While there is certainly no shortage of gear to be found in Diablo 4, the randomness of what is dropped can make it difficult to find items that serve as upgrades. That said, it is actually possible to take a targeted approach to item farming, allowing players to focus on slots that are in desperate need of improvement. This guide is here to provide details on how that is done, and it will give fans a solid understanding of target farming in Diablo 4.
Diablo 4: Target Farming Explained
To begin, it is important to establish that target farming is connected to a concept that the community refers to as "monster families." Essentially, this concept states that enemies in Diablo 4 are grouped into families and that those families have an increased chance of dropping items of certain types. While some players may be skeptical about the validity of this statement, it was confirmed by Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora in an April 2023 Developer Update Live Stream.
With that connection established, Diablo 4 players can now understand that the best way to target farm a specific type of item is to focus on killing monsters that are most likely to drop that item type. To that end, the Blizzard Forums community, spearheaded by user Zolmation, has been hard at work confirming the specific associations between monster families and item types, and this is what is believed at the time of writing:
Item types marked with asterisks (*) currently appear to be connected to the associated monster families, though that has not yet been fully confirmed.
Monster Family | Item Type |
Bandit | Boots, Crossbows, Daggers*, Maces* |
Cannibals | Axes*, Helms* |
Cultists | Daggers, Helms, Staves |
Demons | Focus, Shields, 2H Maces*, Bows* Rings*, Totems* |
Drowned | Scythes*, 2H Maces*, Pants*, Boots* |
Fallen | Staves, Gloves, Axes* |
Ghosts | Rings, 1H Swords*, Bows*, Wands* |
Goatmen | Axes*, Staves*, Totems* |
Knights | 1H Swords*, 2H Maces*, Shields* |
Skeletons | 1H Swords, 2H Axes, Crossbows, Shields, Rings* |
Snakes | Boots, Daggers, Polearms, Swords* |
Spiders | 2H Swords, Bows, Focus, Gloves, Polearms |
Vampires | 2H Swords, Wands, Bows* |
Werewolves | 2H Maces, Pants, 2H Staves, Gloves* |
Wildlife | 2H Axes*, 2H Maces*, Boots* |
Zombies | 2H Scythes |
While players can now identify the monster families that are most likely to drop the item types in which they are interested, they may still have questions about the best places to find those families. To answer those questions, this table details the currently-available Nightmare Dungeons in which each enemy type can be found. Again, this data was collected by Blizzard Forums user Zolmation, and the entries that are bolded contain at least one Elite of the associated type.
Monster Family | Nightmare Dungeon |
Bandit | Maugan’s Works, Maulwood, Raethwind Wilds, Renegade’s Retreat |
Cannibals | Earthen Wound, Guulrahn Slums |
Cultists | Conclave, Cultist Refuge, Dark Ravine, Serpent’s Lair, Shadowed Plunge |
Demons | Ancient’s Lament, Dark Ravine, Prison of Caldeum |
Drowned | N/A |
Fallen | Ancient’s Lament, Demon's Wake, Lost Archives, Prison of Caldeum, Whispering Pines |
Ghosts | Abandoned Mineworks, Black Asylum, Earthen Wound, Guulrahn Slums, Lost Archives, Onyx Hold, Sunken Ruins |
Goatmen | Anica’s Claim, Champion’s Demise |
Knights | Crusader’s Cathedral, Maugan’s Works, Prison of Caldeum, Renegade’s Retreat |
Skeletons | Anica’s Claim, Black Asylum, Crusader’s Cathedral, Demon's Wake, Kor Dragan Barracks, Maulwood, Sunken Ruins |
Snakes | Serpent’s Lair, Shadowed Plunge, Witchwater |
Spiders | Abandoned Mineworks, Blind Burrows, Champion’s Demise, Feral’s Den, Guulrahn Canals, Serpent’s Lair, Whispering Pines, Witchwater |
Vampires | Kor Dragan Barracks, Zenith |
Werewolves | Aldurwood |
Wildlife | Aldurwood, Feral's Den, Maulwood, Raethwind Wilds, Whispering Pines |
Zombies | Anica’s Claim, Guulrahn Canals, Onyx Hold, Shivta Ruins, Sunken Ruins, Zenith |
One final thing to mention is that Diablo 4's super-rare Uniques only drop from Level 85+ monsters. As such, if a player will be using the information contained within this guide to attempt to target farm one of those six items, they should make sure that they are fighting enemies of a suitable level.
Diablo 4 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.