An Über boss is a boss monster which is a more difficult, alternate version of one of the regular bosses from the campaign of a Diablo game. The special events and/or locations where Über bosses appear are sometimes called Über events or Über (location). Some sort of unlocking process is generally required to access such bosses. Über Diablo was the first Über boss, featured in Diablo II, which has a total of seven distributed among five separate encounters. Diablo III also has seven Über bosses, with four different encounters.
Über bosses are often encountered in pairs or triplets. The "Über locations" where most appear are alternate forms of regular game areas. The name "Über" does not appear in game, but is used by Blizzard staff to categorize the bosses and explain the events to players. An Über boss may or may not have the same name as its original form, may have a recolored visual model, and may have different abilities.
While Blizzard may provide some lore or flavor for these bosses, they generally are present to provide a high level gameplay challenge, not to be a major part of the plot. Their appearances in Über form may not be canonical to the primary story.
Diablo II[]
- Main articles: Über Diablo and Pandemonium Event
Über Diablo was the first Über boss released, appearing in the regular game world. He was followed later by the more complex Pandemonium Event with six new bosses in special unlockable locations. All can be quite challenging; completing the Pandemonium Event may even require specialized builds. Most bosses appear under their original names in-game, but Andariel is reskinned and renamed to represent Lilith. Their abilities and stats are quite enhanced compared to the originals, particularly the Prime Übers.
Diablo II Über bosses, locations and events:
- Über Diablo, the first Über, who rewards the Annihilus charm. Also known as Diablo Clone.
- The Pandemonium Event is sometimes called the "Über event", and includes all of the game's Über bosses except Über Diablo. Killing all its bosses rewards the Hellfire Torch and Standard of Heroes.
- Lesser:
- Each of these appears in its own unlockable area.
- Über Andariel, aka Lilith, appears in the Matron's Den, an Über Forgotten Tower level.
- Über Duriel appears in the Forgotten Sands, an Über Canyon of the Magi.
- Über Izual appears in the Furnace of Pain, an Über Hell dungeon.
- Prime:
- These appear together in Über Tristram, and can only be accessed after defeating the three Lesser Übers.
- Über Baal
- Über Mephisto
- Pandemonium Diablo - so named to avoid confusion with the original Über Diablo
Diablo III[]
Diablo III features Infernal Machines, which unlock one of four Über encounter areas, each containing two or three bosses. These have similar abilities to their original forms, but have different names, for example "The Soul of Evil" for Über Diablo. While they are much more challenging than other bosses at their difficulty level, they can be quite easy for highly geared characters, since they only scale with base difficulty of the game session, with no progression system like Greater Rift ranks. They reward ingredients for Hellfire Rings and Hellfire Amulets.