Highlights
- Diablo 4 offers built-in game modifiers and personal challenges to increase difficulty and keep gameplay engaging.
- Players can rank up the world tier system to face more aggressive enemies and obtain better loot.
- Trying a new class/build, solo-running, and playing in Hardcore Mode are additional ways to challenge oneself in the game.
As players progress within the game through leveling and understanding optimized builds, Diablo 4 might start to seem a bit lacking in terms of difficulty. For those who are new to the franchise or simply new to Diablo 4 and want more challenges to make the game stay engaging and exciting, there are many options that players can take to put them out of their comfort zone in terms of difficulty.
Diablo 4 has some built-in game modifiers that allow players to increase the difficulty of enemies in addition to the many challenges players can personally place on themselves to keep the gameplay invigorating.
7 Rank Up World Tier
One of the built-in modifiers for the game as players progress in leveling is the world tier system. As players begin the game, they are offered either World Tier 1 (Adventurer) or World Tier 2 (Veteran), and the latter two world tiers are available once players complete the main questline of the game.
The higher the world tier, the more aggressive the enemies and the more rewarding the loot is afterward. At World Tier 3, players can obtain Unique and Sacred items, and Ancestral items at World Tier 4, which will advance their builds as more challenging enemies come into play. For players still leveling and entering the endgame, the world tier system is a great way to keep enemies hitting hard.
6 Try A New Class/Build
For players who have been in Diablo 4 for a while and are looking to refresh their in-game experience, learning a new class or build can also be challenging. There are many optimization tactics players can use to create a hard-hitting character. The classes offered within character creation provide a variety of fighting styles that players can utilize. If someone is more tempted towards an aggressive and close-ranged barbarian, they might try out a range-based sorcerer to challenge their previous playstyle.
Discovering the best items and aspects for a class is also a challenge in its own right, and item-hunting can keep the game difficult, especially when combined with other challenge tactics.
5 Solo-Running
Campaigning with a group can also provide a bit of an easier time for big bosses and difficult dungeons. If a player is used to leveling within a group, they might try solo-running as a challenge within itself. Due to the scaling system, all players will feel approximately the same amount of difficulty from enemies, but there is still a numbered advantage in playing with a party.
Playing solo can provide sufficient difficulty, especially in areas with hordes of enemies, like strongholds, where the player might need to be more strategic about their approach without the support of other players beside them.
4 Hardcore Mode
When making a new character, players also have the option for that character to be locked into Hardcore Mode, which is a permadeath option for those looking to make the game significantly higher in stakes. Once the character dies, the character is deleted alongside all of the items the player has obtained during the run with that character.
With the threat of a character being wiped after death, this mode also offers some incentive in the form of higher chances for better loot to boost the player’s rate of survival. This mode extends to all enemies within Sanctuary, even PvP battles, so players have more incentive to optimize the build of their character more quickly than a more casual playthrough and always be on their toes for every enemy.
3 Use Nightmare Sigils To Create Nightmare Dungeons
Nightmare Sigils are another end-game tool built in to provide sufficient challenges for players as they enter World Tier 3 and 4. The Nightmare Sigil is a consumable that places extra affixes on the dungeon that make the enemies particularly difficult. There are tiers to Nightmare Sigils, from 1 (easiest) to 100 (hardest).
Once used, a dungeon becomes a Nightmare Dungeon and as the dungeon becomes more difficult, the leveling and looting becomes more rewarding. The higher the tier of the Nightmare Sigil, the higher the percentage of rarer loot items that will make one's rate of survival of future Nightmare Dungeons higher.
2 Uber Lilith
While campaign replayability at higher levels is limited, one of the bosses that can be defeated at higher levels is Lilith. Uber Lilith is an ultimate endgame boss that is often recommended for players to be level 100 before attempting the fight. This boss is available after completing the Capstone Dungeon for unlocking World Tier 4. Uber Lilith herself is also level 100 and is endlessly replayable, although she only drops loot in the first fight.
Uber Lilith is designed to really test a player’s build in class, armor, weapons, amulets, and aspects. For players wanting to challenge their efforts from farming for the perfect optimized build, Uber Lilith is one of the best bosses within the game to do so.
1 Personal Challenges
From within the game, there are many challenges circulating that reward players for numeric-based completion of various tasks. This is also one of the main ways for players to unlock titles in the game and explore all of the nooks and crannies of Sanctuary and mechanics that will be useful for enhancing equipment.
Some of the challenges are very straightforward like killing 1,000 werewolves, and others will require many characters to complete such as reaching level 100 in every class. These challenges are perfect for completionists who also love traipsing around Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.