While Diablo 2 is an old game on its core, its leveling system is actually complex. Although the game is linear in its quest system and level design, the experience points gained by players are not uniform across the board. Diablo 2 employs level scaling to keep the game challenging at all times.
Diablo 2 is capped to level 99. Reaching level 99 is incredibly hard. In fact, leveling from level 1 – 95 takes as much time as leveling from level 96 to 99, potentially more if you are not taking advantage of every bonus provided otherwise in specific conditions.
Characters will earn 100% of the experience from slaying monsters and enemies within the same level or +/- levels above. Additionally, monsters getting resurrected after being initially killed does not provide for another round of experience points. Monsters that infinitely come out of structures will have no experience points apart from the spawning structure itself. The only exception of this rule is those Reanimated Hordes called upon by Baal.
Nevertheless, full experience points are provided by kills by your hired mercenaries and summons. Those killed by the NPCs like Flavie in Act I as well as those barbarians in Act V do not provide experience points for the player if they manage to kill one. Behavior-altering kills like enemies getting confused killing others will reward the experience to the caster of the skill.
Killing enemies five levels above or five levels below the character will net lesser experience. This is by design to prohibit low-level characters from exponentially leveling up by simply partying up with a high-level friend while completing quests and defeating bosses.
Upon reaching level 70, the game then adds an additional experience points penalty for every level gained regardless if the enemies defeated are of equal level and do not exceed the level gap bar.
| Level | Penalty | Condition |
| +10 Level or more from Character Level | Only 5% of XP Gained | |
| +9 Level from Character Level | Only 15% of XP Gained | |
| +8 Level from Character Level | Only 36% of XP Gained | |
| +7 Level from Character Level | Only 68% of XP Gained | |
| +6 Level from Character Level | Only 88% of XP Gained | |
| -6 Levels from Character Level | Only 81% of XP Gained | |
| -7 Levels from Character Level | Only 62% of XP Gained | |
| -8 Levels from Character Level | Only 43% of XP Gained | |
| -9 Levels from Character Level | Only 24% of XP Gained | |
| -10 Levels or less of Character from Character Level | Only 5% of XP Gained | |
| -6 Levels from Character Level | Only 81 % of XP Gained | Character Levels 25 to 69 |
| -7 Levels from Character Level | Only 62 % of XP Gained | Character Levels 25 to 69 |
| -8 Levels from Character Level | Only 43 % of XP Gained | Character Levels 25 to 69 |
| -9 Levels from Character Level | Only 24 % of XP Gained | Character Levels 25 to 69 |
| -10 Levels or less from Character Level | Only 5% of XP Gained | Character Levels 25 to 69 |
| Level 70 | Only 95.31% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 71 | Only 90.63% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 72 | Only 85.94% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 73 | Only 81.25% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 74 | Only 76.56% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 75 | Only 71.88% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 76 | Only 67.19% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 77 | Only 62.50% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 78 | Only 57.81% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 79 | Only 53.13% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 80 | Only 48.44% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 81 | Only 43.75% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 82 | Only 39.06% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 83 | Only 34.38% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 84 | Only 29.69% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 85 | Only 25.00% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 86 | Only 18.75% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 87 | Only 14.06% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 88 | Only 10.55% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 89 | Only 7.91% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 90 | Only 5.96% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 91 | Only 4.49% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 92 | Only 3.42% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 93 | Only 2.54% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 94 | Only 1.95% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 95 | Only 1.46% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 96 | Only 1.07% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 97 | Only 0.78% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| Level 98 | Only 0.59% | Character Levels 70 to 99 |
| PVP Death | 5% / 10% of Experience Required to Level Up | Nightmare / Hell |
How to Earn Experience Points in Multiplayer
Experience is shared in multiplayer sessions. To compensate for this, there is a 35% flat increase of experience points gained while maintaining all the penalties and conditions imposed earlier. Furthermore, the share will depend on the level of each character. If there are 100 experience points to be divided by three party members, it will not be 33.33 each, but rather it will depend on a character’s level. The formula is the total of all the members’ levels divided by the character level whose experience points to receive are in question.
For example, there are three party members: level 10, level 10, and level 5. The total number of experience points to be divided is 100 experience points. The level 5 party member will have 20 experience points (20%), while both the level 10 party members will have 40 experience points (40% each).
Additional conditions still apply like the location of the players when the kill was made. Players do not gain the experience when they are not in the same area.
How to Lose Experience Points in Diablo 2
Dying is the only way to lose experience. The game does not make a distinction if your death was due to succumbing to AI or getting defeated by other human players. If you are scheduled to duel with another human player, try leveling up first since you cannot level down by dying. If you gained 500 experience points past your latest level up and the penalty is 600 experience, only 500 experience points will be deducted.
It is worth remembering though that death in Normal difficulty does not result in experience loss. This only occurs in Nightmare and Hell difficulties. To be fair, it is almost rare to die in Normal difficulties especially when using “easy” heroes to use like Paladin or Sorceress.
