Diablo 4 players stumble on rare and impossibly large Butcher, the game's real Lord of Terror

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

As a wise man once said: Bigger. Any school child can tell you that the worth of a thing is directly commensurate with its size, and that expands to Diablo 4 too. How else do you explain the fervent interest generated by Reddit user Ironheart_777's discovery (via Icy Veins) of the world's biggest Butcher, a recklessly large version of one of Diablo's most infamous and deadly enemies?

So uh... anyone know why we found a Giant Butcher? He appeared this big from r/diablo4

Look at that guy! You thought the default Butcher was bad? Get a load of this lumbering stack of meat. Ironheart_777 says they were running nightmare dungeons with some friends when the world's stompiest boy careened from the shadows, putting the fear of god in all of them and sending them stretching for the screenshot key. If you want a scale comparison, you can see PCG's Andy Chalk go up against the default, relatively puny Butcher over here, and here's a full-size version of the voluminous chap that Ironheart_777 ran into.

(Image credit: Ironheart_777 on Reddit)

What made this particular Butcher so substantial? Fans have a convincing theory. Reddit user swissarmywolf reckons that nightmare dungeon modifiers are the cause. It's likely the case that the dungeon Ironheart_777 and friends were exploring had the Avenger modifier affixed to it, which makes enemies grow in damage and size as monsters near them are killed.

So it looks like the Butcher spawned into Ironheart_777's dungeon but didn't aggro for a while. Instead, he slowly grew and drew strength as the merry band of adventurers hacked and slashed their way through his allies. Only when he cultivated significant enough mass did he finally reveal himself.

I suppose it could be worse. A user named lemings68 recalled the same thing happening to them, except with the game's grotesque spider host enemies. Apparently the player got "some of the spider hosts to take up half the screen by the time they died". So, there you go. You and I can live with that image for the rest of our lives now.

If you want to find a big Butcher yourself, you should probably check out our where to find the Butcher in Diablo 4 guide. Be forewarned, though: He's tough enough in his default form. If you're taking him on in full Andre the Giant mode, you're gonna want to take backup.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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