Diablo 4 devs are “always working on the levelling curve,” hinting at a level cap change?

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Addressing the “levelling curve” is going to be a continued focus for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, the devs have said in a recent interview.

In speaking to VGC, executive producer Gavian Whishaw said that “[Blizzard] is always working on the levelling curve” in response to the prospect of new players starting the game for the expansion. “We’re always working on the experience to get the end game. So season over season, those things become more smooth, and more fun, and more approachable,” he said.

The levelling curve is going to be especially relevant, especially since there are rumours that the Vessel of Hatred expansion is going to raise Diablo 4’s level cap. Of course, this isn’t confirmed, but speculation.

Rod Fergusson, lead producer on Diablo, then chimed in. “Well, we’ve seen with the changes we did with Season 4 in the way that we changed Helltide, and progression and loot, and the way that in Season 5 we changed where the cap is for how you can benefit from killing monsters that are harder, or a higher level than you.

“And you can see very early on, we would check “what’s the maximum level average after 7-10 days”, and it would be 52 – that was high for us for Season 4, that was the highest we ever had. It was like 52, now it’s 60.

“And so we’re seeing that like a person coming in, even though they’re coming in fresh, in under two weeks they can be Lv 60, be in the end game and be enjoying the whole experience. So it doesn’t take that long because of how we continue to tune that levelling process for new players.”

It’s clear that the whole levelling system is getting its due attention. This is a common practice for Blizzard, which often looks to rebalance its core systems with new content. There’s also a slew of evidence supporting the theories and rumours that a level cap change is due.

Diablo 4’s level cap looks likely to change come The Vessel of Hatred

At the moment, the level cap in Diablo 4 is firmly set at 100. VG247 has said that, alongside the developer hinting “at some change coming to the game’s level cap with Vessel of Hatred,” that all previous Diablo expansions have also ushered in a change – either positive or negative.

Similarly, paragon boards might now only unlock at level 60, an increment from the previous cap of 50. The fact that there are only upgrade increments between level 50, 52, and 56 also suggests that there is going to be a lower level cap in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.

With all of the above in mind, especially dev comments on continued work on the levelling curve, it’s likely that we’re also going to see a changing level cap as of the latest expansion. Let’s see if this theory comes true in October.

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Amaar Chowdhury

Amaar is a gaming journalist with an interest in covering the industry's corporations. Aside from that, he has a hankering interest in retro games that few people care about anymore.