Difficulty/World Tier

 

Sanctuary in Diablo 4 is a full Open World immense area which will likely take a long time to fully explore. As you level up you will be able to unlock the quest to jump into the next difficulty or “World Tier” level. It is important to know that for most of the areas the world level will be synced based on your character level (except for Strongholds and few other exceptions) and that the level sync is instanced of each player, meaning that if you team up at level 40 with a level 20 player to make an instanced dungeon, you will fight level 40 enemies and get the exp for them, while the other player will fight level 20 enemies at the same time and get the exp accordingly to its level, which is a really nice feature in my opinion. You change difficulty in game by examining the special Tree marked on the world map, right at the initial Town or by selecting it before entering a game at the character selection menu.

 

World Tier 1: Adventurer

Recommended for new players and those who are totally not familiar with videogames or this genre since enemies are very easy to defeat but drops will be of the most standard quality

 

World Tier 2: Veteran

Recommended for veterans, enemies “should” challenge you more, but still if you know what you are doing and make a decent build this difficulty level shouldn’t be challenging at all, it has increased drop rates and amounts for items, exp and gold. You can start with this difficulty from the very start at level 1

 

World Tier 3: Nightmare

For players who desire more challenges. Unlocked by completing the Cathedral of Light dungeon in World Tier 2: Veteran. Recommended Level: 50

Champion monsters have a chance to appear, Sacred items (higher quality legendaries) now have a low chance of dropping. Nightmare Sigils which unlock Nightmare Dungeons are unlocked and non-physical resistances are reduced by 20%.

This difficulty is where things might start to get harder depending on the build and Aspects you use. Damage Reduction and Resistances will start being increasingly important to have as Champions will be able to output way more damage than regular enemies, but with a well thought build you should breeze through this difficulty as well

 

World Tier 4: Hell

Unlocked by completing the Fallen Temple dungeon in World Tier 3: Nightmare.

Recommended Level: 60, Sacred items will drop more frequently. Rare Nightmare Sigils unlock higher tier dungeons similar to Great Rifts in D3 basically.

Non-Physical resistances are reduced by a further 30%. (-50% total) and in this difficulty you might hit a wall if your build is poorly designed, as Champions, Elites and Bosses in particular will hit much harder than during Nightmare and will also have the ability to full heal back to 100% Life if you don’t kill them fast enough when they are Injured, so being able to execute powerful “burst windows” will become fundamental for soloing your way through these opponents.

 

World Tier 5: Torment

Unlocked by completing the Archives of Issalia dungeon in World Tier 4: Hell.

Recommended Level: 70, Ancestral items (endgame items) have a low chance of dropping. New Unique items can be found exclusively in this Difficulty like it was for Torment in Diablo 3 and non-physical resistances are reduced by 40%. (-90% total)

This is the hardest difficulty at the moment and to farm high tier Sigils you’ll need a functioning well designed build on both offensive and defensive aspects if you wanna survive the challenges that this difficulty brings, with enemies dealing even more damage than Hell. This difficulty is where you’ll spend most of your endgame game time.