I can tell you that three weeks ago 8mgs of my dilaudid would knock me on my ass. I now inject 24mgs at a time. So yes, it does build rapidly. But also, tolerance only builds as fast as you let it. If you can get by on the smaller dose and appreciate the high for what it is, your tolerance will just crawl up slowly. Im a dope phene and always have been. I have 0 willpower so my tolerance will always get a steep slope. I have never really found that tolerance built any faster with hydromorphone than it did with any other opiate. The only opiates I found to have a very slow tolerance building effect, are methadone, and bupe. I found diamorphine, morphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, and fentanyl to all be about the same.
But yeah, hydromorphone and also hydrocodone seem to build tolerance very fast. Of course if one is using hydrocodone, then about 10% turns into hydromorphone. Anyways, learn your tolerance before you start playing with pills and your health. No offense, but anyone who has to ask that question, shouldn't be using any drugs.........