Diablo 4 - Our best gameplay tips for newcomers and veterans

However big, deep or layered with mechanics you think Diablo 4 is, the game will undoubtedly exceed those expectations fairly quickly. Blizzard’s long-awaited sequel is a massive undertaking that dwarfs the content, and production quality of earlier games in the series, not to mention many of its contemporaries from other developers.

What this means for you is that there’s a depth, and a breadth of content on offer that will take you weeks to explore, and even longer to fully sink your teeth into. That goes for the game’s giant open-world, the new class specialisations, the surprising flexibility of build crafting, the deep endgame, and the compelling story.

We wanted to put together several crucial Diablo 4 tips for new, and returning players. We’re going to highlight series staples, updated mechanics, as well as new/hidden tweaks that all players need to learn before they start their adventure in Sanctuary.

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Leave Healing Pools until you need them

Healing Pools are one of the many staples of the Diablo series, and Diablo 4 brings them back. Healing Pools do exactly what you think they do: they refill your health.

But with the change to how health orbs are acquired in Diablo 4 (they're no longer automatically picked up), the game is now instead asking you to be more tactical with their use, as well as with your own Healing Potions.

Healing Pools will refill your health, and refresh your Potion uses. Because of that, it’s best to not use them immediately as you spot them, particularly in tough areas like dungeons, and Strongholds.

Keep them as a backup that you can return to when you need, especially if you’re playing solo on anything beyond the starting World Tier.

Pay close attention to Priority Quests

Priority Quests in Diablo 4 are designed to offer you unique items and upgrades you won’t get anywhere else. This is how you unlock the horse, for example. They have the white/grey icon and you only get a few of them throughout the entire campaign, but you should immediately see if you can do what they ask.

For instance, the Druid class specialisation quest will send you deep into the game where you may not have been before. Before getting a horse, the trek looks to be dauting. You’ll also note that the quest level will always be slightly higher than your own, so delaying it is not a good idea.

Even if it looks like a trip off the beaten path that will take you away from what you’re currently doing, you should definitely do Priority Quests as soon as they pop up for you, as they unlock crucial upgrades that will make your game better.

Priorty Quests have a special tab in the quest log, among the other quest types in Diablo 4, so check if you have any you have yet to complete. They’re also marked on the map like other quests, should you need to see where the deed can be done.

Faded Plaques change their inscriptions/requirements

As you roam around the open world of Diablo 4, you’ll come across many statues with faded inscriptions on them. If you interact with the Plaque, you’ll see an incomplete sentence that hints at some sort of emotion/feeling.

The key word is always in all caps, and you simply need to match that with an emote using your Action Wheel (E on PC/up on the dpad) to get whatever bonus that particular statue will offer. But what you may not realise is that those are not actually fixed, and each statue will cycle through the possible options every time you activate it.

In other words, if you trigger the effect and go away for a few minutes, you can come back and do a different emote to receive a different bonus.

There's an easy way to see which items unlock a transmog skin

Transmogrifying, or the ability to change the look of armour/weapons without changing their stats, is one of the best features in Diablo 4. Applying a new skin can be done by simply interacting with your wardrobe in your room at most major towns in the game.

Unlocking new transmog designs, however, is a matter of coming across items with that look, and dismantling them. If you earn a piece of loot that has a design you’ve never seen before, its info page will show a hammer icon. The same icon can also be seen when you visit any Blacksmith to dismantle items. Upon dismantling it, that look will now be forever unlocked for use with your character.

Just keep in mind that you may not always want to dismantle an item you like the look of, such as when a Legendary drop has an Aspect you want. While that means you’re going to miss out on its particular look, it’s best to visit an Occultist and extract the Aspect on it instead – if you don't already have it, at least.

You can upgrade your Healing Potion (almost) every ten levels

As you grow in power in Diablo 4, enemies, too, will also respond in kind. In order to keep up with that power creep, you’ll need to upgrade your Healing Potion. There's a fairly standard process to do this, and it’s done by visiting the Alchemist.

There, you’ll see an option to upgrade it every ten levels, though that stops at 30 to instead delay your next upgrade to 45 (rather than 40), before it once again goes back to every ten at 60 until you reach level 90.

It can be easy to miss with everything going on, so keep that in the back of your mind every time you reach these major levelling thresholds.

Don't sleep on Elixirs

Elixir craft is another area in Diablo 4 that the game doesn’t remind you off often enough. At the Alchemist, the same NPC where you upgrade your Healing Potions, you can also craft a wide range of other useful Elixirs.

These confer limited-time boosts to defence/offence against certain groups of enemies, or up your XP gain when fighting certain enemy factions. The description for each one will detail the boons it offers, as well as the materials required to craft it.

You’ll find all crafted Elixirs under the Consumables tab in your inventory, but you can only have one active at any one time. If you activate a new Elixir before the first one has run out, you’ll override it.

You can, however, have one active Incense alongside an Elixir. Incense is more expensive to make, and requires far rarer material, but it offers even bigger bonuses that extend to other characters around you as well. You can only have one type of Incense active at a time, which will matter when more Incense types are added down the line.

In short: one Elixir, and one Incense.

Wait until you get a horse to mop up dungeons and side quests

Unlocking a mount in Diablo 4 comes way later into the game than you might think. Considering how large the world map is, you may want to leave some part of exploration, side quest completion, and hunting for Aspects in dungeons until you’ve acquired the horse.

Travelling on horseback is not only faster, it also allows you to skip enemies on the way to your objective. When you decide to engage, there’s a cool dismount attack animation that’s unique for every class.

Considering how massive the world in Diablo 4 is, you’ll find it much more efficient to travel on horseback - once you actually get it.

You can exit dungeons with a single click

Okay, I lied, it will actually take you two steps to leave dungeons in Diablo 4. The good news is that you don't have to backtrack all the way to the start, which can be a nightmare if it's a multi-level dungeon.

To do this, bring up your Action Wheel (E on PC/up on the dpad) and simply select Leave Dungeon. You can also bring up your map and simply click on the blue stairs to do the same thing. The only problem is that story dungeons do not offer the same feature.

Sometimes that makes sense for narrative reasons, while other times it's just annoying. For those, you'll just need to do the trek back to the entrance.

Maxing out Renown is helps your current and future characters

Diablo 4’s open world has several key collectables that you should chase after. Not only do each of them confer big upgrades, such as Lilith Altars, they also raise your Renown for each region of the map.

By maximising everything a region has to offer (including content like Strongholds, side quests etc.), you unlock skill points, gold and other bonuses that all characters benefit from – not just the one you’re currently playing. There are always two rewards associated with each threshold, one applies to your current character, and another to all future characters as well.

You can totally do this in stages, as each region has several thresholds for you to clear as you explore and finish content in said region. Indeed, if you spend too long in one region, you’ll find that you’re organically clearing through them and earning Renown without realising.

Not every town has every merchant/service

One annoying aspect in Diablo 4 is that you can’t expect every town you come across to have all the usual services you need. We couldn't identify any particular logic as to what’s guaranteed where, but Blacksmiths are generally everywhere.

On the other hand, your chest and wardrobe can only be found at major regional towns, which means you may have to do more than one trip, depending on how many services you want to make use of.

The good news is that by hovering over the town portal in the overworld map, you can see all available services there. We recommend just sticking to one or two major towns whenever you need to portal. You’ll quickly learn which of them have what you need, you’ll just need to get around their different layouts.

Always have a few Whispering Keys on you

Whispering Keys are unique items that unlock Whispering Chests. Those are chests that have a higher chance of dropping rarer loot. You’ll never known when you're going to come across one, so it’s best to have a few keys in your inventory just in case.

Whispering Keys can be bought from any Purveyor of Curiosities, in exchange for 20 Obols each. Obols are earned by taking part in any of the World Events you see around the map, or in dungeons.

If you’d rather not gamble your Obols at the Purveyor of Curiosities, simply purchase some keys so you can unlock Whispering Chests as you come across them.

You can pet dogs (and cats)

This is just a friendly PSA for everyone wanting to befriend the cute animals running around the many towns of Diablo 4. Simply pull up your Action Wheel (E on PC/up on the dpad) and select Hello.

There’s a bespoke petting animation for dogs, and they’ll even follow you around town for a bit after you pet them. Cats, however, do not have a petting animation, but they will respond by rolling around on the floor and exposing their belly, which, as all cat owners know, is a sign of trust.

If you haven't already, make sure you change these Diablo 4 settings before you start playing. While you're here, you may as well decide which class to start with.