Diablo 4 world tiers explained, and how to change difficulty

Diablo 4 Rogue standing in a dungeon — (Image credit: Tyler C. / Activision Blizzard)

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Diablo 4 World Tiers offer different levels of difficulty, with higher tiers rewarding you with more gold and increased item drop rates. In past Diablo games you could change the difficulty fairly easily, but in Diablo 4, there's a lot more to it.

Every Diablo 4 player will start with two World Tier options: World Tier 1 (Adventurer) and World Tier 2 (Veteran). The options for World Tier 3 (Nightmare) and World Tier 4 (Torment) aren't available until you've completed the campaign.

For your first playthrough of Diablo 4, I'd recommend bumping it up to World Tier 2. Compared to the lower World Tier, Veteran adds a satisfying amount of friction to your first 50 levels. Enemies will attack you a little more and boss attacks will threaten you enough that you can't stand in place the entire time. As long as you pay attention to your skills and practice evading attacks, World Tier 2 won't be significantly harder than World Tier 1 and will be a lot more engaging, too.

If you want to race to level 50 and start the endgame, choose World Tier 1 for the speed. You lose the small XP and gold bonus but easy monsters and bosses more than make up for it. It's simply the most efficient way to get through the campaign. But World Tier 1 is also a solid choice if you're completely new to action RPGs.

And remember: You can change your World Tier at any time on the character selection screen before you log in or at the statue of Inarius in Kyovashad.

Here's a breakdown of the exact differences between each of the World Tiers.

World Tier 1 (Adventurer) explained

Diablo 4 screenshot — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

World Tier 1 is the easiest difficulty option for Diablo 4.

Tier 1 is designed for people who want to cruise through the RPG. Enemies don't attack you all that much and the campaign bosses are much easier to kill, making the pain of playing a class without a lot of damage output or sustainability much more manageable.

World Tier 2 (Veteran) explained

Diablo 4 sorcerer builds — (Image credit: Blizzard)

World Tier 2 is basically "hard" difficulty for Diablo 4.

Enemies are a challenge, but they give you 20% increased XP and drop 15% more gold. The campaign bosses are much more difficult, too. World Tier 2 is largely a challenge because it's designed for level 1 through 50 when you don't yet have too many skills unlocked.

20% XP bonus
15% gold bonus from monsters
Increased enemy difficulty

World Tier 3 (Nightmare) explained

Diablo 4 Rogue standing in dungeon — (Image credit: Tyler C. / Activision Blizzard)

World Tier 3 is designed for characters at levels 50 through 70 and is where Diablo 4's endgame properly begins.

To unlock World Tier 3, you need to have finished every act in the campaign and you need to complete the Cathedral of Light Capstone dungeon in Kyovashad.

In World Tier 3, Diablo 4's demons can now drop Sacred and Unique items, which are both more powerful than Legendary items. You also can find Nightmare Sigils to unlock Nightmare dungeons for powerful loot. Helltides start spawning around the world and feature high-level monsters to defeat for rare items. This is also where monsters start to gain resistances to certain elements, too.

100% XP bonus
Non-physical resistances reduced by 20% for the player
Increased enemy difficulty
Champion monsters can spawn
Sacred and Unique items can drop
Nightmare Sigils can drop

World Tier 4 (Torment) explained

Diablo 4 Druid fighting in dungeon — (Image credit: Tyler C. / Activision Blizzard)

World Tier 4 is currently Diablo 4's hardest difficulty option.

To unlock Tier 4, you have to complete the Fallen Temple Capstone dungeon on World Tier 3, which means you can't skip straight to this tier.

This World Tier is designed for characters at level 70 or higher. Enemies carry forward all the previous changes and start to drop Ancestral items, as well as new Unique items.

200% XP bonus
Non-physical resistances reduced by 40% for the player
Increased enemy difficulty
Ancestral items and new Unique items can drop

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Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.