Yes — delves award character XP while you are below max level, and they are a solid solo alternative to dungeon spam. XP comes from the mobs inside plus a chunk on completion, scales with your level and the delve's tier, and stacks with War Mode. At max level delves stop giving character XP and pay out gear, keys and Brann progress instead.
Delve XP: the quick facts
- Where the XP comes from: trash and elite packs on the way in, the objective itself, and any quest attached to that delve. The completion chunk is the biggest single piece.
- It scales with you. Delves level-scale, so they stay worth running across your whole leveling window rather than going grey after a few levels.
- Tier matters, but not the way people assume. Higher tiers mean tougher mobs and a bigger payout per clear — but if you are undergeared, the slower kills eat the gain. The fastest XP per hour while leveling is usually the highest tier you can still blast through without stopping to drink.
- Bonuses apply. War Mode's XP bonus works here, and rested XP applies to the mobs you kill inside.
- Solo is cleaner for pure XP. Delves scale for 1-5 players, but kill XP is shared across a group. If leveling is the only goal, running alone usually beats bringing friends.
- At max level: character XP stops entirely. The run still pays — Bountiful chests, Restored Coffer Keys, crests and Brann levels.
Do delves give XP at max level?
No. Once you hit the cap, delve completions give zero character experience — there is no XP bar left to fill. What replaces it is gear: Bountiful delve chests, coffer key currency, upgrade crests and seasonal delve rewards.
The one thing that keeps leveling at cap is your companion. Brann Bronzebeard has his own separate progress track that keeps filling from delve completions long after your character is done leveling.
Are delves faster than dungeons for leveling?
Honest answer: it depends on your group situation. A fast dungeon group with a tank who pulls wall to wall will still out-pace delves in raw XP per hour. But you need that group, and you need the queue to pop.
Delves have no queue, no wait and no reliance on four strangers. For a solo player, a DPS with long queue times, or anyone leveling alts in short sessions, delves are usually the better real-world rate — the one you actually get, not the theoretical best.
How does Brann Bronzebeard's XP work?
Brann levels independently of your character. Every delve you finish feeds his track, and it does not matter whether you are level 25 or capped — he keeps progressing either way.
Higher Brann levels mean a stronger companion and more curio options, which directly affects how comfortably you can push higher delve tiers later. Check his portrait in the delve interface for his current level and cap, since that ceiling has been raised across patches.
Which delve tier should I run while leveling?
Pick the highest tier where you are still killing packs without pausing. If a pull takes more than a few seconds or you are eating floor between fights, drop a tier — clear speed beats payout size for XP per hour every time.
Save the high tiers for max level, where they exist to reward gear rather than experience.
If you would rather skip the grind, PewPewShop's vetted pros handle it as coaching and play-together progression help — no bots, no cheats, long clean record. Delves Boost starts from EUR 17 and Delve Tier Unlock from EUR 12, and our coaches are happy to just walk you through tier pushing if you would rather learn the rotation yourself.