Season 12 Leveling Guide: Fastest Route to Endgame

Season 12 has completely revolutionized the leveling process, creating new ways to level that are faster than ever thanks to the new Kill Streak mechanics.

This article will break down all the new best methods for leveling, the mechanics behind it, and all the information you could need to get to end game as fast as possible.

If you're not sure what build to play to power through season 12 leveling, make sure to check out Leveling Builds for your class in order to get to the endgame as soon as possible!

When you first step into Sanctuary, there is no need to overcomplicate things. Begin on Normal difficulty to get a smooth start. This makes it easier to complete early objectives while still being able to kill monsters fast and efficiently.

Equip Yourself

• Equip your pet – this is easily forgotten at the start and is very important for saving time by automatically picking up materials, Aberrant Cinders, and gold which will save you a lot of time in the long run.
  
• Put on cosmetics – You have to like how you look to play efficiently.
  
• Unlock Mercenaries – If you have the Vessel of Hatred, head to the Den to hire your Mercenaries for aid during leveling. Raheir is a powerhouse for leveling thanks to his ability to give you armor or resistances.

First Quests to Tackle

• Raising Spirits Quest – Knock this out early for both herbs to craft elixirs and a chunk of XP. This quest can be started in Kyovashad by talking to Guard Boza. Accept the quest and walk to the training soldiers training very close to the quest start. Pull up your emote wheel and cheer. This will complete the quest.
  
• Seasonal Questline – Start this immediately afterwards. Unlocking your seasonal perks and reputation board early sets the tone for the rest of your leveling journey. For the most efficient way to level, only do the first quest to unlock the reputation board.

Kill Streaks are a new core mechanic added in Season 12, and the backbone of all leveling. Understanding how they function and how to maximize them is critical to your leveling process as they can be an upwards of a x20 multiplier to your experience. Below are the tables for each tier and their respective Experience multipliers.

Kill Streak Mechanics

Kill Streaks are added when a player is involved in a kill, they do not need the killing shot to be granted the Kill Streak bonus, which is helpful for co-op play. The experience is added together and stored, with the multiplier being multiplied at the end against all the stored of Experience gained during that Kill Streak. Your Streak will end after not damaging or killing an enemy for 5 seconds, all Streaks are lost on death.

Because all Kill Streaks will refresh their duration when you damage an enemy, it can be helpful to leave a few weaker enemies as a source of refreshing your Kill Streak, which can help you maintain larger Kill Streaks for longer periods of time.

Helltides are by fat the most efficient way to level all the way from level 1 to 60 in Season 12 thanks to the abundance of enemies ripe for building massive Kill Streaks and Tortured Gift of Mystery which offer bonus Experience.

• Helltides are activity marked with in red zone on your map which last an hour before moving to a new location.
• In Normal through Penitent Difficulty, Helltides will have Tortured Gift of Mystery chests which cost 75 Aberrant Cinders to open. These chests grant a large amount of Experience and potential gear upgrades.
• Be aware - Dying in a Helltide will cause you to lose half of your Aberrant Cinders on death.
• Always budget at least 10 minutes before Helltide ends to ensure you can open your chests.
• Inside Helltides players will find activities that grant Tree of Whisper progression. It is strongly encouraged players complete these tasks (more on that below)
  

(Example of a Helltide)

For more information about Helltides, check out our full Helltide guide.

Capstone Dungeons will help break up the pacing of your leveling process, unlocking higher Difficulty Tiers upon completing. Every increase to Difficulty Tier will grants bonus experience so its important to play on the highest difficulty you can comfortably clear on.
Each Capstone Dungeon can be teleported directly to using the menu in your Seasonal Progression.

For a detailed breakdown of each Capstone dungeon, check out our complete Capstone Dungeon guide.

Tree of Whispers

The Tree of Whispers is a core part of the 1-60 leveling progression, offering a large amount of Experience along side gear and materials to players for completing Grim Favors that are marked on your map.

While it is most effective to stick to the Tree of Whisper activates found in Helltides, it can be beneficial to complete other activates as a means to break up the Helltide grinding such as when a Nightmare Dungeon, World Boss, or the Seething Abomination inside PVP zones are marked with a Tree of Whisper. Prioritize activities which grant 5 Grim Favors.

For more information, check out our Tree of Whispers guide.

Nightmare Dungeon

Nightmare Dungeons offer a break from the Helltide grind by providing unique benefits such as Grim Favors or the Dungeon Affixes like Forgotten Wisdom and Vile Splendor which can greatly benefit your leveling journey.

If you want to know more about Nightmare Dungeons or all the best ones to run, check out our Nightmare Dungeon Guide.

Stronghold

Strongholds were nerfed in Season 12, and unlike previous seasons which were core to leveling, aren't very relevant due to their dramatically decreased Experience. Strongholds can still be worthwhile to clear to unlock certain Nightmare Dungeon locations, so be sure not to sleep on them.

For more information on Strongholds, including the more efficient ones to clear, check out our Stronghold Guide.

After hitting level 60 and unlocking your paragon, you might find yourself a little lost on what to do or how to level your Paragon. Below are some helpful resources to get ready for the next step of your Diablo 4 journey.

• Paragon Speed Farming Guide
• Character Guides that show you exactly what Paragon to take for every build
• Endgame Tier List to find all the best builds
• Boss Loot Table to help find your gear