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CompletingDiablo 4’scampaign is only the beginning. A plethora of endgame systems open up after you complete the game’s multi-Act campaign and short epilogue, encouraging you to complete world activities and farm difficult Nightmare Dungeons. Completing these activities will award some of Diablo 4’s strongest items, but breaking into these systems can prove challenging.
Related:Diablo 4: Complete Beginner Guide
Fortunately, most endgame systems are fairly easy to digest. If you’ve finished the campaign and are confused as to what you should be doing, this guide will help. We’ll cover all the core endgame systems in Diablo 4, explain how to unlock World Tier 3 to access these systems, and give recommendations on how to level and gear your character past level 50.
Endgame Activities Overview
Beating the Diablo 4 campaign and its epilogue will unlock most of the game’s endgame activities. It’ll first guide you to theTree of Whispers, a type of bounty system that encourages you to complete specific open world content for rewards. Completing your first Whisper will unlock theCathedral of Lightcapstone dungeon in Kyovashad. Beating this dungeon will let you access World Tier 3, unlocking the rest of Diablo 4’s endgame systems. Those systems include:
You’ll also have the Renown and Altars of Lilith grinds ahead of you, granting small boosts to character power as you progress either system. There’s a ton to do once you beat the campaign, so it’s best to take these systems one at a time. A good starting point is to focus on unlocking World Tier 3: Nightmare difficulty.
Unlocking World Tier 3
World Tier 3 unlocks upon beating the Cathedral of Light dungeonon World Tier 2 difficulty.This dungeon can be found in Kyovashad and unlocks upon beating Diablo 4’s campaign and subsequent Tree of Whispers quest. The dungeon itself is set to level 50, so you’ll want to ensure that your character is level 45 or above before attempting it.
If you’re around level 40 and feel weak, we highly recommend youfarm dungeons and unlock Codex of Power affixes. Look for Legendary Aspects that improve your character’s damage output and resource sustain. You’ll ideally want a few Legendary items, preferably a full set of gear, before attempting this dungeon. As for dungeons to farm for XP, Champion’s Demise in Dry Steppes is arguably the best. Dead Man’s Dredge in Fractured Peaks is also a good option.
Related:Diablo 4: Druid Leveling Build
Leveling And Gearing Past Level 50
All content in World Tier 3 is set tolevel 53 or higher, so it’s important that you acquire weapon upgrades as soon as possible.Gear up your character by farming Helltide.This is a world state that lasts for an hour, occurring randomly throughout the day. A portion of your map will glow red and start spawning demonic enemies. Killing these demons will grant Aberrant Cinders which can be used to open Tortured Chests, forcing items of a specific slot type to drop. For example, Amulet Tortured Chests will always drop at least one amulet.Focus on unlocking weapon cheststo get a weapon upgrade ASAP. Keep an eye out forSacreddrops, as these items tend to roll with higher affix values.
As for more general drops, you can’t go wrong withNightmare Dungeons. You’ll need a Nightmare Sigil to create one. If you don’t have one in your consumables tab, you can find them in Tree of Whispers reward caches. Open a few until you receive a Sigil, then run the dungeon that gets marked on your map. These dungeons serve as a good source of armor and weapon drops whenever you need to upgrade every item on your character. With some basic gear sorted,use the Occultist to upgrade your items into Legendaries, then focus on increasing your level and Renown.
Leveling Past 50
There are two approaches you can take to leveling after the campaign:
XP Farmingis the strategy most dedicated Diablo players use. In essence, you pick a specific dungeon on the map you like and run it repeatedly, earning high XP returns for killing Elites. It seems that Champion’s Demise in Dry Steppes is the best dungeon XP farm in the game, as the opening encounter spawns many enemies in three separate lanes. You typically join a party, each person clears a lane, then you teleport to town and remake the party. This will reset the dungeon, letting you farm multiple runs per hour for massive XP gains.Solo players can opt to farm Nightmare Dungeons instead.It’s slower but gives great XP returns and helps level your Paragon Glyphs.
Those that aren’t interested in Nightmare Dungeons or optimal party play should try toincrease their Renowninstead. Renown is a reputation system present in all five zones in Sanctuary. Completing quests, dungeons,and discovering Altars of Lilithwill increase your reputation with that zone, eventually increasing your Renown level. These levels are vital to character power, granting potion slots, skill points, and even Paragon points at the final rank. Every build will need to complete this grind to achieve optimal character power, so it’s worth doing at some point.
Seasonal Renown
Characters created during a Diablo 4 Season will need to grind their Renown from scratch. If you’re interested in playing a Season in the near-future, hold off on grinding max Renown until the Season begins to prevent burnout.
The XP returns from Renown farming are far from optimal, but you’ll still gain a respectable amount of XP from finishing quests, discovering locations, and generally completing world content. We recommend working counter-clockwise around the map as you increase your Renown, switching regions every time you gain a Renown level.Aim to hit at least Renown 3 with every zone.Break up this farm by participating in Helltide and World Bosses to gear up. By the time you finish this grind, you should be roughly level 65-70. Run Nightmare Dungeons until you reach level 70, then beat the Fallen Temple capstone dungeon to access World Tier 4.
World Tier 4 Goals
Now that you’ve unlocked World Tier 4, you’re able to focus on obtaining Ancestral gear, Uniques, and filling out your Paragon Board. It’s at this point thatyou’ll want to start farming Ancestral Nightmare dungeons, as these give amazing XP returns and frequently drop Uniques at World Tier 4. Mix your dungeon runs with the occasional Helltide or World Boss, and you’ll reach the apex of your build’s potential in no time. Becoming stronger at this point will require maxing your Renown, min-maxing your Paragon passives, and earning best-in-slot items with perfect affixes.
