While it wasn’t quite a full decade, it has been close to 10 years between the launch of Diablo 3 and the next entry in the insanely popular and addictive action-RPG series. However, instead of getting Diablo 4, fans were concerned to hear that Diablo Immortal, a free-to-play title for mobile and PC, would be the next entry in their beloved series. Thankfully, the initial hesitation and skepticism was unfounded, and the title is a true Diablo game from top to bottom.
While that’s perfect for longtime fans who have been slaying demons and raiding dungeons for years now, Diablo Immortal being free, and on mobile, means a ton of new adventurers are starting off with this game as their first entry. While the game does show you the ropes, there’s only so much it can do. This is a deep game, and some important aspects are either glossed over or not explained at all. Before you dive into your first dungeon, check out our beginner’s guide to Diablo Immortal to make sure you overcome the forces of evil.
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Select the right class
Your first decision upon starting up Diablo Immortal will be which of the game’s six character classes you want to play as. This is a major choice to make right away, though you can always pick another one if you’re OK with starting over — not only with levels but gear too, since you can’t transfer items between characters at the time of this writing. Rather than waste time experimenting with one that doesn’t click with you, we recommend doing a little research on the classes to see which one fits your playstyle best. For a more thorough breakdown of the classes, we have a more detailed guide on that to check out, but here’s a short breakdown to help you make a quick decision.
Barbarian
This is your super-aggressive, full-on melee attacker class. They’re meant to tank hits, and hit back even harder, making them a good choice for new players thanks to their easy-to-understand approach and skills.
Crusader
Another close-range fighter, only with some faith thrown in to buff their weapons and shields. This class has more AoE options than the Barbarian, so is a slight step up in terms of complexity.
Demon Hunter
This is a ranged fighter that can dish out a ton of damage but isn’t so great at taking it. They specialize in dealing tons of damage in single bursts, which is great for single targets, but not ideal for the common mobs that swarm you. Avoiding danger and staying at a distance will be a major component of playing this class.
Monk
The monk plays most similarly to the Barbarian, only is way more fragile. To make up for this, their kit has a lot more evasive and varied options, plus some great party buffs. However, because the skill ceiling is so high with them, they’re not very beginner-friendly.
Necromancer
Another great pick for beginners is the Necromancer. They, as you might imagine, can summon minions to do the dirty work for them, letting players stay out of the fray and simply build up an army while picking off enemies from a distance.
Wizard
If any class were to fit the description of a glass cannon, it’d be the Wizard. They have easily the highest damage potential of any class, wiping out entire waves in a single blast, but will go down in seconds if almost anything gets close. This is a tough pick for new players, especially if you’re playing solo.
Settings to change
Diablo Immortal lets you customize a great deal to make the game much more intuitive and even remove some annoying hiccups that for some reason are not changed by default. The first one you will want to change is the option to auto-pick up items. Go into Settings, and in General, turn this option on so that your character will vacuum up all the items dropped by enemies without you needing to click or tap on each one individually. Obviously, not all items you pick up are going to be good — you’re looting dozens of items per run — but especially early on you will want as much as possible to break down for upgrade materials.
Next, if you’re on mobile, consider raising or lowering the graphical settings. Not only will this directly affect your device’s battery life, letting you play longer, but also the FPS the game runs at. Diablo Immortal isn’t an FPS, but frame stuttering can still be a major problem when things get hectic, which is also when frames are most likely to drop.
Last, and this isn’t a setting so much as a feature to take advantage of, is the quest trail and auto-run. By selecting an active quest from your list, you will create a guide in the game that leads you to your destination to complete that quest. Once done, selecting it again will auto-navigate your character back to the location you need to go to turn it in for your reward. It isn’t quite as convenient as being teleported back once you’re done, but still very handy.
Master the inventory system
Diablo Immortal is almost as much an inventory management sim as it is an action RPG. You’re going to be getting a lot of loot all the time, and your inventory is going to be bursting before you know it. That means, as tedious as it may sound, cleaning out your bags before each dungeon run is an absolute essential part of your game. Always head to the blacksmith in town to break down all your useless, outdated, or unwanted gear for materials. Keeping it around will just mean you will have to leave it, or something new, behind that could otherwise have been scrapped.
The only exception is anything of Legendary rarity. Even if it’s not something you will want to use when you do reach the point where you can equip it, Legendary items do have a better use later in the game than being salvaged, so hold on until you unlock the Essence Transfer mechanic. This lets you take the power from any Legendary item and place it on another item.
Don’t be precious with resources — upgrade!
We’ve talked about salvaging for materials a bunch already, so hopefully that has made it clear that you should spend those materials freely on upgrading your gear even in the early game. You can only upgrade gear at Rare or higher quality levels, so you can’t buff up any common junk, but don’t hold off on buffing your Rare set because you know one day you’ll be getting Legendary stuff. Thanks to the rank transfer mechanic, all upgrades you dump into a piece of gear can be moved forward into your new set. That includes any gems you slot in, too, so make yourself as strong as possible as often as possible.
Teleport, don’t walk
Diablo Immortal wants to cut out as much downtime as possible. The best example of this is the quick travel function that you can access at any point by just opening up your map, selecting an area you’ve already been to and found the warp point, and selecting it. You’ll instantly be whisked to your destination, cutting out all travel times. This makes the process of offloading your inventory back at Westmarch much less tedious, and makes stocking up on potions and items a breeze.
That makes it all the more important to fully explore new areas the first time you arrive so that you can hit all the points of interest and unlock as many teleport points as possible. As a bonus, this also helps you earn Codex rewards.
Lessen the grind
Just following the main quests in Diablo Immortal will eventually lead you into a wall you’re just not strong enough to break through, or are simply outright told you need to hit a specific level requirement before you can move forward. This game isn’t meant to be mainlined like some RPGs, and instead all but forces you to do some grinding in other activities to level up enough to progress the main quest.
Gaining XP and leveling up can be done in dozens of ways. It can be as simple as grinding out mobs, to doing quests and side activities. Once you’re gated off from your main quests, though, you will want to know the fastest way to grind up XP to get back to your journey. The best ways to do this is by working on your battle pass, running dungeons, and completing bounties. The battle pass in particular gives you a lot of tasks with big XP payouts, and you’ll likely complete some of them before you hit any progression blockers. However, if it’s not too late, do not claim any battle pass rewards until you actually need them.
Interestingly, the battle pass XP rewards aren’t static amounts of XP, but actually scale depending on the level you are when you claim the reward, not the level you are when you complete the task. So, a battle pass XP reward you get while level 10, for example, is worth much more if you wait to claim it until you’re level 20 or 30.
Otherwise, try to stack as much together as possible, such as by taking the maximum 12 bounties from the board every time you go out.
Play with friends in a clan or Warband
Finally, Diablo Immortal is way more fun with friends. The game is free, so there’s no barrier to entry, and fully supports cross-play between mobile and PC, so no matter where your friends are, you can team up. The entire campaign is playable in a group, plus a ton of other activities, and even PvP if you’re looking for a bigger challenge. You can add friends and team up that way, but forming a clan or Warband can make it easier to all coordinate.
Warbands in particular are great for groups that you know you’ll be playing with consistently. They’re kept much smaller, but give everyone in them extra rewards whenever you and your Warband accomplish different tasks.
