Brann Bronzebeard is the AI companion who follows you into every Delve in The War Within, and his level is the single biggest factor in how survivable Bountiful Delves and high-tier solo content feel. A Brann at level 11 is a different animal from a Brann at level 1 — more healing, more damage, and crucially access to better curios that reshape his entire toolkit. This guide focuses on getting him to the cap fast and picking the right curios along the way.

How Brann's leveling actually works

Brann earns experience every time you complete a Delve with him, regardless of difficulty tier. He started capped at level 60 in patch 11.0, but the cap was raised to 80 in later War Within content, so check your in-game companion panel for your current max. Each level bumps his combat stats and, every few levels, unlocks a new curio slot or a stronger curio rarity.

The key thing most players miss: XP per Delve scales with the tier you run, not just completion. A Tier 8 Bountiful Delve gives meaningfully more Brann XP than a Tier 1. But you also need to actually survive and finish, so there's a balance — running a tier slightly below your comfortable ceiling and clearing it quickly beats wiping repeatedly at a tier that's too high.

The fastest leveling route

Speed comes from throughput — clearing more Delves per hour at the highest tier you can reliably finish. Concrete tactics:

  • Run the shortest Delves. Delves like Fungal Folly, The Waterworks, and Kriegval's Rest have compact layouts and quick boss paths. Avoid sprawling ones when you're grinding pure Brann XP.
  • Use the weekly Bountiful Delve rotation for XP, not just loot. Bountiful Delves (the ones with the glowing map icon and a Restored Coffer at the end) award the same Brann XP as a normal Delve of that tier, and you're running them anyway for Gilded Stash gear — so prioritize them.
  • Push tier as your gear allows. Each tier you clear comfortably is a flat XP increase. If you're facerolling Tier 6, you're leaving XP on the table — bump to 7 or 8.
  • Don't bother with the "Brann tank vs DPS" toggle for leveling. Set him to whichever role lets you clear fastest. If you're a squishy DPS spec, Brann-as-healer keeps you alive and keeps clears smooth.

Realistically, a focused player clears a short Tier 8 Delve in 5–8 minutes. From a fresh Brann to the cap is a chunky grind — somewhere in the range of dozens of hours of Delves depending on your starting point and tier. If you're a working adult who wants the Brann-gated rewards (the Gilded Stash gear, the achievements) but doesn't have the evenings to spare, this is exactly the kind of grind where a Delve completion carry or a Brann-leveling service is a defensible time-for-money trade — you're buying back the repetitive clears, not skipping skill. If you genuinely enjoy solo Delves, though, just play it out; the grind is the content.

Curios: what they are and which to prioritize

Curios are Brann's equippable buffs, and they're where his power really lives. As Brann levels, you unlock more curio slots and access higher rarities (Common to Epic). Each curio gives a passive effect, and they stack into genuinely build-defining combinations.

Healer-Brann curios worth chasing

  • Bottled Mountain Spring — periodic AoE healing pulses; excellent for sustained fights and add-heavy rooms.
  • Curio of Restored Health — flat boost to Brann's healing output, scales with his level.
  • Healing-on-kill effects — turn your trash clears into free sustain, which is huge for melee specs.

DPS-Brann curios worth chasing

  • Curio of Fixation — Brann focuses targets harder, boosting his single-target damage on bosses.
  • Detonating / explosive curios — add AoE burst that dramatically speeds up trash, which is your real time sink in a clear.
  • Crit and attack-speed curios — flat damage multipliers that compound with his level scaling.

How to farm curios efficiently

Curios drop from Delves and the Restored Coffers at the end of Bountiful Delves, with higher tiers having a better shot at Rare and Epic rarities. This is the nice part: leveling Brann and farming his curios happen at the same time. Every Bountiful Delve you run for his XP is also a curio roll. A few rules to optimize:

  • Open every Restored Coffer at the highest tier you can clear. Coffer rewards scale with tier — this is your best curio source.
  • Don't hoard duplicates. If a curio's effect doesn't fit your build, it's just inventory clutter; equip for your actual playstyle.
  • Re-evaluate your loadout every few Brann levels. New slots and rarities open up, and a Common curio you slotted at level 4 is often outclassed by a Rare you've since collected.
  • Match curios to your weakest link. Dying a lot? Stack healing curios even on a DPS-Brann. Clearing too slowly? Stack his damage. The right answer changes with your gear.

The honest bottom line

Maxing Brann is a throughput grind, not a puzzle: pick short Delves, run the highest tier you can clear cleanly, prioritize Bountiful Delves so XP and curio drops come together, and rebuild his curio loadout every few levels to patch your current weak spot. Do that and his level climbs while your collection fills in automatically. If the repetition is the part you'd rather not spend your limited play hours on, a Delve carry or Brann-leveling service makes sense — but if solo Delving is why you logged in, this is one of the more relaxing grinds in the game, and there's real satisfaction in watching Brann go from a liability to the reason you can solo content that used to need a group.