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Contents hide Where is the City of the Ancients How to finish City of the Ancients in A Serpent Cornered How to defeat Lord Zir in A Serpent Cornered A Serpent Cornered quest rewards

Need to know how to complete the A Serpent Cornered quest in Diablo 4? Season 2, the Season of Blood, brings a whole new questline to the game for players to complete.

All quests in Diablo 4 let players advance through the story and gain more experience. In the case of Season 2, many quests allow you to get special vampiric armor pacts. A Serpent Cornered is one of the last quests you’ll complete in Season 2, but it can be tricky if you don’t know what to do. If you need to know how to complete A Serpent Cornered, we’re here to show you.

Where is the City of the Ancients

You’ll pick up A Serpent Cornered as soon as you finish the previous quest, Battle of Fear and Faith in the Magistrate’s Office in Ked Bardu. Erys will meet you at the City of the Ancients. Head outside and look at your map for The Darkened Way.

You should have a quest marker for it, but unfortunately, many players have been encountering a bug that doesn’t show the location. The City of the Ancients is located in Fractured Peaks at the Northern tip of Gale Valley.

The City of the Ancients on the Diablo 4 map.

Meet Erys outside the City of Ancients, and she’ll open the door to the dungeon. Head inside to begin the next part of the quest.

How to finish City of the Ancients in A Serpent Cornered

The quest from here on out is completing the Courts of Dawn dungeon and confronting Lord Zir. Luckily, this dungeon is pretty straightforward. You’ll just need to beat each enemy you encounter. The Bone Thralls and Vampires that lurk here aren’t very difficult, so you shouldn’t have trouble clearing them out.

There are two elite foes you’ll need to beat, Onroe of the Ancients and Tidao of the Ancients. These two mini-boss fights are best fought after clearing out the crowd in the room, or else you could get distracted. However, like the other enemies, they shouldn’t be too time-consuming.

The entire dungeon is linear, so navigating shouldn’t be a problem. Just keep heading forward.

What you really need to watch out for is Lord Zir – both as the actual boss and the blood orbs he sends out to attack you while you’re traversing the dungeon. These red orbs will follow you throughout the Courts of Dawn and occasionally send out attacks towards you. You can’t take out the orb, so you just need to avoid them.

How to defeat Lord Zir in A Serpent Cornered

Finally, the time has come to face Lord Zir head-on. He’s waiting at the end of the dungeon at the Sanguine Throne. Unlike the dungeon before him, this fight is actually quite difficult.

The most important part is to watch out for the pools of blood Lord Zir will summon. These pools will take up space on the floor and will damage you if you touch them. I lost a lot of life not watching where I stepped, so be careful navigating the field. He’ll also regularly be surrounded by them.

This is why I recommend keeping a good distance between you and the vampire lord. Keep using your long-ranged attacks and you’ll be able to take him out. He’ll also use melee attacks, and summon Blood Seekers to the fight. Another good reason to keep your distance when fighting Lord Zir.

A Serpent Cornered quest rewards

After successfully beating Lord Zir himself, you’ll get a wonderful pool of loot. You’ll receive Legendary and Rare gear, experience, two random Pact items, the rare Lord Zir’s Amulet, and the Metamorphosis Vampiric Power.

That’s all you need to know about A Serpent Cornered. Be sure to check out our Whirlwind Barbarian build to be ready for not only all the quests, but other activities Season 2 will throw at you.

About the Author

Annie Thelen

Annie is a journalist interested in gaming and tech news. She is Guides Writer for Videogamer. Her favorite games are Legend of Zelda, Halo, Persona 5, Saints Row 2, and The Sims 2.

Diablo 4

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
  • Genre(s): Action, Action RPG, RPG

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