Diablo 4‘s Season of Witchcraft brings new dungeons that work as seasonal alternatives to regular or Nightmare dungeons. The new Rootholds are dungeons that come with fresh challenges, improved rewards, and new bosses.
If this sounds like an exciting new prospect to tackle, here is everything you need to know about Rootholds and how to access them.
What are Rootholds in Diablo 4?
Rootholds are the equivalent of Nightmare Dungeons in Season Seven of Diablo 4. While Nightmare Dungeons still exist, Rootholds are undoubtedly a better alternative to run constantly because the drop rates and completion rewards are much higher than regular dungeons. We recommend running them after you unlock at least Torment I to gain better rewards like Ancestral Uniques.
However, accessing a Roothold isn’t as easy as just encountering one during your journey—you will need to find them first. And for that, you have to acquire special items called Whispering Woods. These items are inaccessible off the bat and cannot be purchased. They can only be found by completing the seasonal Grim Favors and opening Silent Chests.
Unfortunately, Whispering Woods drops aren’t guaranteed. They are chance-based drops, and unless lady luck is favorable to you, you might need to complete several Grim Favors before you see even one of them drop. Collecting them is the only way to access Rootholds, so save them up until you are strong enough to take on Torment I.
Once these requirements are met, it’s time to activate the Whispering Woods to find their connecting Roothold.
Roothold locations
Once you have the appropriate Whispering Woods item, which serves as a Roothold’s key, you activate them in your inventory. This works similarly to Nightmare Dungeon keys and will transform the regular dungeon into a Roothold. In our example shown above, the dungeon was turned into the Silent Roothold upon activating its corresponding key.
Once the Roothold manifests, you can open the map and teleport directly inside the dungeon from your current location. These Rootholds can spawn at any point on the map depending on which key you picked up, so get ready for anything. The rules of a Roothold are different as well, so you will need to know how to successfully navigate through them to get your rewards.
Navigating Rootholds
If you’re an older player and have played through the Infernal Hordes dungeons, these mechanics might seem familiar to you. After entering a Roothold, walk through the first passageway until you get to a few Enchanted Roots on the ground. Each of these Enchanted Roots functions as a modifier for the Roothold with varying degrees of difficulty based on which ones you choose.
Generally, two of the four roots will have easier modifiers while the other two will have more challenging options. You have to pick at least one modifier to further explore the Roothold, but it is recommended to choose up to two if possible. If you choose the more difficult modifiers, your rewards will be substantially greater by the time you conquer the Roothold.
After progressing through the main gate, you should see certain points of interest showcased on your minimap. Going near any of them will uncover an Exposed Root, a source of great rewards. Clicking them will spawn a group of enemies while also dropping a plethora of Unique items. If you’re playing at Torment I difficulty or above, you could also find Ancestral Uniques by clicking the Exposed Roots.
Every enemy that spawns in a Roothold is also a Headrotten, which means that you can acquire a lot of Restless Rot by simply clearing these dungeons. With enough Restless Rot, you can upgrade your Witch powers or acquire the elusive Unique Witch powers.
As you progress through the Roothold, you should come across another gate with three additional modifiers. Pick any two of them to further improve your completion rewards (and increase the difficulty level) while you fight your way towards the end. Always remember to interact with every Exposed Root you find for even more loot drops.
All Roothold rewards in Diablo 4
Once you clear out every Exposed Root, you will begin your final run to the end of the Roothold. Touching the Exposed Root in the boss room will spawn the boss of the Roothold. Most of the time, the boss that spawns is going to be a Headless Husk, but there is a small chance that the boss could spawn with a head. If this happens, killing the boss will grant you these heads as additional rewards.
The heads are useful for crafting Occult Gems, items that can be socketed exclusively in your jewelry slots. Occult Gems are great for giving your character that endgame boost in power they need to push through higher Torment difficulties and Pit tiers whenever you decide to tackle them.
Even if the boss that spawns is a common Headless Husk, the amount of loot they will drop upon defeat is still beyond anything you would normally get from a single boss enemy. The loot you get varies from different tiers of gear to different tiers of crafting recipes—everything you need to push through the ultra-late endgame content.
Rootholds are fun, quick to complete, and grant the most rewards out of any other activity that you can complete this season, so we highly recommend tackling them whenever possible. Just make sure you hoard those Roothold keys until you make it to Torment I for more optimized runs.
