Nightmare Dungeons are a core endgame activity in Diablo 4, and Nightmare Sigils are your key to unlocking them. Each Sigil comes with a unique positive affix that boosts rewards like loot, gold, or experience—but some are far more useful than others. Below is a detailed D4 Season 11 tier list ranking every Sigil from best to worst, to help you choose which Sigils to run and which to salvage.
Diablo 4 Best Nightmare Dungeon Sigils Tier List
Use Sigil Powder to craft S-Tier or A-Tier Sigils in Diablo 4 Season 11 (like Sarat's Lair) if you’re short on them. Salvage low-tier Sigils unless you're desperate. Salvaging gives you Sigil Powder, which you can use to craft better Sigils at the Occultist. If a Sigil has a Whisper bounty, run it—you’ll get extra Grim Favors (for Tree of Whispers caches) on top of the Sigil’s rewards.
1. Sarat's Lair Nightmare Sigil (Treasure Breach): S Tier
The Treasure Breach affix is the top-tier Sigil in Diablo 4. It spawns hordes of Treasure Goblins throughout the dungeon. These Goblins drop massive amounts of loot, including legendaries, uniques, Obols, crafting materials, and even scattered Prisms. Unlike other Sigils that require you to hunt for chests or artifacts, you just kill Goblins as you go—no extra work needed. In testing, a single Tier 4 run yielded half a dozen uniques, multiple legendaries, 3,500+ Obols, and valuable boss materials. Even if the Goblins don’t drop perfect gear, they’re great for farming aspects and stocking up on resources. Since Treasure Breach is a legendary affix, it’s rare—but always run it when you get it. It’s the best way to get a little bit of everything, making it indispensable for endgame progression.
2. Carrion Fields Nightmare Sigil (Hidden Armory): S Tier
Hidden Armory is like a loot boost for monsters. It spawns special glowing enemies that drop significantly more legendary and Ancestral items than regular foes. You don’t need to search for anything—just kill monsters as you normally would, and these glowing targets will pop up naturally. In a typical Tier 4 run, you can expect 5–7 Ancestral items, plus extra legendaries. While it doesn’t match Treasure Breach’s variety, it’s the most reliable way to farm high-quality gear. Hidden Armory is a legendary affix, but since Seasonal content drops tons of Sigils, you’ll see it often enough. It’s perfect for players trying to upgrade their build or find perfect affixes on Ancestral gear.
3. Forbidden City Nightmare Sigil (Horadric Strongroom): S Tier
The Horadric Strongroom affix is the best way to farm Obols in Diablo 4—and Obols are crucial for gambling at the Purveyor of Curiosities (to target specific items like uniques or Ancestral gear). A Tier 4 run with this Sigil gives around 3,000 Obols, which is 60x more than a normal Nightmare Dungeon. The Strongroom also drops extra loot, including legendaries and crafting materials. Additionally, it’s the most reliable source of Escalation Sigils. Even if you don’t need Obols right now, running this Sigil is smart—you’ll stock up for future gambles and get useful gear along the way. It’s a blue affix, so you’ll find plenty of these, making it a staple for endgame farming.
4. Shivta Ruins Nightmare Sigil (Obols Reserve): A Tier
Obols Reserve is a solid alternative to Horadric Strongroom for farming Obols. A Tier 4 run gives around 1,300 Obols—enough for 50+ gambles at the Purveyor. Obols are great for target-farming items: pants only cost 25 Obols, so you can spam-gamble for perfect pants, while weapons or amulets are still achievable with a few runs. This Sigil is especially useful for new players building their first endgame build or veterans looking to upgrade a specific gear slot. It’s a blue affix, so it’s common—don’t salvage it unless you have 10,000+ Obols stockpiled.
5. Forsaken Quarry Nightmare Sigil (Forgotten Wisdom): A Tier
Forgotten Wisdom is all about experience (XP), and it’s more valuable than ever in current season. The affix spawns an XP Well that gives you a 15% XP boost for 1 hour—plus small XP globes from monsters. Unlike previous seasons, where most XP came from dungeon completion, now monster kills give a huge percentage of your total XP. The 15% boost stacks with elixirs and incense, making it perfect for leveling alts or pushing your main to higher levels. The XP globes aren’t worth chasing, but the 1-hour buff is game-changing. Since it’s a blue affix, you’ll get tons of these—run one whenever your buff runs out to maximize XP gain.
6. Champion's Demise Nightmare Sigil (Vile Splendor): A Tier
Vile Splendor spawns monsters that drop extra gold and loot. A Tier 4 run gives around 50 million D4 gold (which is more than the Gold Reserve Sigil) plus extra legendaries. Gold is useful for enchanting gear (to reroll affixes) or trading, but it’s not a bottleneck for most players. However, if you’re burning through gold on enchantments, this Sigil is better than Gold Reserve—you get more gold and better loot without having to hunt for chests. It’s a yellow affix, so it’s not too rare—keep it if you need gold, but salvage it if you have a surplus.
7. Mournfield Nightmare Sigil (Material Reserve): B Tier
Material Reserve drops tons of crafting materials (like Iron, Leather, and Arcane Dust) needed for blacksmithing and upgrading gear. When you’re first starting out (Level 50+), you’ll need them to upgrade your gear from Sacred to Ancestral. A single run with this Sigil gives enough materials to upgrade multiple items. However, once you’re in late-game Tier 4, you’ll have a surplus of materials (from other activities like Helltides or monster drops). At that point, this Sigil becomes useless—salvage it to get Sigil Powder. It’s a blue affix, so it’s common—keep a few early on, but ditch them later.
8. Sealed Archives Nightmare Sigil (Gem Reserve): B Tier
Gem Reserve drops gem fragments, which are used to upgrade gems (for extra stats like damage or resistance). A run gives 1,000–2,000 fragments per gem type, which is enough to upgrade a few gems. Gems are important early on, but once you have maxed-out gems (Rank 10), this Sigil is useless. It’s also less useful than specific gem Sigils (which drop 33,000+ fragments for one gem type), but those are rare. Run this only if you’re low on gem fragments—otherwise, salvage it.
9. Faceless Shrine Nightmare Sigil (Gold Reserve): C Tier
Gold Reserve drops around 33 million gold per Tier 4 run. Most players end up with billions of gold from regular gameplay (monster drops, chests, etc.), so 33 million is negligible. Vile Splendor is a better choice if you need gold (it gives more gold plus extra loot). The only time to run this is if you’re a new player who’s broke from enchanting, but even then, it’s not worth it—you’ll get more gold faster from regular dungeons. Salvage this Sigil unless you have no other options.
10. Razak's Descent Nightmare Sigil (Equipment Delve): C Tier
Equipment Delve promises upgraded end-of-dungeon loot” but it’s a letdown. To get the bonus, you have to collect a dozen purple artifacts scattered around the dungeon—annoying, since you have to search every corner. Even after collecting all artifacts, the reward is just one extra Ancestral item (and sometimes no legendaries). In testing, runs with this Sigil gave the same loot quality as regular dungeons—so the extra work isn’t worth it.
11. Haunted Refuge Nightmare Sigil (Emerald Reserve): C Tier
Emerald Reserve is a specific gem Sigil (it drops only emerald fragments). Emeralds are useful for increasing critical strike damage on weapons or poison resistance on armor, but this Sigil is only useful if you’re specifically low on emerald fragments. A run gives around 33,000 emerald fragments—enough to max out a few gems—but if you don’t need emeralds, it’s useless.
12. Sunken Library Nightmare Sigil (Artillery Shrines): C Tier
Artillery Shrines (and other shrine-based Sigils) are the least useful in the game. The affix spawns Artillery Shrines in the dungeon, which give you a temporary damage boost. But the boost is small, and shrines are already common in regular dungeons. The only use case is if you’re a new player struggling with a higher-tier dungeon (e.g., you moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and need extra help) or if the Sigil has a Whisper bounty (so you can double-dip rewards). For endgame players in Tier 4, this Sigil is useless—salvage it immediately.
Best Way to Farm Nightmare Dungeon Sigils in D4 Season 11
1. Level Up Essence of Sin Divine Gift
First, focus on maxing out the Essence of Sin Divine Gift to level 5. To level it up, go to the Nahantu area, then ride in circles around the map to hunt red-marked mobs. These mobs not only help raise your Essence of Sin rank but also let you double-dip if the goblin event is active (you get sigils while also farming goblins). Once Essence of Sin hits level 5, it rewards you with lots of sigils when you survive world boss encounters. This method is more engaging than just camping in one spot, so you won’t get bored easily.
2. Use Corrupted Horns of Duriel from Chests
To get sigils this way, you first need Corrupted Horns of Duriel. Start by farming Living Steel—you can get it from Helltides or the ongoing event. Use Living Steel to get Shards of Agony, then use these shards to defeat Duriel. When you open Duriel's chest, it drops 3 Corrupted Horns of Duriel. Take these 3 horns to open Azmodan's chest; this chest spews out a large number of sigils. You can also use similar keys with this method—they also have a chance to drop lots of sigils too.
3. Combine World Bosses and Azmodan Summons
This method mixes fighting world bosses and summoning Azmodan. Regular world bosses spawn every hour, and you can summon Azmodan in a specific invasion area, near Zarbinzet. While fighting these bosses, you’ll progress toward maxing Essence of Sin. After defeating them, open the caches with special keys. Even if you don’t focus only on Nahantu mob rotations, farming these bosses still gives you sigils, and it works well if you prefer boss fights over mob grinding.
Where and How Farm Sigil Powder in D4 Season 11?
Whisper Caches: Each Whisper Cache gives 30 Sigil Powder normally. When the goblin event is active, you get an extra 30, making 60 total per cache. If you farm casually—taking about 4 minutes per cache—you can get around 15 caches per hour. That means roughly 450 Sigil Powder per hour without the goblin event, or 900 with it. If you farm very fast (2 minutes per cache), you can get around 900 Sigil Powder per hour normally, or 1,800 during the goblin event. Note that Sigil Powder isn’t guaranteed from every cache; in one test of five runs, one cache didn’t drop any. Also, opening Greater Affix Caches won’t give you more Sigil Powder than regular Whisper Caches.
Helltides: When you farm Helltides casually for an hour, you can get over 900 Sigil Powder. Chests that need more Cinders give more Sigil Powder—each such chest drops 10 to 50 Sigil Powder. Besides Sigil Powder, you can also get other rewards here, such as general crafting materials, gem fragments, and legendary items from Pangs of Duriel.
Azmodan Invasion Chests & Undying World Boss Fights: This is the top method for farming Sigil Powder in Season 11. First, it’s highly recommended to max out Azmodan’s divine gift to rank five—this helps you get better Sigils. Both Azmodan invasion chests and world bosses (if you don’t die during the fight) have a chance to drop chests that give 20 to 68 Sigils each. An extra tip: if you salvage a full inventory of Sigils, you can get over 400 Sigil Powder from that single salvage.