While leveling up in Diablo 2: Resurrected is conceptually much simpler than it is in more contemporary action role-playing games (ARPGs), the process of actually doing so can be described as being somewhat complicated. Playing the game is the primary means of acquiring new items, as there are no Real Money Auction Houses or other forms of microtransactions available. You take the gear that is dropped by the monsters you kill, which may or may not be an upgrade. Simple.

• However, once you've reached a certain gear level in the game, you'll have the option to make the game significantly more challenging

• The game's default expectation is that you should now be ready to begin playing on Nightmare difficulty, and that by the time you clear it on Nightmare, you will be geared enough to begin playing on Hell difficulty

• Let's say you have completed the game on Normal difficulty and gathered gear as you went

• However, beyond this straightforward progression, there are additional particulars and nuances to take into consideration

• You might want to do some farming in Normal mode first, for example, before switching to the Nightmare difficulty setting

• Then there is Magic Find, which is a gear statistic that raises the chance that one will find one of the many different magical items that can drop in Diablo 2

   

Now that we have that out of the way, let's discuss gearing up in Diablo 2: how to do it and when to do it seriously.
Magic Find is a friend who could end up being your enemy.
To begin, you should start assembling a Magic Find set as soon as you are able to, but you shouldn't put it on right away. Because you get better gear on each difficulty, and certain enemies and bosses have better gear they can potentially drop than others, it is in your best interest to wait until you have at least completed the game on Normal difficulty before moving on to higher difficulties. There is a thread from the old Diablo 2 forums that has been preserved online that goes into detail that we won't be able to match here, but the gist of it is simple enough to understand: Magic Find gear sacrifices stats such as offensive power and various resistances in exchange for the ability to increase the amount of gear of green and higher quality that drops. If you want a detailed breakdown of how Magic Find works and what the Treasure Class of specific mobs is, you can find it here.

When you have reached 100% Magic Find, you have effectively doubled your chances of finding magically enhanced loot in your travels. Although there are diminishing returns and tiers that each individual mob adheres to, it is possible to go up to 500% Magic Find, which will both increase the chance of magical loot dropping and the maximum amount of magic find that can be attained. Let's say that one magical item is dropped for every one hundred times a mob is killed. This increases to a score of 2 out of 100 with 100% MF, and by the time you reach 500% MF, you have effectively reached a score of 5 out of 100. These are just some examples, but if you're really interested in the nuts and bolts of everything that's going on here, including how Magic Find affects the quality of gear that drops, you can read up on that here. These are just some examples.

Keep in mind that Magic Find has both positive and negative effects on your character: while it increases the likelihood that higher-quality items will drop for you, it also reduces the amount of certain stats that you'll need to survive at higher difficulty levels. You may feel at ease farming Nightmare mode Act 1 for loot, but if you start Hell in your full MF set, Blood Raven's feet may find you splattered across the ground.

Take out those demons as many times as you can.
Having said that, the following is a list of suggestions for getting prepared:
You should strive to complete the Normal and Nightmare difficulties as quickly as possible in order to begin farming bosses on those difficulties as soon as possible. After you have completed Normal, Nightmare will be unlocked for you. This gives you the opportunity to farm bosses on Normal difficulty, such as Mephisto, Diablo, or Baal, in order to have a better chance of obtaining gear that you will require for Nightmare, for example.

Killing bosses over and over again in the hope that they will eventually drop the items you need is what "farming" means. This can be accomplished by beginning a new game, navigating to the waypoint that is geographically closest to the boss, engaging in combat with the boss until you have defeated it, and then beginning a new game if the desired item did not drop.

Keep using Magic Find to find new gear, especially as your character levels up and gains access to better quality items. In Normal, it is important to build a MF set, and you may want to run Act 1 farming on minibosses like the Countess, who drop runes. You can get these runes from killing minibosses.

There are certain regions in which you should carry out farming runs on a consistent basis. Act 2 is where you'll find the tombs, and Act 3 is where you'll find lower Kurast. After those, it's likely that you'll focus your attention on the Council, Mephisto, and Diablo before moving on to farming Baal. It is highly likely that you will farm all of these on Nightmare in order to prepare for Hell, as farming them on Normal presents a lower chance of obtaining the gear that you require.

You should also try to finish Normal and Nightmare as quickly as possible. This is because you have to finish a difficulty level before you can access the Secret Cow Level on that difficulty, and the Secret Cow Level is a good place to farm for drops and runes. When farming on the Secret Cow Level, it is best to avoid killing the Cow King just in case.