Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons Guide – List of all 30 Dungeons (Season 2 Upd.)

Tips and Tricks for the Diablo IV Endgame in the Nightmare Dungeons

Welcome to my Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons Guide. I have now played three characters to level 100 and more are “in the works”, I meanwhile play Nightmare Dungeons up to Nightmare level 100 solo and in a group as well. Maybe that’s an indicator that I already have some experience with what I’m writing here.

Currently, everything on this page refers to “Season 2”, so the tips are meant for the game in the state of the updates for Season 2, which had a release date of Oct. 15th, 2023 for balancing and content patch. After that I will try to keep this guide as up-to-date as possible, at least as long as I want to play the game, but probably even after that.

I hope you find some helpful information here, there is also a comment function at the bottom, where you can also ask me questions, or leave your opinion.

Then have fun with the Diablo IV Nightmare Dungeons Guide – My collection of all tips and tricks, info, and help around the Nightmare Dungeons and the Endgame leveling in Diablo 4.

Basics and Fundamentals about Nightmare Dungeons in Diablo 4 – FAQ

Note: This article is still under construction. More info will be added, questions answered, etc. Last update from 11/09/2023 – List of all Season 2 Nightmare dungeons added, some typos fixed, more details added

So what are nightmare dungeons exactly?

In the endgame of Diablo 4, you can switch dungeons to a higher difficulty level with so-called nightmare sigils. The monsters have a fixed level, which depends on the level of the Nightmare sigil. In addition, the player gets a small additional advantage and the monsters get several advantages so that each nightmare dungeon differs more or less from the normal game.

A very important difference from normal dungeons is that you only get a limited number of revives. In Nightmare Dungeons from levels 1-20 you get 12 revives, and in levels 21-100 you get 4 revives. Once you have used them up and die, the dungeon ends immediately and all players are removed from the dungeon.

Here, only pressing the “Revive” button in the interface counts as a revive. If you are in a group and resurrect each other, this does not use up any resurrection from this pool.

The two big advantages of Nightmare Dungeons, and the main reason you play them, is that on the one hand, you get a lot more experience to level up as you play higher dungeons and higher difficulty levels. So that’s a great way to speed up leveling. On top of that, you can level the glyphs that are used in the Paragon board here and get additional stats and strength for your character, more on that below.

What are the requirements for Nightmare Dungeons in Diablo 4? How to unlock Nightmare Dungeons?

To be able to start Nightmare Dungeons at all, you must fulfill the following conditions with your character:

• at least level 50
• Campaign completed
• unlocked at least T3 Nightmare difficulty (special dungeon required)

You can enter Nightmare Dungeons before level 50 if you are invited to do so by larger players. This brings a large number of experience points and is also often used for so-called power leveling. You will probably die quite often, but you can level up in a very short time.

What is the meaning of the levels of the Nightmare Dungeons in Diablo 4?

In the beginning, you start with level 1 Nightmare sigils. The enemies in this level of Nightmare dungeons are level 54. With each further level of the dungeon, the level of the enemies also increases. Levels 1 through 20 are only available in World Rank 3 Nightmare (T3). To play level 21 or higher, you must be in the World Rank 4 Torment (T4).

The highest Nightmare level in Diablo 4 that you can currently reach is Nightmare 100 (NM100) and the monsters there are level 154. Since you can only reach level 100 yourself, this requires extremely good play, the best equipment, and almost always a well-coordinated team. There are players who run NM100 solo, but this is probably only the very best players.

As a rule of thumb, you can remember the following formula to estimate the level of the monsters and thus the difficulty in a Nightmare Dungeon:

Level of the Nightmare Sigil + 53 = Level of the monsters in the Nightmare Dungeon

How to upgrade nightmare sigils?

Unfortunately, nightmare sigils cannot be upgraded at all. You can only destroy them at the occultist and get the resource sigil powder for it. From this sigil powder, you can then build new ones while choosing a level range. However, when you destroy nightmare sigils, you get much less sigil powder than you use for new ones.

How to get more nightmare sigils?

There are various ways to get Nightmare Sigils in the game. For example, they can be found at Helltides, Legion events, World Bosses, or actually all events. There is probably even a small chance of finding Nightmare sigils from normal monsters or in small containers as well.

When dropping whisper quests (Whispering Tree containers), you also almost always get 1-2 nightmare sigils in addition. Furthermore, a lot of nightmare sigils drop in nightmare dungeons, mostly at the level of the respective dungeon or plus/minus a few levels.

If you have destroyed unwanted sigils, you can craft new sigils from the sigil powder gained from them at the occultist.

Where can you craft nightmare sigils in Diablo 4 and how?

When you reach level 50 and have unlocked the glyphs and nightmare dungeons, you can dismantle unwanted nightmare sigils at the occultist in each capital and get sigil powder for them. In another tab of the occultist you also have the possibility to craft new nightmare sigils.

You can choose from which level range the nightmare sigil should be generated. So you have some control over the level of your nightmare sigils. But of course, all dungeon affixes are randomly diced, so you still very often get sigils that you might prefer not to play.

How to level glyphs in Nightmare Dungeons?

This is very easy, provided you actually finish the Nightmare Dungeons you started at the end. Because when you complete the last task, whether it’s the final boss or a different mission, a pedestal appears. If you click on this nightmare pedestal, you get a selection of your existing glyphs displayed and can then put the experience (EP) received on the glyph stones.

These have their own experience bar and can be brought up to level 21 in total, which increases their power and the advantages they grant enormously. Leveling the glyphs that you have built into the Paragon boards is extremely important in order to survive in the endgame. From this you can get a lot of points for attack and defense, but also sometimes very special passive abilities.

It is recommended to first level the glyphs that you really inserted, these are specially marked in the list. And for very many glyphs level 15 is a particular limit, because with this level the effect radius on the Paragon board expands, so you can use more Paragon nodes there to increase the strength of the glyph.

The amount of glyph experience per Nightmare Dungeon Run can be easily calculated with the following formula:

(Nightmare Dungeon Level * 2) + 2 = Glyph Exp

How do nightmare sigils work?

Upon completion of the quest to unlock World Rank 3 named Nightmare, or T3 difficulty as it is also called, you get a small tutorial quest in which you are supposed to activate a Nightmare Sigil once. The very first sigil you get when accepting this quest in Kyovashad.

The next nightmare sigils you get from the Whispering Tree from the reward boxes for the Whispering Quests. Just complete the tree quests, collect the reward at 10 points from the Whispering Tree, and soon you will find the first sigils in your consumables bag. Later, especially in the nightmare dungeons themselves, you’ll get a few sigils on almost every run, sometimes 5 or more per run.

And the most logical thing to conclude, a nightmare dungeon is started by right-clicking on the corresponding sigil in the consumables bag. This will start a vote if you are in a group, of course, this is not necessary if you are solo.

After that, the corresponding dungeon is made visible on the map with a special marker, and with some patches, you can even teleport there directly. If you click on the symbol of the nightmare dungeon on the map, you get the option to port there. However, you will be standing BEFORE the entrance, not in the instance. So you have to click on the entrance again to get started.

Tips and Tricks for how to behave in Nightmare Dungeons

Of course, there are no rules about how someone has to behave in a game. That would be pretty stupid, after all, it’s supposed to be fun. And making rules is the best way to spoil fun for yourself and others.

Nevertheless, there are some things that might help you as a player and/or as a member of a party in Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons.

• It’s best to never click on crates when you’re still fighting.
  
  In Nightmare Dungeons, the chance that crates will spawn additional monsters when opened is greatly increased. And if you’re already in the middle of a fight, possibly close to the stress limit, it’s quite risky to spawn additional monsters by carelessly opening a crate. This is especially important with gold crates (the ones with the gold rim/lights under the lid. Because different things can happen here in Nightmare Dungeons.
  
  • Option 1: Treasure Guard – When approaching the gold crate, a Named Elite with multiple affixes will appear and must be killed before the crate can be opened.
  • Option 2: The crate spawns a group of monsters, which often includes multiple elites for gold crates.
  • Option 3: It launches the Cursed Treasure Chest event, which is effectively a full 5-attack wave event, as known from other events in the outside world.
    
• Boosts Pillars – Likewise, if possible, do not click if you are still in the fight
  
  Actually, almost the same applies here as with the chests. Buff columns can be cursed. And they may also start a 5-attack wave event with numerous elite opponents.
  
• Detect cursed blood wells thanks to an icon bug
  
  Blood wells can also be cursed, but there is currently a small bug. Normally, blood wells are displayed with their own icon on the minimap, which indicates a well with a heart. With cursed blood wells, however, the minimap shows the icon of a buff column. So, if you look closely, you can recognize these cursed blood wells as the cursed version before you click on them.
  
• Pull back of strong groups of opponents
  
  If you can already see through the door that a strong group is coming next, or maybe you have already wiped on it once, you should pull groups back to the already secured territory. This has the advantage that if all or part of the group dies, you can pick up the bodies more easily. No one can pick up a corpse that is in the middle of a group of monsters.
  
  Sometimes you can also separate larger groups into several parts this way if you pull carefully.
  
• Prisoners and other quest items can also spawn monsters.
  
  In many dungeons, you have to free prisoners, activate pillars, put things on pedestals, etc. Very, very often these actions are also provided with extra monster spawns. So here too, if possible, first complete all active combat actions before activating such things.

The dungeon affixes of the Nightmare sigils, their meaning, and rating

Each nightmare sigil has one advantage for the players and two to four disadvantages (or better said advantages for the monsters), depending on the level of the sigil. From level 1 to 10 there are two disadvantages, from level 10 to 20 three, or finally four disadvantages from level 21 to 100. These advantages and disadvantages are called “dungeon affixes”.

I will list here what advantages and disadvantages these affixes offer, and a brief assessment of each by myself. You should simply not use certain Nightmare Dungeon sigils if the disadvantages are too much against your own playstyle, character skills, and elements. And in a group, you have to be even more careful which sigils you start, so that group members are not “neutralized” by the disadvantages of the sigils.

For example, if I were to start a sigil as a shadow necro where the monsters have 60% resistance to shadow magic, I would only do 40% damage and go down without mercy, no matter how well I play. Such a sigil is always destroyed immediately by me.

An important factor for me in choosing which sigils to play and which ones to destroy, is also which monster types are present in a dungeon. For example, I hate the red ghosts, as their archers, lay a trail on the floor that you can often overlook, and that can cause one-hit deaths even from non-elites if things go awry. Exploders (those little glowing gnub balls with legs) are another item where I’m more likely to break the sigil, or at least not go into the dungeon at very high levels.

And sometimes the combinations of disadvantages or combinations of certain disadvantages with monster types result in special dangers. Since this info is not written anywhere, I started to note exactly which monsters appear in which dungeon, from this, the list of all Diablo 4 nightmare dungeons with all info was created, which you can find below.

Positive Nightmare Dungeon Affixes:

Basically, I don’t see any positive aspect as a reason to disassemble a sigil and not play it. I’m happy when there’s something nice on it, but if the effect is not useful, it doesn’t bother me so much that I would disassemble a sigil because of that.

• +15% Frost Damage, Poison Damage, Physical Damage, Lightning Damage, etc.
  
  It only brings you something if you really do exactly this kind of damage anyway. If you only do frost damage, you get nothing out of doing 15% more physical damage, because 0 times 1.15 is still exactly zero. So very often these benefits are irrelevant and don’t add up to any benefit in the end. But I wouldn’t destroy a sigil right away because of that if the negative affixes aren’t too bad
  
• Reduce Cooldowns on Kill – Killing a monster reduces your cooldowns by .2 seconds
  
  A wonderful perk that should actually really benefit every player. More and faster usable skills equals more damage, faster take-downs, and fewer player deaths. Unless you are an uber-hero and killing everything with a one-shot, then you would not read such a guide like this.
  
• Nudging Evade – Using Evade pushes enemies back
  
  If you dodge with evade, you can knock down enemies, this even works sometimes with bosses. Good for everyone.
  
• Battle Hardened – gain 6% damage reduction for each 10% Health you are missing
  
  The more you get hurt, the more resistant you become, which is of course great and a real advantage for every character type. Unless you’re so easy to defeat that you’re almost always a one-hit victim anyway, then this advantage doesn’t help at all, because it won’t be activated unless you’re injured in between.
  
• Goldfindbonus
  
  30% more gold, who wouldn’t want that?
  
• Deadly Acceleration – Killing a monster grants 2% attack and movement speed
  
  Wonderful affix, this way everything goes a bit faster, I like it.
  
• Increased Healing – Your Healing received is increased by 10%
  
  More healing, less dying, at least this improves your chances of survival.
  
• Control-impaired explosions – Being hit by control-impairing effects creates an explosion around you
  
  Effectively damages all enemies in your near distance every time one of them stuns, freezes, or slows you.
  
• Physical Damage – You deal 10% more physical damage
  
  Great for Barbarians and Rogues, but also useful for necromancers, as many of their spells deal physical damage as well.

Negative Nightmare Dungeon Affixes:

Preliminary note: The up to four negative affixes of a nightmare sigil are divided into different categories. Each subcategory has its own possible entries and these do not change. Categories 1 and 3 are, in my eyes, the two that most strongly decide whether I use or destroy a sigil.

The entries in categories 2 and 4 are also negative for us as players, but mostly not so relevant to my decision. So for now, I’ll just list the entries from 1 and 3, and write my assessment of each.

Category 1:

• Empowered Elites (X) – Elites always have the X Affix
  
  This affix exists in the variants
  • Poison Enchanted – Poison damage from stains on the ground.
  • Ice Enchanted – Instant freeze on high frost damage attacks (to be removed 08/08).
  • Shock Lance – Small balls of lightning appear, causing a lance of lightning to spin around them
  • Suppressor – Opponents have a protective bubble over them. In order to properly hurt the enemies, you have to stand in the bubble, so mostly forced melee combat
    
    How dangerous this is depends very, very much on your group composition. The ice affix is usually a no-go for solo players because the freeze really paralyzes you for about 2 secs and if several of these elites show up at once, it can lead to permanent stuns with subsequent death. In a group you can often still balance this out. Poison Enchanted and Shock Lance often require you to change locations in the middle of combat so you can avoid the “infested” areas. However, I find that this can usually still be managed well. The suppressor is a real problem, especially for pure ranged fighters, but it doesn’t bother melee fighters at all.

• Nightmare Portal – In battle, nightmare portals randomly open near players, from which dangerous monsters pour
  
  About once per battle, a portal appears, which can spit out about 4-8 enemies, depending on the difficulty level. These are mostly normal monsters, rarely an elite. Since you do nightmare dungeons mainly for leveling, I always see this as a welcome extra EXP and see no real reason to sort out sigils because of it. Of course, if you’re very, very close to not being able to complete the dungeon, additional monsters can possibly tip the balance and trigger a complete wipe.
  
• Avenger – Killing a Monster enrages monsters near it after a short delay, making them deal more damage
  
  With each enemy that dies, the nearby monsters get an attack buff. This has a particularly strong effect when you pull monsters together and make larger groups at once. Therefore, I always sort out this affix immediately. All sigils with this affix are being destroyed by me.
  
• Death Pulse – Killing a monster releases a deadly lightning pulse after a short delay
  
  Again, if you have larger groups, this effect will take you down very, very quickly. In my opinion, one of the worst affixes is always immediately disassembled with me.
  
• Volcanic – While in combat gouts of flames periodically erupt near player
  
  In battle, lava explosions appear on the floor. If you have multiple escape charges, this is usually not so bad. However, if you only have to get by with a single escape, or have trouble detecting ground effects in the thick of battle anyway and dodge quickly enough, you should avoid this. I always destroyed this in the beginning, but now this affix is no longer an exclusion criterion for me because I have become more proficient in dodging and have 4 escape charges through Unique shoes.
  
• Blood Blister – Killing a monster has a chance to spawn a blood blister. After a short time, it explodes, dealing heavy area damage.
  
  These blood blisters can be destroyed, but this must happen very quickly. If you don’t make it, there is a bigger explosion, which produces plenty of damage and can possibly wipe out a whole group if it happens at inopportune moments. I actually always avoid these because they require quick burst damage, and usually, the really good skills are just on cooldown then. My recommendation, avoid, rather dismantle sigils with the blood blister affix.
  
• Drifting Shade – Drifting Shade chases players. Upon reaching them, it explodes for heavy damage and creates a Nightmare field that dazes victims
  
  Another option, which I destroy immediately. A shadow field sneaks up from behind, explodes in your face, puts you in a field of darkness, and makes you unable to use skills until you escape from it. How wonderful, that is what we really do not want while fighting 5 Elites.
  
• Storm Bane’s Wraith – Storm Bane’s Wraith chases players around, releases deadly pulses when reaching a player
  
  Ever wanted a stalker, following you in a damage that is already challenging and hitting you with additional deadly attacks, while you are fighting hordes of mobs? This could be your new “friend”. Nope, I always break these sigils into powder, I don’t like stalkers.
  
• Lightning Storm – Lightning gathers above the player. Get into the protection dome to avoid severe outcomes
  
  In the first levels, this lightning is easy to ignore because it does hardly any damage there. However, as the level increases, this changes. So around NM 20-25, I started to dismantle all sigils with this affix because this mechanic annoys me a lot. There is a flying cross following the group, but it is often behind and sometimes changes directions uncontrollably. And unfortunately, the game is very often not able to position the protective dome near the group, if the corridors are narrow, or in cellars are narrow corridors, the dome is sometimes placed in the next larger room instead of near the group and then the way is unmanageable far. Therefore, actually not super dangerous, but in many instances, due to the poorly made mechanics, an exclusion criterion for me.
  

Category 3:

• Monster X resist – Monsters take 30/40/60 % less X damage
  
  Theoretically, all types of damage can appear here, but they do not. So I have never seen a sigil that offers the monsters resistance against blood damage or darkness damage from the necro, shadow damage, on the other hand, is relatively frequent, and in 2 variants, normal shadow damage and shadow damage over time.
  
  Here I would clearly say, that if a sigil has a resistance affix, against a damage type that is clearly opposed to your char, or one of your party members, you better not play it. It’s just not fun to run through an NM instance with 30%, 40%, or even 60% (both can happen) less damage.
  
• Monster life theft – monsters that are not bosses get 15% life theft
  
  I find this aspect to be relatively harmless. Sometimes it can get a little tougher with individual elite enemies, but most of the time you don’t really notice this vampire regeneration of the monsters. It’s completely irrelevant, especially when enemies are shot down from afar anyway before they can get into close combat.
  
• Monster Life – Monsters gain 30% extra life
  
  This can be the decisive reason for a wipe in dungeons that are at the tipping point. But if you get along reasonably well, the 30% more won’t bother you. For me one of the least bad affixes from category 3.
  
• Monster Regen – Non-boss Monsters, regen 1.5 % maximum life per second.
  
  Hardly noticeable actually, can sometimes be difficult if an opponent has a protective dome, or additionally brings the normal monster affix Vampiric. But aside from that, not a deal-breaker, and barely noticeable at all, I think.
  
• Ranged defenders – Monsters take 30/40/60% less damage from distant targets
  
  Are you a ranged class? Then this is an absolute NoGo, if not great. The game differentiates between three states near you, normal, and distant and if you can fight in close combat or medium distance this is fine.
  
• Monster Barrier – Monsters gain 30% of their maximum life as a barrier
  
  Like Max Life, this simply means we have to do 30% more damage. Therefore, this affix is not a hindrance unless the level is so high that it is questionable whether you can do it anyway.
  
  

The Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeon List – What happens in which Nightmare Dungeon? EP rating, quests, monster types, regions, locations

Here is a list of all the dungeons that have been available as Nightmare Sigil so far. When a new season starts, the available dungeons will rotate, i.e. the previous ones will be discontinued, and 30 new ones will be added to the list. We will complete the list shortly after the release of a new season until all 120 dungeons in the list are available. Of course, many of the details also apply to the normal versions of the respective dungeons.

Below, you will get detailed information about each dungeon in Diablo 4. In the list, you will find a rating of how effective each dungeon is when it comes to leveling, so a rough rating of how much XP you get per time. It lists how good it is for character leveling, glyph leveling, and overall if you find both equally important.

The rating is given in plain text and also in grades, where S (Superior) corresponds to a school grade 1, so to speak, A to a 2, B to a 3, C to a 4, and D to a 5-6. There is also a rating of rank, so to speak, the place in the top list of all dungeons when it comes to leveling. Of course, this rating is a bit fuzzy, since it’s based on the time needed per instance of a given player group, and each group acts at a different rate. But at least you get a rough impression of which dungeons can be played through quickly, and where you’ll spend a lot of time.

You also get to know what dangers are lurking in which dungeon, which types of monsters have to be fought, which tasks have to be fulfilled, and whether there is a final boss to defeat, and if so, which one. After all, everyone has his or her own hate monsters and monster types that are better to deal with. From the number of tasks, you can roughly tell how extensive an instance will be.

Note: To see more info about the particular dungeon, just click on the name to expand the box.

Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeon List Season 2

Nightmare Dungeon List Season 1

Nightmare Dungeon List Season 0
(Outdated at the moment and still in German)

Hhelpful Links for Diablo 4 and Sources:

Reddit Thread with EXP ratings for the Dungeons

Tool for more effective Search for aspects

Helltide Tracker

Interactive Diablo 4 Map