Are you ready to test your builds in Diablo 4’s newest endgame challenge? The Tower is Blizzard’s answer to players’ long-standing requests for a competitive ranking system. This timed, randomized dungeon pushes you to your limits with tough enemies, strict time rules, and the chance to climb the leaderboards. This guide covers D4 Tower start and end dates, location, difficulty, ranking system, leaderboards, rewards and tips.
Diablo 4 Tower Release Date, Location, Leaderboards, Ranking System & Rewards
The Tower is a promising addition to Diablo 4’s endgame, it finally adds the long-awaited competitive leaderboards (split by class, group size, and hardcore mode), creating a dedicated space for players to test their skills via a mode that prioritize speed and elite-killing efficiency over RNG loot luck.
When Does Diablo 4 Tower Release?
The Tower and its leaderboard system launched as a beta feature with the release of Diablo 4 Patch 2.5.2 on January 12th at 11:00 PST. This is not a permanent update yet—Blizzard labels it a beta because the leaderboards are still not fully functional. To keep the competition fresh, the Tower’s leaderboard runs in two-week rounds:
Phase 1: January 12 to January 26, 2026
Phase 2: January 26 to February 9, 2026
Phase 3: February 9 to February 23, 2026
How to Unlock the Tower in D4? - Tower Location
You can’t jump into the Tower right away—you need to unlock it first. Here’s the step-by-step process:
Complete Season Rank 2 in the Season Journey. This means finishing the Hellish Descent Capstone Dungeon, a key milestone for endgame content.
Once unlocked, head to Cerrigar and find the Artificer's Obelisk. This is your gateway to the Tower.
You can choose any difficulty tier for the Tower that you’ve already unlocked in The Pit. As you progress through the Tower, you’ll unlock new, harder tiers too.
D4 Tower Difficulty
The first thing you’ll notice about the Tower is that it’s way more challenging than the Pit. Even if you can clear Tier 130 in the Pit, you might only beat Tier 120 in the Tower. Most players see a 5–10 tier gap between their max Pit tier and their max Tower tier. What makes it so tough?
Strict time limit: Unlike the Pit, you only get 10 minutes to finish a full Tower run. To win, you need to kill the final boss—the Tower Guardian—before the clock runs out.
Randomized layout: Every Tower run has 5 randomized floors. The map design and monster types change each time, so you can’t memorize a path. You have to adapt fast.
Deadly Tower Guardians: The final boss is no joke. These guardians are more like endgame bosses (such as Lord Zir or Grigoire) than Pit bosses. Some of their attacks can one-shot kill your character if you’re not careful.
How the Tower Works: Progression & Gameplay Loop
Each Tower run follows the same core steps. Master these, and you’ll boost your chances of success:
Step 1: Start the Timer & Spawn Enemies
When you enter a Tower floor, you’ll stand in an initial circle. Step outside this circle to start the 10-minute timer. Enemies will spawn immediately—your race against time is on!
Step 2: Fill the Progress Bar Fast
To summon the Tower Guardian, you need to fill the progress bar by killing enemies and collecting orbs. Here’s how to do it efficiently:
Hunt elites and champions: These enemies are marked as red dots on your minimap. They drop light orbs when killed, which give a huge progress boost. Elites are blue-colored, while champions are yellow—both are priority targets.
Don’t skip the Mastery Goblin: This special goblin runs fast and has lots of health, but it’s worth chasing. Hitting it drops small orbs, and killing it drops big light orbs that fill your progress bar quickly. Trap it in a mob of enemies to avoid chasing it across the floor.
Group enemies together: Elites and champions have high health, so fighting them one by one wastes time. Run around the floor to pull multiple packs together, then use AOE skills to clear them all at once.
Pick up every orb: A common beginner mistake is killing elites and forgetting to grab their orbs. Orbs only count if you pick them up—so always loot them right after a fight.
Step 3: Use Pylons to Your Advantage
Pylons are powerful shrines exclusive to the Tower, but they come with a catch: they’re shielded. You need to break the shield before you can activate them. You get exactly 4 pylons per run, the first three are always a Power Pylon, Channeling Pylon, and Speed Pylon (in random order). The fourth pylon is a repeat of one of these three. Break shields while fighting enemies, don’t waste time attacking a pylon shield when there are no enemies around. Combine pylon breaks with mob fights to save precious seconds.
| Pylon Type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Pylon of Channeling | Your skills cost no resources, and cooldowns are drastically reduced. |
| Pylon of Power | Deal 3x more damage (down from 4x in the PTR for balance). |
| Pylon of Speed | Become Unstoppable and Unhindered, gain a big movement speed boost, plus 50% attack speed, and knock down enemies as you run. |
Step 4: Defeat the Tower Guardian
Once your progress bar is full, the Tower Guardian will spawn. This is the hardest part of the run. Each guardian has unique attacks, so you’ll need to learn their patterns. A pro tip is to target farm guardians that match your build. For example, if you play a Judgement Paladin, you need minions to survive. The Cunning Marauder guardian works well with this build—finding it can mean the difference between winning and losing. When you land the killing blow on the guardian, your run ends. Your total time will be recorded, and you’ll earn a spot on the leaderboards (once they’re fully working).
D4 Tower Ranking System & Leaderboards
The Tower’s main draw is its competitive leaderboard system—the feature Diablo 4 players have wanted for years.
Leaderboard Basics
1. Top 1000 players per bracket: The leaderboards show the top 1000 players based on the highest tier they cleared and the time they took. You can see each player’s rank, name, tier, time, and completion date.
2. Multiple brackets to choose from: Leaderboards are split into categories so you can compete fairly:
Solo brackets: One for each class (Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue, Druid, Spiritborn).
Group brackets: For parties of 2, 3, or 4 players.
Hardcore vs. Non-Hardcore: Separate leaderboards for players who want the ultimate risk (Hardcore characters die permanently) and those who prefer a more casual experience.
3. Filter options: You can sort leaderboards by platform (PlayStation, Xbox, PC), mode, friends, or clan. Access the leaderboards via the Artificer's Obelisk in Cerrigar or the Collections menu (press Y by default).
Leaderboard Limitations (Beta Issues)
Right now, the leaderboards have two big flaws:
They aren’t working properly: Blizzard has confirmed this is a beta problem, so it should be fixed in future updates.
No run snapshots: When you inspect a top player’s profile, you’ll see their current gear and skills—not the setup they used to get their rank. Blizzard has said they plan to add run snapshots in the future, so you can copy the builds of the best players.
Diablo 4 Tower Rewards: What Do You Get?
Here’s the bad news: the Tower has almost no rewards right now. Because it’s a beta, Blizzard hasn’t added repeatable or leaderboard-linked rewards.
The only rewards available are one-time prizes for beating certain tiers. But as of now, Blizzard hasn’t revealed what these prizes are. They’ve stated that rewards will be added as the Tower moves out of beta.
Many players are frustrated by the lack of loot—especially since similar modes like Diablo 3’s Greater Rifts gave amazing rewards for group runs. For now, the only “reward” is bragging rights on the leaderboards.
Pro Tips to Get Top Ranks on the D4 Tower Leaderboards
Want to climb the ranks faster? Use these simple but effective tips:
Prioritize speed over kills: Don’t waste time clearing every enemy. Focus on red dots (elites/champions) and Mastery Goblins—they give the most progress.
Learn guardian patterns: Each guardian has unique attacks. Take time to practice against them so you can dodge one-shot moves easily.
Combine pylon use with mob fights: Activate pylons when you’re fighting a big pack—this maximizes their effect and saves time.
Trap the Mastery Goblin: Use AOE skills or crowd-control abilities to lock the goblin in place. Chasing it across the map eats into your 10-minute timer.
Pick a build that fits the Tower: Fast-clearing, AOE builds work best. Avoid slow, single-target builds—they’ll struggle to beat the clock.
Play with a group: Just like in the Pit, group runs make high tiers easier. Team up with friends to take down tough guardians faster.