Diablo Immortal is not only the first free-to-play mobile game in Blizzard’s iconic RPG series, but also the first Diablo game with MMO elements. As a result, there are so many new concepts and ideas emerging in Diablo Immortal that even die-hard fans of the franchise will need to rack their brains to start this latest adventure on the right foot.
From getting the most out of your Battle Pass to how to level up efficiently, this beginner’s guide will give you 10 early game tips and tricks to run across the ground and leave a trail of demon corpses behind you. Vaults won’t save themselves, so it’s best to kill.
Choose your class carefully
Which class to choose for your first character in any RPG is always a big decision, but in Diablo Immortal, the choice is more important than previous entries in the series. This is because there is no shared storage in Diablo Immortal, which means that items found by one character in your account cannot be transferred to another. Certain Battle Pass rewards can also only be claimed for one character per account, meaning subsequent characters will be at a further disadvantage. You don’t want to get too deep into a character, just realize you don’t care about the class, and have to start from scratch. Blizzard will implement a class change feature that basically allows players to switch their characters to another class every once in a while, but that feature won’t be available at launch. With that in mind, be sure to choose a course that you’ll have fun playing for at least a few months, lest you fall behind. Each career has its own strengths and weaknesses, but all are fairly balanced, so there are no bad choices. For example, Crusader and Monk excel at area damage and support spells, while Demon Hunter and Necromancer deliver high single-target damage. Both barbarians and wizards can do some notable AOE damage, so it all boils down to whatever playstyle you like.
Form (or join) a Chapter
Warbands are a new feature in Diablo Immortal, which are essentially mini clans for up to 8 players. If you have a group of friends with whom you will play Diablo regularly, forming a warband is a no-brainer. Why? Because you get an extra bonus, of course. Completing group content as a Warband allows members to claim additional rewards on a regular basis, and members of the same Warband also have a shared storage room where members can deposit and take items, with some restrictions. You’ll need to advance the main story quite a bit to unlock this feature, but once you do, it’s definitely worth making one.
Turn on automatic pickup
You’ll keep finding new items in Diablo Immortal, and even if you don’t want to use them, you’ll still want to pick them up at the blacksmith and disassemble them for salvage that can be used to upgrade your gear. By default (at least in the Early Access version we played) auto-picking is off. Turn it on in the game settings now and let it automatically collect any rare items. Eventually, you may want to filter out some rare items for automatic pickup, but it’s best to start by taking and salvaging any items you don’t use.
Don’t worry about gear start
In the early days, getting into the details of your gear isn’t all that necessary. Instead, just look at any item in your inventory and find the one with the green up arrow. This means the item is an upgrade item and you should probably equip it. At higher levels, you’ll want to start prioritizing certain stats based on your class, but at first, it’s not a big deal. The game also doesn’t take into account the various magic affixes that some gear may have, so keep an eye out for beneficial bonuses on gear that might justify equipping one particular piece over another.
Upgrade gear early and often
You can only upgrade rare, legendary or set quality gear, but don’t be afraid to upgrade your gear once you have the ability. This is because all of your upgrades will continue when swapping into new gear using the free level transfer feature. This means that if you have the materials, there’s no reason not to upgrade your gear as much as possible. Upgrading gear gives you higher stats, and when you upgrade all gear, a huge power boost, so be sure to take advantage of it.
Efficient upgrade
Leveling up in Diablo Immortal is fairly simple. Kill monsters and complete quests to gain experience points, which you need to level up. This is mostly done by playing the game’s main campaign, but sometimes you’ll complete all the main quests and be told to reach a certain level to continue the story. When this happens, you’ll need to do some tactical grinding to reach the tier requirements and continue the campaign. What you don’t want to do is just stay in an area and kill demons for hours on end. Instead, you need to combine Battle Pass events, dungeons, bounties that award extra XP, side quests, or optional hidden lairs that can be discovered in the game world to get as much XP as possible. Probably the most efficient way to level up is to complete the battle pass event and level up the battle pass (more on that below), but feel free to continue and complete any side events you stumble upon during the campaign as it will reduce your ability to continue the story later Amount of XP required.
When you need an XP boost, wait to claim your Battle Pass reward
It may be tempting to claim your Battle Pass rewards as soon as you unlock them, but it’s best to wait until you actually need the XP, such as when the game tells you to level up more before continuing with the main story. This is because the amount of XP earned by completing the Battle Pass event increases based on your character level, which means that getting the reward at level 40 will give you more XP than getting the same reward at level 20. Sticking to these XP Battle Pass bonus block moments to make the most of them will save you time that you would otherwise have to spend a lot of time on.
Save any legend you find
Diablo Immortal introduced a feature called Essence Transfer late in the campaign that allows you to extract Legendary power from Legendary items and add them to your collection. These powers can then be used to replace the powers of another existing Legendary you may have. For this reason, you need to save all unique Legendaries and eventually extract their essence using Essence Transfer. That way, you’ll have a wide range of abilities to choose from, and you can use whatever ability is most beneficial to your class, rather than having to randomly find a specific legendary item that was originally associated with that ability.
Bet on Jewelry at Every Chance
Around the same time you unlock the Essence Transfer (after completing the Zolton Kulle Library main quest), you also unlock the ability to gamble for jewelry items at Rakis Square in Westmarch. While NPC Yakin will let you gamble on mystery items in any item slot, once you unlock the ability to do so, you must gamble on jewels. That’s because you can’t possibly fill all of your jewel slots at this stage of the game, so it’s definitely worth spending some gold to fill your jewel slots for a significant power-up.
Unlock Helliquary ASAP
Helliquary is another new feature in Diablo Immortal, and it’s important to unlock it as soon as possible to start leveling it up. After completing the main questline that sends you back to Bilefen in Westmarch, you’ll meet Rayoc, who explains the basics of Helliquary and asks you to complete a six-level challenge rift to kill a specific demon. Don’t turn it off. Instead, stop whatever you’re doing and do it right away. Once Chaos Herald Pyl is dead, you will get your first piece of Scoria, an important currency for upgrading your Helliquary. The higher your Helliquary level, the higher the combat rating of the items you get from it. After unlocking Helliquary, you can earn Scoria by completing daily Battle Pass quests and Battle Pass raids to steadily upgrade your Helliquary and continue to increase the power of your Helliquary rewards.
GameSpot may receive a commission from retail offers.