Crafting a Bloodforged Sigil is your first step in attempting the new Abattoir of Zir dungeon in Diablo 4. This seasonal endgame dungeon is supposed to provide some extra challenge to those who've already done everything and crave something a little harder. The Abattoir of Zir is basically a post-tier 100 continuation of Nightmare Dungeons, with even higher level enemies, and Bloodseeker bosses you'll need to defeat.
While it's sad that the Abattoir of Zir has no permanent rewards—the incredible Tears of Blood glyph you can get disappears at the end of the season—it does offer more of a challenge than simply beating the same old bosses over and over. If you're level 100, have completed your Season Journey, and are confident in your build, it's worth completing tier one simply to get the glyph and its big damage increase.
All that said, here's how to craft a Bloodforged Sigil in Diablo 4, plus an explanation of how the Abattoir of Zir works, along with my top tips for beating it.
How to craft a Bloodforged Sigil
It's important to note that you need to have completed your Season Journey to unlock the Abattoir of Zir, and that means finishing the objectives listed up to Destroyer—level seven. The good thing is you don't have to do every objective either, so you can ignore the two most annoying in each chapter. After that's done, the next time you log in, you'll automatically get a quest to visit Nomin the Occultist in Ken Bardu.
The quest is a bit confusing since when you talk to Nomin it simply completes and nothing happens. However, if you cycle through Nomin's menu to "Craft Sigils", you'll be able to craft the tier one Bloodsoaked Sigil for 800 Sigil Powder. If you don't have enough, you can always salvage some Nightmare Dungeon Sigils to get what you need. Abattoir of Zir sadly doesn't offer Sigil Powder as a reward, but you can salvage Bloodsoaked Sigils for their full amount.
To activate the Abattoir of Zir, simply consume the Bloodsoaked Sigil in your inventory as you would for a Nightmare Dungeon, then head to the entrance also marked in Ken Bardu.
How to complete the Abattoir of Zir
While the Abattoir of Zir climbs to a dizzying difficulty tier of 25, you only need to complete the first level to get its best reward; the Tears of Blood glyph. Even at level one, this unique seasonal glyph massively boosts damage based on how many core stat nodes you unlock around it, giving you an edge in any future Abattoir runs you try.
More importantly, though, it'll give you a massive damage buff in the normal game, letting you blend through 90% of activities with ease to clear up what you need to before the end of the season. It's highly recommended that you hit level 100 before trying the Abattoir of Zir and unlock all of your Paragon points through the Renown rewards, so you're at your strongest. Trying a tier 100 Nightmare Dungeon will also give you a pretty good idea of how hard enemies will hit.
All that said, here are some tips and important things to remember:
- Kill fast: This dungeon is a race against the clock as you try to outkill the timer on the right side of the screen. Your time limit is represented by the little white line, while your kills are the yellow bar that slowly fills. When this bar reaches max, you'll get a message saying that the Guardians are coming, and you'll have to defeat some special Bloodseekers as a final boss.
- Don't die—even if you have a friend to revive you: Any death will instantly fail Abattoir of Zir, even if you're playing in a group and multiple people can revive you. In this sense, it's risky to bring more than two players into the Abattoir of Zir, since it increases your chances of a potential failure.
- Build your Resistances: Resistances are important in Abattoir since you have to fight a wide range of enemies no matter the dungeon it puts you in. In Torment world tier, resistances are slashed by 50%, so you'll have to do some work to compensate for that. If you can't be bothered with gems, just use an Incense for a 15% increase for three, and an Elixir of Magic Resist for 25% for all of them. This should get you up to the 70% cap.
- Survivability: While killing quickly is important, survivability is a big problem. As ever, the Aspect of Disobedience is a must-have, giving you free armour, and depending on your build you could even put it on your amulet for bigger gains. Each class has its own ways of gaining barriers, but I'd say, be aware of what your barriers scale from. If it's max life, then make sure you have plenty of that. You can also use your Vampire Powers to gain extra damage reduction. At a minimum, I'd recommend around 10k base armour.
- Luck of the draw: If you have a good build, you should be able to make it through Abattoir of Zir to the final boss. The issue is that sometimes the Bloodseekers that appear can have a nasty combo of random affixes, or even those that may be a hard counter to your build, like the Suppressor affix. While there isn't all that much you can do about this aside from bringing a friend for some build variety, it's worth simply being aware that, as with Nightmare Dungeons, the random elements can still mess you up.
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