Nightmare Dungeons

Nightmare Dungeons are a modified, more difficult yet rewarding version of regular Dungeons in Diablo 4. They enable faster Character Leveling, reliably drop Glyphs, Masterworking material, and loot in general (Legendaries/Uniques). Farming and completing Nightmare Dungeons is the overall one efficient way to progress your character in the endgame. This is partly due to greater monster density and partly due to the access to Masterworking material. They require a key to open them called a Nightmare Sigil. Nightmare Sigils transform specific Dungeons, adding Afflictions that make them harder. Surprise surprise, farming the Nightmare Dungeons that these Sigils open is the best way to acquire additional Sigils.

Since Dungeons are somewhat static in their layout, monster population, and objectives, what you face in any given Nightmare Dungeon run is somewhat predictable. Read below to learn how to acquire Nightmare Sigils and all the juicy details regarding one of the most important Endgame Systems in Diablo 4!

Follow these steps to acquire your first Nightmare Dungeon Sigil.

1. Complete the entire main quest line in the Campaign.
2. Complete the Seasonal Journey.
3. Complete 10 Whispers in Nightmare Difficulty and turn them in at the Tree of Whispers for a reward cache. Learn about the Whispers of the Dead endgame system here.
4. After right-clicking the cache in your inventory, a Nightmare Sigil is given as one of the rewards. Pick it up!

There are four ways to acquire Sigils:

1. Completing Whispers of the Dead.
2. Finding them throughout Nightmare Dungeon runs and by completing Nightmare Dungeons.
3. Completing Events (Sigil Powder or the Nightmare Sigils themselves - open world and inside dungeons).
4. Defeating World Bosses in Torment Difficulties.
5. Crafting them at the Occultist using Gold and Sigil Powder. Acquire Sigil Powder by salvaging unwanted Sigils. To unlock Sigil Crafting at the Occultist, you must reach level 20.
   
   Note: There is no way to "re-roll" Sigils. Once a Sigil comes into existence, its stats including its Dungeon and Afflictions are final. Running optimized Nightmare Dungeons for your build requires crafting new Sigils from Sigil Powder, mostly from salvaging "bad" Sigils.

Monsters, including bosses, scale based on the difficulty you are playing in. Higher difficulty monsters grant more Experience and have better odds of dropping more desirable loot. Defeating these monsters is quite difficult as they scale up their Life, Damage, and each Torment level adds additional penalties against your Damage Reduction from Armor and elemental resistances.

Here we outline steps for activating and traveling to a Nightmare Dungeon. Once inside, you are ready to farm and complete the Nightmare Dungeon!

Note: If you leave the game after activating a Nightmare Dungeon, you won't be able to enter it again, losing your Nightmare Sigil! Additionally, if you activate a Nightmare Dungeon while one is already active, the current one is replaced. You can only have 1 Nightmare Dungeon active at a time.

Activation

1. Select the Nightmare Sigil in your Consumables Tab. You can do this anywhere at any time in the open world, but it is usually easiest to do this in town.
2. Select "Accept" on the "Consume Sigil" pop-up.
3. You have now activated a Nightmare Dungeon!

Travel

1. After activating the Nightmare Dungeon, open the World Map by pressing Tab. If the map does not zoom in on the location of the Nightmare Dungeon automatically, check for it in the region that was noted on the Sigil next to the dungeon name. See the right image for a visual.
2. Select the Nightmare Dungeon icon on the map.
3. Select "Accept" on the "Teleport Confirmation" pop-up. This teleports you inside the newly activated Nightmare Dungeon.
4. You are ready to farm and complete the Nightmare Dungeon!

Completing a Nightmare Dungeon is almost the same as completing a regular Dungeon. Once you complete a dungeon's final objective, the dungeon is complete and you are given various rewards discussed below. Nightmare Dungeons are hard, but the rewards are worth toughing them out! In addition to the normal Dungeon completion rewards of Gold, Experience, and a Codex of Power Aspect, completing Nightmare Dungeons enables you to find Glyphs, grants even more Experience with scaling based on difficulty and boosted monster density, and guarantees you 4 Item Rewards.

Experience

Nightmare Dungeons are one of the main ways to power level in the endgame. It is one of the more efficient ways to level, as it gives you both regular Experience and masterworking materials for each Dungeon.

Loot

It is easier to gain higher-rarity loot (Legendaries or Uniques) in Nightmare Dungeons than in the open world. This is partially due to higher monster density in Nightmare Dungeons, but also due to the fact that you always get 4 Item Rewards upon completion. One of these items is guaranteed to be either of Legendary or Unique quality, while the other 3 can be Unique, Legendary, or Rare quality.

Afflictions or Dungeon Affixes as they are called on the tooltip, are what make a Nightmare Dungeon a nightmare. The intent behind them is to make running any particular Nightmare Dungeon a unique experience. There is always 1 Positive Affliction and 1 Negative Affliction.

Positive Afflictions boost your power in some way, which, depending on your build, can make a dungeon a great deal easier. One of the Negative Afflictions either empowers Elites by granting them a guaranteed Affix, or is a Special Affliction (more on those below). Here we divide all possible Afflictions into 5 categories: Positive Afflictions, Special Afflictions, Empowered Elites, Monster Buffs, and Player Debuffs.

Positive Afflictions

These are Affixes that boost your power! There is always exactly 1 of these. Take advantage of ones that are good for your build.

Affliction	Effect
Quick Killer	Increases your Attack and Movement Speed.
Reduce Cooldowns on Kill	Killing monsters reduces your Cooldowns.
Battle Hardened	Increases your Damage Reduction by a percentage for every 10% Health you are missing.
Increased Critical Strike	Increases your Critical Strike Chance.
Increased Healing	Increases the amount of Life you heal from all sources.
Magic Find	Increases your likelihood of finding items from enemies.
Gold Find	Increases the amount of the gold that drops.
Extra Shrines	Increase the amount of possible Shrines that can spawn inside the dungeon.
Poisonous Evade	Using Evade leaves Poison pools behind that damage enemies at your destination or under the first enemy you pass through.
Nudging Evade	Using Evade pushes enemies back.
Lightning Caller	A Lightning Strike occasionally spawns close to you, dealing a bit of damage to nearby enemies.
Control Impaired Explosions	Being struck by Control Impairing Effects creates explosions around you.
Thorns	Increases your Thorns stat.
Physical Damage	Increases your Physical Damage. Only helps builds that deal Physical Damage.
Fire Damage	Increases your Fire Damage. Only helps builds that deal Fire Damage.
Lightning Damage	Increases your Lightning Damage. Only helps builds that deal Lightning Damage.
Frost Damage	Increases your Frost Damage. Only helps builds that deal damage with Frost Skills.
Poison Damage	Increases your Poison Damage. Only helps builds that deal Poison Damage.
Shadow Damage	Increases your Shadow Damage. Only helps builds that deal Shadow Damage.

Negative Afflictions

Special Afflictions are Negative Afflictions that define combat interactions within the dungeon. They are extra-annoying, powerful effects that challenge your ability to play around them. There is a 50% chance that there is 1 of these, and there can only be a maximum of 1, thankfully.

Stormbane's Wrath

This pet rock is not your friend. It chases you around the dungeon, releasing deadly pulses when it reaches you and strikes the ground. These red lightning nova pulses hurt pretty badly. It periodically attacks you in and out of combat. Staying just outside of the nova's range is the best approach. You can bait it to hover directly over you, and then Evade out of range as it descends to buy yourself time. There is no way to completely shake it off, so don't bother trying.

Blood Blister

Killing a monster has a chance to spawn a Blood Blister. After a short period of time, it explodes, dealing big AoE damage to any player within a couple of screens of it. Blood Blisters quickly grow in size until ballooning up, making pulsating sounds, and exploding. You can destroy Blood Blisters at any time from the moment they spawn up until the moment they explode, preventing them from dealing damage. It is advised to take them out sooner rather than later.

Drifting Shade

Possibly one of the most annoying Affixes, Drifting Shade is a homing missile that periodically chases you around. Upon reaching you, it explodes for heavy damage, and creates a Nightmare Field that Dazes. When inside Drifting Shade's impact zone, you cannot use any abilities. If you find yourself caught inside this black hole, Evade or move out of it ASAP. Luckily Drifting Shade is relatively easy to bait out: when the missile is getting close to you, purposely let it hit you, and then immediately Evade away - this avoids its damage explosion and Daze effect entirely.

Lightning Storm

Lightning Storm is probably the most overall dangerous Affix. Every 10-15 seconds or so, a bolt of Lightning attempts to strike you down. This Lightning Bolt is no joke; it deals an insane amount of damage, and for all practical purposes is a one-shot in higher difficulties. The good news is that you have a friendly shield follower to save the day! A few seconds before the moment of impact, it forms a protection dome nearby that completely negates its damage. The key is to be completely inside this bubble before time runs out. If the attack is successfully blocked by the bubble, you gain a movement speed buff!

Volcanic

Every so often while you are in combat, fountains of flame gush nearby, dealing hefty damage if you are caught atop of them. If they form directly beneath you, the damage can be catastrophic. As soon as you see the mini-volcanoes start to form, it is time to bounce.

Death Pulse

Do not linger around for too long. Death Pulse is a deadly Lightning Damage mini-explosion that has a high chance to occur after killing a monster. It always occurs immediately following a monster's death at the location of its corpse. An individual Death Pulse's area of effect is not particularly large. However, if tons of monsters die all around you, you may find yourself screaming AAAAAH! with no way to escape before the big boom. With this Affliction you really have to be hyper aware of your positioning. It is a particularly challenging Affix for builds that routinely engage in close-quarters combat. As of Season 2, it can no longer trigger on monsters with innate death explosions and cannot spawn on top of other Death Pulses.

Avenger

Upon killing a monster, nearby monsters turn red and deal more damage. Monsters are significantly more dangerous in this enraged state. Finishing monster packs off quickly is the best way to avoid a reckoning as far as this Affliction is concerned. Getting sucked into long drawn-out fights gives your enemies all the ammo they need to exact the vengeance they so desperately thirst for. Do not let this be your untimely demise.

Nightmare Portal

Every so often while in combat, Nightmare Portals open randomly near you, pouring out random dangerous monsters. As an example, Fallen Lunatics make regular appearances out of these portals. Typically, these portals appear just behind you, attempting to cut off your escape. If you feel a particular dungeon might be challenging and you may have to kite backwards, this Affliction can really sour the mood. Otherwise, keep moving forward or destroy the portals as they appear to avoid getting ganked.

Most of the time, we expect people to stick to one build rather than making sweeping adjustments depending on the content they're doing. There are important considerations when it comes to Nightmare Dungeons, however:

• Do you just want to farm loot and masterworking materials as fast as possible? Gather as much Movement Speed, Resource Generation, Cooldown Reduction, and Damage as possible to blitz through the runs.
• Are you trying to push the highest difficulties? Stack defensive stats (such as Damage Reductions, Total Armor, and Life) wherever possible to absorb or avoid hits. Alternatively, you can go full glass cannon on a ranged build to kill the monsters before they can attack you.
• Are you going to group up with others to tackle them as a team? Each member of the party should see what buffs or debuffs their class can bring to a run. Maximizing the number of unique buffs and debuffs bolsters team efficiency as a whole, which may require some small build adjustments. For example, if you have a dedicated trash mob killer, Elite killer, front-line tank/stat buffer, and crowd controller, you are likely to have a strong 4-person team. Division of roles and abilities is key to a successful group push!
• Afflictions: In some cases, you can swap out equipment to shore up build weaknesses that an Affliction can take advantage of. Avoid running NM Dungeons with Afflictions that hard counter your build. See Afflictions above.

There is a fresh Nightmare Dungeon lineup every Season so no two lineups are ever the same. With the redesign of Nightmare Dungeons in Vessel of Hatred, this is updated once we know what Nightmare Dungeons are in rotation.

Season 6 - Nightmare Dungeons

To be determined.

Video Guide

Summary

• Nightmare Dungeons are modified versions of normal Dungeons marked by extra random Afflictions.
• Sigils are required to open Nightmare Dungeons. They can be awarded by the Tree of Whispers or Events, found in and by completing the Nightmare Dungeons themselves, or crafted at the Occultist using Sigil Powder.
• Important rewards include faster Experience gain, Masterworking Materials, and high-rarity loot.
• Nightmare Dungeons have boosted monster density compared to normal dungeons.
• Afflictions make these dungeons challenging. Avoid Afflictions that hard counter your build.
• Now go forth and conquer your worst Nightmares! Good luck!

Credits

Written by Avarilyn
Original Post by wudijo