Basic information on gaining experience in Diablo and Hellfire
- See also the experience sweet spot table.
Experience Gain
In Diablo I and Hellfire, there is no experience penalty for monsters too far above your level. (There is in D2.) There is a cap on the amount that can be gained per kill, in multiplayer at least. It is listed in the table below.
Experience awarded is the monster's experience value (listed on the monster pages) factored into the following equation:
base · (1.0 + 0.1·(mlvl - clvl))
Basically, monsters are worth 10% less for each level the Clvl exceeds the Mlvl. Characters with a Clvl 10 (or more) above the monster's level will receive no experience for the kill.
Experience Guidelines
Higher level monsters are always worth more experience, though this is often limited by the max exp cap in multiplayer. Low level characters will level up much more quickly if they continually descend deeper into the dungeon; though it's practically impossible to kill the monsters encountered, if you descend too quickly. (Barring twinked items.)
A rule of thumb:
- Clvl 20-25: Maximum experience in Hell or Crypt/Normal, Cats and deeper/Nightmare, and anywhere in Hell.
- Clvl 26-30: Sub-max experience in Crypt or Hell/Normal. Maximum in Caves, Hive, Hell, Crypt/Nightmare. Anywhere in Hell.
- Clvl 30-40: Minimal experience in Normal. Diminishing experience in Hell and Crypt/Nightmare. Maximum experience in Cats, Cave, Hive, Hell, Crypt/Hell. (Diminishing in Cats in the high 30s, but killing is so fast there with good spells that it's often still worth it.)
- Clvl 40+: Only Hell difficulty is useful for experience now. Diminishing gains in Hive and Caves, full in Hell and Crypt. Upper levels of Hell and Crypt start to be less than full into the high 40s.
Experience Requirements
Players must satisfy the following requirements to gain experience from a monster's death. The player must remain alive and on the same level between the time the requirements are met and the time the monster is killed, to gain experience.
- Killing the monster (melee, bow, or with a spell).
- Having your golem kill or deal damage to the monster.
- Dealing any damage to a monster that another player kills.
- Hitting a monster with an element that it's immune to does not deal any damage.
- Using Stone Curse does not deal damage or count towards gaining experience.
- Monsters killed by a Berserk monster (in Hellfire) do not give experience.
- Using Telekinesis on the monster. (Deals no damage, but still works.)
- Snotspill, Gharbad the Weak, Zhar the Mad, the Warlord of Blood, Lachdanan, Arch-Bishop Lazarus, Blackjade, and Red Vex are all immune to Telekinesis.
Hellfire Changes
Experience awarded for monsters from Diablo is unchanged in Hellfire. As for the new Hellfire monsters; those found in the Hive are equivalent to those in the Caves, and those found in the Crypt are equivalent to those in Hell.
Experience Tables
Adapted from Jarulf's Guide, with some added comparative statistics.
- Max exp: Experience is capped in multiplayer at Clvl * 200, past Clvl 5. There is no such cap in single player, so leveling up is much faster, especially at higher levels.
- Kills: How many kills of monsters worth the maximum experience would be required to level up. At low levels this is not feasible (barring super twinked gear) since your low level character can not hit or survive against monsters of high enough level to be worth the maximum experience. Even finding the stairs down to the next dungeon level without killing more sub-max exp monsters isn't possible.
- Total Kills: How many monsters worth the maximum experience must be killed to reach that level. This isn't feasible at low levels, for reasons detailed previously.
- Levels: There are about 180 monsters per dungeon level, after the slightly smaller levels 1 and 2. This figure gives you a rough idea how many levels you'll need to fully clear out to level up. For example, to go from Clvl 40 to 41 requires 6212 kills, which = about 34.5 dungeon levels, or about 9 games clearing out Hell (Dlvls 13-16).
Level | Experience | Increase | Increase in % | Max Exp | Kills | Total Kills | Levels |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2,000 | -- | 100 | 20 | 20 | <1 | |
2 | 2,000 | 2,620 | 131.0 | 231 | 12 | 32 | <1 |
3 | 4620 | 3,420 | 74.0 | 402 | 9 | 41 | <1 |
4 | 8040 | 4,449 | 55.3 | 624 | 7 | 48 | <1 |
5 | 12,489 | 5,769 | 46.2 | 912 | 7 | 55 | <1 |
6 | 18,258 | 7,454 | 40.8 | 1200 | 6 | 61 | <1 |
7 | 25,712 | 9,597 | 37.3 | 1400 | 7 | 68 | <1 |
8 | 35,309 | 12,313 | 34.9 | 1600 | 8 | 76 | <1 |
9 | 47,622 | 15,742 | 33.1 | 1800 | 9 | 84 | <1 |
10 | 63,364 | 20,055 | 31.7 | 2000 | 11 | 95 | <1 |
11 | 83,419 | 25,460 | 30.5 | 2200 | 12 | 106 | <1 |
12 | 108,879 | 32,207 | 29.6 | 2400 | 14 | 120 | <1 |
13 | 141,086 | 40,597 | 28.8 | 2600 | 16 | 135 | <1 |
14 | 181,683 | 49,392 | 27.2 | 2800 | 18 | 153 | <1 |
15 | 231,075 | 82,581 | 35.7 | 3000 | 28 | 181 | <1 |
16 | 313,656 | 110,411 | 35.2 | 3200 | 35 | 215 | <1 |
17 | 424,067 | 147,123 | 34.7 | 3400 | 44 | 258 | <1 |
18 | 571,190 | 195,379 | 34.2 | 3600 | 55 | 313 | <1 |
19 | 766,569 | 258,585 | 33.7 | 3800 | 69 | 381 | <1 |
20 | 1,025,154 | 341,073 | 33.3 | 4000 | 86 | 466 | <1 |
21 | 1,366,227 | 448,341 | 32.8 | 4200 | 107 | 573 | <1 |
22 | 1,814,568 | 587,327 | 32.4 | 4400 | 134 | 706 | <1 |
23 | 2,401,895 | 766,756 | 31.9 | 4600 | 167 | 873 | 0.9 |
24 | 3,168,651 | 997,549 | 31.5 | 4800 | 208 | 1081 | 1.2 |
25 | 4,166,200 | 1,293,323 | 31.0 | 5000 | 259 | 1340 | 1.5 |
26 | 5,459,523 | 1,670,973 | 30.6 | 5200 | 322 | 1661 | 1.8 |
27 | 7,130,496 | 2,151,378 | 30.2 | 5400 | 399 | 2059 | 2.3 |
28 | 9,281,874 | 2,760,218 | 29.7 | 5600 | 493 | 2552 | 2.8 |
29 | 12,042,092 | 3,528,939 | 29.3 | 5800 | 609 | 3161 | 3.5 |
30 | 15,571,031 | 4,495,869 | 28.9 | 6000 | 750 | 3910 | 4.2 |
31 | 20,066,900 | 5,707,505 | 28.4 | 6200 | 921 | 4831 | 5.2 |
32 | 25,774,405 | 7,219,994 | 28.0 | 6400 | 1129 | 5959 | 6.3 |
33 | 32,994,399 | 9,100,803 | 27.6 | 6600 | 1379 | 7,338 | 7.5 |
34 | 42,095,202 | 11,430,609 | 27.2 | 6800 | 1681 | 9,019 | 9.3 |
35 | 53,525,811 | 14,305,407 | 26.7 | 7000 | 2044 | 11,063 | 11.4 |
36 | 67,831,218 | 17,838,843 | 26.3 | 7200 | 2478 | 13,540 | 13.7 |
37 | 85,670,061 | 22,164,762 | 25.9 | 7400 | 2996 | 16,536 | 16.6 |
38 | 107,834,823 | 27,439,976 | 25.4 | 7600 | 3610 | 20,146 | 20 |
39 | 135,274,799 | 33,847,210 | 25.0 | 7800 | 4340 | 24,486 | 24.1 |
40 | 169,122,009 | 41,598,222 | 24.6 | 8000 | 5200 | 29,685 | 28.9 |
41 | 210,720,231 | 50,937,022 | 24.2 | 8200 | 6212 | 35,897 | 34.5 |
42 | 261,657,253 | 62,143,167 | 23.7 | 8400 | 7398 | 43,295 | 41.1 |
43 | 323,800,420 | 75,535,020 | 23.3 | 8600 | 8784 | 52,078 | 48.8 |
44 | 399,335,440 | 91,472,909 | 22.9 | 8800 | 10,395 | 62,473 | 57.8 |
45 | 490,808,349 | 110,362,065 | 22.5 | 9000 | 12,263 | 74,735 | 68.1 |
46 | 601,170,414 | 132,655,203 | 22.1 | 9200 | 14,420 | 89,154 | 80.1 |
47 | 733,825,617 | 158,854,605 | 21.6 | 9400 | 16,900 | 106,054 | 93.9 |
48 | 892,680,222 | 190,228,390 | 21.3 | 9600 | 19,816 | 125,869 | 100.1 |
49 | 1,082,908,612 | 227,798,497 | 21.0 | 9800 | 23,245 | 149,114 | 129.1 |
50 | 1,310,707,109 | 272,788,700 | 20.8 | 10000 | 27,279 | 176,393 | 151.7 |
Max | 1,583,495,809 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Diablo I - Hellfire [e]
Basics Quests Skills Monsters |
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Diablo I Basics [e] | ||||
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Uniques |
Base Items |
Miscellaneous Items |
Characters |
Other Essentials |
Quest General Info - Quest Items[e] | ||||
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Church |
Catacombs |
Caves |
Hell |
Hellfire Quests |
Diablo I Spells | Hellfire Spells [e] | ||||
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• Apocalypse |
• Firebolt |
• Heal Other |
• Nova |
• Berserk |
• Mana |