Your endgame grind will go much more smoothly if you can find the best Diablo 4 nightmare dungeons. The extra-hardened versions of Diablo 4’s dungeons were always fantastic, but after receiving the most recent update, they have surpassed all other locations in the Blizzard RPG game for grinding XP, levelling up, loot, and upgrading Paragon glyphs simultaneously. Whatever you’re aiming to achieve, it’s a relief that we finally have definitive stats on the best Diablo 4 nightmare dungeons to run right now.
With the release of Diablo 4 patch 1.0.3, nightmare dungeons have become even better than before. Using nightmare sigils to activate them now opens a portal straight there, eliminating any travel time and meaning dungeon effectiveness comes purely down to how fast you can finish them, clearing out as much as possible along the way. Fortunately, one of the top Diablo 4 streamers has spent the last several days diligently running the numbers, so that you don’t have to.
Ryan ‘Raxxanterax’ S. has tested every single nightmare dungeon that’s currently available under the most neutral conditions possible. He ran each dungeon on two of the best Diablo 4 builds: a fast-moving, unstoppable, melee Tornado Druid, and a slow, crowd control-susceptible, ranged Bone Spear Necromancer. Then he averaged the results to get a good understanding of what works across all Diablo 4 classes.
He made sure that any lucky runs were evened out by always exploring the full area, and killed most of the enemies while moving at his usual farming pace. He avoided doing random events that spawned mid-dungeon, and refused to take advantage of any pylons that spawned, so the numbers could be as consistent as possible. In cases where outliers appeared, he even re-ran those dungeons to ensure nothing had gone amiss.
So what are the results? Well, you can see the full chart below. Raxx ranks the nightmare dungeons on two separate categories – XP earned per hour while playing solo, and speed to level glyphs. The latter list comes down purely to how fast the dungeon is to complete, although Raxx maintains that the XP is by far the biggest deciding factor anyway, and I agree.
The biggest winners are Blind Burrows, Guulrahn Canals, Sunken Ruins, Aldurwood, Raethwind Wilds. and Maulwood. At 35.8 million XP earned per hour, Blind Burrows is actually more than double the measly 17.1 million XP per hour offered by the lowest-ranked Prison of Caldeum, so this genuinely will make a huge difference to your Diablo 4 leveling speed.
Best Diablo 4 nightmare dungeons for XP
Here are all the Diablo 4 nightmare dungeons, ranked by XP earned:
- Blind Burrows – 35.8 million XP/hour.
- Guulrahn Canals – 34.1 million XP/hour.
- Sunken Ruins – 32.4 million XP/hour.
- Aldurwood – 30.7 million XP/hour.
- Raethwind Wilds – 30.4 million XP/hour.
- Maulwood – 28.6 million XP/hour.
- Champion’s Demise – 28.1 million XP/hour.
- Demon’s Wake – 27.4 million XP/hour.
- Whispering Pines – 26.8 million XP/hour.
- Lost Archives – 26.1 million XP/hour.
- Witchwater – 26.1 million XP/hour.
- Kor Dragan Barracks – 25.8 million XP/hour.
- Ancient’s Lament – 25.7 million XP/hour.
- Earthen Wound – 24.8 million XP/hour.
- Zenith – 23.8 million XP/hour.
- Abandoned Mineworks – 23.6 million XP/hour.
- Onyx Hold – 23.5 million XP/hour.
- Shadowed Plunge – 23.0 million XP/hour.
- Renegade’s Retreat – 22.3 million XP/hour.
- Cultist’s Refuge – 21.9 million XP/hour.
- Dark Ravine – 21.3 million XP/hour.
- Serpent’s Lair – 20.8 million XP/hour.
- Black Asylum – 20.7 million XP/hour.
- Guulrahn Slums – 20.6 million XP/hour.
- Conclave – 20.6 million XP/hour.
- Maugan’s Works – 19.8 million XP/hour.
- Shivta Ruins – 19.7 million XP/hour.
- Feral’s Den – 19.6 million XP/hour.
- Crusader’s Cathedral – 18.0 million XP/hour.
- Prison of Caldeum – 18.1 million XP/hour.
Thanks to Raxxanterax and his community for all the hard work!
You’ll also be sure to load up on Diablo 4 Ancestral items as you run these, so it won’t be long before you’re running the most godly build possible and blasting through fools with impunity. Diablo 4 season 1 is set to mix up the nightmare dungeon rotation, however, so be sure to stay on top of things once that happens.