Whether you're a seasoned Diablo 4 player who tackles every season or returning for the new Vessel of Hatred expansion, there are several key changes to be aware of. Typically, I kick off each season with a 'how to level up fast' guide, but Vessel of Hatred will flip the script entirely with a patch that makes Season 4 look like a hotfix.
Where should you head first when you log in? Where have World Tier difficulties gone? Before diving into my guide on how to conquer the expansion and the Season of Hatred Rising, let's break down the major updates from Patch 2.0.2.
Changes in Diablo 4 Season 6 that every player must know
I'm not going to break down the entire Patch 2.0.2 notes here, merely give bullet points of the major changes that will impact your gameplay as a returning player.
- Level Cap Adjustments: The level cap has been reduced to 60. Upon reaching this level, the Paragon system unlocks. Existing level 100 characters will be downgraded to level 50 but will retain 200 Paragon points to apply once they reach level 60.
- Paragon Points: Players can now earn up to 300 Paragon points, which are shared across all characters. When you create a new character, they will automatically receive the Paragon points earned on your original character upon reaching level 60.
- Difficulty Levels: The previous World Tiers 1-4 have been replaced with eight difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Expert, and Penitent for leveling. The Torment difficulties, along with the ability to unlock levels 1-4, become available once you reach level 60. Detailed guide on the new Diablo 4 difficulties.
- Glyph Leveling: Glyph leveling has moved to 'The Pit', where Glyphs can now be leveled up to 100 (previously maxed at 21). There are now five Paragon boards available for each character. 'The Pit' is also where you unlock new Torment difficulties; Capstone Dungeons have been removed.
- Nightmare Dungeons: These dungeons are now the primary source for farming Masterworking materials.
- Item Changes: Sacred items have been removed. The maximum standard item level is now 750, while Ancestral items drop at a guaranteed item level of 800 and will always include at least one Greater Affix (a 1.5x rolled stat).
- Eternal Characters: If you continue to play Eternal Characters, their gear will be re-rolled to item power level 540, and their affixes will be adjusted for the new stat range.
- Affix Adjustments: Tempering affixes are now limited to four per manual and have received various improvements to enhance their utility. (Tempering and Masterworking were added in Season 4 and replaced the previous item upgrade system)
- Ultimate Skills: Ultimate Skills now feature skill ranks and can be leveled up, increasing their viability in combat.
- Town Portal: You can now set your Town Portal to your favorite town for quicker access.
- Party Finder: A new Party Finder feature has been introduced, making it easier to connect with other players.
- Mercenaries: Players can now recruit Mercenaries to assist in battle, who also offer rewards as you build rapport with them.
- Runes and Runewords: Runes and Runewords can now be used in gear that has at least two sockets.
Diablo 4 Season 6 leveling approach
Start the Season 6 Season of Hatred quest FIRST. Season 6 quests are marked in BLUE. This kicks off in Zarbzinet and will direct you to fight a Realmwalker. More info later on this but the reward gives you a consumable 'Seething Opals' that have an XP buff and stack with Elixirs and Incense. You can then use these during the campaign.
With both Season 6 and the new campaign launching simultaneously, it can be overwhelming to navigate all the quest markers when you first log in. Should you start the campaign or dive into the Season of Hatred Rising questline? For returning players who haven’t played since Season 1, I highly recommend completing the campaign first to avoid getting lost in the flood of new mechanics. Keep it simple.
The Vessel of Hatred campaign is generous in how much experience it grants, making it a great starting point. So, my first tip is to jump into the campaign right away. If you're confused by the menu options when you open the game, check out my how-to-start Vessel of Hatred guide. I also suggest starting a Seasonal character so you can participate in seasonal activities later on.
Once you're in, all campaign quests will be marked in yellow. Focus on these and enjoy the story! By the time you finish the campaign, you should be around level 45.
RELATED: Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred review
Pick a difficulty you can move through with ease
You no longer select a World Tier but instead choose between Normal and Hard difficulties at the start. After completing the prologue, you’ll unlock Expert and Penitent difficulties. For most players, Normal is the recommended starting point. Keep in mind that if you're having trouble taking down enemies quickly, your leveling will suffer too. Start on Normal, and once you've acquired better gear and feel ready for a greater challenge, switch to Hard.
For more details, check out my guide on Diablo 4's difficulty levels and how to unlock them.
Don't forget to claim your Renown and gold
If you're a returning player, you no longer need to farm Renown that you’ve already earned in previous seasons or the Eternal Realm. The Renown system tracks your progress in each region through exploration and completion of tasks like discovering waypoints, Altars of Lilith, Strongholds, side quests, and dungeons. If you've unlocked the map and waypoints on an Eternal Realm or previous Seasonal character, you can claim Renown rewards right from the start on your new Seasonal character. This gives you a quick boost in Gold, Skill Points, Potion Charges, Murmuring Obol capacity, and Paragon Points.
What build should I play for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred?
One of the biggest perks of playing a season is the Season Rewards. These rewards include equipment and aspects tailored to a different build for each class every season. Choosing a build that aligns with these rewards can give you a major advantage. This season, we’ve been informed that the rewards for each class will focus on the following build styles:
- Barbarian - Weapon Mastery, Weapon Swapping (Walking Arsenal Key Passive)
- Druid - Earth + Companions
- Necromancer - Bone Spirit / Prison / Bone Golem
- Sorceress - Elementalism, Conjurations
- Rogue - Agility + Stealth
- Spiritborn - unspecified (but I recommend this Quill Volley build as I found it great for levelling through the campaign)
I've embedded links to leveling builds from the pros over at Maxroll and Icy Veins that incorporate some of these skills. These may change at launch.
Complete the Mercenary quests
Unlocking the first Mercenary, Raheir, is an unmissable part of the campaign journey, but following this you'll be given optional quests to unlock the other Mercenaries. I'd recommend prioritizing Subo, as he has a great skill for helping you gather flowers and crafting materials you'll find invaluable in the early game where resources are scarce. I have a full guide to Mercenaries and how they work here.
Don't ignore your class quest
Class-specific quests are essential to unlocking the full power of your build, and once you hit level 15 on your character (apart from Necro which is 25) you'll get a quest populate in your log to go and do your quest. These are:
- Barbarian - Level 15 - Master of Battle - unlocks Technique slot in Arsenal
- Druid - Level 15 - Spirits of the Lost Grove - unlocks all Spirit Boons
- Necromancer - Level 25 - Call of The Underworld - unlocks your Golem
- Rogue - Level 15 - True Potential - unlocks 3 specializations
- Sorcerer - Level 15 - Legacy of the Magi - unlocks Enchantments
- Spiritborn - Level 15 - The Sacred Hunt - unlocks the Spirit Hall and guardians
Always have an Elixir active
Once you can access them, you'll want to make sure you are getting the 5%-8% buff to XP from your Elixirs. These are in your bag in the consumable tab and last 30 minutes a pop. You can use them prior to level 50 but you may run out and find it difficult to gather crafting materials, whereas they drop plentifully post-level 50 so there's no excuse to not always have one equipped. Elixirs can be crafted by visiting the Alchemist in any main town hub.
Use your Season Blessings in the Urn of Aggression
As part of the Free Seasonal Battle Pass (and if you're looking for the Premium or Accelerated versions, you can unlock them for free using Microsoft Rewards), you'll earn Smouldering Ashes. These can be applied to one of five Urns, each enhancing a different aspect of your gameplay. While you won't earn many ashes during the campaign—since the Battle Pass levels up faster through seasonal activities—you should accumulate enough to boost the Urn of Aggression by at least 5%. This Urn increases the XP you gain and should be your top priority for all ashes until you reach max level.
Completed the campaign? Go and do Strongholds
Strongholds have been juiced for Season 6, and now reward 1.5 levels upon completion so they are worth completing for the boost.
Jump into the Season of Hatred Rising (Season 6)
You can jump into Season 6: Season of Hatred Rising at any point, but if you're returning from a long break I recommend this once you're done with the campaign. Season quests are marked in Blue and you need to fast travel to Zarbzinet to kick this off. Talk to Crusader Damond and start the Creeping Hatred quest.
This will open a menu showing you the reputation board for Season 6, and you'll be prompted to come back to Crusader Damon regularly to claim them.
Following this you'll be directed to find and defeat a Realmwalker. These enemies are marked on the map.
Once you find a Realmwalker, you'll need to follow it across the map and defeat 'hollow' enemies to chip away at its health. Once weakened, the Realmwalker will spawn 3 Hatred Spires for you to destroy.
Defeating the Realmwalker will open a Portal to the Seething Realm.
This new dungeon will contain ruptures. These ruptures will lead to random bonus rooms within the dungeon and eventually a Realm Gate which presents a choice of rewards.
Depending on your chosen reward, you'll receive a chest at the end of the event full of your chosen goodies. In addition to this you'll receive a Seething Opal. These are consumables which reward 15% experience bonus, stack with Elixirs and also provide Reputation with the Zakarum Remnants. Additionally the Seething Opal will reward the following depending on which you choose:
- Seething Opal of Equipment - for the next 30 minutes enemies drop additional Equipment.
- Seething Opal of Gold - for the next 30 minutes more gold drops from enemies.
- Seething Opal of Materials - for the next 30 minutes enemies drop crafting items like herbs and metal.
- Seething Opal of Torment - for the next 30 minutes get more Artificer’s Stones and special items.
- Seething Opal of Socketables - for the next 30 minutes find extra gems and runes.
Using these Seething Opals in addition to an Elixir which you will find in your Consumable tab, will be a significant buff to your XP.
The Kurast Undercity
The Kurast Undercity is a new multi-floor time-attack dungeon. You'll be able to start this in, you guessed it, Kurast, at the above map marker. Starting the Priority Quest will take you on a couple of side quests to unlock the dungeon, but once unlocked it will also show you a brief tutorial. Here's what you need to know:
- You travel throughout the Kurast Undercity fighting enemies to reach it's District Boss before the timer runs out.
- You can kill 'Afflicted Monsters' and destroy 'Afflicted Structures' to earn time extension bonuses (marked on map with orange timer).
- Earn 'Attunement' by killing monster packs and igniting Beacons and Grand Beacons (marked on map with a blue flame).
- By reaching Attunement Rank 1 you will earn reward upgrades. The higher your Attunement Rank, the higher your completion rewards.
Essentially you want to maximize your Attunement rank while within the dungeon, and to do this you need to extend the timer. So kill all of the monsters that have timers on them! Simply right? Well, you can complicate things slightly with 'Tributes'
What is a Tribute in Diablo 4 Kurast Undercity?
'Tributes' are something you can offer at the start of the Kurast City run which define your reward upgrades, at the cost of increasing the challenge of the run. For example you can offer a Tribute of Harmony to reward more Runes in your run, but you will incur a timer and potion penality for this.
How do I get Tributes in Diablo 4 Kurast Undercity?
Tributes drop in game activities such as Whisper Caches, Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides. Tributes come in varying rarities, from Magic to Unique, with higher rarities more commonly found in Whisper Caches and more common ones appearing around Sanctuary. The difficulty you are playing on also influences the type of Tribute you can obtain during activities like Nightmare Dungeons or Helltides.
You can also offer a 'Bargain' with your Tribute to change the amount of rewards you receive.
The Kurast Undercity also contains a brand new goblin, the Portal Prankster, who will reward a Bonus Chest containing loot, runes and tributes. Decide yourself if it's worth chasing him down or not!
Ready to bump up the difficulty? Head to The Pit
Once you want to tackle more endgame content such as The Dark Citadel, or you're ready to really start pumping the paragon levels. You'll want to raise the difficulty to Torment.
From Torment and above you can start to earn some of the best gear in the game including Mythic Uniques. To unlock Torment difficulty head to The Pit. This is in Cerrigar marked as The Pit of Artificers Obelisk. To unlock Torment 1 you will need to complete a difficulty level of 20 for this activity.
At this stage, there is a whole other layer of the game to enjoy, from The Dark Citadel, to levellig Glyphs and running Infernal Hordes. Oh and I have a whole separate guide on Runewords and how to use them, but hopefully this guide has got you some of the way through your early game leveling adventure!
Best mouse for Diablo 4
If you prefer playing Diablo 4 with a mouse and keyboard, a specialized gaming mouse like the Razer Naga V2 Hyperspeed is an excellent choice. It allows you to program repetitive button presses directly onto the mouse, streamlining your gameplay. Equipped with Razer’s Focus Pro 30K sensor, it offers precise, responsive tracking—essential for fast-paced combat. The mouse also features dual wireless connectivity (2.4 GHz and Bluetooth) and boasts up to 400 hours of battery life. With its durable mechanical switches and satisfying clicks, every demon-slaying session feels more immersive and ready to take on the relentless hordes of Hell.
