What are War Plans in Diablo IV?

War Plans are the headline endgame system in Lord of Hatred (launched April 28, 2026). At Temis in Skovos you draw up a custom playlist of up to 5 activities from a pool of 7 endgame modes — The Pit, Tree of Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons, Helltides, Infernal Hordes, Lair Bosses, and Kurast Undercity — and run them as a single chain. Each activity has its own 7-point skill tree that modifies rewards and mechanics, and chain completion grants consolidated bonus rewards.

Which activities can War Plans chain?

Seven confirmed: The Pit, Tree of Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons, Helltides, Infernal Hordes, Lair Bosses, and Kurast Undercity. You can pick any 5 of these per plan, in any order. Each activity has its own dedicated skill tree (capped at 7 points) that modifies enemy spawns, rewards, and special mechanics.

Do War Plans outperform regular endgame farming?

Yes — War Plans are designed to outperform freeform solo endgame in rewards per hour. The modifier-stacking, key-free teleport between activities, and chain-completion bonuses all compound to favor full plans over individual activities.

Do I need keys or sigils for activities inside a War Plan?

No. Once a War Plan is committed, the game auto-generates any missing Sigils or keys and teleports you between activities so the chain runs uninterrupted. No more stockpiling Sigils to run scheduled content.

Can I play War Plans with friends?

Yes. Cross-progression coop is supported — friends can contribute XP toward each other's War Plan boards. You can run the chain together.

Diablo IV

Complete guide to War Plans, the new endgame system in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. Chain up to 5 activities from The Pit, NMDs, Helltides, Infernal Hordes, Lair Bosses, and Kurast Undercity. How it works and why it replaces solo farming.

Endgame Lord of Hatred 10 min read

War Plans — The New D4 Endgame

By the DiabloBytes team · Updated April 2026 · Lord of Hatred

War Plans is Lord of Hatred's flagship endgame overhaul — the fix for Diablo IV's longest-standing complaint that once you hit level cap there is, per design director Colin Finer, "no compelling sort of progression past that." War Plans turns seven disconnected endgame activities into a single custom playlist with per-activity skill trees, key-free teleporting, and chain-completion rewards. The system delivers upgraded loot, XP, boss materials, Horadric Cube components, and gold along the way — all consolidated at the end of the chain.

The Core Concept

A War Plan is a randomized board with activity nodes. You pick up to 5 activities from a pool of 7 endgame modes, arrange them into a sequence, and execute the plan as one run. Boards are rerollable if the path doesn't fit your build. Each activity node has its own unlockable modifier tree, and modifiers carry across activities — meaning you can import a mechanic from one mode into another (Butcher spawns inside a Nightmare Dungeon, for example).

The Seven Chainable Activities

Helltides is the standout S-tier choice per launch-week meta — the best path for XP, Lair Keys, and Forgotten Souls all at once. Path into Helltides nodes first when you can.

🔥

Helltides S-tier pick. Timed world events with Aberrant Cinders, Blood Maiden boss, and chest tiers. Best XP, Lair Keys, and Forgotten Souls per minute when its skill tree is fully invested.

◈

The Pit Timed tier-based dungeon pushing. Core masterworking material farm and the main way to measure build power. Note: Hotfix 4 (Apr 30) removed automatic exit portals — finishing a Pit run no longer spawns a portal.

🌳

Tree of Whispers Bounty-board style activity with Whisper Caches at the end. Steady Grim Favors farming.

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Nightmare Dungeons Sigil-gated dungeons with affix modifiers. Primary glyph XP source.

♾

Infernal Hordes Wave-based survival with Aether currency, Boon/Bane choices, and a big reward chest at the end.

☠

Lair Bosses Summonable Uber Bosses (Duriel, Andariel, Grigoire, Varshan, etc.) that drop Mythic Uniques. Hotfix 4 closed an exploit where Nemesis lairs could be infinitely re-farmed via difficulty-swapping.

🏛

Kurast Undercity VoH-era timed dungeon with Tribute targeting. Target-farm specific item types and uniques.

Crafting a War Plan

1
Open a plan board Access War Plans from Temis (the Skovos hub city) or anywhere via the social panel. Board is randomized per session — reroll if the composition is bad.
2
Pick up to 5 activity nodes Choose which of the 7 activities you want, and in which order. The build you’re running matters — some modifiers favor bossing, others favor AoE clears.
3
Unlock modifier nodes Each activity on the board has an attached mini-skill-tree. Invest unlock currency to boost rewards, change enemy spawns, or tweak mechanics.
4
Execute the chain Auto-teleport between activities. The game generates any missing Sigils or keys so the run is uninterrupted — no load-screen-to-town detours.
5
Claim chain rewards Completing the full plan gives bonus rewards on top of each activity’s individual rewards. Full chains outperform freeform farming on rewards per hour.

Modifier Carryover

The feature that makes War Plans more than just "a playlist" is modifier carryover. Each activity's mini-skill-tree contains modifiers that affect enemy composition, reward tier, and mechanics. When modifiers carry to the next activity, they compound. Examples from Blizzard previews:

◆ Butcher spawn rate from Helltides node carries into the next activity
◆ Infernal Hordes Aether multiplier applies to the following NMD’s rewards
◆ Lair Boss difficulty modifier increases the next Pit tier’s reward roll
◆ Undercity Tribute targeting can "pre-select" drops from the following activity

Higher-tier modifiers raise difficulty along with rewards. The system is designed to reward players who can handle stacking modifiers.

Torment & Difficulty Expansion

War Plans ships alongside a Torment expansion. Lord of Hatred raises the system to 12 Torment tiers across 16 total difficulty levels (up from the VoH-era 4 Torment tiers). Both the activity pool and War Plans themselves scale against this expanded ladder. New and returning players can enter War Plans at lower tiers; meta pushers optimize plans for the highest tiers.

War Plans vs the Old Endgame

Pre-LoH (Today)	War Plans (Apr 28)
Pick one activity, run it solo	Pick 5 activities, run them as a chain
Keys + sigils required between activities	Auto-generated keys/sigils + auto-teleport inside the plan
Rewards are activity-local	Chain-completion bonuses compound rewards
Modifiers affect single activity only	Modifiers carry across the chain
No meta-progression across activities	Plan board itself progresses; modifier trees unlock
Activities felt siloed	Activities funnel into a single structured loop

Post-Launch Hotfix History

War Plans shipped with several powerful exploit nodes that have since been patched. See our full hotfix log for everything. War Plans-specific changes:

Hotfix 4 (Apr 30)Closed Nemesis boss lair infinite-farming exploit (multiplayer difficulty-swap). Pit and Tower runs no longer spawn auto-exit portals.
Hotfix 5 (May 5)Fixed Out of the Cold and Dog of Astaroth War Plan nodes — both were infinitely farming Unique items. Choron's Soul glyph upgrade exploit closed.

Patch 3.0.2 — Group Play Fixes (May 13, 2026)

Patch 3.0.2 targeted a stack of group-play bugs that had been making War Plans noticeably worse in a party than solo. The big fixes:

Nemesis Boss Lair triggeringFixed a bug where the Nemesis encounter would not trigger reliably for groups.
Varshan respawningVarshan now respawns properly inside War Plans.
Infinite farming exploit closedPatched the bug that allowed endless War Plans farming.
Party removalPlayers removed from party no longer get stuck inside the War Plans instance.
Reward distributionAll party members now receive rewards correctly — previously some bosses dropped loot only for the host.
Party Finder additionsEcho of Mephisto and Echoing Hatred are now listed in Party Finder.

War Plans group play is significantly more stable post-3.0.2. See the full Patch 3.0.2 notes for everything else in the update.

Launch Day Strategy

1
Finish LoH campaign to unlock War Plans Gated behind the LoH campaign. Push it Day 1 before any grinding.
2
Level to 70 before committing to a plan Full build shape and modifier-tree unlock flow assume level cap.
3
Start with a 3-activity plan Don’t max the chain until you know the modifiers. Shorter plans are cheaper to reroll.
4
Pick activities that favor your build Boss-heavy build: Pit + Lair + Hordes. AoE build: Helltides + NMD + Undercity.
5
Stack one modifier category at first Don’t chase every bonus. Focus on single reward type (Obducite, glyph XP, or unique target).
6
Reroll the board if composition is off Cheap reroll beats running a bad plan. Don’t force it.