster. 100 is all, 0 is no freeze/chill at all.
| Name | Defense | Blocking | Regen Rate | Drain Effectiveness | Chill Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nihlathak | — | — |
Resistances
- Resistances over 99% are listed as immunities and monsters will take no damage from that type of attack.
- Immunities can be “broken” by skills that lower resistance, if the value drops below 99%. See the Resistances page for more details.
| Name | Physical | Fire | Cold | Lightning | Poison | Magic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nihlathak | 0% / 0% / 0% | 0% / 0% / 33% | 70% / 70% / 70% | 0% / 0% / 33% | 70% / 70% / 70% | 0% / 0% / 25% |
Locations
All SuperUniques (except for Uber Diablo) are found in roughly the same location every game, on all three difficulty levels. (Except for the Uber Monsters who are only found on Hell Difficulty.)
| Name | Location |
|---|---|
| Nihlathak | Act 5: Halls of Vaught. (On the stage at one corner of the level. Surrounded by Minions.) |
Nihlathak Runs
Like Pindleskin, players often undertake Nihlathak as he’s easy to find and for a number of other reasons including:
- He is the only place to get Keys of Destruction
- At level 95, he is the second highest level, regularly occurring in the game that is not an Uber, ahead of the Ancients (87) and Diablo (94). Only Baal (99) is a higher level but harder to get to. The Halls of Vaught is a level 84 area, the second highest possible outside of Ubers.
- Grand Charms dropped by him can have or be re-rolled to have the prized “of Vita” suffix, +40-45 life. he can also drop “Pestilent small charms of Anthrax” (eg: sc’s with > 100 poison damage. Baal is the only other place to get these)
- He can drop any rune and shares the ‘best’ drop rate for runes >vex with Hephasto.
Halls of Pain Floor Plan
There are three variations to the Halls of Pain Level as shown in this image
Halls of Vought Indicator
There is an indicator as to where Nihlathak can be found and down which corridor as show in this image. Simple look for the pattern on the walls (marked in green on the image) and that will be where he is located.
