How to defeat Airidah in Diablo 4

A stormy battle

Airidah, Keeper of the Dead, is one of the first difficult bosses that players are likely to come across in Diablo 4. You will encounter Airidah as part of the Apex of Misery questline in Act 2 of the campaign. Despite Airidah’s relaxed demeanor when you come across her during the quest, she isn’t a foe to take lightly.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know to defeat Airidah in Diablo 4 below.

How to defeat Airidah, Keeper of the Dead, in Diablo 4

As a sorcerer, Airidah is going to spend most of her time hitting you from afar. That means constant movement is the name of the game throughout this battle. Airidah’s core attack is lightning that targets areas across the entire arena. However, if you keep moving, it’s easy to avoid the spots where the lightning will hit.

Before the lightning strikes, a blue circle will appear on the ground. Make sure you avoid this spot. See the picture above for an example. It’s difficult to avoid every single strike, as there can be a dozen or so lightning strikes at the same time. If you stand still, Airidah will simply strike where you are standing. But if you keep moving in the same direction, Airidah’s strikes will nearly always happen behind you. That means generally moving in a single circular direction around the arena is the best strategy.

Watch out for the tornadoes

The second most prevalent and dangerous attack from Airidah is her dust tornadoes. If you get hit by one of these, it will do massive damage, so you need to avoid them at all costs. Dust tornadoes come in two forms: a moving tornado that will actively chase you and a burst tornado emanating from Airidah herself.

The moving tornadoes are the most frequent, and you will need to pay attention to when she conjures them throughout the battle. If a dust tornado starts to come after you, drop everything and run away from it. It will dissipate after a few seconds, and you can return to attacking Airidah once it is gone.

The burst tornadoes will knockback players who get close to Airidah. If you’re using ranged attacks like magic, you don’t need to worry about this spell. However, melee players should stay alert for this. Airidah will telegraph this attack by channeling two tornadoes on either side of her. When you notice her conjuring the two tornadoes, take a step back to avoid the attack. The time from conjuring to attack is quite short, so don’t worry if you take damage from the first few as you learn the timing.

Taking down Airidah’s Wraiths in Diablo 4

At two points during the battle, Airidah will conjure some Wraiths to protect her. When this happens, a greenish bubble will surround Airidah, with two or four lines coming out of it, leading back to the Wraiths. During this time, Airidah will be immune to all damage. To remove the effect, you will need to kill the Wraiths protecting her. The first two Wraiths to protect Airidah will appear just after her health falls below the first marker. See the screenshot above for reference.

Aside from the Wraith defense, these markers also represent when Airidah will drop health potions. You’ll want to ration your potions accordingly between drops to survive the fight. If you aren’t able to dodge the tornado and lightning attacks, it’s very easy to go through all of your potions before the next drop. If you’re fighting Airidah as a team and run out of potions, you may want to avoid attacking her altogether while your teammates continue the battle and just focus on avoiding her spells.

The second Wraith defense will appear just before her health falls below the third marker. It’s the same situation as before, Airidah can’t be damaged until the Wraiths protecting her are killed. However, this time there are four Wraiths that you need to take out.

Once the last four Wraiths are defeated, Airidah only has around a third of her health left and should be fairly easy to defeat. If you have combined all of the tips from above, you should have her begging for mercy in no time.

Related: How to Get the Black River Scythe in Diablo 4 on Prima Games