Anyone who has spent real time in Diablo 4 knows how fast Forgotten Souls disappear, especially once you start pushing gear and rerolling affixes. I used to bounce between a few random farms and still felt short on the mats that mattered. What changed things for me was leaning into Nightmare Dungeons with a cleaner setup, better routing, and a much tighter eye on D4 items that are actually worth picking up. Once you stop wasting runs on junk, the whole loop feels a lot smoother, and the drops start stacking up faster than you'd expect.

Why the War Plan tree matters

The big difference comes from the War Plan progression inside the Activities menu. Two nodes do most of the heavy lifting. Nemesis turns shrine hits into an Elite ambush, and that can snowball quickly when the dungeon layout gives you a few shrine spots close together. Branching Pathways helps in Escalation runs by adding extra Horadric Portals, which means more chances to reach the good rooms without dragging your feet through empty space. It sounds simple, but the extra density really does change the pace. You're fighting more, looting more, and spending less time wandering around hoping something worthwhile shows up.

The loop that keeps the mats flowing

What I've found works best is chaining high-tier Nightmare Dungeons with Escalation Sigils from the Occultist. You get the usual chaos, sure, but you also run into heavier pressure from things like The Butcher or other nasty surprise bosses, and that keeps the run from feeling stale. Standard clears can still be strong, and a quick 17-minute run can bring in around 905 Forgotten Souls, which is solid. Escalation runs take longer, but the payoff is broader. You're not just after souls. You're also feeding your stash with Rawhide, Iron Chunks, Veiled Crystals, and the rare upgrade mats that always seem to vanish when you need them most.

How to keep the pace up

The part most players miss is time management. If you keep opening stash tabs, checking every yellow drop, or standing around comparing every roll, your farm falls apart fast. A simple loot filter setup helps a lot. Hide the stuff you never touch. Highlight the drops that can move a Codex upgrade forward. That way, your eyes go straight to the useful pieces and you can move on without second-guessing every room. Over a long session, that saves a ton of time, and the difference shows in the total mat count. If you build the run this way, you can keep the pressure high and still leave room to browse D4 items for sale when you're ready to upgrade the build instead of wasting another hour chasing scraps.