Leveling in Diablo 4 is initially a pretty standard affair, once you hit level 2 you’ll earn a Skill Point and your stats will get a minor boost, and these gains will continue in a similar fashion until you hit level 49. Once you hit level 50, however, things change. From level 50 on you no longer gain Skill Points every time you level up, instead earning a Paragon Point. These Paragon points become the currency of character progression from this point forward. This page will discuss Paragon progression, including how to earn and spend Paragon Points to unlock nodes of various rarities on Paragon Boards in Diablo 4.
(1 of 2) Paragon Boards are comprised of nodes of various rarities. One Paragon Point unlocks any one node, and while most of these will yield a simple stat boost,
Paragon Boards are comprised of nodes of various rarities. One Paragon Point unlocks any one node, and while most of these will yield a simple stat boost, (left), some rarer nodes will give you greater rewards. Rare nodes often have bonuses that can be unlocked by reaching various stat benchmarks. (right)
How to Earn and Spend Paragon Points¶
As mentioned earlier, when you hit level 50 you’ll stop gaining Skill Points every level up and instead start accumulating Paragon Points. You’ll gain one Paragon Point for every 25% of the XP bar you fill, as noted by three new markers segmenting the XP bar. You still gain stat boosts every level, but generally the highlight is now Paragon Points and level becomes more of a landmark signifier of progression than a way of making meaningful gains.
Once you earn a Paragon Point, enter your inventory and navigate to the “Abilities” tab, where you can now access the “Paragon” tab. Here you’ll find a Paragon Board, which is just an assembly of Paragon Nodes of varying rarity that confer different bonuses. Like items, Paragon Nodes come in various rarities - common, magical, rare and legendary, and rare nodes tend to have more/better bonuses. Regardless of the node’s rarity of the bonuses it yields, each node only costs one Paragon Point to unlock. Once you’ve unlocked a node by purchasing it with a Paragon Point, the benefits on that node are yours forever… unless you refund the node, which functions just like refunding Skill Points - you pay gold and you vacate the node, getting your Paragon Point back. Like with Skill Points, the cost to refund Paragon Points increases as you level up.
It’s also worth noting that the placement of Paragon Nodes on each Paragon Board is not arbitrary. You can only unlock Paragon Nodes adjacent to nodes you’ve already purchased, and if you refund nodes, you must do so sequentially - you can’t rush to a distant node, then refund all the Paragon Points you spent en route to said node, for example.
While most Paragon Nodes yield fairly straight-forward rewards (the most common being +5 bonuses to one stat or another), rare nodes often have a bonus that only unlocks if you meet a specific stat threshold. The Sorcerer’s base Paragon Board, for example, has the “Elemental Balance” rare node that gives +10% Non-Physical damage and +10 Intelligence, but if you manage to bring your total Dexterity score to 170 or higher you’ll gain another +10% Non-Physical Damage. How you reach these stat thresholds doesn’t matter - gear bonuses, enhancements from Altars of Lilith, or stat bonuses from Paragon Nodes, they all count towards this total. Of course that means if you change gear you could end up losing these bonuses.
You’ll earn a good number of Paragon Points as you continue leveling past 50, but the general idea is to beeline towards points of interest on the Paragon Board - rare nodes, legendary nodes, Paragon Glyphs and Board Attachment Gates - grabbing stat boosts that are relevant to your build or that make progress towards unlocking bonuses as you go.
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