Oh good, the Diablo 4 boss with the worst timing has a new variant

Diablo 4 has many bosses for you to fight. Some require beating lesser enemies to farm the rare materials necessary for spawning them, while others can simply be found in dungeons or at the end of quests.

One legacy boss in particular, however, is famous for his enduring habit of always showing up at the most inopportune time. We’re talking about The Butcher, of course, the classic, menacing boss who ambushes players, spawning at any moment without warning.

Blizzard clearly doesn’t think he’s threatening enough, though, because there’s now a more terrifying version of it you may encounter.

The Diablo 4 Season 5 PTR recently wrapped up following one week of testing. Season 5 itself doesn’t start for several weeks, but Blizzard wanted to get a number of changes, and a new endgame activity, into players’ hands early to gather feedback.

The changelog for that one is nowhere near as large (or game-changing) as the PTR that preceded Season 4, but there’s still plenty to get excited about. Even seemingly small, undocumented changes like the ability to toggle any and all combat text on or off are generating a lot of positive buzz already.

Right before the Season 5 PTR wrapped up, however, players discovered one other undocumented change - and it’s not the kind that’s going to make everyone happy. The Butcher, perhaps one of Diablo 4’s most annoying bosses, has been terrorising players since the game’s launch.

Unlike most bosses, The Butcher can spawn anywhere at any time - including while you fight other bosses. Until someone accidentally figured out that you can actually tell when you’re moments away from running into it, The Butcher has been an unmitigated menace. When players aren’t cheesing it for an easy kill, they’ve been telling tales of a giant version of the monster, just in case the normal Butcher wasn’t exciting enough.

When Season 5 kicks off, there’s going to be a new version of The Butcher.

Content creator Rizarjay (via GamesRadar) was enjoying a run through Infernal Hordes, the new wave-based endgame activity set in Hell. Infernal Hordes has somewhat of a rogue-lite element to it; letting players choose a Boon and Bane after every run, offering them a boost, but not without some sort of handicap.

After picking one of the three available choices, Rizarjay gets jumped by The Butcher, and it wasn’t the one you expect. As you can see in the clip above, this one is a new variant dubbed Burning Butcher, which appears to have a rotating ring of fire around it that no doubt makes it harder to keep the pressure on.

Rizarjay’s Barbarian build was way too good for Burning Butcher to pose any threat, but we can’t say the same for the rest of us. It’s not yet clear whether this variant can spawn all around the game world, or whether it’s limited to Infernal Hordes. We’ll find out when Season 5 kicks off early next month.