Diablo 4‘s Season of Witchcraft eases the leveling process for seasonal characters depending on the difficulty level you play on. When you create a new character, you gain access to four difficulty levels, while an additional four Torment difficulty levels are locked.
The first couple of Torment difficulties are where you start accessing endgame activities. This is how you can unlock them.
How to unlock Torment difficulty levels in Diablo 4
When you create a new character, you choose your starting difficulty level after you finish the initial customization. If you’re a new or returning player, we recommend starting out playing through the Normal difficulty for the initial leveling process. Even though the experience gain is the lowest, you can kill enemies the fastest, which helps you breeze through the early content.
When you make your way to Kyovashad for the first time, you should run into a particular statue that adorns the town square. This is the World Tier Statue, and interacting with it opens the difficulty panel. This is where you can select between the Normal, Hard, and Expert difficulty levels, while Penitent is unlocked after you hit level 50.
Beyond that, you should see the locked Torment difficulty levels of Torment I, Torment II, Torment III, and Torment IV that will not be available to you even if you have reached max level. Unlocking them will have you go through a specific endgame dungeon, The Pit of Artificers, that you will eventually get very familiar with as you go up the difficulty tiers.
How to unlock Torment I
To unlock the first tier of the Torment difficulties, you must run early levels of The Pit until you get up to Tier 20. The Pit of Artificers is located in Cerrigar, but you cannot access it until you get the appropriate number of Runeshards. For your first run, you need three Runeshards, and the fastest way to get them is to complete Nightmare Dungeons.
Along your travels, you should run into Nightmare Dungeon Keys that will drop by defeating high-level enemies, with the drop chances increasing based on the difficulty level you’re playing on. Unlock the Nightmare Dungeon using a key. As long as the enemies are level 100, you should gain Runeshards by completing the dungeon.
The easiest way to ensure it is by running Nightmare Dungeon at level 46. Completing it will guarantee three Runeshards to unlock The Pit.
Take the Runeshards to the entrance of The Pit, denoted by an obelisk-shaped structure in Cerrigar, and interact with it. You can either choose to work your way up their tiers or, if you feel confident enough, take on Tier 20 immediately. Completing Tier 20 will unlock Torment I and open up new features.
- You gain 300-percent increased gold and experience.
- Gear up to Rare quality is salvaged automatically.
- Ancestral quality gear has a chance to drop.
- (Seasonal) Minor chance of Forgotten Altars and Fugitive Heads to spawn.
Once you unlock Torment I, the next difficulty level can be easier to unlock.
How to unlock Torment II
After you run The Pit enough times while completing several Rootholds, you should have gathered enough gear to push through higher Pit tiers. As long as you have a few tempered and masterworked Ancestral items equipped, push through The Pit until you hit Tier 35. The difficulty level at Tier 35 is a considerable spike, so be careful if you’re running it for the first time.
Once you’re used to the layout and the type of enemies within, you should be able to conquer Tier 35 in no time. Upon completion, you’ll unlock the Torment II difficulty level with additional modifiers tacked on to the original Torment I modifiers.
- You gain 400-percent increased gold and experience.
- Ancestral quality gear has a much higher drop chance.
- Mythic Unique gear has a chance to drop.
- (Seasonal) Higher chance of Forgotten Altars and Fugitive Heads to spawn.
Every Torment difficulty also reduces your armor and resistances further, so make sure your gear is on par with the scaling difficulty, preferably with strong Runes. Good luck, and keep pushing through The Pit to unlock Torment III and Torment IV to truly conquer the endgame content.
