How to level your seasonal characters like a pro with the Mother’s Blessing buff

We’re well into Diablo 4 Season 7, and on March 18 Mother’s Blessing returns with an extra buff that will help you speed your way to level 60 (and beyond) with a big buff to XP. But the latest iteration of Mother’s Blessing buffs the Tree of Whispers as well: every time you turn your Grim Favors in to the tree, you’ll get an extra cache for twice the loot. This week-long event brings both faster leveling and faster gearing, a perfect combination of power-ups whether you haven’t touched the season at all or you’re struggling to find the motivation to finish the Season Journey. The buff is also available on the Eternal realms, so all players can benefit.

So, what should players do to really rocket boost their leveling during Mother’s Blessing? Here are some tips on how to make the most of these buffs.

Mother’s Blessing returns from February 18 – 25, bringing a weeklong multiplicative buff to experience and gold for Seasonal and Eternal players, with +35% experience and +50% gold for the duration. Yes, Mother’s Blessing is an incredible 35% boost, but it still combines with your other bonuses — and because it’s multiplicative, stacking XP bonuses really adds up. Be sure to keep an elixir (+8% XP for advanced elixirs) and an incense (+5% XP) up, and if you’re doing Legion events, don’t sleep on the campfire — that’s another 15% accrued XP buff! All of these buffs stack, and stack with Mother’s Blessing.

Seasonal players should allocate their Smoldering Ashes from the Battle Pass to the Urn of Aggression Seasonal Blessing first to boost from +5% (level 8) to +20% (level 28) to your bonus XP. The Urn’s buff has been converted to be multiplicative with the bonus from your game difficulty, so a max Urn of Aggression combined with Penitent difficulty (175% bonus XP) tier results in 210% bonus XP instead of 195%. Add in the experience increase from incense as you level 50 to 60 (or while farming up Paragon points), and the levels will zoom by.

But there’s more than just XP this event: because The Tree of Whispers is giving you an extra cache, you’ll be able to gear up more quickly as well (or at least have more loot to salvage). This could really help you find the perfect piece of gear… or at least upgrade your aspects more quickly. Seasonal players can stack on the bonuses here too by getting the Urn of Whispers Season Blessing, which will give you a +40% chance to get a higher quality cache, so you can ensure your extra loot is the best it can be.

The best activities to complete during Mother’s Blessing

Stick to high mob density activities. You want to be killing constantly to make the most of the XP bonus while also completing Whsipers for the bonus loot. That means hitting the current Headhunt zones, exhausting the easy-to-do Whispers, and then moving on. Helltides, events (both Legion and World), Infernal Hordes, and the Pit are all good for mob density, but they won’t have the  are your targets here. Save other activities to do after Mother’s Blessing ends.

Spend as little time in towns as possible. To paraphrase content creator Raxxanterax — “town is an XP loss; treat it like lava.” How do you best apply this?

• Learn your Tempering manuals as they drop — they take up valuable bag space!
• Remember you can turn in Whispers at ravens in Headhunt zones without going all the way back to the Tree!
• Batch activities when you are in a main city — salvage gear, stick items in the stash, craft elixirs, and zoom back out into the world.
• Don’t detour much to pick up items — up to 10 legendary items will get sent to your stash, which is more than enough wiggle room for what will drop from normal mobs. This doesn’t always work for Headhunts and Helltides because you have a much higher drop density, though; instead, prioritize legendaries over lower items, and remember they now break down for lower-tier components as well at the Blacksmith!

Which difficulty should I play on during Mother’s Blessing?

Finally, remember that high risk means high reward, but only when you survive it. Advance your difficulty tier when you’re ready — dying a bunch on Penitent is much slower than rapidly killing on Hard. You don’t have to worry about the Torment levels until you’re in endgame play.

Above all — have fun. If rapid leveling brings you joy, use this guide freely. If you want to savor the D4 experience in all its open-world glory or focus on the Vessel of Hatred storyline, do that instead!

Mother’s Blessing lasts from March 18 to March 25, so jump in and play while the buff is live!

We’ll see you in Sanctuary.

Originally published June 7, 2024; updated March 18, 2024.