Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred has made some sweeping changes to progression and endgame systems. The first change you'll notice upon logging in is the new Torment difficulty system. World Tiers have been sent into the depths of Hell, replaced with the reprised Torment system from previous titles.

Increasing your Torment tiers is a core part of the endgame experience now and a means of tuning the game's difficulty to suit your preferences. Complete the campaign, clear a T20 Pit dungeon, and embark on the Torment difficulty grind to unlock some of Diablo 4's strongest items and difficult endgame activities.

What Is Torment?

Torment is an elective difficulty system that has replaced World Tiers. Similar to past Diablo games, you'll gain access to four Torment difficulty levels as you progress through the endgame. Each tier drastically increases the game's difficulty by increasing monster damage, HP, while also nerfing your survivability stats.

The main draw behind Torment difficulty is the ability to earn Ancestral items, the strongest gear in Diablo 4. Items that are marked as Ancestral always drop with a Greater Affix (a 50% stat boost), have stronger affixes, and can be masterworked more than usual. Needless to say, getting a full set of Ancestral gear is required to push the hardest Torment difficulties.

Torment Difficulty Tiers

You'll have access to four Torment difficulty tiers in Vessel of Hatred. Each difficulty tier gets exponentially harder, mainly due to the HP and damage buffs all monsters receive. Additionally, higher Torment tiers also curse your character with survivability debuffs, similar to how World Tiers worked. These debuffs are the following:

In other words, players on Torment IV will need to double their Armor and resistance values to stay alive in the endgame. You can lean on Paragon passives and gems to mitigate these curses, but some top-class items will be required to stand a chance in Torment III and beyond.

How To Unlock Torment Tiers

You'll unlock Torment Tiers through The Pit endgame activity, a timed dungeon in Cerrigar that becomes available upon completing the campaign. A T20 Pit run is required to unlock Torment I difficulty. Harder difficulties are locked behind higher Pit tiers.

We aren't sure if Torment unlocks are account-bound, but Pit tiers are tied to your account. Once you clear a T20 Pit, you can jump straight into T20 on your alts to unlock your first Torment option.

How Difficult Is Each Torment Tier?

The Pit level tied to each Torment tier is a good indicator of difficulty. If your build can comfortably clear a T20 Pit, then it'll have no problem in the first Torment difficulty. The jump from Penitent to Torment I is fairly small. Inscribe a few Legendary aspects onto your cheap Diablo 4 items, temper your gear, and you'll emerge victorious.

As for the other difficulties:

Torment II: About how hard T80-100 Nightmare Dungeons were in Season 5. If your build can handle that, you'll be fine in Torment II.

Torment III: Roughly the same intensity as Wave 8 Infernal Hordes. You'll need a well-optimized build to tackle this difficulty, but min-maxing isn't required.

Torment IV: Comparable to T100 Pit in Season 5. This difficulty is brutal and requires a perfect, min-maxed build. Enemies are significantly tankier here than Torment III.

Torment Difficulty Rewards

Scaling up the difficulty does come with an increase in rewards, albeit not as significant as World Tiers were previously. The most notable change is the addition of Ancestral Diablo 4 items, equipment that drops with at least one Greater Affix and a higher item power rating. Excluding Mythic Uniques, you won't find better gear than this.

Torment difficulties dictate how frequently Ancestral gear drops. The higher the Torment tier, the more likely you'll find Ancestral gear. From our testing in the pre-release build, we didn't find many Ancestral items from raw monster drops, but auxiliary drop sources (such as caches or activity clears) did have a noticeable uptick in Ancestral rewards.

Beyond Ancestral gear, you'll also need to play on Torment I to access some of Diablo 4's endgame content. Infernal Hordes and The Dark Citadel require you to be on Torment I or higher. All other activities are accessible right after the campaign, but you'll want to crank up the difficulty regardless to start earning Ancestral gear.

Conclusion

The Torment difficulty system reintroduces a classic Diablo challenge while ensuring endgame progression remains engaging. Players must complete The Pit to unlock higher Torments and acquire Ancestral gear to survive the toughest encounters. If you seek the ultimate test in Diablo 4, Torment IV awaits-but only the most dedicated players will conquer it.