Diablo 4 Beginner Guide - How To Play D4 For New Players

If you have never played Diablo 4 before, then you should read this guide because it is written for complete beginners.

Even if you've played previous Diablo games, you should still find this guide valuable because it explains new gameplay features that are exclusive to Diablo 4. Since I'm a professional Diablo 4 booster here at Boosting Factory, I decided to help new players, for free!

As a means of assisting you in getting started in the regions of Sanctuary, I will make an effort in this tutorial to go over some fundamental game mechanics as well as just some general gaming components.

Please do not be shy about asking questions in the comment box below if there is anything you have an interest in learning more about.

Your First Character Creation

In Diablo 4, the objective of the game is to advance your character through the game by gaining levels, acquiring equipment, and completing missions. Before we can begin our adventure, we must first choose our class.

In Diablo 4, there are a total of 5 different classes, each of which is distinct from the others. These five classes, in order from left to right, are as follows:

• The Barbarian is a melee-oriented character that is capable of using many weapons with remarkable efficiency. In addition, he has the ability to anger himself in order to gain advantages in fight.


• The Necromancer, also known as the "Wielder of Blood and Bone," has the ability to bring the dead back to life for his own benefit, therefore upsetting the delicate balance that exists between life and death.


• The Sorcerer is a caster of elemental powers like Lightning, Ice, and Fire. He's capable of wreaking havoc on the battlefield with his powerful spells.


• The Rogue specializes in both ranged and melee combat and has the ability to quickly transition between the two for devastating combos.


• Druids have the ability to shapeshift into werewolves or werebears in addition to having command over the elements of storm and earth.

If you are just starting out in Diablo 4, feel free to create as many different characters as you like until you find a play style that you enjoy and that speaks to you.

All About Health in Diablo 4

The Sanctuary is a lethal place that is fraught with peril. I'm going to talk about healing, health, and the varied ways in which different stages of your health bar effect you so that you may better comprehend how to stay alive.

To begin, I'll talk about Healing. "Health Potions" are the first and most important technique for restoring a character's health in Diablo 4, despite the fact that there are a number of passives and skills in the game that could potentially heal your character's health. Simply pressing the "Q" key, which is designated as the "Potion Key," will allow you to use a Health Potion.

Using a health potion will first heal you for a set amount, and then over the course of three seconds, it will heal you for an additional preset percentage. You begin the game with four out of four small health potions, and the amount of these potions can be raised as the game progresses.

You can also upgrade your health potions at certain intervals that are determined by your character's level in town at the Alchemist, and a quest for the Alchemist should show up the first time you visit Kyovashad.

When you first begin playing Diablo 4, you will begin with the "Weak Healing Potion," and the level requirements for potion Upgrades are as follows:

• Tiny Healing Potion – Level 10.


• Minor Healing Potion – Level 20.


• Light Healing Potion – Level 30.


• Moderate Healing Potion – Level 45.


• Strong Healing Potion – Level 60.


• Greater Healing Potion – Level 70.


• Major Healing Potion – Level 80.

There are several states that can be reached within your Health Bar. The first state is "Healthy," and it is denoted by a red circle surrounding your health bar. As you can see from the supplied screenshot, you do not need to have 100% of your health in order to be considered "Healthy." You are considered "Healthy" when your health bar is at or above 80%.

This is because there are a lot of perks and goods that will effect you differently depending on whether you are in a "Healthy" condition or a "Injured" state, which is the reason why this information is being explained.

When your health falls below 35%, you will be classified as having "Injured" status. The indicator for this is the glow of red that appears on your screen.

Leveling, XP, Skills

In Diablo 4, one of the most important aspects of the gameplay is gaining levels and picking up skills. You can level up by fighting and slaying the various monsters that populate the area around you, and there will be no shortage of them as you travel. You can tell if you are about to level up by looking at the experience bar on your screen.


You will gain a level and a skill point after you have completed a certain number of kills; to spend your point, you can either click the Golden Triangle or use the "A" key on your keyboard.

For this example, we'll use the Sorcerer's Skill Tree because each class has its own distinct skill tree, but the vast majority of them have roughly the same architecture. The "Basic Skills" are the first set of abilities you'll be able to choose from when expanding your skill set.

We also have a guide on How to level up fast in Diablo 4. And if you just want to relax while someone else levels up your account, check our Diablo 4 power leveling service where my colleagues or I can easily level up your character for you, or even better, you can play with us!


You can use your skill points by simply clicking on the ability that you want to unlock and assigning it one point out of a possible five. As you can see, we put ours to use on "Fire Bolt" by awarding one point out of five.


This will provide you a new ability to utilize, and it will be added to your skill bar automatically. The left mouse button will be replaced by the first skill you learn, which will be the ability described above.

Gearing Up and Gear Tiers

There are a total of five separate tiers of item progression available in Diablo 4.

• Common


• Magic


• Rare


• Legendaries


• Unique

This tier listing can be explained as "best to worst" with the exemption that "Legendaries" and "Uniques" are only the best choice if they fit with the "skills" you've chosen for your class. Each legendary and unique comes with their own unique "passive" that can change the way you play your class.

When you first begin playing Diablo 4, you will find a majority of Common, Magic, and Rare items. You should try to replace your Common items with Magic items, and then replace those with Rares when you can. As a general rule, the stats that the items hold aren't of massive importance in the early game because of how quickly you will be replacing these items early on.


You should merely remember to stick with the general assumption that equipping an item is most likely to be beneficial if its "Item Power" rating is higher. Having said that, you should retain practically anything you find because the Blacksmith can recycle almost anything into usable items. More on this will be discussed in a later section.

When it comes to Legendaries, each one has a special passive property referred to as a "Aspect." Legendaries are extremely potent things, therefore it's preferable to make use of or store them away whenever possible.

Renown System

Renown is a new system that was introduced in Diablo 4, and it goes up whenever you do something within the Sanctuary world. Each tier of Renown grants your character access to a new set of bonuses, and some of these bonuses also grant access to cross-character bonuses.


When you complete one of these objectives, you will be rewarded that value toward unlocking a tier on that region's progress board. Since each region in Sanctuary has its own renowned board, there are bonuses to earn for each region. Almost anything you do in that region will have a value.

In-game, hitting "TAB" followed by "W" will bring up the Renown Board for you to view.

Things like this will get your renown up:

• Discovering Areas – 5 Points


• Discovering Lilith Statues – 10 Points


• Unlocking Waypoints – 20 Points


• Side Quests – 20 Points


• Side Dungeons – 30 Points


• Strongholds – 100 Points

Strongholds

I've already said that acquiring Renown through Strongholds is one of the ways to do so; with that in mind, what exactly are Strongholds?


Strongholds are locations on the global map that are indicated by a red skull on the player's map. These Strongholds are typically populated by demons or other inhabitants of hell, and they need to be cleansed of their inhabitants before they may be restored.

When they have been brought back to their former glory, these towns will become player-friendly, granting access to shops, waypoints, and possibly even Dungeons in the area. You will earn 100 Renown for every Stronghold that you successfully clear.

Dungeons

Once you have located a dungeon in the realm of Sanctuary, you will be able to identify it on the map by the small "Gate" icon once you have pressed the "M" button.

You will be able to examine specifics of a Dungeon once you have discovered it, such as its Level Requirement. A good number of the dungeons in the world will scale with your level, so they will always be relevant.

The majority of dungeons contain quests that players need to perform in order to progress to the next level; these quests can take a variety of different forms; the following are a few examples of quests that we have encountered.

• Activating Gate Controls


• Collecting “Animus” from certain monsters


• Defeating all of the enemies in the given area


• Releasing Prisoners


• Collecting and placing Statues


• Fixing a broken Pillar


• Defeating “X” amount of Elites


• Defeating the Dungeon Boss

You will receive a reward after completing a dungeon for the first time. This reward is often a "Aspect," but you will also be able to see the reward on the world map by hovering your cursor over the icon representing the dungeon.


The Aspects you obtain as a reward will allow you to create your very own Legendaries by attaching them to Rares in your collection.

Bosses and Elite Monsters

Elites can be found all around the globe of Sanctuary, and they come in a variety of forms, with some being more powerful than others. Bosses can be discovered in specific locations within the Sanctuary universe and pose some of the most dangerous challenges.

It is possible for Elites to have bonuses attached to them known as "Affixes." These Affixes can take the form of additional abilities or passives for the Elite. You can recognize these Affixes by the symbol that appears under the Elite's health bar or by the name of the Affixes, which appears at the top of the screen under the Elite's health bar after you have attacked the Elite.

There are a few of these Affixes that are:

• Plague Bearer: Carriers of the Plague die leaving behind a puddle of poison that detonates upon their demise.


• Chilling Wind: An affix that, when activated, conjures a wall of ice wind that causes the target to feel a chill. As a projectile from a ranged weapon passes through a wall, its forward momentum is reduced.


• Frozen: Calls out three spheres of ice that cold until they are completely frozen. When it explodes, after three seconds, it deals damage related to cold.


• Hellbound: Calls forth a three-headed stone statue that encircles a player group and binds them in chains.


• Waller: Passive ability that restricts your movement by erecting a wall in the shape of a "U" around you. Players have the ability to breach a portion of the wall.

Always be on the lookout for these Affixes, since some Elites might have more than one, each of which will be displayed under their health bar.

Bosses

Bosses can be found all over the world of Sanctuary, but the most common places to find them are in Dungeons or when exploring the world map and finding Strongholds.

There are also the Campaign Bosses and the World Bosses.

Bosses have what are called "Breakpoints." The "Triangle" on the boss's health bar shows when a breakpoint has been reached. Once a breakpoint has been reached, the Triangle will move up and turn grey. This means the boss has moved on to the next part and will drop multiple health potions.


Each step makes the fight harder by giving the boss new ways to do things and giving you new ways to deal with them.

Bosses also have something called a "Stagger Bar." This bar is right next to the boss's Health Bar and fills up when the boss uses any kind of Crowd Control. When the Boss is full, he or she will become "Staggered," which gives you a chance.

If the Stagger Bar is full, some bosses, like Ashava the World Boss, will get extra debuffs. For example, Ashava's arm blade will break, making her weaker for the rest of the fight.

Blacksmith - Repairing, Salvaging, and Item Upgrading

In Diablo 4, the Blacksmith is back and works the same way as in Diablo 3. He can still Salvage and Repair things, but now he can also "Upgrade" them instead of making new ones from scratch like he did in Diablo 3.

Zivek is likely to be the first Blacksmith you meet. He is in Kyovashad and can do three things for the player.

• Repair


• Salvage


• Upgrade

Repairing

All items in Diablo 4 will have a durability number that can be seen at the bottom of the item. From what we've seen, this number will always be capped at 100, even when the item is upgraded.

When a person dies, the durability of his or her items goes down by 10%. Just go to the second tab at the Blacksmith to fix this damage. You'll be able to fix single pieces, pieces that are equipped, or all the things you're holding.

If you run out of gold in Diablo 4 and need to fix something, selling some Rares is a good way to make a little money. They usually have a high base cost and can help you out in a pinch.

Salvaging

Salvaging is something you'll want to do in Diablo 4 every time you get back to town from a dungeon or any other place where you've been able to fill up your supplies. If you're new to Diablo 4, put it on your list of things to do.

You'll want to collect almost everything because almost everything can be turned into a material, and these materials are used to upgrade items. This is important because you'll want to be upgrading your items to get the most out of them, and while this has little value early on, it will be a big help later on.

When you dismantle something, it will drop materials. Depending on the tier of the item, it drops a different tier of material. The higher the tier of the item, the higher the tier of the material it drops. Materials are very useful and we also made a guide on How to farm materials fast in Diablo 4.

Upgrading

As we've talked about, to improve an item, we need materials and gold. When you put an item in the upgrade slot, the cost is shown at the bottom of the Blacksmith window. The more times you update, the more these costs go up. Rares can only be improved up to three times, but Legendaries can be improved up to five times.

Early on I would suggest that you don't upgrade your items and save the materials for later in the game, since you'll probably need to replace most of your gear pretty quickly and you'll need those materials then.

Use the Jeweller, not the Blacksmith, to improve Jewels.

When you upgrade an item, its Item Power goes up, its base Armor or Damage goes up, and the Affixes get a small % boost, as shown in the picture below. This will become quite important late in the game.

Item Sockers & Gems

You will start to find a lot of Gems as you travel around Sanctuary. These Gems go into the sockets of items. Not all items will have a socket, but you can bring an item to the Jeweller to make it have more sockets. This won't work if an item already has the most sockets it can have.

In Diablo 4, there are seven different kinds of gems, and each one changes the way an item works in a different way based on where it is put. These Gems can also be improved at the Jeweler by combining more of the same type of Gems together to make them stronger.


Here are some of the Gems' base numbers to help you understand what they do.

Amethyst

• Weapon: +4.0% damage over time


• 
  Armor: 6.6% damage over time reduction


• 
  Jewelry: 11.5% Shadow Resistance

Diamond

• Weapon: +4.0% Ultimate Skills Damage


• Armor: +4.0% Barrier Generation


• Jewelry: 4.0% Resistance to All Elements

Emerald

• Weapon: +6.0% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies


• Armor: +19 Thorns


• Jewelry: 11.5% Poison Resistance

Ruby

• Weapon: +12.0% Overpower Damage


• Armor: +5.0% Maximum Life


• Jewelry: 11.5% Fire Resistance

Sapphire

• Weapon: +6.0% Critical Strike damage to Crowd Controlled enemies


• Armor: +4.0% damage reduction while Fortified


• Jewelry: 11.5% Cold Resistance

Skulls

• Weapon: +6 Life on Kill


• Armor: +4.0% Healing received


• Jewelry: +100 Armor

Topaz

• Weapon: +13.3% Basic Skill Damage


• Armor: +6.6% Damage Reduction while Control Impaired


• Jewelry: 11.5% Lightning Resistance

Extracting Aspects

If you want to get the Aspect out of a Legendary item, you'll need Demyan The Occultist. To do this, you'll need gold, and the Legendary from which you're taking the Aspect will be killed. So, make sure you're sure you don't want the Legendary anymore before you remove it.

Keep in mind that you don't need another Aspect if you already have one. It might be better to take what you can from the Legendary.


Once you've taken out the Aspect, you can find it in your Inventory under the Aspects Tab. This is what they'll look like. Keep in mind that when you Imprint it onto a Rare, it will only have the range you rolled for the Aspect you removed.

Imprinting Aspects

It's pretty simple to imprint your Aspect. First, put the thing you want to be imprinted in the top slot. Then, choose an Aspect from your Codex, which is a list of all the Aspects you've found in Dungeons, or put in an Aspect you've already taken out. Then you'll be able to see a sample of the item before you print it.

Materials and Gold will be needed for this process. Imprinting will be a big part of Diablo 4's growth, so it's best to save as much as you can early, mid, and late in the game.

What to do after you finish the campaign?

After the main Campaign is over, the world of Diablo 4 doesn't end. Diablo 4 has more to do than just the story campaign, which, as you may know, is typical for the Diablo games.

When you finish the Campaign, you can go to what are called "Capstone Dungeons." In the world of Sanctuary, there are 3 Capstone Dungeons. Each one becomes available after you finish the one before it, and each Capstone Dungeon gives you access to a new World Tier.

Capstone Dungeons are much longer than the normal Dungeons you're used to. In addition, they will be very hard. The bosses in the Capstones Dungeons are especially hard, so you'll need to learn how they work.

Here are the three Capstone Dungeons and what they give you.

Cathedral of Light

• Unlocks after completing the Campaign


• Unlocks World Tier 3 (Nightmare)

Fallen Temple

• Unlocks after completing Cathedral of Light on Nightmare


• Unlocks World Tier 4 (Torment)

Archives of Issalia

• To be announced

You should start gaining access to the next level of World Tiers. World Tier 3 (Nightmare) is the first one you should go for if you want to move forward. This will let you get into Nightmare Dungeons and give you access to Sacred Legendaries and new Uniques.

In addition, Helltides will start to show up in Sanctuary. Helltides are special events that happen in Sanctuary and affect the whole area. They can last up to an hour. During this time, Demons in that Region will be very strong, and their level will be much higher than the player's. They will drop better loot and something called "Cinders" that can be used to open Helltide boxes.

Once you've learned enough to no longer be a newbie in Diablo 4, you can try the next Capstone Dungeon on Nightmare. To get to World Tier 4 (Torment), you'll need to go to the Fallen Temple. When you play on this World Tier, you can get Ancient items and more special drops.