Renown in Diablo 4, explained
As any fan of the Diablo series knows, leveling up and strengthening your character is the true endgame (aside from making the best-looking outfit, of course). That said, if you’re struggling to beat a specific quest, you can’t exactly “level up” for it per se. Everything in Diablo 4 scales up with your level once you reach a minimum threshold. In other words, you’re not gaining much by grinding monsters.
Fortunately, Diablo 4 has the Renown system to give you a leg up. By completing a variety of tasks in each region of the map, you’ll gain Renown there. With enough Renown, your character will earn additional skill points and valuable potion capacity upgrades. Even better, the best Renown rewards apply to your entire account, so other characters you make will immediately earn these perks upon starting the game.
You’ll only have three tiers of Renown rewards in each region at the start. If you ascend to World Tier III after finishing the game, you can unlock the remaining rewards. This means that you don’t have to complete every Renown objective if you’re focusing on the campaign. Because of this, if you want to just get the best renown rewards and continue your campaign progress, here are some of the best ways to do just that.
Activate Waypoints
This is something you should always do, regardless of whether you’re farming Renown or not. Any circle symbol with a triangle inside it on your map indicates a waypoint you can fast travel to. You’ll save a ton of time navigating to different areas this way!
Waypoints rewards 20 Renown. This isn’t a lot on its own, but it’s the easiest source of points you’ll find.
Complete Side Quests
You’ll find side quests everywhere in Diablo 4. While the experience they offer may be of dubious importance to you, they do tell self-contained stories and often reward some nice loot for your quest. These are marked by blue exclamation point marks on the map, so make sure to grab any quests you see!
Like activating waypoints, side quests grant 20 Renown each. However, completing side quests will often involve discovering new areas on the map or stumbling upon Alters of Lilith. Both these tasks grant additional Renown, which winds up making side quests more lucrative than they first appear.
Reclaim Strongholds
While the above two methods work as passive sources of Renown, the best way to actively grind it involves taking on Strongholds. These will appear on the map as red skull icons inside a house, and overcoming them will take a bit of effort.
In short, Strongholds are settlements completely overrun by enemies. Once you enter them, you’ll have to clear through hoards of monsters and clear certain objectives, typically culminating in a boss battle at the end. While these won’t necessarily require tons of preparation to complete, you’ll want a full stock of potions at the very least. These also tend to run a couple levels above your current level, so don’t get too scared of the listed level requirement.
Completing a stronghold rewards a whopping 100 Renown upon completion. What’s more, you’ll unlock a new friendly settlement with more sources of Renown to collect as well. If you want to pump up your Renown, hit these whenever you can!
