Goal-Based Farming Guide: XP, Gold, Upgrade Materials, Boss Keys, and Mythic Materials
Choose a Diablo IV farming route from the one resource you currently lack, not from a permanent fastest-route ranking. Start with base-game routes, layer in Lord of Hatred War Plans and the current Season 15 Mythic-crafting route, then rotate as soon as the goal is met. Current as of Patch 3.2.2.
For XP, run dense activities at a Torment you clear reliably, then overlap War Plans and Whispers if you own the expansion. Center Gold farming on the Infernal Hordes Gold chest, supported by Whispers and selling selected gear. Use Nightmare Dungeons for Obducite and other Masterworking returns, and Helltide chests, salvage, and current conversion routes for Forgotten Souls. Reverse-lookup boss keys from the Unique you want. For Mythic Uniques in the current Season 15, the most reliable route is feeding a finished main-slot item into the Horadric Cube's Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic, with the Jeweler and Blacksmith covering further slots. Patch 3.2.1 raised Whisper Cache rewards broadly, so overlapping Whispers is now worth more for every material.
Five Steps Before Farming
51. Choose One Shortage
Choose the single shortage blocking your next upgrade: XP, Gold, Masterworking materials, gems, boss keys, or Mythic Uniques. Advance secondary goals only when they naturally overlap.
2. Confirm the Sink and Cost In Game
Read the live cost at the Blacksmith, Jeweler, Hoard, or Horadric Cube. Do not set a farming target from an old article's cost or key count.
3. Use a Reliably Clearable Difficulty
Higher Torment improves XP, Gold, and material returns, but drop one step when deaths or failed clears interrupt the loop. Consistency matters more than the maximum tier.
4. Separate Expansion and Seasonal Routes
War Plans and the Horadric Cube require Lord of Hatred, Splinters of Evil belong to the current Season 15, and Pandemonium Fragments and Corrupted Reaper belong to the finished Season 14. Without that access, stay on the base-game primary routes.
5. Recheck the Shortage Every 30–60 Minutes
When you can afford the upgrade, craft, or Hoard opening, spend the resource and rotate to the next shortage. Do not keep looping one activity without using its returns.
Six Goal-Based Farming Routes
6Experience and Post-70 Progression
Advance levels, Paragon, and War Plan progression without stalled clears
Primary: At a reliably clearable Torment, run the dense activity your current build clears quickly. Choose among Infernal Hordes, Nightmare Dungeons, and Helltide by low travel time and low failure risk. Patch 3.2.1 raised Torment bonus Experience (1300% at X, 1500% at XI, 1700% at XII) and increased Experience from War Plans, the Pit, and the Tree of Whispers, while reducing Helltide Experience Orbs. When Experience is the goal, chaining War Plans with Whispers now compares better than Helltide alone.
Secondary: Overlap Whispers only when they match the activity or region, then turn in the cache and continue. If Glyph upgrades are the only goal, separate that work into the Pit.
Expansion: Lord of Hatred owners can chain needed activities in War Plans and layer Whispers, Activity Points, and the final War Chest into one loop.
Season: In Season 15, layer the activities matching your carried Splinter and seasonal objectives only when they match the current route; Ruptures filled the same role in the finished Season 14. Do not treat a seasonal activity as permanently fastest leveling.
Rotate when: Rotate when deaths, timeouts, or inventory management break consecutive clears, or when gear and materials—not XP—become the next blocker.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Gold
Fund Masterworking, Enchanting, and crafting costs
Primary: Collect Burning Aether in Infernal Hordes and spend it on the Gold chest. Patch 3.1 scales its Gold with Aether spent, so decide the Gold-versus-gear chest split before a Gold-focused run.
Secondary: Supplement with matching Whisper caches and gear retained for sale by the Loot Filter. Patch 3.2.1 roughly tripled the Tree of Whispers Gold cache, from about 35 million to about 100 million Gold in Torment XII. That is large for a supplemental source, so do not skip the Tree of Whispers on a Gold-focused day. Separate sale items from salvage candidates so needed Aspects and materials are not lost.
Expansion: When a War Plan overlaps Infernal Hordes and Whispers, combine normal rewards, activity progression, and the War Chest. Do not build a long five-node chain for Gold alone.
Season: Treat seasonal Reputation and Season Rank caches as supplemental income, not a fixed payout per run. Season 15 has nine ranks and 125 objectives, so its total rewards exceed the previous season's.
Rotate when: Stop after funding the next upgrade, or when Obducite or Forgotten Souls—not Gold—become the blocker.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Obducite, Forgotten Souls, and Upgrade Materials
Refill the material currently blocking Masterworking or gear upgrades
Primary: For Obducite, run Nightmare Dungeons and collect chests, events, and interactables rather than only the completion cache. For Forgotten Souls, center the route on Helltide chests and salvaging unwanted gear.
Secondary: Supplement with Infernal Hordes material rewards, Whisper caches, and Season Rank caches. Patch 3.1 also allows Baleful Fragments to be converted into Forgotten Souls at the Alchemist. Patch 3.2.1 raised the Tree of Whispers salvage-material cache by roughly two to three times and substantially increased the chance of Forgotten Souls at high Torment. Undercity Refining Offerings now also include Forgotten Souls, and the Occultist's cost to enchant Ancestral items fell from 25 Forgotten Souls to 10.
Expansion: In War Plans, select Nightmare Dungeons, Helltide, or Infernal Hordes around the missing material. If Cube materials are needed, label War Chests or Undercity as a separate goal.
Season: Read current Season Blessing bonuses in the live UI. Do not count them as permanent baseline drops for the evergreen route.
Rotate when: Stop when the Blacksmith can complete the planned ranks, then recheck whether Obducite or Forgotten Souls is now the smaller stock.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Gem Fragments and Crafting Materials
Supply sockets and crafting recipes
Primary: Farm them in reliably clearable, elite-dense activities instead of one permanent location. Patch 3.2.1 substantially increased Gem Fragments from elites at Torment X and above and sharply raised the chance of a random Royal gem. The Tree of Whispers gem cache roughly doubled its Fragments and now drops one Royal or Grand gem instead of a Flawless one depending on difficulty. Even so, do not force the tier upward if clear consistency collapses.
Secondary: Use the Jeweler's current conversion recipes to turn surplus fragment types into needed ones, reducing time spent farming an already-full category. Patch 3.2.1 cut the cost of higher gems: a Royal gem now needs 10 Forgotten Souls instead of 30, and a Grand gem 50 instead of 300. If you deferred crafting under the old costs, it is now reasonable to craft first.
Expansion: Lord of Hatred Horadric Cube materials have a separate supply network—Elites, Cube Spoils from War Plans, Undercity Tributes, and Whisper caches—and should not be treated as Gem Fragments.
Season: Seasonal caches are supplemental. Treat the Jeweler UI as authoritative for current conversion pairs and costs, and reconcile the 3.2.1 figures above against the live display.
Rotate when: Stop when the gems for the planned gear can be crafted, then return to upgrade materials, keys, or item targeting.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Lair Boss Keys
Farm the key that opens the Hoard for a targeted Unique
Primary: Pick one desired Unique from the finished build and reverse-lookup its key. Center Living Steel on Helltide, Distilled Fear on Nightmare Dungeons, and Exquisite Blood on Blood Maiden, Legion Events, and World Bosses.
Secondary: Convert Stygian Stones from Initiate Hoards at the Alchemist into the Greater key you need. After the kill, each player opens the Hoard with their own keys.
Expansion: Check ownership before targeting Vessel of Hatred or Lord of Hatred bosses. Use a War Plan Lair Boss node when its target matches your key stock.
Season: Patch 3.2.1 strengthened the Tree of Whispers key cache: random Offerings doubled, Sigil Powder increased fivefold, and Mephisto's Keys and Echo Traces can now drop at a low rate, so the Tree is worth running on a key-focused day too. In the finished Season 14, Corrupted Reaper used Superior Lair Keys and high-Torment Deathtoll Chambers supplied a minimum-one guarantee.
Rotate when: Stop when you can open the planned number of Hoards. Spend the keys and review the item result instead of endlessly stockpiling them.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Mythic Uniques and Crafting Materials
Secure Mythic Uniques from both drops and crafting
Primary: In the current Season 15 (3.2.1), the most reliable route is to feed one finished main-slot item into the Horadric Cube's Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic. It is a 1:1 transfer, so affixes, Greater Affixes, Tempering, and Masterworking all carry over. Finish Tempering and Masterworking before you put the item in.
Secondary: To put Mythics in several slots, add the Jeweler's Rune Crafting > Mythic Uniques and the Blacksmith's Forge > Mythic Cache, neither of which applies a Crafted tag. A second Blacksmith cache that rolls only Iconic Mythics is offered at the same cost. On the drop side, use Lair Bosses and Belial's Hoard: Patch 3.2.1 raised lower-tier Lair Boss odds to match higher-tier, and nudged higher-tier and Belial up slightly.
Expansion: Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic requires the Lord of Hatred Horadric Cube and costs more than the Jeweler and Blacksmith routes. The Season 15 material cost is unpublished, so read the recipe screen's cost display every time. It cannot be used on Unmodifiable items, so do not Transfigure a candidate you intend to Mythic.
Season: In the finished Season 14, the route was to open Corrupted Reaper's Hoard with Superior Lair Keys and spend four Pandemonium Fragments plus a spare Unique for a random same-slot Mythic. Do not carry Season 14's four-fragment cost over to this season.
Rotate when: Stop once the single Crafted-tag slot is used or the main slot is Mythic. Only one Crafted-tag item can be equipped, so move to the Jeweler and Blacksmith for further slots.
OPEN RELATED GUIDE →Five Rules for Rotating Routes
5Spend as Soon as the Cost Is Met
Perform the Masterwork, gem craft, Hoard opening, or Mythic conversion first, then observe the actual next shortage. Do not overfarm from an assumption.
Prioritize Clear Consistency over Tier
Even when higher Torment improves rewards, lower it if deaths, timeouts, or long bosses reduce completed runs. There is no permanent ideal tier.
Overlap Only Natural Matches
Layer Whispers, War Plans, and seasonal objectives only when they match the primary route. The Tree of Whispers gained broadly higher caches in Patch 3.2.1 and is modified by all three Splinters in Season 15, making it the highest-value overlap. Do not stop the main resource loop for a distant detour.
Separate Item Targeting into Boss Lookup
When a specific Unique becomes necessary, leave general loot-volume farming and switch to its boss and key. Process one target at a time from the finished build.
Do Not Assume Seasonal Materials Roll Over
Spend season-only materials before that season ends, after checking recipes and rollover messaging. Do not stockpile them like evergreen materials. Season 14's Pandemonium Fragments stopped being a current route when Season 15 began on 15 September 2026, and the Mythic-crafting recipe itself changed in 3.2.1, so do not map the old costs onto this season.
Farming Guide Boundaries
7- No hourly rate, fixed drops per run, ideal tier, or exact Mythic drop chance is guaranteed; build, Torment, Sigil modifiers, and live events change the result.
- Nightmare Dungeons are a current Obducite, gear, and material route—not the primary Glyph-upgrade route. Use the Pit for Glyphs.
- War Plans and the Horadric Cube require Lord of Hatred. Base-game-only players use individual activities and the Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Alchemist routes.
- Pandemonium Fragments, Corrupted Reaper, and repeatable Glints rewards belong to the finished Season 14. Do not use them as current Season 15 Mythic routes, and do not carry the four-fragment cost into this season.
- Do not keep remembering the Cube's Mythic recipe as a random same-slot conversion. Patch 3.2.1's Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic is a 1:1 transfer that returns a Mythic version of the item you put in, so feeding it a spare only yields a Mythic spare.
- Confirm Lair-key costs and Hoard rules in the live Patch 3.1.1-or-later UI. Keys are spent on the post-kill Hoard, not on summoning the boss.
- Gear hidden by the Loot Filter also disappears from sale and salvage candidates. Verify a test drop after switching between Gold and material presets.
Important Corrections as of Patch 3.2.2
12- The Infernal Hordes Gold chest currently scales its Gold payout with Burning Aether spent.
- Helltide chest loot was improved, and Baleful Fragments can be converted into Forgotten Souls at the Alchemist.
- Gem Fragment drops increase at Torment X+, and that increase should not be applied to lower tiers.
- High-Torment Deathtoll Chambers guarantee at least one Superior Lair Key.
- Corrupted Reaper drops up to two Pandemonium Fragments by Torment, and repeatable Glints rewards guarantee one.
- The Horadric Cube's Mythic recipe became Upgrade Direct Item to Mythic in Patch 3.2.1 and is now a 1:1 transfer. It keeps every affix, Greater Affix, Temper, and Masterwork, but attaches a Crafted tag, and only one Crafted-tag item can be equipped at a time. It cannot be used on Unmodifiable items, and the Season 15 material cost is unpublished. Season 14's four-fragment random same-slot Mythic is history.
- Patch 3.2.1 raised Torment bonus Experience (X from 1200% to 1300%, XI from 1300% to 1500%, XII from 1400% to 1700%) and changed the Expert and Penitent unlock from completing the campaign to completing the Prologue.
- Patch 3.2.1 raised Tree of Whispers caches broadly: Experience Orbs from 3-5 to 4-6 with an additional 2-4 in Torment X and above, Gold roughly tripled, Gem Fragments roughly doubled, Cube and salvage materials by roughly two to three times, and Key Cache Offerings doubled with Sigil Powder up fivefold, plus a low chance of Mephisto's Keys and Echo Traces.
- Patch 3.2.1 lowered higher-gem costs: a Royal gem fell from 30 Forgotten Souls to 10 and a Grand gem from 300 to 50. Enchanting Ancestral items at the Occultist fell from 25 to 10.
- Patch 3.2.1 substantially increased Gem Fragments from elites at Torment X and above and sharply raised the chance of a random Royal gem. Do not apply that increase to tiers you have not reached.
- Patch 3.2.1 reduced Helltide Experience Orbs: Plague Maggot Larvae from Hellmouth nodes drop less often, and Harbingers of Agony and Plague Devourers now drop 1-2 instead of always 2.
- Patch 3.2.1 also adjusted Mythic Unique drops: lower-tier Lair Boss odds were raised to match higher-tier, and higher-tier and Belial were nudged up. Odds from random sources also rose, and all Uniques now drop from level 1 at every difficulty. The rates are unpublished.
Continue From Here
15Whispers and Grim Favors
Stack only matching Whispers and route the resulting cache.
Endgame Activity Comparison
Compare the roles of the Pit, Nightmare Dungeons, Helltide, Tower, and War Plans.
Boss and Key Reverse Lookup
Work backward from a desired Unique to its boss, Hoard, and key source.
War Plans Guide
For expansion owners, combine activities, Whispers, and the War Chest.
Loot Filter Guide
Switch visible drops for selling, salvage, and gear upgrades.
Corrupted Reaper Guide
Review Superior Keys, the Hoard, and Pandemonium Fragment flow.
Glints of Hope Reputation
Follow Reputation through its repeatable Fragment reward.
How to Make Mythic Uniques
Review the boundary between direct drops and the three crafting routes.
New and Returning Player Progression
Follow campaign, level 70, Torment, and gear-upgrade progression.
Current Build Index
Choose targets from current expansion-inclusive finished builds.
Combat Mechanics Guide
Diagnose missing defenses, multipliers, and triggers before choosing a farming target.
Build Diagnostics
Identify the missing gear or material before choosing a farming route.
Gear Upgrade Guide
Separate transition gear from keepers and farm only the required crafting materials.
Inventory and Stash
Choose material or Gold shortage before disposal.
Reference Lookup
Match material sinks to sources.