Diablo IV offers players the opportunity to become more powerful and dominate the game's challenges. In this guide, we will explore the two main ways to gain power in Diablo 4: improving your gear and levelling up your character. Levelling up is especially important as it unlocks the Paragon system, which grants significant bonuses to your character's power. We will discuss the best methods to gain experience quickly and efficiently to level up from 1 to 50 and beyond. Additionally, we will provide tips on utilizing elixirs and maximizing your experience gains. Let's dive in!

• Why Leveling Matters?
• Elixirs
• Side Quests
• Regular Dungeons
• Nightmare Dungeons
• XP/Loot Caves

↖ Why Leveling Matters?

Reaching higher levels in Diablo 4 is essential to unlocking the Paragon Boards, which grant substantial power bonuses. Even the starting Paragon Board offers a remarkable boost, such as a 20% bonus for all damage. To level up quickly from 1 to 50, your primary focus should be completing the main story quests. Not only is this necessary to progress to higher world tiers, but the story itself is captivating. 

While focusing on the main story, quests will bring you to around level 40. It would help if you also took on side quests to maximize your experience gain. Levelling beyond 50 becomes even more rewarding due to Paragon Points, which significantly enhance your character's power and allow you to overcome tougher challenges.

↖ Elixirs

Please make use of elixirs as they provide a flat 5% bonus to experience gain from all sources. Keep an elixir active at all times for maximum benefit, regardless of the specific effects it provides.

↖ Side Quests

Side quests are an excellent way to earn experience and increase your renown in each region. They are quick to complete, taking an average of three minutes each. Unlike other methods, the experience rewards from side quests scale properly with the game's difficulty. Complete side quests as soon as possible, preferably right after finishing the main story. This will ensure efficient experience gain. Short side quests give around 17,000 experiences, while longer ones provide about 34,000 experiences (with elixirs active). On average, side quests yield approximately 340,000 experiences per hour.

↖ Regular Dungeons

Regular dungeons provide a consistent method for gaining experience. Find a dungeon on the map, complete the objectives, and defeat the boss at the end. Regular dungeons on torment difficulty can grant around 4.2 million experiences per hour. To further boost the experience gained, you can focus on completing dungeons marked by "Whispers of the Dead." These dungeons offer additional experience and reset approximately every 90 minutes, allowing you to complete about four per hour. Combining regular dungeons and whispers dungeons can yield an average of 4.4 million experiences per hour.

Whispers of the Dead Dungeons are marked by whispers on the map. Completing these dungeons grants 132,000 experience for handing in 10 grim favours on world tier 4. Additionally, each whisper dungeon completion provides around 17,000 experience as a bonus. Whispers dungeons reset every 90 minutes, offering five dungeons to explore. You can complete approximately four whispers dungeons per hour, earning a total of 560,000 experience from the dungeons themselves and 264,000 experience from completing whispers dungeons. This results in an average of 4.4 million experiences per hour, slightly better than regular dungeons.

↖ Nightmare Dungeons

Nightmare dungeons offer a significant experience boost by providing a bonus experience based on the level of sigil used and the presence of higher-level enemies. To maximize experience gain, engage in nightmare dungeons that are just above your own level by three levels. This allows for quick clears while still obtaining the experience bonus. The maximum bonus is 25% for enemies three levels above you.

Clearing a tier 25 nightmare dungeon, which exceeded the three-level limit, provided 1 million experience in approximately 10 minutes, resulting in a solid 6 million experience per hour. Nightmare dungeons remain the most efficient way to farm experience from level 50 to level 100, and group play further enhances the experience gain.

↖ XP/Loot Caves

There are two exceptionally efficient dungeons for experience and D4 loot: Iron Hold in Howazar and Champion's Demise in the Dry Steps.

Iron Hold:

In Iron Hold, proceed until you reach a locked door on the left. Take a right, and you will encounter a marked elite mob on your minimap. Defeating this mob will drop a key. Use the key to unlock the door and access the second layer of the dungeon. There are two main paths in this layer, each containing a concentrated group of elites.

If you can handle six to eight elites at once, clear one group quickly and proceed to the other. Afterwards, exit the dungeon using the emote wheel, log out outside the dungeon, select your character, and log back in to reset the dungeon. This method yields around 600,000 experience in a five-minute run, averaging 7.2 million experience per hour. Iron Hold is an excellent source of legendary drops as well.

Champion's Demise:

Champion's Demise in the Dry Steps offers the highest experience-to-time ratio. Upon entering the dungeon, follow the path until you reach a central platform. From there, choose one of the three lanes: bottom right, bottom left, or top left. Each lane is densely packed with enemies. Clear each lane, grouping enemies together for efficient takedowns. Once all three lanes are clear, exit the dungeon, log out to your character, and log back in to reset the dungeon.

In a solo run, Champion's Demise yields about 1.2 million experience in eight minutes, resulting in an incredible 9 million experience per hour. When done in a group, each player can focus on one lane, further increasing efficiency. Perfect execution in a group can provide close to 20 million experience per hour. However, even at 14.5 million experience per hour, it remains an outstanding option for experience gain, especially considering the high legendary drop rates.

Final Thoughts:

To gain power quickly in Diablo 4, focusing on levelling up and gaining experience is crucial. Side quests, regular dungeons, nightmare dungeons, and XP/loot caves all offer different experience gains. By combining these methods and selecting the most efficient activities, players can achieve up to 20 million experience per hour. Remember to use elixirs to boost experience gained from all sources and optimize your character's build for efficient clearing of dungeons. With dedication and strategic play, you'll be able to reach level 100 and unlock the full potential of your character in Diablo 4. Good luck!