Note this is a community written guide by DiabloHub member Methrin. If you want your own guide or article spotlighted simply post it on the forums or send me a message directly. However not every community written piece will be accepted.

So you’ve started to progress in inferno and you’d like to farm act 1 for some loot? Why not do it efficiently? This guide will aim to provide you with a handful of viable options for farming routes. For simplicity’s sake we’ll cover the basics first and then the actual routes will be listed afterwards where we won’t explain everything again.

The basics

When you farm, you have 2 goals, get loot & gold and get some exp towards paragon levels to get better loot and more gold. As such, the best farming routes involve getting a 5 stack as quickly as possible to make sure the vast majority of the monsters you kill give you 75% more exp and the longest routes will try to feature as many good spots for exp as you can find.

[b]Bonus XP? Sounds good to me[/b]

What is a good exp spot? A spot where you can find a lot of monsters bunched up. Killing them all without pause gives you a massacre bonus which is nice, but negligible compared to how much exp a single monster gives. Exp spots are good because a lot of monsters is a lot of exp and even more so with a full stack of Nephalem Valor.

The spots

• Halls of Agony: The zone on the way to the Warden and the Butcher. The only thing worth mentioning is that the Unburied monsters (the big spiky brutes) tend to spawn a lot more on level 1, because of this I would recommend avoiding level 1 if your dps is low or if they scare you.

• The Cursed Hold: The zone with the warden, in between Levels 1 & 2 of the Halls of Agony.

• Southern Highlands: Accessible from the Highlands crossing waypoint. The Cave of the Blood Moon Clan is found there and sometimes the map will have a tile with a big Khazra village in the middle, featuring a special and a lot of Khazras, this is great for exp.

• The Cave of the Blood Moon Clan: a handful of packs and a guaranteed resplendent chest. The design of the map features a lot of chokepoints to control monsters.

• The Festering Woods:1 to 3 packs roaming the map, plus 2 more guaranteed packs inside the Warrior’s rest and the crypt of the ancients, another zone to include in most of your runs.

• The Cemetery of the Forsaken: Usually empty but leads to the crypts which are home to some packs and a guaranteed event (Jar of Souls or the matriarch’s bone), either event is great for exp due to the high number of skeletons they will spawn.

• The Weeping Hollow: The starter zone to the north of New Tristram, usually features several packs. Sometimes features the Den of the Fallen, you can run it but I’m not a fan since it’s usually very empty and thus wastes time.

• Leoric’s Manor: Guaranteed pack outside, very rarely 2, and usually another pack inside. Also great for exp due to the high density of cultists.

The routes

The beginner

A route if you’re still in the early stages of Act 1.

• Quest: Reign of the Black King – The Royal Crypts
• Go to the cemetery and clear the crypts;
• Run to the weeping hollow and hunt for packs;
• Go to the cathedral level 3 and work your way to Leoric.

The quickie

A good little route when you don’t have a lot of time or just want something short.

• Quest: The Imprisoned Angel – The Cursed Hold
• Start at the Watchtower and clear it;
• Take the waypoint to Halls of Agony Level 2;
• Get to the Cursed Hold to kill the warden;
• Get to the butcher and kill him.

The boss run

A fairly lengthy run if you’re in the mood to kill 3 bosses and a lot of packs.

• Quest: The Doom in Wortham
• Go to Wortham and kill the dark berserkers;
• Go to the Festering Woods to complete you NV stack;
• Move on to the Caverns of Araneae and kill Araneae;
• Move on to the Highlands crossing and then Southern Highlands;
• Find the Khazra staff and the Cave of the Blood Moon Clan;
• Move on to Northern Highlands and check for Watchtower;
• Move on to Leoric’s Manor and progress through the quests until you kill the Butcher;
• Go to the cemetery of the Forsaken and clear the crypts;
• Run through the Weeping Hollow for a couple more packs.

Once again, this run is massive, but guarantees a big exp yield due to its length.

The big ‘un

Shorter than the boss run, yet still long enough to yield massive exp.

• Quest: The Imprisoned Angel – The Cursed Hold
• Start at the Watchtower and clear it;
• Walk your way through Leoric’s Manor, The Halls of Agony, etc... all the way to the Butcher;
• Visit the Festering Woods;
• Go check out the crypts in the cemetery of the forsaken;
• Go to the Weeping Hollow and hunt for packs;
• Finish with the southern highlands for the cave of the blood moon clan.

The final word

These are just rough paths, feel free to adapt these routes to your needs and add or remove stops or shuffle the order around.