Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead: How to upgrade your minions

There’s no denying how strong the Necromancer class is in Diablo 4. While the game is still only in its beta period, it appears like the Necromancer will be among the top classes when Diablo 4 officially launches in June 2023. While some of this power comes from the Necromancer’s skills, like Corpse Explosion, a majority of it comes from the minions that the class can control.

From the start of your adventure in Diablo 4 as a Necromancer, you have the ability to raise skeletons from the dead. This is an automatic skill you always have access to, but at first, all you will be able to raise are skeletal warrior minions. As you progress in Diablo 4, however, you will be able to start using the Book of the Dead, which is the Necromancer’s unique class mechanic.

Using the Book of Dead as a Necromancer in Diablo 4

You can access the Book of the Dead as soon as you begin a new playthrough as a Necromancer. To view it, simply press “C” to bring up your character menu and then scroll over one tab. You can also press “Shift+C” to bring up the Book of the Dead directly.

Here, you can see that you have three different classes of minions: Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golems. At first, you will only be able to view the Skeletal Warriors. When you click this option, a new menu will appear that shows the three sub-classes of the Skeletal Warriors: Skirmishers, Defenders, and Reapers. All three of these sub-classes are different from one another, as they utilize different weapons and mechanics to aid you in combat. You can only have one sub-class active at a time.

Next to each of the sub-classes are three additional options. The first two, which are big spheres, are Upgrades, which give your minions of that sub-class different bonuses. The diamond icon option is a Sacrifice, which gives your character a large bonus, but makes it so you cannot use those minions. So, for example, if you choose to sacrifice your Skeletal Warrior Defenders, you’ll receive a nice bonus, but you won’t be able to have those minions alongside you in combat. You can only have one of three slots active, so you have to choose between a sacrifice and one of the upgrades.

Luckily, as you rank up, you will gain access to the other minion classes, the Mages and Golems. Both of these classes also have three sub-classes that are outlined in the same way. You have two upgrade slots and one sacrifice slot. If you choose to upgrade one of these sub-classes, then you will be able to summon them, but if you sacrifice, you won’t be able to.

Essentially, the choice is yours when it comes to deciding how many minions you can have alongside you at a time. If you choose not to sacrifice any minion class, then you can have almost a dozen minions at once. If you sacrifice one of the classes, however, then that number will be reduced, but your character will have a bonus in exchange.