In general the difficult curve in Diablo II: Resurrected is pretty smooth, so you generally won’t need to grind in order to be able to progress through the story. However, there are various circumstances in which you might want to level up particularly fast. For example, you might want to join friends online whose characters are all higher level than you, you might want to start a new character without slogging through the first Acts of the game, you might be impatient. Or yes, you might be stuck, particularly if you’re playing on higher difficulty.
Play online
In general, it’s better to play online in order to level up fast, especially with a full party of four, and ideally with three other players who are higher level than you, but not that much higher. The way EXP rewards work means that the lowest level player gets the biggest share, but only if the enemy killed is no more than five levels higher than the player who kills it.
Avoid playing on Hell or Nightmare difficulty
Yes, the EXP rewards are better on higher difficulty levels, but there are also harsh EXP penalties for dying. So, unless you’re already at such a high level that Normal difficulty isn’t rewarding enough, it’s not worth the risk of ramping up the challenge.
Related: How to beat Diablo in Diablo 2: Resurrected
Use experience shrines
Experience shrines are marked with a glowing scroll, and can greatly accelerate your leveling up as long as you use them smartly. That means running around the map avoiding combat until you find one then, once you find one, going berserk on the horde of enemies that have gathered in your wake.
Repeat high-EXP sections
Certain areas of the game have high concentrations of enemies of high level relative to how far into the story they are. These sections are worth repeating when leveling up fast, but only while your level is within 5 of the enemies encountered.
- Level 1 – 15: Tristram
- Level 15 – 25: Tal Rasha’s Tombs
- Level 25 – 40: The Chaos Sanctuary and Baal
