Can you really reach Torment 12 if you do not own any expansions?

Or are you locked out of Diablo 4's highest content?

Diablo 4 now has two expansions, with possibly a 3rd one coming soon, so it is easy to forget how much of its content is available to players who only own the original game. Because yes, you technically do not have to buy any of the expansions. You can still participate in the seasons, or just play on legacy servers if that is what you want.

That brings up an interesting question, though. How far can you push a character if you only own the base game?

On the Diablo 4 subreddit, someone shared their experience and talked about reaching Torment 9 with a Necromancer. They simply wanted to know if you can push all the way to Torment 12 without the additional systems and power that come with the expansions. And it is a really interesting question, to be honest. You do not necessarily think about that once you own the expansions, but the reality is that a lot of players are in this scenario and might wonder the same thing. So we investigated a little bit.

There does not seem to be a single answer, but the experiences from other players do point to a general conclusion.

Torment 8-10 Seems to Be the Realistic Range

Most people on the base game manage to comfortably reach between Torment 8 and 10 without owning the expansions.

Every base-game class seems to reach somewhere between Torment 6 and 10. Someone had even reached Torment 11 with a Whirlwind Barbarian around Paragon 200, and believed Torment 12 might be possible with more Paragon levels and better gear. So there is no magical wall at Torment 8 or Torment 10.

Class and build choice clearly matter, and so does how much time you are willing to put into optimizing a character. If you are playing casually, you will obviously make it less far than someone who spends hours farming every day.

For most players, Torment 8-10 looks like a much more realistic expectation than Torment 12, where expansions start to become a much bigger deal.

The Problem Is Not Just Missing Content

The biggest difference is not that expansion owners have more activities to play. They also have more ways to make their characters powerful.

Lord of Hatred, in particular, adds multiple systems that can make a significant difference at higher progression levels. Players without the expansion are missing things such as Charms, Seals, additional skill upgrades, and the Horadric Cube's transfiguration system. Those systems might not make much difference when you are still climbing through the lower Torment tiers, but once you are trying to squeeze another tier out of an already optimized character, every additional source of power starts to matter.

Gear is another issue. Without the Cube and the other expansion systems, getting exactly what you need for a build can take much longer. Gearing can quickly become a nightmare without the Cube, and you might reach the point where you could play for multiple days without seeing an upgrade.

That is probably a better description of the situation than simply saying that the expansions are required. You can progress without them. The expansions do not suddenly make the base game unplayable. They basically just raise the ceiling and give you considerably more tools for reaching it.

Is the Base Game Still Worth Playing?

Yes, of course. If you only own Diablo 4, there is still a good amount of content available to you. You can level characters, play seasonal content, and spend a considerable amount of time working on your builds without immediately running into a wall.

The situation changes if your main goal is pushing your character as far as possible.

At that point, the missing expansion systems become increasingly difficult to ignore. You can compensate for some of that lost power with better gear, Paragon levels, and a stronger build, but you are ultimately trying to compete with characters that have access to multiple additional layers of optimization.

So if you are sitting around Torment 8 or 9 with the base game and wondering why the next tier suddenly feels so much harder, it may not mean you have built your character incorrectly. You might simply be approaching the point where the extra power available through Diablo 4's expansions starts to make a very big difference.

For everything below that, though, there is still plenty of Diablo 4 left to play.