Some Diablo IV beta players have reported having a visit from an old foe, as The Butcher, the original first boss of the Diablo franchise, is making a return as a random boss encounter. Reports of the hulking brute have been surfacing since the beta went live this past Friday, March 17.
In his first outing in the original Diablo, players would run into The Butcher in a small, bloody, square room filled with mangled corpses — and pieces of corpses — scattering the floor and chained to the wall. A massive demonic overlord wielding a giant cleaver, opening the door to The Butcher’s room would be met with his delighted, garbled announcement of “Ahh, fresh meat!” His high hit point total and attack power led many players to their first in-game death or scampering down the third-floor stairs to avoid him, as he’s quite overpowered to be appearing on just the second level of the dungeon-crawler.
This time around, the Butcher seems just as deadly, if not moreso, and beta testers can’t seem to get enough. Reports from players across the Internet are indicating that the massive demonic delicatessen seems to pop up at random, adding in an element of surprise to his already deadly arsenal. Additionally, he’s been given a speed upgrade, as though he needed more killing power, and can perform a powerful charge attack to take players down out of nowhere.
Despite his frustrating difficult, fan reaction to the Butcher’s return has been overwhelmingly positive, as nostalgic players from 1997 have greeted him with open wounds. “It’s the chase from Butcher that I love that feeling,” said beta tester @UKChub on Twitter. “Scare and horrify feeling. Don’t remember I had that scare feeling on Diablo 3.”
YouTuber Raxxanterax managed to capture footage of himself and his party winning an encounter against The Butcher on Hardcore mode and shared it on his account, although he had to resort to kiting tactics while others whittled down the beast’s hearty health bar, and his screams of terror and terror and elation when The Butcher first popped up seem indicative of the Diablo community’s general feelings on the big guy’s welcome back party.
Diablo IV is set to release on June 6 for PlayStation 5, PlayStaton 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
