Diablo 4 Seasonal Leveling Guide
04.07.2026 - 05:36:11
Diablo 4 , Game Guides
Blizzard typically launches a new season of Diablo 4 every three months. You’d want to participate in the new season because it is always an avenue for the company to introduce new content.
Having said that, you’re probably searching for the best info on how you can get into the endgame as quickly as possible. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place! This is our Diablo 4 Season Leveling Guide, which will tell you exactly what you need to do to get from level 1 to level 70 ASAP!
Which Should You Choose: D4 Campaign or Expansion?
The choice of whether you should complete the campaign or go directly towards the end of the Lord of Hatred expansion depends on a couple of factors. First, if this is your first time playing Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, then you will have to undergo the entire campaign experience at least once.
Second, if you want a relatively easy way to get yourself to level 45+, then the campaign is the way to go. You will get D4 items just by completing mission objectives. Plus, you get treated to a good amount of lore, so you won’t get bored along the way.
Having said that, the campaign takes about 5-8 hours, depending on whether you breeze through the dialogue or not. After the campaign, you should be at least level 45 (assuming you went quickly) with some respectable gear to boot.
If you opt for the expansion experience, you can skip the campaign entirely, and then you’re ready to go level up by doing various activities. But, since you want to level up quickly, you have to complete the War Plans as soon as possible.
Take note that the War Plans require you to have the Lord of Hatred expansion, as it is a feature that is only unlocked after you have beaten its campaign.
D4 Leveling Route Overview
When doing the campaign:
- You will be at least level 45.
- You have a set of rare items already equipped (through campaign rewards).
- Progression is linear (just complete campaign objectives).
When opting to skip the campaign:
- You will have access to the War Plans right off the bat.
- You can complete various activities via the War Plans to get EXP and, therefore, better rewards later down the line.
- Gear is rough during the early stages, but gets better as time passes.
Best Early Activities for Leveling in Diablo 4
So, you have decided to skip the campaign and go straight to the endgame experience. What should you do first? Well, here are the best activities that you can do to speedrun your way to level 70:
Helltides
Accomplishing the Helltides is one of the best things that you can do to reach level 70 in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred. The reason for this is that Helltides are plagued with monsters, so having so many enemies to kill gives you more EXP per hour.
On top of that, there are a couple of War Plans nodes that help improve the amount of experience points you get. The first node is Hellmouth, which is situated at the center of the Helltides Activity Tree in your War Plans. Hellmouth alters certain aspects of Hellwyrms once they emerge from the ground. In some cases, the Hellwyrms will spew out maggots, which drop Experience Orbs when killed.
The next node you should take from the Helltides Activity Tree is Writhe and Rot. This particular node does three things for you.
For one, Writhe and Rot always ensure that Hellwyrms unleash Maggots every time they appear. Besides that, the Maggots have +1 Monster Power, which amplifies the amount of EXP they provide when slain.
Additionally, Pangs of Duriel will spawn along with Hellwyrms. What makes them valuable is that they drop Lair Keys, which give you the ability to open up the treasure hoards from Lair Bosses. This makes gearing your D4 character so much easier.
Nightmare Dungeons
If you don’t want to level up in the open world, then you have two choices—the first one being the Nightmare Dungeon.
Nightmare Dungeons are ever-reliable because they always come with various modifiers that can improve your EXP gain per hour.
Running a Nightmare Dungeon sigil with the “Forgotten Wisdom” affix is highly encouraged. This is because killing monsters within this dungeon will have them drop Experience Orbs for you to pick up.
As for Nightmare Dungeon nodes on War Plans, go for Waking Spoils first. This will have another treasure chest to spawn after defeating the NMD boss, which makes it easier for you to gear your character with legendaries. If you’re not going to use any of the items that drop from the War’s Bounty Chest, you can salvage them for Legendary Aspects instead.
Once you have Waking Spoils, level up your Nightmare Dungeon Activity Tree enough to acquire Horadric Hunter. When allocated, a Horadric Altar will spawn every time you kill 25 elite monsters. Activating it will summon either more elite monsters, Treasure Goblins, or even the fearsome Butcher. Regardless of the outcome, they offer a good amount of EXP.
Tree of Whispers
Gaining EXP for the Tree of Whispers Tree is different from the other War Plans activities. Instead of actually accomplishing the Tree of Whispers objectives, you simply finish whatever activity there is in the War Plans. Essentially, the Tree of Whispers gets leveled up by passively gaining experience from everything that you do, so long as it is related to your War Plans.
Having said that, path towards the left side of the Activity Tree to get Corrupted Roots. When you open up a Whisper Cache, you will sometimes get Corrupted Roots. You can plant these roots whenever you do Helltides, and what they do is attract nearby enemies to make them stronger. Once the enemies do get empowered by the roots, you get more experience points from killing them.
On top of that, the roots themselves fully mature to drop items when you click them. So really, the Corrupted Roots are great for leveling and gearing up your character in Diablo 4!
D4 Leveling Guide: Best Route to Take for Reaching Level 70 Fast
When you opt to skip the campaign, here are the steps to take to reach level 70 as quickly as possible in Diablo 4:
- Select “Hard” difficulty. If monsters are too tanky for you, select Normal Difficulty instead.
- Always equip your pet, as it is responsible for looting salvage materials and gold.
- Pull up the world map and right-click on Temis. This will “favorite” Temis, so you will teleport to it automatically whenever you press the “T” key.
- Once you arrive at Temis, hire Raheir as your main mercenary and Aldkin as your reinforcement. For Raheir, take Ground Slam, Raheir’s Aegis, Bastion, and Inspiration. For Aldkin, take Field of Languish and select your primary skill as the trigger.
- When you have your pet and mercenaries with you, speak to Tyrael at the center of Temis to unlock the War Plans (you must have completed the Lord of Hatred campaign once). After that, click on “New Plan” until Helltides appear as a possible option. If the Helltide does not appear after three tries, choose whichever activity is offered to you instead.
- Finishing the Helltides for your War Plans is easy. You simply have to kill as many enemies as you can to obtain Aberrant Cinders. Once you have enough Cinders, spend them by opening the Tortured Gifts (special chests) that are scattered throughout Helltides. You need to spend at least 250 Cinders on a normal Helltide activity (and more on a Greater Helltide Harvest) to complete the objective.
- When you have leveled up your Helltides Activity Tree twice, you should have access to both Hellmouth and Writhe of Rot. In the next Helltides, continue killing monsters until your threat meter is at least two-thirds. After doing so, Hellwyrms will start to spawn more frequently.
- Remember, Hellywyrms will unleash Maggots every time they spawn because of the two aforementioned nodes. You want to kill as many Maggots as you can until the Helltide ends to get the most amount of EXP.
- Another thing you can do is start roaming around the Helltide area once you have your threat meter two-thirds full. Continue to do this until Hellwyrms spawn.
- When your Helltide Activity Tree is at level 3, take “Bursting Brood” to have the Maggots and Pangs of Duriel drop Boss Keys when slain. You can leave at least one Boss Key on the ground as an indicator of the location where the Hellwyrm last spawned.
This is the best possible route to reaching level 70 as quickly as possible in Diablo 4. If you are fast enough, you could attain the max level in under two hours! You can refer to our D4 Boosting Guide for more information on what other activities you can do to achieve the same thing.
Group Leveling vs. Solo Self Found
Blizzard added a new mode called Solo Self Found (aka SSF) in Diablo 4. In this mode, grouping up and trading with other players are strictly prohibited, which means that you are entirely on your own. This affects leveling if you are the type of person who likes playing with your buddies online.
Having said that, group leveling is the most efficient way of leveling in the game, especially with the recent changes to War Plans, where progression and objectives are shared among party members.
If you are following the best leveling route outlined above, you can still get to max level in less than two hours when playing solo. It’s just that the number of hours needed for you to do the same is significantly reduced when you’re in a full group.
D4 Leveling Tips
Follow these useful tips to help you reach level 70 in Diablo 4 quickly:
Choose the Right Build
The build that you choose to create in Diablo 4 will have a substantial impact on how quickly you can breeze through the leveling process. You can check out our D4 Seasonal Class Tier List for some inspiration and to save you a lot of time picking the right build for you.
Level Up the Undercity
While Helltides provide the most amount of EXP in Diablo 4, The Undercity is actually not bad, especially when it comes to gaining experience points and gear.
When you get points for The Undercity Activity Tree, allocate the following nodes in the exact order:
- Jade Epiphany: Increases monster power by one. Experience Orbs also appear every time you reach an attunement level.
- Endless Swarm: Spawns invasion portals that grant attunement when killed. This makes it easier to attain maximum attunement in a short amount of time.
- Unfortunate Souls: Invasion Portals can summon wisps that attach to you. When you finish an undercity run, you will get Forgotten Souls and other crafting materials.
- Gutter Filth: A Portal Prankster will occasionally be summoned after activating a Beacon in the undercity. Portal Pranksters grant additional rewards after defeating the boss.
Use the Barter System
As soon as you reach level 40, you should start using the Mercenary Barter System to get some starter gear. For the uninitiated, you will get Pale Marks just by leveling your Mercenary. At max level, they will continue to supply you with Pale Marks, so use them as you see fit.
You’d want to level up Raheir and Aldkin first because they unlock defensive and resource aspects, respectively. Aldkin, in particular, also gives Augmentations Caches, which contain runes, scattered prisms, and gem fragments for your mid-game crafting needs.
Clear the Capstone Dungeons
The Capstone Dungeons are an integral part of your season journey. This is especially true for the second Capstone Dungeon, which unlocks the Artificer’s Pit when completed.
Use the Horadric Cube Frequently
When you are leveling up a fresh character, you will have no items to your name. Grab any rare item that drops for you when doing your War Plans and put them into your stash for later use.
Once you’ve leveled up enough or you are struggling against tougher enemies, use the Horadric Cube to upgrade those rares into legendaries. The added benefit to this is that you can salvage the legendary items you don’t use to extract their legendary aspects.
In the most recent update, Blizzard has overhauled mythics in Diablo 4 as part of the Mythic Uniques 3.0 System. All unique items can now drop as “Mythic Uniques,” which are always “Ancestral” and have a 30% increased effect on their unique power. Besides that, there is a new Horadric Cube recipe that turns unique items into Mythic Uniques, but it requires a seasonal item in order to accomplish this.
This is important to include in this topic because getting yourself a Mythic version of a build-defining unique item can make your leveling journey a whole lot smoother. Keep in mind, however, that if you use the Horadric Cube to upgrade a unique item to a Mythic Unique, you can only wear a single piece on your character. This does not apply to Mythic Uniques that have dropped from defeating enemies.
Now, if you don’t want to deal with the arduous grind to level 70, you can avail of our D4 boosting services instead. We provide you with leveling, gear, and other things that you need to create the best character in Diablo 4.
FAQ
What is the Fastest Way to Level 70 in Diablo 4?
Helltides. Take the three nodes at the center of the activity tree to get more EXP from Maggots.
What is the Ideal Difficulty Level for Leveling in Diablo 4?
Go for Hard Mode for the first 20 levels and then gradually increase the difficulty when it becomes too easy to kill monsters at the current level. Always go for efficiency first and then difficulty second.
How Do I Get Gear While Leveling Quickly?
Helltide Chests provide some decent gear. The Undercity is another avenue for that, especially if you have a Tribute of Armament.
When your mercenaries are leveled up, you can use the Pale Marks to barter for items in The Den or in Temis.
Tree of Whisper Caches are also a good source of gear, provided that you are fine with accomplishing War Plans activities to get more of them.