Experience in Diablo 4

Earning experience and leveling up your character is at the heart of every RPG. If you want to efficiently reach level 60, and high Paragon level, for your Endgame build in Diablo 4, understanding the game’s underlying experience mechanics is essential.

In this post, we explain how the different experience bonuses found throughout the game come together and how monster XP scaling works. Let's walk you through it!

As a baseline, XP earned from monster kills follows the following set of rules:

• Monsters give a base experience value depending on their HP/size that linearly scales up with difficulty and Pit level.
• Elites always give a fixed amount of XP, regardless of monster type, and they also scale linearly up with difficulty and Pit level.
• Minions (of Elites) and Champion monsters always give 60% of the XP of an Elite, making them extremely valuable targets.
• A bonus is applied for defeating monsters based on your difficulty setting.

The XP value of Elites is significant compared to regular monsters, given you can defeat them at a comparable pace. To give some examples in the Pit, where the data can reliably be collected:

• Non-Elite Outlaw gives experience according to Experience = 17.5x + 700, where x is the Pit level.
• Non-Elite Deckhand gives experience according to Experience = 25x + 946.66, where x is the Pit level.
• Any Elite in the Pit gives experience according to Experience = 170x + 7000, where x is the Pit level

This means that non-Elite Outlaw gives exactly 10% of the experience of an Elite, while a non-Elite Deckhand gives 14% of the experience of an Elite. The exact formulas for each Monster Family have not been extracted, but the formulas mentioned above give us a good idea of the intended design. Previously, the enemy level scaled the experience gained, but as of Vessel of Hatred, enemies are the same level as you.

Outside of being carried in high levels of the Pit, there are several ways to improve XP gains. The most basic is increasing the difficulty you're playing on:

• Normal: Base XP
• Hard: +75% XP bonus
• Expert: +125% XP bonus
• Penitent: +175% XP bonus
• Torment 1: 300%
• Torment 2: 400%
• Torment 3: 500%
• Torment 4: 600%

This scaling is what the Pit uses to determine your monster kill XP gain as well. Going from Pit 25 to 35 is a 25% increase in XP, and going from Torment 1 to Torment 2 is also a 25% increase (300% increased XP to 400% increased XP is a 25% increase).

Experience in the Pit

Experience gained in the Pit works differently compared to the open world. Enemies follow specific linear formulas that scale their XP based on Pit level, and completing the pit follows a similar formula, XP = 60000x + 1950000 where x is the Pit level. Comparing the total amount of experience you get from enemies to the completion bonus is difficult due to their varying densities and Monster families. However, data suggests roughly 1/3 of the total experience per run comes from Monster XP and 2/3 from Completion XP.

These graphs show the relative increase in XP as you progress through the Pit from level 20 onwards. The relative increase of the Pit completion reward and monster XP diverges slightly. This means that the end of the run XP is even more important, as more XP will come from the completion reward. Using this knowledge, we can derive that clearing pit level 100 instead of level 90 is only an 8.7% XP gain. If the clear speed has been increased by a factor larger than 8.7%, you will level slower than if you continued in Pit level 90. Use this information to your advantage!

Farming Experience Efficiently

The rate of XP you gain in different content changes based on the type of build you are running. Using a melee build for Rogue, the following rough estimates were acquired to compare the rate of XP you gain doing different content in Diablo 4. These XP gains assume you are clearing a Pit dungeon in roughly 1 minute and 30 seconds.

If you aim to farm XP as fast as possible, you should clear the Pit as fast as possible. The other content offers a decent amount of XP, but not nearly as much as the Pit. However, during events such as Mother's Blessing and the Lunar Festival, the bridge between the Pit, Infernal Hordes, and Nightmare Dungeons shrinks as a larger portion of the XP rewarded from that content is rewarded from monster kills.

In addition to raising the difficulty, you can also boost XP in the following ways:

• Consumables: In addition to their combat effects, elixirs provide a 5% to 8% bonus XP for 30 minutes.
• Incense: Like elixirs, you can add one of these for another 5% bonus. The XP bonus does not stack with multiple active incenses.
• Party bonuses: You gain 5% bonus XP if at least one other player is nearby, or 10% if they're also in your party.
• Campfires that add a stacking experience buff up to +15% when you stand near them.
• Event buff: Mother's blessing, this is a multiplicative buff to your experience gained from enemies during the event.
• Seasonal Blessings is a battle pass reward that increases the experience gained.
• All XP bonuses stack multiplicatively with each other.
• Experience buffs benefit XP gains from monster kills, but not the experience gained from quest rewards and Pit completion. This is a big deal, as the Pit completion reward is the most valuable source of XP in the game.

Campfires

Campfires are a special source of experience bonuses found in the open world. They appear at zone event sites such as the Gathering Legions event when the event is loading up (marked on the map).

If you get there early and stand next to an active fire, you can stack up the campfire buff for a total of 15% bonus XP over the course of two minutes. However, each stack of the buff only lasts for a short time and vanishes when you leave the area, so it is just a very minor bonus.

Parties have significant advantages for leveling up quickly:

• Groups are generally more powerful due to the stacking of buffs, debuffs, and other synergies between party members.
• Base XP gained from monster kills is obtained by every party member individually at full value, regardless of contribution.
• When you are within 90 meters of each other (~3 screens radius), you get a Party Bonus buff, increasing XP gains by 10%.
• In the open world, XP is shared in the same radius, if you see the buff that means you are getting XP from your teammates' kills.
• In Dungeons, this range limitation is gone and XP is shared between all the players inside the same dungeon, regardless of how far away they are from each other.
• You can boost low-level party members into higher difficulties by carrying them through the Pit. This allows one high-level player to power-level others from 1-60 and beyond in no time.

Summary

• Higher difficulties grant more XP.
• Elites, Champions, and Minions are valuable targets if you can finish them quickly.
• Farming non-Elite monsters gives much less XP than Elites.
• In parties, several mechanics provide massive benefits to leveling speed and allow you to boost low-level players.
• XP gains can be boosted through party members, elixirs, incense, campfires, and seasonal blessings.

Credits

Maintained by Avarilyn

Written by wudijo