Diablo 4: Guide to Clearing the Nightmare Depths Dungeon for Fast XP

1. Why Nightmare Depths Is the Best XP Farm in Season 9

While many dungeons offer XP, Nightmare Depths stands out for several reasons:

Monster Density: Packed with elites and clustered trash mobs, allowing AoE skills to shred everything.

Efficient Layout: A mostly linear design with very few dead ends. No wasted time wandering.

Elite Packs: Each run guarantees multiple elites, which not only drop loot but provide the bulk of XP.

Seasonal Buffs: Season 9 affixes increase elite modifiers, which means more XP multipliers from farming them.

Nightmare Sigils: You can easily craft Nightmare Depths Sigils, so it’s always accessible in endgame.

In short, it’s fast, reliable, and scales perfectly with higher world tiers.

2. How to Unlock and Access Nightmare Depths

Campaign Requirement: Complete the main story campaign to unlock Nightmare Dungeons.

Sigil Crafting: Visit the Occultist to craft Nightmare Sigils once you’ve unlocked them through the Tree of Whispers.

Finding Nightmare Depths: This dungeon’s base version is located in Scosglen. Use its base dungeon as a sigil target or roll Nightmare Depths directly when crafting.

Pro Tip: If you can’t craft the sigil right away, run Whispers in Scosglen until one drops naturally.

3. Best Builds for Nightmare Depths Farming

Clearing efficiently depends on having the right build. Nightmare Depths rewards AoE-heavy, fast-moving setups. Here are top options in Season 9:

Sorcerer – Chain Lightning / Ball Lightning Hybrid

Excels at bouncing through tightly packed mobs.

Synergizes perfectly with dense hallways.

High mobility with Teleport keeps you zooming.

Rogue – Twisting Blades or Penetrating Shot

Twisting Blades ricochets through groups in tight corridors.

Penetrating Shot pierces and clears entire lanes at once.

Shadow Step makes repositioning easy in elite fights.

Barbarian – Whirlwind / Dust Devils

Still one of the fastest trash-clear builds.

Generates Fury endlessly in dense mob packs.

Pairs well with high item drop rates to sustain gear upgrades.

Necromancer – Minionless Bone Spear

Bone Spear pierces entire hallways, perfect for linear dungeon design.

Corpse generation from density means consistent damage scaling.

Druid – Pulverize with Ursine Strength

Pulverize slams entire groups in a single hit.

Natural tankiness helps in higher sigil tiers.

4. Prepping Your Runs

Before diving in, maximize efficiency with these steps:

Sigil Level – Aim for a Nightmare Depths Sigil that’s just challenging enough for your gear. If it’s too high, deaths will slow you down.

Affix Rerolling – Reroll bad affixes at the Occultist. Avoid ones that punish your build (e.g., Resistant to Physical if you’re a Barbarian).

Elixir Buffs – Always drink an XP-boosting Elixir before the run. The extra 5–8% adds up fast.

Party Play – XP scales with party size. If you can, run with a group where each player clears sections of the dungeon simultaneously.

5. Dungeon Layout and Strategy

The Nightmare Depths dungeon is fairly straightforward, but knowing its patterns helps maximize XP per minute.

A. First Section – Trash Clearing

Upon entering, focus on big pulls.

Gather mobs by kiting them into groups before unloading AoE.

Use movement skills to skip stragglers—don’t waste time on single enemies.

B. Elite Packs

Expect 2–3 elites per major hallway.

Burst them down quickly for XP spikes.

Use cooldowns aggressively—by the time you reach the next pack, they’ll be back up.

C. Key Objectives

Some sigil modifiers add objectives like killing specific elites or destroying obelisks.

Complete them while maintaining momentum—avoid doubling back if possible.

D. Boss Room

The final boss isn’t a huge XP source, but you need to kill it to finish the run.

Enter with full cooldowns and resources.

Boss fights can be skipped if you chain Nightmare Depths runs in groups, with one player resetting while others finish.

6. Efficient XP Farming Tactics

To maximize XP per hour, adopt these habits:

Chain Pulling: Always move forward while grouping enemies behind you, then nuke them together.

Skip Chests: Loot slows you down. Only stop for legendary or ancestral drops.

Group Coordination: In a party, assign directions. Don’t overlap clears.

Reset Quickly: After finishing, teleport out, salvage, restock, and re-enter within a minute.

With clean execution, Nightmare Depths can grant multiple levels per hour in World Tier 4.

7. Scaling Into Endgame

At higher Paragon levels, XP gains slow down, but Nightmare Depths remains efficient because:

Monster Level Scaling keeps enemies just ahead of you, boosting XP.

Glyph Levelling: Nightmare Depths is perfect for farming Glyph XP, since density means faster progression.

Loot Density: Even when XP slows, loot rolls stay high, feeding your build upgrades.

This makes it not just an XP farm, but also a gearing route into high-tier content.

8. Common Mistakes to Avoid

Over-Juicing Sigils: If you spend more time dying than killing, your XP/hour plummets.

Ignoring Elixirs: That extra 5–8% XP adds up massively over dozens of runs.

Stopping for Every Drop: Don’t clog your inventory—salvage in bulk between runs.

Playing Solo Only: Group XP scaling is too strong to ignore if you want the fastest grind.

Conclusion

Nightmare Depths in Diablo 4 Season 9 is hands-down the best dungeon for fast XP farming thanks to its monster density, linear layout, and buy Diablo IV gold elite-heavy design. By crafting the right sigils, running optimized builds, and clearing with speed in mind, you can hit max level in record time. Pair it with a party and smart reset cycles, and you’ll be farming not only XP but also high-value loot and Paragon Glyph experience.

If you’re looking to stay ahead in Season 9, mastering Nightmare Depths should be your top priority—no other dungeon delivers speed, XP, and loot as efficiently.