Diablo 4 players unearth a new challenge they’ve dubbed ‘The Shiny Butcher’

Diablo 4 has its fair share of monstrous enemies to deal with when you’re trekking through its dungeons and vast open world. However, players on the game’s subreddit have just found an entirely new one and he’s big, real big.

The Butcher is a now famous boss in Diablo 4 that some players may go their entire run without ever encountering. This is because he randomly spawns in the game’s dungeons or basements.

He’s a beefy enemy that can be a nightmare to deal with in the early game and racked up an impressive body count in the game’s Open Beta. Even the unprepared late-game build may struggle against his massive health bar and ferocious attacks.

As if the vanilla Butcher wasn’t already hard enough to contend with, players on the Diablo 4 subreddit recently stumbled across The Butcher on steroids. User IronHeart_777 published a screenshot showing the enemy covered in a striking red aura and nearly twice his usual size.

So uh… anyone know why we found a Giant Butcher? He appeared this big
by u/IronHeart_777 in diablo4

The player explained they were running Nightmare Dungeons when this hulking monstrosity burst into the frame and bellowed his catch-cry “Fresh meat”. The OP and others in the thread initially dubbed the foe “Shiny Butcher”.

It wasn’t long before other users put forth a compelling theory on what caused this unusual encounter. User swissarmywolf attributed the red aura and hulking size to a specific Nightmare Dungeon Affix designed to up the challenge.

The Major Avenger Affix causes enrages enemies when nearby monsters are killed giving them 25% increased damage as well as the visual markers mentioned above. This turns the already imposing butcher into a big red machine of frightening combat effectiveness.

The rewards for overcoming this massive challenge are well worth it though. The Butcher already drops quality loot upon defeat and the added affix improves the drops.

For players to experience this themselves, they need to encounter an extremely rare combination of RNG mechanics. First, you need the Nightmare Dungeon you’re running to have the Major Avenger Affix applied, second (and even more rare) you’ll need the The Butcher to spawn.

If you want to be prepared for the worst and overcome the freakishly big “Shiny Butcher”, check out all our Diablo 4 Guides here on Dexerto.