This page provides details about Area Level (aLv) 85 areas in Diablo 2: Resurrected, including information about why they are noteworthy, where these areas are, the monsters found in each area, which characters are best at farming them, and other unique features of said aLv85 areas.

Kill monsters to get better loot to kill stronger monsters - it’s the core gameplay loop for Diablo 2: Resurrected, and it’s not surprising to find out what monsters can drop what items, and why. Unfortunately this can be a rather complicated topic (which is covered in some detail on the How Magic Find and Item Drops Work page), and for this page, suffice to say there’s a correlation between areas where monsters spawn, the monster’s strength (level) and what items they can drop. The higher the monster’s level, the more/better items they can drop, and while this is a fairly linear system in Normal and Nightmare difficulties (save for Bosses, who can have significantly higher levels than the surrounding monsters), in Hell difficulty, level spikes abound. In Hell difficulty, in most cases, a monster’s level (mLv) is determined by the area level (aLv) in which they spawn. The highest area levels in the game is 85, and it is in these locations where pretty much any item in the game can drop, hence aLv85 areas are prime farming spots.

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Level 85 areas can be found scattered throughout the game. The Pit, an optional side area in Act 1, is a popular farming spot.

A list of all the aLv85 areas in the game follows:

As you can see, there’s no chronological preference for the locations of aLv85 areas - you’ll find them scattered throughout the game, with the first one appearing quite early in Act 1. In fact, one of the most popular aLv85 areas - The Pit - is found in the middle of Act 1! On paper, then, these areas have the same level of monsters, which should make them more or less equal in terms of difficulty… but some areas are favored above others, for various reasons. These boil down to the types of monsters present (a Lv85 Soul Killer and a Lv85 Devilkin simply do not present the same challenge), their immunities, how difficult it is to reach said aLv85 areas, how many champion/unique mobs spawn in each one, and various other intangibles.

The Mausoleum, The Pit, the [Ancient Tunnels] and the Chaos Sanctuary are some of the more popular areas to run for these reasons. All of these save the [Ancient Tunnels] are relatively easy to find, the enemies within aren’t too annoying (no Willowisps or Bone Fetishes), immunities are relatively easy to manage (only lightning immunes in the Mausoleum, no guaranteed cold immunes in the [Ancient Tunnels], no magical/physical immunes in The Pit and Chaos Sanctuary, etc.) and there’s a decent density of monsters - especially champion/unique packs (although the Mausoleum does suffer here somewhat compared to the others). As far as intangibles, all these locations (sans The Pit) have a Super Unique monster near or within them, with the Chaos Sanctuary being home to three, not to mention the boss monster, Diablo.

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Level 85 areas house stronger enemies who are capable of dropping nearly every item in the game.

On the other hand, some of the less popular aLv85 areas like the Maggot Lair, Ruined Fane, Disused Reliquary and Forgotten Temple are in random locations in their native map, which requires tedious searching, have fewer champion/unique enemies within them, and in the case of the Maggot Lair, only the third level of the dungeon is actually aLv85, requiring you to go through two dud levels before you reach the third, not to mention these areas being full of nuisance monsters and, in the case of the Maggot Lair, annoying terrain that will slow you down.

A list of the areas, the average number of champion/unique packs, the common immunities of monsters found therein, and other interesting features can be found below:

Most meta-builds/characters excel at clearing at least one of these aLv85 areas, and for good reason - they’re prime farming spots. A Blizzard Sorceress, for example, is adept at handling the Ancient Tunnels, but will find, say, The Pit much more troublesome due to cold immunes. Find a build you like, an aLv85 area you don’t mind farming repeatedly (ideally these two overlap) and let the sweet magic of Diablo 2 happen… and if you get bored, switch to a new build/area.