The Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon is a unique Dungeon in Diablo 4 that serves as the trial that each character must complete before they can access World Tier 3 (Nightmare difficulty). This page will provide a walkthrough for the Cathedral of Light, including what objectives you must complete to finish the Dungeon, how to defeat the bosses in the Cathedral of Light, and, of course, how to find and unlock the Cathedral of Light in the first place!

How to Enter the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon in Diablo 4¶

In order to access the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon, you must first complete the main campaign in Diablo 4 on any difficulty. After this is done, a new priority quest will appear: World Tier 3: Nightmare, which basically just instructs you to clear the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon to unlock World Tier 3. Other than beating the campaign, the only requirement is that you make the attempt on World Tier 2 (Veteran) difficulty. It’s also worth noting that the minimum level for the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon is 50; enemies will scale to your level past that, but the minimum level they’ll spawn is 50 regardless of your own level.

Completing the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon and unlocking World Tier 3 will allow you to access many new gameplay elements, including:

• Nightmare Dungeons
• Helltide Events
• Unique Items

In many ways, the core gameplay loop doesn’t get started until World Tier 3, and if your primary goal in Diablo 4 is to kill demons and make the numbers on your stats screen grow bigger, then unlocking World Tier 3 should be a priority.

Where to Find the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon in Diablo 4¶

The Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon can be found in the… Cathedral of Light. Shocking, we know. This is the church along the northern end of Kyovashad, just north of where the World Tier statue can be found. Just head past the pews and take a left to find the massive double doors leading to this Dungeon.

Once inside the dungeon you’ll be tasked with completing the following objectives:

• Collect Animus from the Revenant Knights
• Deposit Animus into the Animus Urn
• Travel to the High Council Court
• Defeat the High Council
• Interact with the Teleporter to move to the next area of the dungeon
• Slay all enemies in the Reliquary of Erudition
• Travel to the Curator’s Chamber
• Defeat the Curator

How to Clear the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon in Diablo 4¶

How to Collect Animus from the Revenant Knights¶

Despite the unique rewards you’ll earn upon completion of this Dungeon, most of its objectives are standard Dungeon fare. First you’ll be tasked with hunting down and killing around five !Revenant Knights, who are just Elite enemies with a fancy title. They’re not the only Elites you’ll find as you explore, but the !Revenant Knights themselves should be fairly spread out from each other, so you shouldn’t have to worry about fighting more than one at a time. Once you kill them, pick up the Animus orbs they drop to fill up the Animus meter, and when it’s full you’ll get the objective Deposit Animus into the Animus Urn. Just seek out the aforementioned Animu Urn, interact with it, and the way to the next area, the “High Council Court” will open.

How to Defeat the High Council¶

Next you’ll need to Travel to the High Council Court, which is mostly just a jog through enemy-filled hallways enroute to the “High Council Court”. When you arrive your task will change to Defeat the High Council. This is a fight with four bosses at once, although they’re more akin to jumped-up Elites than true bosses. Each one has a life bar segmented into three parts, and hence you can expect them to drop potions when you drop each boss down to 66% and 33% of their health. They can also be staggered like normal bosses, but their shorter life bar makes gauging the progress a bit trickier, and the other bosses may not be sporting enough to let you take advantage of these opportunities. The four High Councilors you’ll have to defeat include:

• Sacred Physician: A bog standard Inquisitor with a fancy name, he’ll shoot bolts of energy at you and conjure bolts of light from the sky. Functionally identical to the Grand Inquisitor.

• Grand Inquisitor: Functionally identical to the Sacred Physician, he’s just an Inquisitor who will pelt you with ranged attacks during the fight.

• Devoted Champion: A sword and spear variant of the Knight Penitent enemy, he’ll doggedly pursue you and try to hit you with a running thrust + sweep combo. He can also hide behind his shield, generating a barrier.

• Lord Commander: A massive mace-wielding variant of the Knight Penitient enemy, he’ll stalk you around the chamber, trying to smash you with his mace. His massive ground slam emits waves of light, giving him a bit of a ranged threat.

The two Inquisitors are by far the weakest links in this battle, so if you can kite the rest of the enemies and take opportunistic shots at them, you’ll find they die fairly quickly. None of these enemies are all that durable, in fact, and if you have reliable AoE the fight shouldn’t last that long. While not all that strong against a well-equipped, level 50+ character, things can get hectic if you rush on in and let the enemies concentrate fire, and the fight ultimately seems like it’s designed to weed out weaker, underprepared characters, which makes sense given the purpose of this dungeon.

Defeat the high council and you’ll be ambushed by some Clerics, who are just Adherents who are bearing a different name, for whatever reason. Go through a portal to satisfy the next objective Interact with the Teleporter to move to the next area of the dungeon and continue on with this Dungeon.

How to Clear the Reliquary of Erudition¶

After going through the teleporter you’ll find yourself in the next area - the Reliquary of Erudition. The scope of your task has expanded, but the goal is largely the same - Slay all enemies in the Reliquary of Erudition. This time the members of Inarius’ cult are bolstered by various skeletal undead, but the change is more cosmetic than substantial. Do the busywork of clearing the area (you’ll get a countdown when you get close) and your objective will change to Travel to the Curator’s Chamber.

How to Defeat the Curator¶

The Curator is the final boss in this Dungeon, the last obstacle standing between you and World Tier 3, and he’s a stiffer challenge than the High Councillors were. This giant necromancer lich will use the following attacks:

• Bone Spirit Barrage: One of The Curator’s most common attacks, he’ll swing his scythe and expel several bone spirits. They are having minor homing and eventually swing around to fly in an arch around the arena. Fortunately they deal only minor damage. The scythe swing itself will also deal damage, if you’re too close, although this will cause the bone spirits to pass by you. In later phases of the fight The Curator will mark the ground with green reticles, which will shortly burst and expect several bone spirits. Since there are several of these reticles created at once, The Curator can flood the field with dozens of bone spirits in short order.

• Spirit Waves: The Curator will mark the ground with some greenish lines, and shortly afterwards will shoot bursts of energy down them. There are a few variants of this attack that will start appearing as his health decreases, notably a multi-charge variant where The Curator summons fewer waves at a time, but dashes around discharging these waves in quick succession.

• Spirit Vortexes: The Curator will summon several cyclones of blueish energy, which will obscure your vision and deal damage while you’re in their area of effect. They’re not hard to escape from, but The Curator usually summons several of them and they’ll roam the battlefield for a while, making them a persistent hazard.

• Bone Walls: Later in the fight, The Curator will summon a series of semi-circular bone walls that serve to constrain your movement. The Curator will leave these walls in place for a while, but will eventually detonate them, so don’t linger nearby.

All in all, The Curator doesn’t deal a lot of damage with most of his attacks, but he excels in flooding the battlefield with distractions, impediments and chip damage, which can add up over time. Dodging everything can be difficult at best and counterproductive, at worst, so standing your ground and trading with The Curator can see you come out ahead in terms of pure damage dealt, just keep an eye out for AoE reticles so you can avoid more dangerous attack and don’t linger in damage-over-time effects.

Outlast The Curator and you’ll have completed this Capstone Dungeon. You won’t be able to run it again, but it’s a small loss compared to all the new content that awaits in World Tier 3.