How to change World Tier difficulty in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 might seem like an easy game, what with its core “push a button to make number go up” mechanic. But Blizzard’s isometric action-RPG can still pose a serious challenge. You might even find yourself wanting to change the difficulty level (called World Tiers in Diablo 4 parlance).

What are the World Tier differences in Diablo 4?

During the Diablo 4 beta, you can play the game on two World Tiers:

1. World Tier 1 (adventurer): It’s the lowest difficult levels, essentially the “easy” or “story” setting you’d get from traditional games.
2. World Tier 2 (veteran): What you’d colloquially describe as “normal” difficulty in any other game. You’ll get a 20% boost to any earned XP and a 15% boost to any earned gold.

Both available of the two World Tiers currently available are intended for characters from levels 1 through 50. (The Diablo 4 beta caps characters at level 25.) The higher two World Tiers won’t be available until Blizzard releases the game in full on June 6.

How to change World Tier in Diablo 4

You can select which World Tier to play on when you’re loading into a game. You can’t adjust the difficulty from the settings or any other in-game menu, but you needn’t quit to the main menu to change it. You can also switch it on the fly at any World Tier Statue. For example, there’s one located in the northeast corner of Kyovashad, the first major city you reach.

Image: Blizzard/Activision via Polygon

What difficulty should you play Diablo 4 on?

There are two considerations when it comes to difficulty.

If you’re playing with a group, you may as well play on veteran (World Tier 2). You’ll earn more XP and gold, and enemies won’t swarm you as much.

If you’re playing by yourself, though, you’re better off sticking to the adventurer difficulty (World Tier 1). You won’t level up quite as fast, but you won’t die as frequently either. And since you can only roll once every five seconds — yes, even during the most tedious boss fights — that sounds like a fair trade to me.