Season 3 Leveling Guide

This leveling guide presents the fastest ways to level up and farm EXP in Diablo 4 (D4) Season 3. Learn about the best methods, tips, and strategies to speed up your leveling from 1-50, and into World Tier 3 and 4 during the Season of Constructs!

Season 3 Leveling Guide (Level 1-50)

How to Level Up from 1 to 50
1. Finish the New Seasonal Questline 2. Participate in Arcane Tremors 3. Complete Whispers for the Tree of Whispers 4. Complete Your Class Specialization Quest 5. Complete Season Journey Until Chapter 3 6. Use the Urn of Aggression Season Blessing 7. Do Dungeons for Codex Aspects 8. Complete the Capstone Dungeon at Level 40-48

1. Finish the New Seasonal Questline

Right off the bat, look to complete the new Seasonal Questline as this will allow you to unlock your Seneschal while gaining a respectable amount of XP. Continue venturing through the story until you reach a certain quest that will require you to reach level 20.

Season 3 Questline Walkthrough

Play on World Tier 1 Instead of World Tier 2

To make the early game leveling painless (especially when playing solo), make sure to play on World Tier 1 instead of World Tier 2 (WT2). Faster kills for faster XP gain at WT1 far outstrips the XP bonus offered by WT2.

The only time you should opt to go World Tier 2 immediately is if you're a veteran player or planning to play and power level with a group of friends.

How to Change World Tier Difficulty

2. Participate in Arcane Tremors

The Arcane Tremors will be your go-to open world activity for XP since it allows you to fulfill a bunch of seasonal objectives while power leveling. Packed full of monsters and Elites, these areas will allow you to gain a considerable amount of XP, loot, and new seasonal items such as Pearls of Warding.

• Particularly target Arcane Tremor areas with Whispers quests to gain more XP efficiently. Their objectives tie in seamlessly with the objectives of the event, so you should have no trouble completing them.
• Interact with Gelid Obelisks to spawn enemies and obtain Elemental Cores.
• Offer the Elemental Cores to the Voltaic Brazier to summon a horde of enemies together with the Herald of Malphas to get Pearls of Warding.
• World Events and mini-events that can be found in the areas are also extremely good in terms or loot and experience

Arcane Tremor Locations and Rewards

Group Spamming Voltaic Brazier

One of the best ways to farm inside the Arcane Tremors is by grouping up and alternately offering Elemental Cores to a Voltaic Brazier. Doing this will allow you to gain an insane amount of XP and loot due to the sheer number of enemies that will spawn. The best thing is that you can indefinitely do this as long as you have materials to offer.

Note that although we recommended that you do this as a group, you can still take advantage of this without a party since you can get XP and loot just by being in the same area once the Brazier is activated.

3. Complete Whispers for the Tree of Whispers

Since you'll probably be completing the Whispers inside Arcane Tremors, make sure to keep track of your total Grim Favors. Once you hit the max cap, teleport over to the Tree of Whispers and turn them in to get a reward cache as well as a ton of Gold and XP for your effort.

How to Complete the Tree of Whispers

4. Complete Your Class Specialization Quest

Once you hit Level 15 (or Level 25 if you're a Necromancer), make sure to complete your Class Specialization Quest to unlock additional buffs that make leveling easier. Don't put this off since Arcane Tremors will start ramping up in difficulty once you hit Level 20+ if you don't have a semi-cohesive build.

List of All Class Specialization Quests

5. Complete Season Journey Until Chapter 3

Aiming for objectives in the Season Journey is definitely beneficial to your character, especially early on. Completing chapters will give you significant rewards and Aspects that can serve as key items to improving your current build.

You should be able to easily complete until Chapter 3 of the Season Journey before you're met with objectives that are only available in World Tier 3 or higher.

How to Complete Season 3 Journey and Rewards

6. Use the Urn of Aggression Season Blessing

Season Blessings are unlocked on reaching Level 28 and can be bought when you have your first Smoldering Ashes, which are obtained by progressing the Battle Pass and reaching certain level thresholds.

The first level of the Urn of Aggression buff will boost your XP from monster kills by 5%, so be sure to equip it as soon as you hit 28 to maximize your results. That said, although respeccing Blessings starts out very cheap, note that the cost of respeccing will triple each time you change it, so don't swap it out unless you plan on keeping it on a different Blessing for a while.

7. Do Dungeons for Codex Aspects

Once you hit Levels 35 to 40, you'll want to start assembling a gear set for the upcoming Cathedral of Light capstone dungeon. You can do this by comitting to a leveling build and farming the needed Aspects from their respective Dungeons across the map.

Settle on your equipment set and apply Legendary Aspects that synergizes with your build before heading out to the Capstone dungeon and you should be able to smoothly clear it.

Legendary Farming Guide

8. Complete the Capstone Dungeon at Level 40-48

Once you hit Level 40 to 48, switch over to World Tier 2 (WT2) to get the prompt for the Cathedral of Light capstone dungeon. Complete it to unlock World Tier 3 (WT3) for your seasonal character.

More experienced players can try their hand at completing the capstone dungeon as soon as they hit Level 40, while newer players can probably wait until they hit Level 48 and have a gear set and build ready for the challenge.

Players who find themselves stuck trying to complete it pre-48 can try joining a group or asking for a carry in the Game8 discord powerleveling channel.

Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon Guide

Season 3 Leveling Guide (Level 50-70)

How to Level Up from 50 to 70
1. Farm Remaining Strongholds 2. Join Gathering Legions and World Bosses 3. Farm in Arcane Tremors 4. Participate in Helltide and Open Helltide Chests 5. Run Nightmare Dungeons and Nightmare Vaults 6. Beat Varshan or Grigoire in WT3 for Uniques 7. Complete the WT3 Capstone Dungeon 8. Switch to WT4 and Grind to Level 70

Note: This section of the guide requires you to be in in World Tier 3 (WT3). If you're still in WT1 or WT2, switch to WT3 before proceeding.

1. Farm Remaining Strongholds

Monsters inside the Strongholds scale on your character and not the open world. That makes enemies easier to kill while keeping the loot quality and XP bonus in WT3. This is the best way to continue leveling quickly while allowing you to start farming Sacred items while being relatively safe.

You may choose to clear these Strongholds or continuously reset them for unlimited farming!

Stronghold Reset EXP Farm Guide

#	Stronghold Reset EXP Farm Guide
1	Start and clear Stronghold run. Any Stronghold works, but the Onyx Watchtower is recommended because it can be finished quickly. If you have already cleared the Stronghold, join another player who has not cleared theirs.
2	One party member leaves the group to reset the Stronghold by leaving the game, and logging back in. This maintains the unfinished state of the Stronghold. Take note that this player will not gain EXP from ringing the bell.
3	Other members ring the bell to get the EXP from the cleared Stronghold, then join the party member who reset the Stronghold. This should present the party with a fresh Stronghold instance that can be farmed over and over.

Stronghold Reset Set Up for Party Play

Stronghold Reset Set Up
Uncleared Stronghold	• Recommended Stronghold: Onyx Watchtower • You will need a fresh instance of a Stronghold, preferably one with a higher level.
One Player to Reset the Stronghold	• At least one player must maintain the Stronghold state by not ringing the bell, then reset the instance by leaving the game and logging back in. • Said player will miss out on the Bell EXP. • Party can rotate who resets the Stronghold, or have a level 1 alt do this.

All Stronghold Locations and Map

2. Join Gathering Legions and World Bosses

Another great way to level up and start obtaining Sacred items is by joining Gathering Legions and World Boss events. Most of the time, there would be a good number of players joining you in these scheduled events, so clearing it should definitely be possible even if you just transitioned from a lower World Tier.

▶ Legion Event Timer and Locations
▶ World Boss Timer, Schedule, and Locations

3. Farm in Arcane Tremors

Similar to lower World Tiers, participating in Arcane Tremors is still a fantastic way to gain XP and loot due to the number of mobs you encounter in the area. Make sure to target the mini-events and Voltaic Brazier in the area for even more XP gains.

Note that we recommend transitioning a handful of your items to Sacred before heading out to WT3 Arcane Tremors unless you have nowhere else to farm.

Blood Harvest Explained

4. Participate in Helltide and Open Helltide Chests

Patch 1.2.0 increased XP gain for endgame activities across the board. When leveling from 50 to 70, your best source of XP will be Helltides since they are guaranteed to pit you against higher-level enemies and have you open Helltide chests—two activities that got their XP gain buffed.

And now, with Patch 1.3, Helltides are scheduled to appear every hour with only a 5-minute cooldown in between! This is where you should spend most of your time leveling and gaining more powerful items.

Helltide Timer, Schedule, and Event Guide

Helltide Versus Arcane Tremors

Since the Helltides and Arcane Tremors are both accessible all the time, the argument remains whether farming one is more efficient than the other. Well, In our testing, Helltides are better due to the monster level being above your character and the fact that you can gain significant XP and items upon opening Helltide Chests.

However, you should not disregard Arcane Tremors with Whisper quests tied to them. The combination of an Arcane Tremor's mob density and the XP coming from completing Whispers goes beyond what Helltide is offering if you can clear it quickly.

5. Run Nightmare Dungeons and Nightmare Vaults

Once you get a full set of Sacred items and are feeling a bit more confident in World Tier 3, you can start taking on Nightmare Dungeons and the newly introduced Nightmare Vaults. These are amped-up dungeons and vaults, respectively, that will reward you with significant XP while leveling up your Glyphs.

One great tip is that, as long as you have Nightmare or Vault Sigils, you can turn a specific dungeon with a Whisper mark into a Nightmare one to also get Whisper points upon completion. This will remarkably boost your overall XP gains!

Run NM dungeons until you attain a comfortable level and gear in preparation for the second capstone dungeon and the jump to WT4.

6. Beat Varshan or Grigoire in WT3 for Uniques

Patch 1.2.0 introduced brand new endgame bosses that you can beat to target farm Uniques. Depending on your build, you can look to farm either the Echo of Varshan or Girgoire the Galvanic Saint for that build-defining unique that you need to push to WT4.

• Echo of Varshan: Requires x1 Gurgling Head, x1 Blackened Femur, and x1 Trembling Hand that you can get from completing Whispers and killing Grotesque Debtors.
• Grigoire the Galvanic Saint: Requires x2 Living Steel that you can only get during Helltide events.

Note: In order to fight these bosses, you will first need to farm the required boss materials to sacrifice at their respective altars of summoning. The amounts indicated above are for summoning the WT3 version of these endgame bosses.

7. Complete the WT3 Capstone Dungeon

Once your build is set and you're comfortable with how it plays, take a crack at the WT3 Capstone Dungeon, the Fallen Temple, once you reach Level 60 and above. Defeat Elias inside to unlock World Tier 4: Torment.

Again, if you're struggling with the capstone dungeon, you can try joining a group or asking for a carry in the Game8 discord powerleveling channel.

Fallen Temple Torment Capstone Dungeon

Switch to WT4 and Grind to Level 70

Regardless of the level you complete the capstone dungeon at, make sure to switch over to World Tier 4 as soon as you unlock it so you can participate in Torment difficulty Helltides, Blood Harvests, Legion Events, and World Bosses.

Leveling up from 60 all the way to 70 will be much easier given the XP boost offered by WT4. Just make sure to start upgrading your gear to make the transition to WT4 content easier.

Season 3 Leveling Guide (Level 70-100)

How to Level Up from 70 to 100
1. Strenghten Your Build 2. Spam Nightmare Vaults and Nightmare Dungeons 3. Do Helltides for XP and Enhancement Materials 4. Take on Uber Bosses 5. Push for Higher Nightmare Tiers Until Level 100

1. Strengthen Your Build

Your first order of business upon reaching WT4 is upgrading your gear. Switch over to high item power Ancestral Items to increase your chances of surviving the open world content you'll be farming and the Nightmare Dungeons you'll be grinding.

You can use a strategy similar to your transition to World Tier 3, which is completing Strongholds, Legion Events, World Bosses, and Arcane Tremors. These will give you a high chance of getting Ancestral items while being relatively safe.

▶ Upgrade Armor and Weapons at a Blacksmith.
▶ Upgrade Jewelry and slot Jewels at a Jeweler.

2. Spam Nightmare Vaults and Nightmare Dungeons

Start clearing Nightmare Dungeons or Nightmare Vaults once your gear is upgraded. These activities will be your source of primary source of XP post-70 since the monsters in these encountered here provides high XP, which synergizes with the Urn of Aggression Season Blessing. Just make sure to max out the blessing to get a +20% bonus XP for monster kills.

Note: Pay close attention to the affixes of your Nightmare or Vaults Sigils. If one of them nerfs or gives monsters resistance to your build's damage type, then it may be best to scrap it for something better. Remember, the goal is clear these dungeons quickly.

Nightmare Dungeons Versus Nightmare Vaults

Both activities closely resemble one another, and thus the debate over which is more efficient to farm is definitely on the table. Based on our testing, you'd want to stick with Nightmare Dungeons if you aim to get XP and level up your Glyphs faster.

On the other hand, you'll want to go for Nightmare Vaults if you want to get more gold and items through Wardwoven Chests and other valuable chests along the way. Either way, you'll never go wrong with these two, so you may use whatever Sigil you have or whichever suits your taste.

3. Do Helltide for Boss and Enhancement Materials

Unlike the leveling process from 1 to 70, you will be spending less time in the overworld from 71 to 100. Now, you will only resurface to complete Helltides and aim to open Living Steel Chests, since these drop materials needed to challenge Grigoire.

At some point, you'll also need to grind Forgotten Souls to reroll your equipment Affixes. Farming these early on will be extremely beneficial to finalizing your builds later on!

Helltide Timer, Time Schedule and Event Guide

Obtaining Other Uber Boss Materials

Aside from Living Steels, Whisper completion needs to be done in order to get boss materials for Varshan. The combination of these two materials will allow you to challenge Duriel the King of Maggots. At this leveling range, everything will be geared towards obtaining better equipment and securing boss materials.

New Endgame Bosses and Loot Tables

4. Farm Duriel for Uber Uniques

Challenge Duriel in Kehjistan for a chance to get some Uber Uniques. For some builds, these will be game-changing, spelling the difference between meandering at Level 70 NMs and pushing all the way to Level 100. In addition, you'll also be guaranteed to obtain 925 Item Power Ancestrals, making it a worthy adversary.

To challenge Duriel, you will need the following boss materials:

• Mucus-Slick Egg x2: Obtained by killing the Echo of Varshan.
• Shard of Agony x2: Obtained by killing Grigoire the Galvanic Saint.

Duriel Location and Unique Drops

5. Push for Higher Nightmare Tiers Until Level 100

Once you have an endgame build that's optimized for both damage and survivability, you can start looking to push past Level 70 Nightmare Dungeons. During this segment, you will easily breeze through character level 90 to 100, so long as you keep spamming Nightmare Dungeons instead of open world activities.

Eternal Realm Leveling Guide (Level 1-50)

Early Game EXP Farming Strategies
Follow Main Story Quests Clear Dungeons for Class Aspects Do Side Quests and Cellars Along the Way Alts Only: Power Level to 50

Follow Main Story Quests

Your main priority in the early game should be completing the campaign by following the main story quest lines. These will help guide you towards the endgame by slowly introducing the game's systems and mechanics on top of earning EXP.

Campaign Walkthrough

Clear Dungeons for Class Aspects

Each Dungeon has a class-specific Aspect as a reward when completed. Try to clear the appropriate Dungeons to obtain Aspects and open up options for different builds of your chosen class.

How to Use Aspects

Do Side Quests and Cellars Along the Way

Most Side Quests and Cellars are quick sources of EXP and can be found en route to main quest objectives.

However, do not go out of your way to complete them as they are still useful later on because of the scaling EXP rewards.

List of Side Quests

Alts Only: Power Level to 50

For players who have already completed the Main Story and are using an alt character, it's possible to get powerleveled by other players with the following steps. Before Patch 1.1, this could be used to reach Level 50 in a matter of minutes, but unfortunately it has been heavily nerfed with the release of Seasons so results may vary.

• Have a high-level party carry you through the Nightmare and Torment Capstone Dungeons
• Follow the high-level party into a high-level Nightmare Dungeon and wait at the entrance
• Try not to die and soak up the sweet XP

How to Power Level Alts

Eternal Realm Leveling Guide (Level 51-70)

Mid Game EXP Farming Strategies
Run and Reset High Mob Density Nightmare Dungeons Hunt Elite Mobs in Kehjistan Fields of Hatred Do Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers

Run and Reset High Mob Density Nightmare Dungeons

Nightmare Dungeons are preferred over regular Dungeons because monster levels will eventually trail behind player levels (up to 5 levels behind) in World Tiers III and IV.

Below are some Nightmare Dungeons with high mob density for farming EXP. Classes that excel in Area of Effect (AoE) damage like the Sorcerer and Necromancer should be able to breeze through these Nightmare Dungeons. Remember to use your Elixirs like the Precision Elixir and Assault Elixir to boost DPS and increase EXP gains!

Best Nightmare Dungeons and Affixes

Fight Enemies Up to Ten Levels Higher for Bonus XP

It is recommended to defeat higher level monsters as you will receive a bonus XP boost up to a maximum of 10 levels, provided you can farm Nightmare Dungeons efficiently. This stacks in addition to the increase of base XP from the higher level monster, which also caps out at 10 levels.

Player and Enemy Level Difference	EXP Multiplier
+10	+15%
+2	+3%
+1	+1.5%
-1	-10%
-2	-20%
-3	-30%

Instantly Reset the Dungeon

After clearing a Dungeon, you can use different methods of resetting it, depending if you are playing solo or in a party.

If you are solo and are waiting for the 60 and 150-second timers to reset a Dungeon, you can sell or salvage gear or craft Elixirs at the Alchemist during this downtime.

How to Reset Dungeons

Hunt Elite Mobs in Fields of Hatred

If you are tired of running dungeons over and over, you can try hunting for Elite mobs in Fields of Hatred. These areas also have high Elite and mob density to quickly gain EXP. Just make sure that you are not disturbed by other players who are out for blood. Otherwise, it is better to go back to the Dungeons.

Fields of Hatred Guide

Do Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers

After the campaign, the Tree of Whispers becomes available. Accumulating enough Grim Favors through various activities will reward you with caches that give scaling EXP, on top of the EXP that you get from said activities.

Best Tree of Whispers Rewards

General Tips for Leveling

General Tips and Strategies for Leveling
Use Bonus EXP Elixirs Party Up with Other Players Do Remaining Side Quests Unlock Your Mount Before Exploring Ignore Loot in Dungeons If You're Geared Out Stay Near Campfires Use a Leveling Build Clear Mobs Efficiently Increase World Tier

Use Bonus EXP Elixirs

Some Elixirs grant bonus EXP gain on top of some other beneficial Status Effects. Use them when you are going for a long session of grinding to maximize your EXP gains! Do not worry about running out of Elixirs because you can craft them by speaking with an Alchemist.

Party Up with Other Players

Party up with friends or other players to gain a buff that increases EXP gained.

If you are not in a party, you can still take advantage of this buff in open world activities like World Bosses and Helltide Events by asking to join other players or sending party invites.

What Is the Maximum Party Size?

Do Remaining Side Quests

If you have been focusing on the campaign, you will surely have some Side Quests left. Even in the endgame, it is worth doing when these are nearby because they give scaling EXP.

List of Side Quests

Unlock Your Mount Before Exploring

The world of Sanctuary is vast and it will take some time to travel between objectives on foot. Try to unlock your mount in Act 4 before exploring to save some time and sanity.

How to Unlock Mounts

Ignore Loot in Dungeons If You're Geared Out

Once your gear is mostly sorted out, you can simply ignore loot that drop to finish Dungeons faster. Legendary and Unique items will automatically be sent to your Stash, so do not worry about missing important equipment.

If you are planning on running multiple Dungeons, this can shave off precious seconds that eventually add up. You can get a more significant boost in power from Paragon unlocks and higher item power drops, than checking every item on the floor.

Paragon System Explained

Stay Near Campfires

Standing near Campfires provides a temporary stacking buff that increases experience gain from monster kills, making them worthwhile to find and use while leveling. The earliest Campfire players can find is at the Kor Dragan Stronghold in Fractured Peaks.

How to Beat Kor Dragan Stronghold

Use a Leveling Build

Figuring out your own build can be fun in the early stages of the game, and we encourage you to experiment with all the different skills available to your class! But, in order to clear the story efficiently, it's best to use an effective build.

The Leveling Builds below have full setups for each Class, as well as tips on how to level up and advance quickly with that specific Class.

Leveling Builds for Each Class
Barbarian		Druid		Sorcerer
Rogue			Necromancer

Clear Mobs Efficiently

While it doesn't directly increase your EXP gain, learning how to kite, group, and clear mobs efficiently means you get to complete quests and get through the game much faster. Take advantage of narrow corridors, crowd control skills, and area of effect abilities to quickly clear out groups of foes and speed up your progression.

Increase Your World Tier

While we recommend starting on Adventurer difficulty, consider increasing your World Tier to Veteran once you've obtained a decent amount of Rare gear and skill points. The Veteran World Tier provides 20% additional EXP gain, which is essential for leveling up quickly while progressing through the game.

In addition, we suggest increasing World Tier to Nightmare and onwards after beating the main story to further boost your experience gain on the way to level 100.

How to Change World Tier Difficulty

Things Not to Do for EXP Farming

Things to Avoid When EXP Farming
Do Not Chase Renown Milestones for EXP Avoid Fixating on Gear Early On Refrain From Fighting Enemies Way Above Your Level

Do Not Chase Renown Milestones for EXP

If you are solely focused on farming EXP, it is not worth going after the Renown Milestones that grant bonus EXP. The EXP reward does not scale with higher levels, and are mostly for early game.

Renown System Guide

Avoid Fixating on Gear Early On

As you are playing through the game early on, you will be constantly switching through equipment. You are free to inspect them for the affixes, but do not spend too much time deciding between two pieces of equipment. If you see green arrows on your damage stat, do not hesitate to equip it.

How to Upgrade Equipment

Refrain From Fighting Enemies Way Above Your Level

It is better to defeat multiple Elites that are around your level around the map, than spending minutes in one spot trying to take down one extremely tough monster, especially those that are at least 11 levels higher than you.

The 10 level offset in World Tier IV and 6 level offset in World Tier III will not allow you to get the full EXP from monsters, but you will still get an EXP boost because of the level difference. For example, fighting a level 100 monster at level 1 in World Tier IV will give you the base EXP of a level 10 monster, plus a 15% EXP boost.

Combat Guide: How to Beat Hard Enemies

Diablo 4 Related Guides

List of Seasons: How Do Seasons Work?

Season 3

Season 3 Guides
Season 3 Questline Walkthrough	Kulle's Heart Quest - Journal Entry Locations
Season 3 Battle Pass	Season 3 Journey
Best Season Blessing	Arcane Tremors Explained
How to Farm Shattered Stones	How to Farm Elemental Cores
How to Get Pearls of Warding	How to Farm Igneous Cores
Seneschal Companion Guide	Governing Stones Guide
Tuning Stones Guide	Vaults and How to Unlock Them
How to Open Wardwoven Chests	How to Unlock Nightmare Vaults
How to Get Vault Sigils	New Season 3 Uniques
Weekly Gauntlet Dungeon Challenge Guide	-

Season Guides

Battle Pass Explained
Season 1 Battle Pass	Season 2 Battle Pass
Season 3 Battle Pass	-
Season Journey Explained
Season 1 Journey	Season 2 Journey
Season 3 Journey	-
All Season Mechanics
Malignant Hearts (Season 1)	Vampiric Powers, Blood Harvest (Season 2)
Seneschal Construct, Arcane Tremors (Season 3)	-
Season FAQs
What Carries Over to Seasons?	How to Transfer Renown to Seasonal Characters
Is Seasonal Rebirth Coming to Diablo 4?	How to Get Smoldering Ashes
Should You Make a Seasonal Character?	Can You Transfer Items to Seasonal Characters