Diablo 4 players have even more reasons to complete Nightmare dungeons after today’s patch. Developer Blizzard Entertainment pushed a series of improvements to the activity, including higher experience gain and a long-expected quality-of-life change.
Patch 1.0.3 “significantly increased” the amount of experience gained from killing monsters inside Nightmare dungeons and as rewards for completing activities. As an extra quality-of-life feature, players can also teleport straight into Nightmare dungeons. Both changes were teased in the Campfire Chat developer livestream earlier this month, and are making their way to the game before the release of season one.
The patch notes don’t detail exactly how much more XP those activities will award players now, but the long grind has been a pain point for Diablo 4 players since shortly after its release this month.
The Diablo 4 endgame doesn’t offer much variety, with Nightmare dungeons and Helltides being the core of the post-campaign in World Tiers three and four. This encourages an exhausting amount of repetition, and players didn’t have much XP to show for them without a herculean effort. Farming regular versions of dungeons such as Blind Burrows (instead of the Nightmare ones) was also a common tactic since it required less time and effort.
Some took advantage of exploits like the (now-patched) infinite cellar glitch, or a bug that let them repeat sections of Nightmare dungeons to exhaustion without spending their Sigils. Even those who were brave enough to face off against overleveled enemies in Nightmare dungeons could still come up short on XP, contributing to a feeling of burnout not long after Diablo 4 released.
The cherry on top of the update is the ability to teleport into a Nightmare dungeon once you activate the Sigil. Before Patch 1.0.3, players had to find the nearest waypoint into that specific dungeon, then walk (or ride their horses) into its entrance, leading to a considerable amount of extra travel time. Finding individual dungeons on the map could also be confusing.
The changes can lessen the burden of running Nightmare dungeons and make it easier for players to level up before season one—which is scheduled to launch in mid-to-late July and will require a new seasonal character, according to Diablo general manager Rod Ferguson.
Dungeons aren’t the only part of the endgame to see some changes, though. Whispers of the Dead and Helltides will also give out a bit more experience, according to the patch notes. Players can also expect a pass at ability balance across all five classes and a litany of bug fixes.
