Ladder (D2R)

Ladder is a game mode on the Realms in which characters compete in a race to level 99. When D2 Resurrected was originally released in 2021, there was no ladder. The first ladder season started in April 2022.

Ladder rank of a dead Hardcore character will be preserved as long as it is not deleted. Names of dead characters can be recycled by deleting them and creating new characters with the same name (although any Ladder rank of the dead character will be lost).

Ladder is periodically reset, at which point previous Ladder characters are converted to non-Ladder characters. To participate in a new Ladder season, new Ladder characters need to be created. All new Ladder characters start at level 1 with no items, so the economy is also reset.

Aside from the Ladder competition and fresh start, there are Horadric Cube recipes, Rune Words and Unique items available in Ladder games which are not available in non-Ladder games on the Realms (although previous Ladder characters retain their Ladder items when converted to non-Ladder at the end of a season). When D2R was released, all LoD ladder-only Horadric Cube recipes, Rune Words and Unique items became available in D2R non-ladder games. Later, new D2R ladder-only Horadric Cube recipes and Rune Words were introduced. Some of them have since become available non-ladder as well.

Ladder games also present more of a challenge:

• Base monster defense is higher in Nightmare and Hell.
• Base monster life is higher in Hell.
• Base monster damage and poison length calculated using MonStats values increases by 1/16 (6.25%) with each additional player in Nightmare and Hell.
• Monster AI may be faster in Nightmare and Hell.

Season

Season Start Date Length 1 Apr 28 '22 0[1] 161 days 2 Oct 06 '22 0[2] 133 days 3 Feb 16 '23 0[3] 77 days 4 May 04 '23 0[4] 147 days 5 Sep 28 '23 0[5] 147 days 6 Feb 22 '24 0[6] 91 days 7 May 23 '24 0[7] 92 days 8 Aug 23 '24 0[8] 105 days 9 Dec 06 '24 0[9] Rune Word Bulwark helm Cure helm Ground helm Hearth helm Hustle weapon/body armor Metamorphosis helm Mosaic claw Temper helm Reference D2R patch 2.6 (for ladder-only runewords)