Diablo 4 Season 6 Vessel of Hatred Leveling Guide For All Classes

Diablo 4 Season 6 Vessel of Hatred is already here, and we know you're excited to get to the endgame of this expansion. Getting to the Paragon board is a must if you want to max out your character fast, but of course, beating the last boss is just the beginning.

If you want to get to the endgame relatively quickly, there are quite a few tips and tricks to master for this season. While you'll still need to grind, knowing the tips for fast leveling in Diablo 4 will be invaluable.

Before we get to this Diablo 4 leveling guide, let's talk about what's new for leveling in the current season and expansion.

Level Cap Reduction and Paragon System Overhaul

If you were intimidated by Diablo 4's 100-level grind, this change will make you smile: the level cap for all characters has been lowered to 60. After that, you can grind through the reworked Paragon system as you tackle the endgame.

The biggest change to the Paragon system is that the max Paragon level is now 300, and it's shared across all your characters. This allows you to jump between wanderers and still make progress across your account.

The system is largely the same, with convoluted perk boards and rune slots, but having more points to spend across all characters makes progression feel more meaningful. Now, here are a few Diablo 4 Season 6 tips for leveling.

Strategies For Quick Leveling

First Things First: Choose Your Difficulty

You're going to want to choose your difficulty. You'll immediately get access to Normal, Hard, Expert, and Penitent.

Normally, we recommend going with Normal difficulty. You'll literally reach level 60 within 4 to 5 hours at max if you're doing this properly, even with Normal difficulty. Now, if you decide to go with a higher one and get some XP bonuses,

Hard gives you a plus 75% to killing mobs, which is something you're going to do a lot, especially since Hell Tides are a great source of leveling up, particularly in the early stages. So, pick your difficulty.

You can go with the higher ones, but honestly, you can just have fun on Normal, breeze through it, and still reach level 60 relatively easily.

Finish the Expansion Questline

If you got the expansion, the first thing we recommend doing is just playing through it. Go ahead, have some fun, enjoy it. You can easily reach level 60 by just following the expansion and maybe doing a few of the side missions along the way for extra rewards too.

Honestly, it's going to bring you very close to level 60, and from that point on, you can jump into some of the other content. We just wanted to get this out of the way because we know a lot of you may be eager to enjoy some of the new content.

Helltides: First 20 Levels

If you want to skip the expansion story or if you don't want to buy the expansion and just want to jump in, the next best thing is Hell Tides. Hell Tides were one of our favorite ways to level up during our time with the expansion.

The high concentration of enemies in Hell Tides gives you tons of XP very fast. You can literally jump into your first Hell Tide at level 1, and by the time you finish your first Hell Tide, assuming you began right at the start, you'll reach levels 15 to 20 very easily.

If you're playing as a Sorcerer, Rogue, or maybe even the new Spiritborn class, you can easily exceed level 20 if you're fast enough or playing with a friend in a party.

This is on Normal difficulty, but if you're playing on Hard or above, those XP rates will increase, and you'll benefit even more from taking down enemies.

These Aren't Worth It Yet

At this stage, we wouldn't bother too much with treasure chests because you're going to replace gear so fast that it's not needed. But you should know that you'll still get significant amounts of XP regardless if you open them.

If you run around with a lot of motes or find chests along the way that are easily accessible, you can still do it.

Again, the XP is pretty decent, and you'll get to salvage the gear, maybe even grab some new aspects added in the expansion, especially if you're planning to play with the new class.

Complete Class Missions

Once you reach level 15 to 25, depending on your class, the next thing you can do is start doing a bunch of side missions. Specifically, you'll want to focus on your class's side mission, the one that enables your class mechanic.

For the Spiritborn, that's the Sacred Hunt, which you'll find right in this city, very close to Nahantu. Once you do that, it will take you through some awesome regions of the game, including new zones we don't want to spoil.

At the end, you'll unlock the new Spirit Hall, which will further boost your damage. You can then start using the Centipede Spirits, Gorilla Spirits, or whatever other builds you're using. You unlock this mechanic at level 15, with further unlocks at level 30.

More Options: Hell Tides and Beyond

Once you hit level 30, you have more options. We tested some of the new additions, like the Undercity added in the expansion, but we found it lackluster for leveling.

It's fantastic for loot drops, so we recommend focusing on it once you reach level 60 for gear farming, not XP farming. You can also continue with Hell Tides, which are still very viable.

If you do a full one-hour Hell Tide from level 30, you can easily reach level 40 on Normal difficulty and get a ton of loot to salvage.

Strongholds Were Nerfed But Still Worth It

Another option is to hunt for strongholds around the map. There are some new ones in Nahantu, but farming the base game strongholds can net you about 15 levels in roughly an hour, or even 45 minutes if you have a strong build.

Once you're around level 30 to 35, clearing the base game strongholds can get you to level 50 on Normal difficulty. This helps a lot with clearing regions and completing Renown. If you want to breeze through the map and unlock parts of it, this can be very helpful.

The XP rate is now about half of what it used to be in Season 5. Despite the nerf, Strongholds are still worth the effort.

Nahantu Content and Tree of Whispers Trick

If you want to complete everything in one swoop and finish off the Renown for Nahantu, go ahead and complete side quests in the new region. There are about 35 new side quests, three new strongholds, and lots of waypoints to discover.

There's a lot of content in the new region. It's not quite half the size of the base game map, but it's big nonetheless. If you want to be a completionist on your first character so you don't have to do it on future characters, now is a good time to wrap it up.

Also, keep an eye out for Tree of Whispers events while doing Hell Tides. You can complete both at once, getting another level or half a level as you near level 60. You can teleport in and out quickly, gain XP, and continue with your activities.

Post-Level 60 Progression

Once you hit level 60, it's time to jump into Torment levels. Torment 1 will unlock after you complete Pit Level 20, located in Carrian. The progression from difficulty to difficulty is marked by these stages. Pit 20 unlocks Torment 1, and this is where ancestral drops start happening.

you'll get more uniques and potentially mythicals. Everything that can drop on any Torment difficulty can drop on Torment 1, but increasing Torment levels will improve loot chances. Torment 1 should be enough for now, but you'll need good gear— around 750, which is easy to acquire.

At level 60, it's practically constant. You can farm some of it on Normal difficulty by doing a few Undercity runs, getting a full gear set for your class, and then upgrading it with aspects and affixes.

Once you're ready, you can jump into the endgame Pit levels and progress through the difficulties. When you can't progress further, go back to farming the Undercity on the highest difficulty.

You can also mix in Nightmare Dungeons for the highest chance of ancestral drops and continue doing Hell Tides. You can also tackle the new Dark Citadel raid, which is easier now thanks to the raid finder.

Grab Your Pet

There's one more thing we recommend: grab your pet! There's now a pet—a little dog—that will help collect items for you. You don't have to pick up every single crafting material, gold, or drop yourself. The dog will do it for you.

There's a quick mission in Kashad where you talk to the dog, pat it, and then go to the Wardrobe to activate it.

The dog will follow and help you out. Just remember, every time you create a new character, you'll need to repeat the process at the Wardrobe; otherwise, you'll have to collect everything manually. But this little helper will save you a lot of time.

Exploring Season 6: What's New in Diablo 4

Spiritborn Class

Without question, the biggest change immediately available in Vessel of Hatred is the all-new character class: the Spiritborn. This tribalistic magical warrior relies on guardian spirits to lay the smackdown on any enemies of Sanctuary that get in your way.

You can roll this new flavor of wanderer the same way as any other class, and you can even skip the main campaign if you'd prefer to jump straight into the action down south in Nantu.

The coolest thing about the Spiritborn, aside from the badass ghostly animals, is the modular, deeply customizable nature of their build crafting.

Instead of nudging you toward a glass cannon or tank build like some other focused classes, the Spiritborn is much more customizable. You can mix and match abilities to make your own wanderer cocktail and pivot to a different strategy whenever you want.

New Mercenary System

If you tend to play Diablo 4 solo, you'll be delighted to learn about the new mercenary system, which allows you to recruit NPC allies and bring them into battle to lend a hand.

There are four mercenaries in total, all of which are easy to unlock as part of the Vessel of Hatred campaign. Each mercenary has their own recruitment quest that introduces the character and their unique set of bloodthirsty traits.

Options include the ranged bounty hunter Subo, who really likes to light things on fire, and the demon child Alkin, who uses her dark magic to punish Sanctuary's baddies.

As you explore with each mercenary, you'll unlock skills and other rewards for leveling them up. Later on, you'll even be able to assign a second mercenary in a support role to help in certain situations. Now, playing solo doesn't have to be quite so solitary.

Rune Words and Build Crafting

Returning from Diablo II, rune words are a new build crafting feature that unlocks over the course of the Vessel of Hatred campaign. You'll find rune words in the Carass Under City activity, from killing certain enemies, and from completing other activities.

Once you've got a piece of equipment with two open slots, you can choose a rune of ritual to establish a trigger condition—like releasing a cloud of poison insects to attack your foes.

These diablo 4 runes add a new element to build crafting, especially in the endgame when you unlock some powerful options that can be game-changers.

Dark Citadel

The Dark Citadel is one of the best ways to spend your time in Vessel of Hatred. This raid-like activity is the first of its kind for the Diablo series, pitting you and up to three other wanderers against a series of tough battles, light puzzle mechanics, and devilish bosses for loot.

The dungeon is comprised of three different wings, each with its own short gauntlet of challenges that can be completed one at a time without losing progress.

You'll unlock this activity once you've completed the Vessel of Hatred campaign and increased the world tier difficulty to Torment 1 or higher, which requires running a challenging activity called The Pit.

Party Finder and Carass Under City

To make your Dark Citadel runs smoother, Vessel of Hatred introduces Party Finder, a matchmaking tool that helps you find other Diablo players tackling similar activities. You can group up, smack demons together, and use filters to find players with similar goals, such as grinding an activity repeatedly or communicating via voice chat.

Another new addition is the Carass Under City, an infinitely replayable dungeon in Vessel of Hatred. This time-attack mode throws procedurally generated hallways and enemies at you, challenging you to slice your way through as quickly as possible.

The rewards improve if you throw a tribute into the spirit brazier before running it. These tributes are consumables you'll find after completing endgame activities, so bring plenty when grinding Carass Under City.

Reduced Damage Numbers

One amusing change in Vessel of Hatred is that damage numbers have been significantly reduced. If you hit an enemy for 70 damage, don't panic—it's part of the system revamp. While it might not be as flashy as seeing hundreds of millions of damage on the screen, it's more balanced now.

Choose Builds Properly

Treat Vessel of Hatred leveling just like any other leveling in Diablo 4. When it comes to builds, you're going to want to focus on building up as much damage as possible. Diablo 4 class builds that focus on damage from previous seasons should still work.

Seasonal Activity: Realm Walker

One of our favorite Vessel of Hatred mechanics is called Realm Walker. Look for it on your map, represented by a portal marker and progress bar. Traveling to the area, you'll find a large demon with a portal on its back.

By following him and killing his demon friends, you'll chip away at his health until he dies, allowing you to enter the portal.

Inside is a more traditional dungeon with pretty good rewards, such as seething opals. These consumables grant additional rewards and XP for a period, making the grind to Paragon level 300 a lot more profitable. This seasonal activity, though straightforward, is well worth your time.

Time To Conquer Diablo 4 Season 6

Even with our guide, you're still going to take some time and effort to max out your character. D4 class tier list and rankings aren't available yet, but we'll update you once those arrive.

If you're struggling with a few challenges this season, visit RPGStash now for the best resources and instant delivery!