The [[Staff of Herding]] must be upgraded in order to access higher difficulty levels for Whimsyshire.
Once the original staff of herding is complete, the player needs only to buy upgrading patterns from [[Gorell the Quartermaster]] in [[Act IV]]. The plans always cost one gold each, but are increasingly expensive to upgrade.
[[File:Hellish_SoH.jpg|thumb|400px|Buying Staff of Herding patterns.]]
The [[Nightmarish Staff of Herding]] version of the staff requires the normal staff and 100,000 gold. Once crafted, the player can then enter the Nightmare version of Whimsyshire. The same goes for the higher difficulties, although the crafting fee increases exponentially.
The patterns are only purchasable from Gorell in Act IV, and has a few requisites. The player must have the final Act IV [[quest]] active (#4), and the player must also know the previous difficulty's pattern. As an example, in order to purchase the pattern for the [[Hellish Staff of Herding]], the player must already have taught [[Haedrig]] the pattern for the [[Nightmarish Staff of Herding]]. Each difficulty's pattern must be purchased within that difficulty. So to obtain the pattern for the [[Hellish Staff of Herding]], the player must go to Hell Act IV to buy it. The final version of the staff is the [[Infernal Staff of Herding]].
