Diablo 5 will 'take a somewhat different approach' to Diablo 4's monster level scaling so your character feels noticeably stronger as you progress

Despite its surprise announcement at BlizzCon earlier this month, Diablo 5 is a whole three years away. Blizzard's brief teaser trailer had zero gameplay in it, which means the action RPG sequel is still mostly a mystery.

But director Joe Shely helped paint a picture of what the real thing might look like during a recent group interview with PC Gamer.

One of the somewhat controversial aspects of the last couple Diablo games is how they handle monster difficulty. In Diablo 2, each area has a level range that determines how tough enemies will be compared to your character. Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 ditched this approach for a system that has monsters scale in difficulty as your character levels up.

In a genre all about the power fantasy of slowly becoming a demon-slaying god, this didn't go over so well with the many players who want those moments where your character feels considerably more powerful than their foes. While this still happens in the newer games, the gap between the strength of your character and the monsters is much smaller until you're decked out in high-level gear.

Level scaling seems to solve a lot of problems with maintaining a certain degree of challenge in the newer Diablo games, but it does diminish the spikes in power you can get from finding a particularly strong item or leveling up.

We already know Diablo 5 will return to procedurally-generating areas so that every dungeon, or open world zone, will look different every time you visit them—a crucial part of Diablo 2 that suggests Blizzard is interested in bringing back core elements from the series' history.

Shely said level scaling in Diablo 5 isn't something the team has fully discussed yet, but acknowledged how important your character's power level is to the experience.

"Diablo is a game that, in many ways, is about your character getting stronger and when the monsters get stronger at the same time, especially outside of your control… You've filled the experience bar, you get stronger, you should feel awesome now, a wave of light pulses out from you, a bunch of monsters die," he explained. "That's wonderful, but then you're going to go hit some more monsters and you should feel powerful. And sometimes automatic scaling can get in the way of that feeling, which is so core to it, and that's why this is a really important question. And so, we're going to take a somewhat different approach to that in Diablo 5."

As someone who has never been a huge fan of level scaling in RPGs, it's nice to hear that Blizzard is willing to rethink a major component of the recent Diablo games. Newer action RPGs, like Path of Exile 2, are great examples of how friction, like running into monsters way too powerful for you, can make the grind for better and better loot more meaningful when there are actual risks.

Diablo 5 is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the demon lord has won. Finding a new sword that lets you crush the monsters who humiliated you a few levels earlier should emphasize the progress you've made on your journey to save Sanctuary from Hell's army. Blizzard says regular updates about the game's development will begin next year and that it will incorporate feedback along the way. I'll be curious to see exactly how level scaling—or the lack of it—will work and how far the dev team is willing to go to recreate the classic Diablo experience.

2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together