Diablo 4 has many monstrous creatures to kill, but Sarat, the spider queen dungeon boss, truly is an eight-legged freak. Spider enemies are a staple of any RPG, but in Diablo 4, you'll easily kill hundreds of spiders at a time. However, Sarat is one that is not so easily squashed.
Sarat has powerful and frustrating attacks that will leave you stunned and overwhelmed by spiders. Sarat is not the only spider-type dungeon boss the Broodguard, which can be found in the Hive dungeon, uses the same tactics in the battle and can also be found in the Scosglen region of Sanctuary.
Sarat's Lair Location
Sarat can be found in the Sarat's Lair Dungeon, located southeast of Cerrigar and the southernmost part of the Scosglen region. There are plenty of spiders and Spider Host enemies surrounding the lair.
Consuming an Elixr of Beast Slaying will increase the damage you inflict on spiders by 20 percent for 30 minutes. To make this fight much easier, we suggest that you bring a few of them to take into account fighting through the dungeon and retries.
How To Spawn Sarat
You will need to destroy three Silken Spires to spawn Sarat in the Queen's Den area of the dungeon, which can be found in the dungeon's center.
Silken Spires are guarded by heaps of spiders, Elite Spider enemies, and Spider Hosts, hatching dozens of baby spiders that burst on death. The Silken Spires will also spawn spiders within their vicinity and shoot poisonous projectiles that cover large areas dealing damage over time.
Gear that produces barriers, such as Vigo's Protective Amulet, gives you immunity to all attacks, including the poison AoE attacks, giving you a short window to replenish your resources and heal.
Queen's Den
Once you've destroyed all three Silken Spires, walk to the center of the dungeon to reach the Queen's Nest.
We recommend that you save any Shrines that may spawn in the dungeon to fight Sarat. While you cannot leave the area to activate the shrine, the temporary effects provided by the shrines will continue even when the fight with Sarat starts. You can put in some bonus damage if you can get the Artillery or Channeling Shrine.
In addition, you'll receive 35 percent faster movement speed while under the effects, making it easier for you to evade Sarat's attacks and spider webs.
How To Defeat Sarat
Web Stun Attack
The web stun is the most frustrating and dangerous ability that Sarat can deploy in the fight. Stepping into a web will stun your character for a couple of seconds.
Getting stunned by the webs is not dangerous on its own; however, if you are stunned by poison and surrounded by spiders, you're in trouble. While stunned, you won't be able to move or attack, leaving you helpless.
In phase one, these webs pose little threat, and stepping in them has little consequences. However, as you damage Sarat, she will begin to launch several webs that blend in with the environment and get lost in the copious numbers of spiders that will litter the arena.
The longer the fight draws out, the more webs that Sarat launch to cover the ground, making them very hard to dodge and leaving you little space to maneuver.
Poison AOE Attack
Sarat has a lethal poison attack that starts off as a measly three projectiles in phase one but quickly racks up to several, and by the final phase, the arena is covered in these AoE attacks.
The poison attacks are spewed from Sarat twice before she relocates to another area in the arena. So catch her while firing these projectiles. You don't want to activate your cooldowns just as she changes position.
Summon Spider Hosts
Once you lower Sarat's health to the first marker, she will begin periodically summoning Spider Hosts into the fight. The number of Spider Hosts increases as you lower Sarat's health.
They can be a real pain in the fight. However, sometimes killing a Spider Host will drop a health potion, so keep your eyes peeled. The biggest issue is that Sarat will be able to deploy dozens of webs while you're distracted by the Spider Hosts. This can hurt you later in the fight when Sarat's poison AoE attack becomes more frequent.
AoE skills are essential if you want to beat Sarat, as you will need to kill the Spider Hosts and spiders that burst from their corpses. The Necromancer will be able to capitalize on the corpses left behind by the baby spiders to replenish resources. The Corpse Explosion skill is perfect for this fight; upgraded, it deals damage in a large AoE and replenishes resources giving you more opportunity to attack Sarat.
You can't ignore the summoned spiders here, as if their numbers grow too large, they can trap you in corners or surround you, blocking you from moving. Resulting in either you dying to poison or the mass of spiders.
Knockback Attack
At the tail-end of the fight, the arena will become unrecognizable with hundreds of spiders, dozens of webs, and poison projectiles. It can be extremely disorientating and difficult to see what you are stepping on.
At this point in the fight, Sarat will begin attacking you with a powerful knockback attack. This deals little damage but causes you to step on poison and webs and fly straight into other spiders. Just try to avoid it every time you see the boss is about to do it.