The Strategy Summarized
This is the basic outline of what we currently believe to be the fastest and most efficient speed leveling strategy in Diablo 4.
- If this is your first character, go through the campaign as quickly as possible on World Tier 2 difficulty. If you already have a character that has completed the campaign, then you should skip the Campaign.
- Once you are done with the campaign, and depending on your level, you can either go to step #3 or #4.
- First, you’ll want to progress the Seasonal journey quest chain and then head to whichever area is currently corrupted by the Helltide and grind the area out completely. Make sure you save the Cinders you collect and only use them to open chests at the very end of the 55 minutes the Helltide is active before having a 5-minute downtime. We do this as the experience gained from opening a chest is based on your character’s level, so to optimize the experience gained, you wait until the very end. We will only take a small break from this grind to either continue the Seasonal quest progression or grab potential aspects from other dungeons for your build and/or do your class quest. Keep in mind that this is all done in World Tier 2 for the highest efficiency.
- Complete the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon to unlock World Tier 3. Doing this at level 42-44 can be tough; if you’re not comfortable with this you can head back to Helltide grinding until you’re level 45+ or even higher if needed.
- Switch the difficulty to World Tier 3 and continue your Seasonal quest progression if possible. If you are struggling in this difficulty, head back to World Tier 2 and level up in Helltide zones. Ideally, you’ll want to be able to handle Helltides at World Tier 3.
- Now you’ll want to finish the Tree of Whispers to provide you with your very first Nightmare Dungeon Sigils if you haven’t already, as this can naturally be progressed during Helltides. You’ll want to almost exclusively run Nightmare Dungeons at as high of a tier as you can manage while keeping a steady pace. At the same time, participate in the Helltide Events that spawn on the map to collect material, items, and experience. This process is repeated until you’re ready for World Tier 4. If you’re comfortable, you can do the second Capstone dungeon at level 55-60. If you’d prefer to play on the safe side, you can wait till you’re level 65+.
- Complete the level 70 Capstone Dungeon to unlock World Tier 4. You should be roughly level 65 or higher to attempt it.
- From here on out, you should farm Nightmare Dungeons to gain insane amounts of power from your glyphs. This is done till you’ve cleared Nightmare Dungeon Tier 45 after this you’ll want to head to The Pit for Uber boss materials and Masterworking materials.
- If your goal is to reach level 100 the fastest, you will replace any notion of running Nightmare Dungeons and will instead focus your Helltide runs on opening as many chests as possible to get the Infernal Horde compasses, which gives you access to the season mechanic. This provides an obnoxious amount of experience but lacks Glyph experience. The strategy is to run Infernal Horde content, and when you’re out of compasses, focus on Helltides to drop new ones.
Please note that this is not an especially fun or enjoyable way of leveling; it is simply the most efficient one. Do not feel forced to engage in it simply because it is technically optimal.
The “Helltide Grind”
Season 4 has opened up the possibility of speed leveling through Helltide zones which are available for 55 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of downtime before re-emerging in another zone. A few details to keep in mind with this strategy is that the Cinders used to open Helltide chests provide experience based of your characters level, making it significantly better to open chests at the very end of an active Helltide zone to optimize experience gained.
While participating in Helltide, you will often be ambushed by enemies as you kill more demons in the zone. Due to this, it is extremely favorable to gather a party of people and run together in order to double-dip on the extra rare enemies spawned from the collective slaughtering of demonic foes!
Depending on your skill, level, build and/or party you’re playing with, you may end up having a better leveling efficiency through Helltides over Nightmare dungeons. If this is the case you should always have Helltide as a fallback for gear upgrading and material collection, as the Nightmare dungeons provide you with Glyph experience that will boost your power significantly!
Skipping the Campaign: Pros and Cons
It is significantly faster to skip the campaign and begin with step 3 of the strategy. However, you will have to finish the campaign once on your very first character. In order to set yourself up for the fastest possible clear time, you will want to clear everything in World Tier 2 as it provides the best loot and experience.
It is not uncommon to find yourself under-leveled upon entering Act 5 as you rush through the content. You should expect to finish the campaign around level 40-42. This is important to keep in mind, as the Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon can be quite difficult below level 45. To solve this potential problem, we’ll be grinding out experience in the best possible way; dungeon grinding.
The best place to do this is to grind the dungeon “Domhainne Tunnels” (located west of Corbach in Scosglen). You’re only looking to clear the initial first area due to the high density of enemies and will teleport out of the dungeon to then click the “Reset Dungeon” button (in your map interface) and repeat this process. Once you’re level 42-45 (45+ is much safer) you’ll be doing the Cathedral of Light Capstone dungeon. Do keep in mind that this is only used to help get extra levels DURING the campaign and not to be considered a speed leveling strategy if you are not in the campaign.
World Tier 3
Now that you’ve unlocked World Tier 3, it’s time to switch things up. You’ll start with Tree of Whispers to get your first Nightmare Dungeon Sigils if you haven’t gotten one already. You’ll follow this up with running Nightmare Dungeons, trying to run them at as high of a tier as possible without it affecting your clear-speed. When able to, you should weave in the occasionally spawning Helltide Event on the world map to collect materials, items & experience. Engaging with the Seasonal mechanic is often preferable to increase the power gain from that. If Nightmare dungeons become a struggle you can always weave back to the Helltide zone grinding for more loot and experience.
In this new difficulty, you’ll have the possibility to not only get significantly more experience, but also much better loot in the form of Sacred gear. This new gear quality is capable of rolling new modifiers and higher numerical values.
When you reach level 50+, you’re able to attempt Nightmare Dungeons. You may run into an issue where you’re unable to upgrade your items due to lack of materials. If this happens, you should run Helltides until your items have been upgraded. In the event you’re still struggling… you guessed it, back to Helltides with you! If not, the recommendation is to continue spamming Nightmare Dungeons consistently for the experience but also the Glyph drops and Glyph experience or further engage with the Seasonal mechanic.
The next step is to run the World Tier 3 Fallen Temple Capstone dungeon. This is a level 70 dungeon, and to make sure you don’t waste time attempting it with a potential failed run or lots of deaths, we would recommend staying in the Helltide grind flow until your character is, at a minimum, level 60 or higher.
World Tier 4
This is where things start to really hurt in Sanctuary. Despite the new difficulty, the strategy itself has still not changed; back to Nightmare dungeon grinding. Doing Nightmare Dungeons here will be a lot tougher, so be careful as you first try it out. Once you’ve unlocked Nightmare Dungeons, and you’re capable of doing them comfortably, they should be your main source of experience, Glyphs, and Glyph experience. For the best overall efficiency, don’t forget to participate in Helltide Events when they are available!
Once you’ve cleared Tier 45 Nightmare Dungeon you’ll want to head to The Pit to continue your progression there only taking a break to collect needed materials to upgrade your gear through Helltide zones. In The Pit you’re able to collect Uber materials as well as Masterworking materials needed for your gear progression.
Check out our interactive Helltide Mystery Chest locations map to find the current mystery locations:
Similarly to the previous difficulty, should you find yourself struggling, take a step back and level up a bit more before continuing on.
Closing Thoughts
As mentioned in the start of this guide, rushing through content like this for the sake of efficiency can very easily get repetitive and lower your enjoyment of the game. Make sure you have fun playing Diablo 4, since it is a game after all!
