Diablo 4 Black River Scythe – How to Get & Unique Effect

Unique items in Diablo 4 give you some of the most powerful effects you can get on a piece of gear. They are more potent than even Legendaries, offering build-defining mechanics to manage on top of your normal skill set. For the Necromancer class, the Black River Scythe is one of those Unique items that completely changes how you approach using one of your core skills, Corpse Explosion. If this sounds interesting to you, here's everything you need to know about the scythe including how to get your hands on it.

How to get the Black River Scythe in Diablo IV

The Black River Scythe is a Unique item, therefore the chance of getting it is rather low due to its rarity. Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of RNG (random number generation), so it is all a game of probability if it drops for you. There are a few things you can do to improve your odds of getting the Black River Scythe, however:

• Be in World Tier 3 or 4 - Uniques only start dropping once you reach World Tier 3, so this is an absolute must if you want to get this scythe. Even so, World Tier 4 is a must better place to farm it actively, due to the general higher drop rates.
• Kill Elite Enemies - Enemies with affixes are all Elites, and Elites have a significantly higher chance of dropping both Legendary and Unique items. The more you kill, the more likely you are to see this scythe drop.
• Use Item Drop Rate Items - Some items come with an increased item drop rate modifier stat visible. These are fairly uncommon, but they do increase the number of items that drop when you kill an enemy or open a chest. This is an extreme method, as you'll need a good amount of this stat to notice any sort of results.
• Open Chests - This one is a bit of a no-brainer, but I still wanted to mention it. Legendary and Unique items can drop from chests and other containers, so be sure to open every single one you find out in the world and in dungeons.

Related: All Diablo 4 Stats and what they mean, explained

How to use the Black River Scythe's Unique Effect in Diablo IV

The Black River Scythe comes with a few interesting stats worth mentioning in addition to its unique effect:

• Life on Kill - Kills restore your health as long as you have this weapon equipped
• Additional Skill Ranks - Fueled by Death and Corpse Explosion gain extra ranks, improving those skills.
• Increased Damage vs Healthy Targets - You deal more damage to targets with more than 80% health remaining. Note that this bonus works for your entire kit.

Black River Scythe's most prized mechanic is its Unique Effect, a full augmentation to the Corpse Explosion ability:

• Improved Corpse Explosion - Corpse Explosion now consumes up to four additional corpses, dramatically increasing its damage and explosion radius based on the number of corpses consumed.

Due to these additions, the Black River Scythe pairs well with builds that utilize Corpse Explosion in any significant capacity. Additionally, while Corpse Explosion is the core, the additional skill ranks added to Fueled by Death make this weapon popular among Bone Spear builds as well.

For more on all things Diablo 4, check out our guide on All Helltide Mystery Chest locations (Map) – Diablo 4 right here at Pro Game Guides.