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The Dark Citadel is your ultimate endgame co-op challenge in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, and yes, you need the Vessel of Hatred expansion for it. You will also need to grease your elbows a bit to reach it— so to speak. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll triumph in the Dark Citadel. So allow us to guide you on how to unlock and finish the Dark Citadel in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.
How to Unlock the Dark Citadel
Again, you need the Vessel of Hatred expansion activated if you want to access the Dark Citadel. This raid content isn’t available for base game players, sadly.
If you have the expansion, you can unlock the Dark Citadel starting on Torment I. Dark Citadel is only available on the Torment difficulties. That would be the 5th difficulty option, next to Penitent difficulty.
To unlock Torment I, you first need to go through a few hoops:
- Finish the Main Campaign if you haven’t already. Unlock Nahantu.
- Reach Level 60 on your character of choice.
- Go to Cerrigar, and activate The Pit entrance.
- Select Tier 20 on The Pit. Finish it.
- This will unlock Torment I. Go to the difficulty statue on Kyovashad and select Torment I.
- Go to the Rise of Khazra (Dark Citadel Waypoint) in Nahantu.
This is where you can finally access the Dark Citadel. It’s not meant for unprepared players if the Level 60 requirement doesn’t get the point across already.
Dark Citadel Explained in D4: Vessel of Hatred
For the Dark Citadel, you would need at least two players. There are raid-specific mechanics here that require more than one player. More players also don’t necessarily mean an easier run since the whole run might fail if even one player fails to understand the mechanics, especially in Hardcore servers.
So I recommend pairing up with players who know what they’re doing or are trusted. The Dark Citadel is split into three Wings and completing all three Wings will grant you the weekly reward. These Wings are as follows:
- Labrinth of Souls (Right)
- Enclave of Strife (Left)
- Dominion of Zagraal (Center)
It’s worth noting that the difficulty does not scale here and it’s always constantly adjusted with a 4-player party in mind. That means even going in with the minimum 2-player party is already a handicap.
Even if all your builds are good, you can still fail if you don’t work together to figure out the Dark Citadel mechanics in each wing as they can be complex and chaotic without proper communication. Don’t worry though, you get a full week to work it out with whomever you run Dark Citadel in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.
