The armies of the Burning Hells are about to become a lot more hellacious. In patch 1.0.5, we'll be introducing Monster Power, a new system designed to give players more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty setting. Similar to the "Players X" command in Diablo II, Monster Power gives Diablo III players the option to increase the health and damage of monsters according to different "power levels" -- and in return, they'll receive scaling bonuses to their adventure stats (including experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find) as well as more drops.

The option to adjust Monster Power will be available to all players starting at level 1 through the Quest Selection window, and can be adjusted separately for Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties. Here's how the system works....

Setting Your Monster Power Level

Monster Power will be disabled by default, so before you can make any adjustments, you'll first need to enable the system. To do so, open up the Game Menu, click the Options button, and then click the Gameplay tab. You'll see the Enable Monster Power Selection box on the right side of the screen -- check that, and then click Accept.

Once enabled, the option to set Monster Power will appear in the lower portion of the Quest Selection window next to the Difficulty drop-down menu. You can choose from Monster Power 1 (MP1) all the way up to Monster Power 10 (MP10), or you can opt for No Monster Power (the default setting) to play the "normal" challenge level for your chosen difficulty. Monster Power can be adjusted separately for each hero and difficulty, and can be changed at any time through the Quest Selection interface.

At the launch of patch 1.0.5, Monster Power will be available in both solo and private multiplayer games. Whenever you join a private multiplayer game, your hero will temporarily adopt the Monster Power level set by the party leader, and it will return to the previous setting you selected as soon as you leave the group.

(Please note that you will not be able to adjust Monster Power in Public Games at the feature's launch, though we're looking into the possibility of adding that ability in the future.)

More Guts, More Glory

Starting at MP1, each level of Monster Power will increase monster damage and health by a scaling amount depending on difficulty. To reward your audacity, your hero will receive bonuses to experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find (which will stack above the 300% cap).

For Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, the bonuses look like this:

In Inferno, in addition to increased experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find, whenever a monster dies and drops an item normally (whether it be gold, a potion, or a piece of gear), the monster also has a chance to drop an additional bonus item. The chance to drop a bonus item will scale up with each MP level as detailed in the table below.*