As Blizzard warns Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred PTR will be more "broken" than ever before, fans deliver with a method to get to level 60 in just 20 minutes

Diablo 4's new Spiritborn class races through the jungle
(Image credit: Blizzard)

It looks like Blizzard's warning that things might be a bit more "broken" than usual in Diablo 4's patch 2.0 Public Test Realm was valid, because mere hours after going live, it's been discovered that you can hit level 60 in just 20 minutes. 

In a game like Diablo 4, you're definitely not meant to be able to do that, but content creator and streamer Raxxanterax has demonstrated the entire process in a video on YouTube. It's thanks to some broken Stronghold mechanics currently in the action RPG's PTR, which Raxxanterax shows off at the Omath's Redoubt Stronghold in Kehjistan.

With a group of players, Raxxanterax accepts an invite from one at a time and gets transferred to party leadership before the other player leaves the party. Then, the streamer interacts with the Wanderer's Shrine, which immediately gives four levels on the very first attempt. Repeating this process over and over is an incredibly efficient grinding method, as you can tell by the fact that, again, the content creator went from level one to level 60 in just 20 minutes. You can check out the entire thing in the video below if you want to test the method yourself.

Diablo 4 Season 6 PTR Level 1-60 in 20 Minutes! - YouTube Diablo 4 Season 6 PTR Level 1-60 in 20 Minutes! - YouTube
Watch On

While this might be a viable method for now, we shouldn't expect it to be present in the actual DLC. Over on Twitter, Raxxanterax writes: "Luckily Blizzard watched me do this and it will be patched for the expansion launch." Squashing bugs and ironing out issues is what every PTR is about, after all, so there's no doubt that the devs will be relieved that this has been caught now rather than later down the line. 

Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred DLC is set to launch on October 8, and its devs have already pledged to be "very reactive to the community."

Be sure to check out our guide on how to level up fast in Diablo 4 for some methods to use outside the current PTR. 

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of 12DOVE's news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

Read more
Diablo 4 season 7 screenshot
Blizzard disables Diablo 4 season 7 Witchcraft power that was being used to deal "very egregious numbers" and plans to bring it back "next week"
Diablo 4's new merc using his shield to help someone
Diablo 4 Season 7 faces new competition: the original Diablo, which is coming to Xbox Game Pass just a week earlier
Diablo 4 season 8 boss
Diablo 4 season 8 is revamping the boss ladder system with new mechanics and bosses, including one of the best from Diablo 3
Diablo 4
Diablo 4 boss would push for patches to have more fun stuff to balance out unpopular but necessary nerfs: "Lots of medicine, don't see much sugar"
Path of Exile 2 screenshot from the opening cinematic trailer, showing someone stood surrounded by flames.
Path of Exile 2's latest patch is "build-destroying," and action RPG fans are now stuck with heavy nerfs thanks to astronomical respec costs
Diablo 4 screenshot
Blizzard's 2024 stats expose your 480 million deaths, 1.7 trillion murdered demons, 8.34 billion hours played, and how allergic Americans are to the metric system
Latest in Diablo
Diablo 4 season 8 boss
Diablo 4 season 8 is revamping the boss ladder system with new mechanics and bosses, including one of the best from Diablo 3
Diablo 4 Goblin event
What is the Diablo 4 Goblin event and how to claim rewards
A demon towers over its foes in some Diablo 2: Resurrected concept art
Diablo 2 creator says players treated the action RPG like a "lifestyle game" because it was fun, and MMOs like World of Warcraft had more to do with starting the live service trend
Diablo 4
Diablo 4 boss would push for patches to have more fun stuff to balance out unpopular but necessary nerfs: "Lots of medicine, don't see much sugar"
Diablo 4 The Butcher
Diablo 4's second expansion won't come out until 2026
Diablo 2 Resurrected
Diablo creator rips into modern ARPGs for being all about "killing screen-fulls of things instantly," says Diablo 2's pacing "is great" and "that’s one of the reasons it’s endured"
Latest in News
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2
Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us
The Last of Us is "better" than 28 Days Later, says movie writer Alex Garland: "This is so much more sophisticated and moving"
Atelier Ryza 3 protagonist closeup
JRPG producer says people prefer their anime girls to have thick thighs when the economy's in the tank, and he's not even joking a little bit