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How to farm XP fast - Diablo 4

Farming XP in Diablo 4 helps you take on tougher challenges with ease.

Josh Broadwell

June 9, 2023 5:20 PM

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You have plenty of options to farm XP in Diablo 4 without spending much time or effort in the process. You get a nice extra bonus if you play with friends and explore Sanctuary, but if you don’t have time to team up or explore side content, you can get where you need to be just by playing the campaign.

This guide explains how to farm XP fast in Diablo 4, including the best dungeons to farm.

Take on side quests

Every settlement has at least a handful of side quests, and you can even find some out in the wild. Many of them take little time to complete, and some send you to far-flung parts of the map, which helps you earn more renown. Finishing these is an easy way to get quite a bit of XP without spending ages on grinding.

Play the campaign

It sounds like an obvious answer, but Diablo 4 is balanced so well that your level is nearly always where it needs to be just by progressing the campaign missions. Each one rewards you with ample experience – more, if you stop to defeat the mobs along the way – and you’ll likely be overleveled by the time you reach Scosglen and Act 3. Following the main story also sees you filling in parts of the Sanctuary map, which rewards you with a bit of bonus XP as well. 

If you want something a bit faster, though, leave the main quests for a bit and do some exploring.

Complete world events

A faster way to gain XP at early levels and some extra materials for salvaging is taking part in world events. You’ll find these marked in orange on your map when you get closer to them. World events last maybe a few minutes at most and task you with things such as defending a caravan or defeating waves of monsters. You get a trove of treasure at the end, plenty of gold, and no shortage of XP either. They reset almost instantly when you leave the area, so you can repeat them as often as you want.

Clear Strongholds

Each region of Sanctuary has at least a few Strongholds, open-world dungeons stuffed full with enemy Elites and mobs, and clearing them out rewards you with plenty of XP. It’s not an activity you can repeat, but it’s certainly worth it for the one-time bonus.

A handful of Strongholds will even provide you with buffs that raise your XP and other stats for the duration of the game.

Raise your World Tier – but not immediately

Raising the World Tier level rewards you with additional XP and loot, but the extra challenge on World Tier 2 isn’t really worth it until you finish the campaign. You get a 20 percent XP boost, so if you get, say, 5,000 XP from defeating an enemy, the boost turns that into 6,000. It sounds like a lot, but after level 10 or 15, the extra XP does very little.

The best time to raise your World Tier is after completing the campaign, when you’re trying to reach level 70. World Tier 3, Nightmare, gives you a 100 percent XP boost. Once you reach level 70 and meet a few other requirements, you can – and should – raise your World Tier to 4, which is Torment. The challenge is significant, but you get a 200 percent XP boost for your efforts.

Play with friends 

Diablo 4 gives you a 10 percent XP boost for every activity and enemy defeated when you play with even just one person nearby. The easiest way to ensure you get that XP boost all the time is by playing multiplayer so someone’s always in your party. You can also join up with anyone you see in the open world to clear Strongholds, defeat Elites, or clear world events

Best dungeons to farm in Diablo 4

While completing any dungeon is an excellent way to get XP and high-level gear for salvaging, a few lend themselves much more effectively to farming XP thanks to how many Elite enemies are inside. Anica’s Claim in Fractured Peaks – north of Malnok – is an excellent choice for the early game. Others include:

• Dead Man’s Dredge – Fractured Peaks, east of Yelesna in the Gale Valley
• Champion’s Demise – Dry Steppes, southeast of Temple of Rot
• Iron Hold – Hawezar, in the Ruins of Rakhat Keep
• Ruins of Eridu – Hawezar, northwestern Toxic Fens

Once you hit level 20 and level 30, make sure to upgrade your healing potions. You'll need to make a trip to Scosglen to grab some Crushed Beast Bones to do it, though.

Josh Broadwell

Contributing Editor

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or VG 24/7 or on Twitter, shouting about Trails. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or curled up with an RPG of some description.