When does Diablo 4 Season 5 start?
Diablo 4 Season 5 Infernal Hordes started on August 6 and will end on October 8. It is accompanied by Patch 1.5.0, which adds Infernal Hordes endgame activity, 50 new Uniques, and various quality-of-life changes. A new season signifies a clean slate for those eager to conquer their seasonal battle pass and claim its rewards, but this patch has many benefits for Eternal Realm players too.
Whether you're a seasoned player or just emerging from Season of Loot Reborn, you're probably here because you want to speed up your leveling process. While I personally love the leveling journey and the thrill of every loot drop potentially being an upgrade, many aim to swiftly reach level 50 or even 100 to dive into end-game activities.
Whether you're flying solo or teaming up with friends, mastering the best strategies, activities, and builds is crucial for effortlessly completing the Season Journey and Battle Pass. So, without further delay, let's delve into my tips for leveling up swiftly in Diablo 4 Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
Pick a decent levelling build
Selecting an efficient leveling build is key in determining your speed during the leveling process. While experimenting with various builds and playstyles is always an option, if your goal is to level up quickly, it's advisable to follow a build guide tailored to your chosen class.
This season, the choice for a starter build is almost made for you, as for the first time, playing the Season Journey will reward you with a bunch of legendary gear specifically for a class build. You don't have to play these builds, but you'll have a decent head start in the gearing process if you do:
- Barbarian - Weapon swapping / Knockback
- Druid - Cataclysm / Companions
- Necromancer - Bone Spirit / Prison / Bone Golem
- Sorceress - Chain Lightning
- Rogue - Flurry / Dark Shroud
You can always switch your build later in the game to something else, but if you want to level quickly, these are going to give you a leg up. We recommend Maxroll.gg and Icy Veins for easy-to-follow leveling guides.
Skip the campaign
If you've completed the story mode before, there's no need to replay it to level up your seasonal character. By opting to skip the campaign when creating your character, you can immediately dive into open-world activities that provide more XP.
If you are a previous player, you no longer need to farm Renown, which you have already acquired in previous seasons, or the Eternal Realm. The Renown system monitors your exploration and completion of various tasks within each region, such as discovering waypoints, Altars of Lilith, Strongholds, side quests, and dungeons. If you've unlocked the map and waypoints on an Eternal Realm character or previous Seasonal character, you can claim Renown points from the start on your new Seasonal character. This ensures a quick boost in Gold, Skill Points, Potion Charges, Murmuring Obol capacity, and Paragon Points.
You will need to claim them by going to the Map tab and clicking 'View Rewards'. It will look like this, as you can see the 2nd reward for each section of Renown points is for 'all chracters on a realm' and should have a tick next to it to indicate it's applied to your character.
Pick a World Tier difficulty
One of the key decisions you’ll have to make when leveling up is what World Tier to play on. World Tiers are difficulty settings that affect the strength of enemies, the quality and quantity of loot drops, and the availability of endgame features. There are four World Tiers in Diablo 4: Adventurer, Veteran, Nightmare, and Torment.
My advice used to be to stick to World Tier 1 for leveling, but as of Patch 1.4.0 the bonus XP has been significantly increased for playing on World Tier 2 and above.
- World Tier 1 - no bonus XP
- World Tier 2 -
was 20%now 50% + 20% gold drop - Wirld Tier 3 -
was 100%now 150% + 20% gold drop - World Tier 4 -
was 200%now 250% + 20% gold drop
While World Tier 2 gives you a 50% XP and 20% gold bonus, it also makes enemies and bosses much tougher. World Tier 1 does allow you to breeze through quests and strongholds that reward you with Renown, which in turn gives you extra stat points and paragon points. So it really depends on whether you need the Renown or not. If you've already gotten it from playing previous seasons, I'd say crank that mother up to World Tier 2 and enjoy the 50% bonus.
If you are struggling at any point, though, don't be afraid to go down a level. You'll only benefit from an XP boost if you can efficiently clear the monsters in that level.
Progress the Of Lamb and Wolves quest
Initiate the 'Of Lamb and Wolves' quest early with a level 1 character to jumpstart your journey. Players will earn 'Mothers Gifts' towards a seasonal-specific reputation board, which will reward you with gear and consumables tuned to power level your journey from level 1 to 100. You'll also get much-needed crafting materials when completing this board. Mother's Gifts will drop from all Elite monsters and above in the game.
The Season option at the top of your menu screen will guide you to the starting point of the Lamb and Wolves quest, and their locations will be highlighted on the World Map. This activity is not available for Eternal Realm players.
Always hand in your Mother's Gifts as soon as you can, these rewards will help you in your levelling journey.
TOWN IS LAVA
In the world of Diablo 4, the town is akin to lava and time spent there is time wasted. Yes I know you can pet the dog in town but you don't need to stop to do that every time. To speed up your leveling, minimize the moments dedicated to managing your inventory, selling or salvaging items, and scrutinizing gear stats.
Focus solely on the item power number, representing the strength of an item. If you stumble upon an item with a higher power than what you currently have equipped, make the switch and continue your journey. Abundant upgrades await in boss fights and dungeons, so there's no need to fret about optimizing your gear until you reach the endgame activities. Keep the momentum and prioritize efficient progression over meticulous gear management and min-maxing during the leveling phase.
Complete your class quest as soon as it is available
Class-specific quests are essential to unlocking the full power of your build, and once you hit level 15 on your character (apart from Necro which is 25) you'll get a quest populate in your log to go and do your quest. These are:
- Barbarian - Level 15 - Master of Battle - unlocks Technique slot in Arsenal
- Druid - Level 15 - Spirits of the Lost Grove - unlocks all Spirit Boons
- Necromancer - Level 25 - Call of The Underworld - unlocks your Golem
- Rogue - Level 15 - True Potential - unlocks 3 specializations
- Sorcerer - Level 15 - Legacy of the Magi - unlocks Enchantments
Helltide is now available from World Tier 1, this will level you up FAST
Loot isn't the only thing that is reborn; the Helltides are now available from World Tier 1 for all players and are a veritable feast of monster density and activities that will help boost your leveling. As soon as you feel comfortable in these areas, go do them. They will be marked in RED on the map and are active for 55 minutes; once they end, there is a 5-minute downtime before they move to another area of the map. If you're not yet strong enough to survive in the Helltide, go and do Whispered Cache quests instead (details below). The best thing to do though, is Helltides and the Whisper Quests within them.
Season players will see a new consumable drop, the Profane Mindcage.
Consuming a mindcage will buff the Helltide monster level by 10, depending on what World Tier you are playing in. These are a guaranteed drop from the Hellborn, and you're encouraged to use them. They also stack, if you are feeling brave.
These do not persist on death, so you will need to eat again if you die.
Complete quests for the Tree of Whispers, and World events
Complete Whispers for the Tree of Whispers for XP, crafting and gear upgrade rewards. Identify these quests with a red border around the dungeon icon, as shown here:
Efficiently tackle Whispers of the Dead by selecting areas with a concentration of them. Look for zones where multiple objectives can be completed simultaneously within a short timeframe. For instance, find an area with a dungeon quest that coincides with a whisper task, such as defeating enemies or locating an item in the same zone.
By successfully completing Whispers of the Dead, you reap multiple benefits, including a finished quest, a dungeon aspect, renown, and Grim Favors. Accumulating 10 Grim Favors allows you to obtain new gear from the Tree of Whispers. This method stands out as the most efficient way to level up and gear your character in the early stages of the game.
If you feel strong enough to at least stay alive, always go and complete Legion and World Boss events as they become available on the map. These are indicated with a marker and countdown bar.
Use Gems for easy stat boosts
I've a full guide to Gems and what they can be used for, but in essence, socketing Gems into your gear provides valuable stat improvements as you progress. Here's a quick tip: don't spend money unnecessarily on removing Gems at the jeweler. If you salvage gear with a gem in it, the gem automatically returns to your stash. Rule of thumb for most classes when leveling:
- Armor sockets - Ruby (red) for LIFE will increase your survivability
- Jewelry - Skulls - increase your armor stat
- Weapon - Emerald (vulnerable damage)
Pick which makes sense with your chosen skills and build. The weapon gem is interchangeable depending on what build and skills you are using:
- Ruby (overpower damage)
- Amethyst (damage over time)
- Topaz (basic skill damage)
- Sapphire (crowd control damage)
Equip aspects selectively
When it comes to equipping Aspects for substantial improvements to your build, be selective, especially considering the frequent gear changes during the climb to level 50. Imprinting aspects can be costly, and given the regular gear upgrades, it's wise not to invest too heavily in this early on.
However, some aspects can significantly ease your leveling process, depending on your class and build. Prioritize these aspects and imprint them onto your amulet, as this gear slot tends to be upgraded less frequently. Notably, imprinting an aspect onto an amulet enhances its effect by 50%.
To find the aspects you need, consult your Codex of Power, which provides a comprehensive list of available aspects and their unlock locations. Pinning the aspect's location to your map for easy navigation. This strategic approach ensures you benefit from valuable aspects without overspending on frequent gear changes.
Remember, you can also use Tempering on your items at the Blacksmith to imprint new and fun affixes onto your equipment. You can check out our Tempering guide for more information on this.
Upgrade your Health Potion as soon as you are able
Pay attention to your health potions and when the upgrades are available from the vendor in town. If you are struggling for crafting materials to do this there is a nice easy herb cache you can get from doing a quest in Kyovoshad. Go to the North of the city by the World Tier statue and pick up the quest Raising Spirits.
To complete this quest, simply stand by the soldiers and select Cheer on your emoticon wheel and a cache of handy herbs will drop for you which should be enough for you to upgrade your potion.
Once you hit level 50 - rotate in some Nightmare Dungeons
Congratulations, if you followed the above tips you should have got to level 50 much quicker than you did completing the campaign. At this point, you'll want to change up and maybe do other activities for your experience points too.
Complete the capstone dungeon for accessing World Tier 3 as soon as you feel ready. This can be anywhere between level 50 and level 70. Then start tackling Nightmare Dungeons.
You should have gathered Sigils to access Nightmare Dungeons by farming the Whispers of The Dead up until level 50. So you'll want to switch to these as soon as you are comfortable completing them as you can start leveling up your Glyphs on the paragon board ASAP. When completing a Nightmare Dungeon you must remember to rush the objective and ignore trash mobs as much as you can manage. For example, if the dungeon's objective is to 'Collect Animus from Collectors' rush to the collectors on the map and don't waste time fighting small fry. The quicker you can reach the Dungeon boss, complete the dungeon, and open a new one, the quicker you will be gaining XP.
Always have an Elixir active
Once you are over the hurdle of hitting level 50, you'll want to make sure you are getting the 5% buff to XP from your Elixirs. These are in your bag in the consumable tab and last 30 minutes a pop. You can use them prior to level 50 but you may run out and find it difficult to gather crafting materials, whereas they drop plentifully post-level 50 so there's no excuse to not always have one equipped.
Run the Infernal Hordes in World Tier 3 and 4
The new endgame activity, the Infernal Hordes, can be started as soon as you arrive in World Tier 3. You will get a priority quest in your menu, the 'Eyes of the Enemy' which you will need to complete first and which will take you through the basics of Infernal Hordes. This quests kicks off in Zarbzinet and I recommend you do it as soon as you can to access the Infernal Hordes.
The Infernal Hordes is an activity located at the Hell Gate in Caldeum, but it is activated from your bag, similar to a Nightmare Dungeon sigil. Activating an Infernal Compass will open the activity for you to teleport straight to it on the map.
Infernal Hordes can has 8 tiers of difficulty, but even doing levels 1 to 3 will help significantly with your levelling from 80-100.
