The Diablo series is a grindy one; it's part of the charm. Diablo 4 is no different, and whenever a game demands grinding, some heroic individuals will take it upon themselves to find the most optimal way to do so. One such route has been discovered in Diablo 4, using the Domhainne Tunnels dungeon, or the "Dopamine Tunnels", so named for the pleasurable feeling the amounts of XP earned within elicits.
Thanks to some of the tentatively positive changes introduced in patch 1.1.1, and as demonstrated by Raxxanterax, players can use the opening section to gain as many as 40 levels in just two hours. For comparison, it took us about 50 hours to reach level 50, playing through the campaign the old-fashioned way. Raxxanterax uses a specific Sorceress build to achieve this on Hardcore mode, but the general principles will apply to any class.

Have you already been using the "Dopamine Tunnels", or does this kind of farming method not appeal? We imagine Blizzard will likely take steps to limit or disrupt this particular loop in future updates, although there seems to be no sign of it in the patch notes for today's 1.1.2 patch (thanks, IGN).
Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 14
Seems like it would just ruin the game you paid for. I love gaming but I am older with terrible reflexes and usually so bad I have to lower difficulty but Diablo IV feels almost too easy, as is. Just my opinion but if you paid for the game you should be able to play it however you want. Outside of cheating in multiplayer, that's just stupid.
@tselliot 100% agree. Why ruin the game you have been waiting to play just to be over powered in a couple of hours? Although after finishing the campaign this could be of use for that hardcore level 50 trophy if its proving to be elusive.
Is Diablo really known as a grindy series? I beat D1 and D2 many times as a kid without really grinding.
@Northern_munkey When my friends got a week's head start I played my ass off to clear the game and try to catch up only to end up still a week behind my friends and still not able to play with them. I would've loved to be able to catch up with them in just two hours.
Sad, bud never will ever beat AC Odyssey where people purchased "XP Boost" dlcs to actually play less the game.
Too busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 so I don't care about Diablo 4 at all. Haven't even played it yet outside the beta and these types of farming methods make me even less inclined to ever purchase it, because that means that by the time I get to the game the grinding is going to be even worse after updates.
@tselliot It really depends on the situation. The itemization is horrible after a certain point that even in my 60s I was using gear from the 50s because nothing better was being dropped and WT3's gear is worthless because WT4 brings in a direct upgrade.
Plus there's really not that much to do in a game after a certain point especially when the gear drops are constantly lacking.
@4th_at_EVO yeah seems to be some serious item drough/awful itemization from 50 to 75, even going to world.T4 I was using level 60 gear as the level 70 legendary ancestral weren't as good, and that's just awful design coupled with awful exp from dungeons, blizzard are determined to annoy, they drip out these little updates with slight improvements and people just suck it up 🤣🤣
@chucksneed i'm not saying its wrong to play this way and if thats the way you want to then have at it. Personally i've waited such a long time for diablo 4 that i'm taking my time with it.
@chucksneed on D2 it takes literally months of nonstop grinding to hit level 100. Beating the game is never the end for Diablo.
@NinjaNicky Should a good game need something to "work for"? Battlefield got where it is now off the back of games where you had every weapon unlocked when you started the game up and could play the way you want without having to play an arbitrary length of time first
@JohntheRaptor Well sure, if you beat the game and continue playing it of course it's going to be a grind. You can do the same in any game though
While there is monster level scaling, there is no need for grinding. I've made little experiment. Currently I'm playing Necro lvl 44. Until lvl 42 I was using equip around lvl 6, than I equiped items around lvl 40 and... result was SAME! Around 3-6 hits to kill ordinary enemy. So... it doesn't matter how powerful equip is, only item attributes matter... a bit.
So, my friends, that is Diablo 4 about.
@NinjaNicky Ideally there'd be a (non-paid) option to unlock everything from the outset, that'd make everyone happy. Last year's CoD is one of the worst progression systems I've come across though, you're right about that
@Uromastryx Real tawk! They pretty much tanked everything simultaneously and are slowly relenting on some of their changes, but the fact of the matter is thus: they made almost everything intentionally worse.
They still haven't even addressed the awful dungeon objectives that have been complained about for a while.
@tselliot If a game makes you grind to have fun then the money you paid for it are already wasted. It should've been free to play.
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