Diablo 4 tips and tricks to help you survive Sanctuary
The harsh landscape of Diablo 4’s Sanctuary is unforgiving and ruthless, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can find yourself overwhelmed by vicious monsters very quickly. It’s home to some of the hardest bosses in the series’ history, and even exploring the wilderness can spell an end to your character’s worldly existence if you’re not prepared.
Thankfully, there are quite a few ways to prepare for all the horrors Lilith and her army of demons can send your way, and most of them are a fairly simple way to increase your chances of survival. These tips and tricks will teach you everything you need to know to ensure you make it out of Sanctuary alive and with all your limbs intact, no matter which class you’re playing.
Find Altars of Lilith
Altars of Lilith are scattered throughout the realm, but hunting them down is worth it
Scattered through every region of Sanctuary are Altars of Lilith, and it’s absolutely in your best interest to find as many as you can. Each region has between 20 and 40 Altars, and finding them can be a bit difficult, but they do two major things that will help you survive in Sanctuary.
The first is that every statue you find gives you a permanent stat boost. It’s usually not a big stat boost, a couple points of strength here, a point of willpower there. These bonus points won’t make or break your build, but every point helps, and with bosses as tough as they are in Diablo 4, it could mean the difference between life and death. These stat boosts are also permanent across characters, so when you’ve grabbed all the statues and start a new character, they’ll start off with a huge boost in stats for the early game. Good stuff.
The second benefit to finding Altars of Lilith is that they’ll each give you 10 points of Renown, which is good for a number of things, but is primarily used for upgrading the amount and type of potions you can use. As you’ll see in a later point, potions are a vital and somewhat rare resource, and this is basically free Renown, so be sure to grab any you see.
Don’t sleep on side quests
I promise this side quest is worth doing as soon as possible
Speaking of Renown, complete as many side quests as you can. Yes, some of them can be a little bit boring, but most of them are at least a little bit interesting, if only for expanding the lore of Sanctuary. They also offer renown, which again, is used for upgrading potions which is always good.
Most side quests take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and quite often take you off the beaten track to somewhere you might not go otherwise throughout the story. They typically offer a decent chunk of level-appropriate experience, gold, and equipment in return too, so they’re worth doing as early as possible to maximize your return on investment. Plus you’ll get to learn about a guy who, uh, enjoys the pleasurable things in life a little too much, which is a hilariously weird side quest that everyone should experience.
Play together
Playing Diablo 4 with a friend is both fun and helpful
Multiplayer has always been an integral part of the Diablo experience, and that’s no more evident than in Diablo 4. While previous games have always been somewhat multiplayer-optional, Diablo 4 will introduce other players to your game whether you want it to or not. And since there’s going to be other players around regardless, you may as well team up with a friend and take on the world of Sanctuary together.
Diablo 4’s bosses are some of the most challenging in the series, so taking them on with a friend goes a long way toward making some of them just that little bit less stressful. There are also plenty of difficult world events you’ll stumble across while exploring the world, and having a friend helps massively in these as some of them are quite complex. One world event we came across during our early testing required the player to destroy enemies before they reached a specific object in the middle, and while it was technically doable solo, it was bordering on impossible.
Plan your potions
Don't forget to upgrade your potions too
In previous Diablo games, you could fill your inventory with healing potions and pop them as frequently as you liked without fear of running out at a crucial time. That’s not really the case in Diablo 4, which has your potions act as a limited resource. At the start of the game, you’ll have four potion charges, and they’ll only heal about 50% of your max HP. They also won’t heal you instantly — you’ll get about half of the charge immediately, and the rest will fill in over the next 5 seconds or so.
Because of this, it’s absolutely crucial that you’re tactical with your potions. Firstly, if there’s a potion on the ground and you’re at max potions but have lost a little bit of health, it’s usually worth popping a potion so you can pick the one on the ground up before it disappears.
You’ll also have to keep an eye on boss health bars – you’ll notice they have little inverted triangles at the top of the health bar sometimes, and they’re quite important. When a boss’s health drops below those triangles, they’ll drop more health potions, usually only one or two. Take advantage of this to plan out your potion uses and hold out if you can until they drop those pots.
Upgrade your gear
Sometimes it can take a while to find a piece of equipment you really like, or find a level-appropriate armor piece at all. If you’re struggling to get through a boss or a quest, one way that you can help to bolster your defenses is by upgrading your armor and weapons at a blacksmith. You’ll need a little bit of gold and some resources, but it can make a decent weapon a great one, or a great weapon an amazing one.
Depending on the rarity of the item, you can upgrade it up to four times, and each time will increase its defense or attack rating and increase the effectiveness of its bonuses. This isn’t always as good as just finding a better piece of equipment, but when you’re at the whims of RNG it can be a good way to eke a little bit of extra life out of something that’s not quite hitting the mark.
