Diablo 4 Leveling Guide: Fastest Way to Level 70
The fastest way to level in Diablo 4 depends on whether you have already completed the Lord of Hatred campaign. If you are new to the game, you will have to play through the expansion story once before you can skip it on future characters.
Once you have unlocked the campaign skip, we recommend focusing on War Plans, especially Helltides and their experience bonuses. This is where you will spend most of your time leveling.
Here is how leveling works in the Eternal and Seasonal realms, and the route we recommend to reach Level 70 as quickly as possible.
Fastest Leveling Route After Skipping the Campaign
For players who have completed Lord of Hatred and can skip the story, here is the route we recommend for a new character.
Level | What to Do |
|---|---|
1 - 25 | Start running Helltide War Plans. On Seasonal characters, unlock your seasonal powers first. |
25 - 70 | Continue Helltides, add Kurast Undercity runs, and invest in experience bonuses from your War Plan activity trees. |
30 - 60 | Complete the first two Capstone Dungeons as they become available. |
70 | Start earning Paragon XP and work toward Torment I. |
The Lord of Hatred Campaign
The campaign is mandatory for the first character that plays Lord of Hatred. New players in Diablo 4 no longer have to replay the base game story. They get a short summary instead and head straight into the expansion, which is set in Skovos.
The campaign is the slow route, but it is the only way to unlock the skip for future characters. It also opens Temis, the city where one of the most important endgame activities, War Plans, reside. We would treat it as a one-time cost. You can play it on an Eternal character so a seasonal run is never held back by story quests.
Once you have completed Lord of Hatred, the campaign skip becomes available account-wide, including for existing characters.
By the time you finish the campaign, you will likely already be well into the leveling process. From there, you can switch to War Plans and use the same Helltide and Undercity farming methods described below to reach Level 70.
Starting Your Seasonal Character
Once the campaign is done, every new seasonal character can skip it and begin with the story marked complete. Season 15 added Character Rebirth, which allows for an existing Eternal character to be transferred into the Seasonal realm at Level 1 with the same class, name, and cosmetics. The gear and inventory are reset and should be emptied first.
From that point on, the best and easiest route is War Plans. Run through the Seasonal Questline to unlock the reputation board and seasonal powers. Then grab a plan at the table in Temis and fill it with as many Helltides as you get early on.
Reset the War Plan if it did not give you a Helltide. Every time you accomplish one War Plan, you have enough currency to reset it once. If you are playing in a group, you can also reroll and synchronize your War Plans. One player initiates the reset, and the group votes to accept the new plan. This lets you work through the same activities together.
War Plans and Activity Bonuses
Leveling the activities in the War Plans will allow you to pick some extra benefits from each activity. To level them up, you must run these activities in your plans. Look for bonuses that increase your experience gain, for example, extra experience from Helltide worms or from completing Undercity pillars.
War Plan reputation progression is also shared between eligible characters on your account. If you have already leveled the activity trees on another character in the same realm and game mode, your alt can use those points immediately without having to earn them all over again.
Leveling with Kurast Undercity
You can add Undercity to your War Plan once its bonuses open up around Level 25.
For Undercity, especially during Season 15, look for the Jade Epiphany upgrade in its War Plan activity tree. It drops experience orbs whenever you gain an Attunement Rank. Try to reach Rank 4 during your runs and collect the orbs on the way, as your Pet will not pick them up for you.
If you only care about reaching Level 70 as quickly as possible, Undercity can be a better option than Helltides once you have unlocked this bonus. However, Helltides are still a great choice if you also want to collect gear and materials.
Leveling with Helltides
For Helltides, take the Hellmouth upgrade in the activity tree as soon as you have enough points, followed by Writhe and Rot. These upgrades improve your Hellwyrm encounters and make farming their maggots for experience orbs more rewarding.
This only works efficiently if you keep your Threat high enough to trigger Hellwyrm encounters, and remember to collect the experience orbs that drop.
While farming Helltides, complete any convenient Whispers you come across for some additional rewards. There is no need to travel across the map for them, but if they overlap with what you are doing anyway, you might as well take them.
Which Difficulty to Level On
Higher difficulty means more XP per kill, but only if the kills stay quick.
Our advice is to simply check how fast it takes you to complete activities. If a pack takes noticeably longer to clear on the next difficulty up, drop back down.
There is almost no benefit to earning more XP per monster if you spend twice as long killing it. Stick to a difficulty where you can clear groups of enemies quickly and comfortably.
In Season 15, you can also use the 
Splinter of Lies for extra experience. Only use it on difficulties you can already handle comfortably, though, as it makes your character weaker.
– Tilnan the Collector
AmalgamableWhat Unlocks Along the Way
At Level 15, the class mechanic opens, and most builds start to feel like themselves here.
At Level 30, you unlock the second and final part of your class mechanic.
Around Levels 30 and 50, the first two Capstone Dungeons are worth completing for their rewards and Season Rank progression.
At Level 70, Paragon XP begins. Every point of XP from here on out goes into Paragon levels instead.
Movement Speed is also useful while leveling, especially on your boots. If you are struggling to clear enemies quickly, remember to upgrade your weapon as well. A stronger weapon and less time spent running between enemy groups can make a bigger difference than increasing the difficulty for a little extra XP.
How to Level Alts Faster
If you are leveling another alt character, there are a few techniques that may avoid you running the initial seasonal grind from Level 1 to 70.
The caches from the Tree of Whispers also give a good amount of experience. You can gather caches on your main character for an alt character. Simply drop them in your stash without opening them, and open them with your newly created alt.
You will need around 8 Tree of Whispers caches to reach Level 70 on a new character. The exact number can vary depending on the difficulty, available bonuses, and active events. This is particularly useful if you already have a high-level character farming Whispers and want to prepare another class without repeating the early leveling process.
You may also want to keep an eye on the monthly events the Diablo 4 team is running, for example, the Gift of the Tree event. This event adds a bonus cache to every Grim Favor turn-in.
Next Steps
Once the character hits 70, the next step is a Pit Tier 10 clear to open Torment I difficulty. Our Difficulty and Torment Tiers guide will help you up from there.
From here, your focus changes from leveling to improving your gear, earning Paragon points, and progressing through later Torment difficulties.