A single Diablo 4 dungeon is so stuffed with monsters you can gain 40 levels in under 2 hours

Diablo 4's Cormund with allies in the background and demons in the foreground

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Diablo 4 players have discovered a dungeon with enemies packed so tight you can use it to level up from 1 to 40 in around 2 hours.

Patch 1.1.1 dumped 50% more monsters in Diablo 4's Nightmare Dungeons. The way the patch notes are written, it didn't seem like newly created characters could benefit from the buff until they're around level 50 and use an item to turn a normal dungeon into its Nightmare version. But it looks like Blizzard might have buffed both versions.

The opening section of Domhainne Tunnels (map link), a dungeon located in the middle of Scosglen, is now brimming with monsters in its normal version. I compared videos of players running it from a few weeks ago to how it looks now and found the number of monsters has been substantially increased since the patch. With one specific method, it's now the fastest way to level up in Diablo 4's first season.

Diablo 4 content creator Raxxanterax previously identified Domhainne Tunnels as one of the best Nightmare Dungeons to repeat for XP once you're already around level 50. In a new video, however, he was able to use its opening section to go from level 1 to 40 in a fraction of the time it would take you to finish the first two acts of the campaign.

Here's the strategy for leveling up fast in Domhainne Tunnels:

Enter the Domhainne Tunnels in Scosglen (map link)
Fight through the dungeon in a circle without freeing the prisoners
Open your emote wheel (E) and use "Leave Dungeon"
Open your Journal (J) and select "Reset Dungeon"
Re-enter the dungeon and clear through the enemies again
Repeat

If you need to sell or salvage items, you can teleport to town instead of leaving the dungeon in step 3, reset it, and then re-enter your portal to run it again.

Sorcerers who use Chain Lightning or Twisting Blades Rogues can easily sweep through the huge packs of enemies quickly. You don't even need to stop running; just periodically pause and kill everything around you until there's nothing left.

Domhainne Tunnels is so fast that Diablo 4 speedrunners used it to shave almost 40 minutes off of the world record times to reach World Tier 3. Speedrunner Jymnasium uploaded a one hour and 23 minute run today using the method and were able to crush the level 50 Capstone Dungeon boss as a level 30 Sorceress. Jymnasium's previous run without Domhainne Tunnels and as a Necromancer took almost two hours.

Blizzard tends to fix dungeons with way too many enemies quickly because it's not a fan of people spending their entire leveling experience in a cave, but Domhainne Tunnels has been untouched for several days. And the notes for Patch 1.1.2—which will go live on August 15—make no mention of it. So, if you need to race to Diablo 4's endgame to grab that obscenely overpowered Malignant Heart, this is your chance.

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.