Betrayal of Harrogath is a quest in Act 5. Not required, and extremely deadly on Nightmare and Hell. We recommend you skip it past Normal, especially if you are Hardcore. Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to complete this quest simply for the good XP and loot while still keeping Anya’s red portal to Pindleskin’s Garden open for future Pindle-runs, so long as you remember: Don’t activate the Halls of Pain waypoint. Otherwise the red portal closes permanently the next time you quit, robbing the Pindle-run of its future usefulness.
| Given: | Given by Anya. |
|---|---|
| Triggered By: | Rescuing Anya (Quest Three). |
| Location: | Red Portal to Nihlathak’s Temple, then down into a three level dungeon. |
| Tips: | Find the Halls of Vaught. There are four areas. Find the extension of the cross where Nihilathak is located. Nihlathak will raise Minions to help him out. Don’t waste your time battling these if possible because he can send an endless stream of them against you. Nihlathak uses Corpse Explosion very effectively. Even players with insane amounts of life can be instantly killed. It’s best to use spells and skills on the Minion Corpses so that they can’t be exploded. Try to “rush” Nihlathak and destroy him as quickly as possible. |
| Description: | Nihlathak plans to make a deal with Baal to protect this town. He is giving Baal the relic of the Ancients, our most holy token. It allows anyone to walk unfettered into the mountain. Anya tried to stop him but he imprisoned her among the hordes.
Nihlathak must be stopped before he dooms us all. His delirium is no excuse for his actions. As much as Anya would love to strangle the life out of him herself, her imprisonment has left her too weak. You must kill him. Stop him from destroying everything we have fought for aeons to protect. |
| Rewards: | Your name on an item from Anya. |
Before we start, it should be noted that this quest can be dangerous, with several potential places for you to get one shot. Plus, the reward is simply the ability to personalize an item. That said, this is a popular farming spot in the end-game, so you might consider doing it to open up the Waypoint at the very least.
After saving Anya, she’ll ask you to follow Nihlathak to his temple and take him down. She opens a portal for you to his realm. You can fight the enemies at the entrance, but you might be better off just running past into the Temple. From here, just follow the wall until you find the entrance to the Halls of Pain and then do the same to get down into the Halls of Vaught, but don’t forget to get the Waypoint in the Halls of Pain. Once you take this Waypoint, Anya’s portal will be gone, but if you’ve come this far, you’re probably not interested in farming Pindleskin (the mini-boss at the location’s entrance).
During your trip down, you’ll run into all kinds of zombified warriors who can resurrect like the enemies you encountered down in the Frozen River. Watch out for their charge attack and you should be fine. They’re joined by upgraded versions of the Death Maulers you fought during the first quest and Putrid Defilers, who can putrefy dead enemies causing Pain Worms to spawn out of their corpses. In short, be prepared for a few trips back to town to refill potions. These enemies hit like a truck.
When you enter the Halls of Vaught, you first want to look for a particular wall tile that looks like a pair of red eyes. This area is shaped like a cross and Nihlathak spawns at the end of the room that the eye wall precedes. Nihlathak himself is a tough enemy because he can summon minions, teleport, and slow you down with Arctic Blast. Plus, he can use Corpse Explosion to blow you up quickly. Try to focus him down instead of dealing with his minions so he can’t use their corpses against you. Pay attention to your summons and mercenary as well. You don’t want them attacking his minions and ruining your plan. Once he’s dealt with, head back to Anya and she will now personalize an item for you.
Extreme caution was recommended on this quest prior to v1.09, since Nihlathak’s corpse explosion was absurdly deadly on hell difficulty; capable of dealing well over 1000 damage with a radius larger than the visible screen. In those early days of D2X, the skill scaled up just like the Necromancer’s did, based on the hit points of the monsters Nihlathak was blowing up.
Ice Spawn
Corpse Explosion does 60-100% of the monster’s hit points damage with each Corpse Explosion, of which 50% is physical and 50% is fire damage. This was 1184-2467 damage per CE on Hell, until Nihlathak’s CE damage was twinked down to the point it could largely be ignored in v1.09.
Plot Point: Earlier in the Act, one of Nihlathak’s town gossips foreshadows his turn to evil.
“The demon hordes have grown powerful beyond measure, aided by our foolish mistakes. But I may have found a way to correct those mistakes.”