Alt Character Leveling Guide

Completing the Campaign on your Main Character is the single most effective way to speed up the leveling of any New Characters (Alts). If you complete the Campaign once, it then becomes possible to skip the Campaign on all future characters. This even includes characters made in a different game mode! (Hardcore and Softcore)

The Campaign is not particularly monster dense, making leveling through the Campaign a slog compared to leveling in Dungeons or through Events. There are also unskippable cutscenes that further waste your time. Also, having the Campaign already finished allows you to focus on Renown, the next most effective way to speed up the leveling of your Alt Characters.

Reaching Tier 3 or even Tier 5 Renown Rewards in each of the 5 regions on your Main Character is massive for boosting the power of Alt Characters, making it far easier to level them. If you just want to make a new character and have not bothered completing these Renown objectives on your Main, at least complete the Campaign on your Main so that you can prioritize achieving Tier 3 Renown Rewards in each region on your Alt.

Note: Renown Progress in the Softcore and Hardcore game modes is separate; if you want to make an Alt in a different game mode, you will have to start over with all of your Renown Objectives.

Target farm Codex of Power Legendary Aspects that your Alt Character Build benefits from by completing the required Dungeons. It is the most reliable way to power up your Alt's gear. This is preferably done on your Main while completing Renown Objectives to speed up the process of leveling your Alt, but can also be accomplished as you level in Dungeons on your Alt. These Legendary Aspects can be continually imprinted on Rares as you progress your new character.

Let's say you want to create a Ice Shards Sorcerer and want to power its gear up as fast as possible. The most effective way would be to complete the required Dungeons for the following Aspects on your Main:

The following Defensive and Resource Aspects can be useful for almost any Alt. Prioritize farming these if you can:

As you level your Alt, ideally you want to Imprint Codex of Power Aspects for your build onto your Rare Gear every increase of 100 Item Power or so. This allows you to continually upgrade your Alt's gear while maintaining build effectiveness. Re-imprinting Rare Items at the Item Power breakpoints of 150, 340, 460, 625, and 725 is especially impactful, as item stat ranges are boosted at these values. Also, make sure to upgrade your items at the Blacksmith, particularly your Weapon, as much as possible. See examples of re-imprinting the same Codex of Power Aspects onto progressively higher Item Power Fully Upgraded Rares below:

Saving and stocking up materials on your Main makes it far easier to advance your Alt. Specifically, certain mats enable you to consistently Imprint Codex of Power Legendary Aspects, Upgrade Rares, and Craft Elixirs.

Stashing items requires a bit of planning. If you already know what new builds you want to make after you reach endgame on your Main, you can stash items for your planned Alt(s) along the way. Keep in mind that the level requirement of an item or Legendary Aspect is based on the character level of the character that drops the item. This means that every 5-10 levels or so you can stash a batch of Rare Gear that you find on your Main which has optimal stats for your planned Alt. Also, as of Season 1, Sacred items have a level cap of 60 and Ancestral items have a level cap of 80, making it possible to save some really juicy items for later on. Smooth out the progression of your Alt with the help of reliable upgrades!

Kill Hidden Rare Elites at different character levels for special, guaranteed Rare Item drops. For example, say you want to make a Bow Rogue after you finish getting your Necromancer to endgame. You can farm Renn Dayne in Hawezar at Levels 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 for incrementally higher Item Power Haunted Crossbows. This provides your Rogue with reliable weapon upgrades, boosting power significantly every 10 levels. You either farm these Rare Elites on your Alt or on your Main in preparation for a planned Alt.

Stash Crude, Chipped, Regular, Flawless, and Royal Gems of each type so that you can socket them into your items as your Alt levels up. Gems have different level requirements, so it is important to keep lower-tier Gems as well as higher-tier ones.

Depending on the Heart Level (1-4), you can use Malignant Hearts at certain character levels:

Store these in your stash for really high Armor on your Jewelry for your Alts early on, in addition to their bonus effects!

Chug an Elixir every 30 minutes for a perpetual 5% Experience Boost for your Alt. Iron Barb Elixirs, Precision Elixirs, and Assault Elixirs are easy-to-craft Elixirs that give most builds the biggest bang for their buck.

Playing in a group is one of the best ways to level your Alt quickly. Accelerate your progression by taking advantage the 5% experience nearby player bonus and an additional 5% bonus if they are Partied. Clearing Events, Dungeons, and Strongholds tends to be much quicker in a group as well.

If you want to do a solo playthrough on your Alt, and are skipping the Campaign (already completed on your Main) but have yet to do all your Renown or acquire your build's Codex of Power Aspects, you should acquire Renown (Up to Reward Tier 3 in each region until World Tier III - Nightmare Difficulty)/Codex of Power Aspects from regions in the following order:

If you already have completed the Campaign, Tier 5 Renown Rewards for each region, and have acquired all relevant Codex of Power Aspects for your Alt on your Main, you can take advantage of a couple of fast-leveling strategies. As of Season 1, you only truly benefit from killing monsters up to 10 levels higher. Beyond this, there are no significant benefits to your experience gain.

Level your Alt fast by running Strongholds, notably Kor Dragon, over and over. The key is to NOT KILL THE BOSS so that you can keep reloading the Stronghold. If you are doing this solo, you will have to level to 25-30 first elsewhere (see Dungeons just below).

Pro-tip: Completing the Capstone Dungeon for entering World Tier III Nightmare ASAP enables faster leveling in WT3 Strongholds with the 100% WT3 XP bonus. Stronghold monsters are always 2 levels higher than your character level no matter what, unlike the rest of Nightmare content which has a 55 monster level minimum. This makes them doable!

Certain Dungeons such as Domhainne Tunnels (Level 1), Sirocco Caverns (Level 20), and Uldur's Cave (Level 45) in World Tier II are maximally efficient for both loot and leveling on your Alt. If you farm these dungeons about 5 character levels lower than the minimum levels of the monsters, you can find AND use loot of higher Item Power Tiers than would otherwise be possible at your character level, hyper-accelerating your progression; this is while gaining experience quickly as well! Since the monsters are higher levels than you, a bit of pushback from the monsters is to be expected.

Gathering Legion Events provide massive monster density. They are a ripe opportunity for quick-leveling a character. Take advantage of them before they go live!

Getting your Alt power-leveled by a high-level player can be optimal if you have already completed the Campaign, achieved all of your Renown Reward Tiers, and acquired all of your build's Codex of Power Aspects. As of Season 1, you only benefit from killing monsters up to 10 levels higher. Beyond this, there are no further benefits to your experience gain.

Specifically you can get the following boosts from high-level players:

Written by DarkHumility
Reviewed by Jymnasium