Once upon a time, we all lived in darkness, snatching color-coded collections of affixes from our slain enemies, grafting them onto us or using them as cudgels by which to perpetuate the cycle of violence and acquire more loot. It was crude, and primitive, but it was all we knew. Then Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction launched, and it illuminated us with the comforting warmth of runewords. No longer would we scrape about for crude affixes - we would craft our own. Then everybody forgot about runewords for about twenty years until they made their glorious return in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred! This page will cover how runewords work Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred.

Page Breakdown¶

Runewords - Quick Look¶

Runes return in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, allowing the player to combine up to two pairs of two runes to create two custom runewords:

• Unlock runes by completing the quest Fundament of Faith
• Pair a Ritual Rune with an Invocation Rune to create a Runeword
• Ritual Runes generate Offering when conditions are met
• Generate enough Offering and the Invocation Rune’s effects will proc
• Only two Runewords can be equipped at once
• You can only use one of each rune
• Unsocketing Runes is free, and doesn’t destroy the Runes or the gear they were in
• Combine Runes at a Jeweler to randomly create new Runes

Finding Runes¶

After over a year, runes have finally joined gems as a socketable item in Diablo 4. Complete the main quest Fundament of Faith and you’ll get the tutorial quest Rune Crafting which introduces you to the wild world of runes. There are two ways to get runes - find them via random drops or craft them via the Jeweler. However, since crafting runes requires you to expend other runes and the runes you get via crafting are random, it’s more of a supplemental source of runes… which isn’t to say it’s not worthwhile, burning three excess runes you won’t miss for the chance to get something better can help you accumulate runes that haven’t dropped yet. Speaking of which, runes can drop from pretty much any source of loot, but larger, more generous hauls are your best bets - Helltide chests, Tree of Whisper caches, World Bosses, Uber Bosses, Pit runs, Legion events, etc., may all yield runes.

Creating Runewords - Ritual and Invocation Runes¶

Runes are far simplified in Diablo 4 as compared to their debut in Diablo 2 - there are plenty of runes in the game, but it only takes two runes to make a runeword, and there’s no guesswork to be done, no trial and error, no wasting a Vex rune because you put it into a warhammer instead of a flail…

There are two types of runes in Diablo 4, Ritual runes (orange) and Invocation runes (purple), and one of each are paired together to create a custom effect. Ritual runes generate Offering when a specific action is taken - evading, using a healing potion, casting an ultimate skill, using a skill after moving, etc., while Invocation runes generate some effect when enough Offering has been generated. Invocation runes also often have a cooldown, albeit one that’s short enough that it usually won’t matter much.

For example, take the Ritual rune “Cem”, which generates 50 Offering every time you evade. Pair this with, say, an Invocation rune “Ohm” which uses the Barbarian skill War Cry“ when you accumulate 600 Offering. Together they create the runeword “CemOhm”, which will cast War Cry every time the character evades twelve times. The various effects of the Ritual runes and Invocation runes are numerous, giving you access to the abilities of other classes, like the aforementioned War Cry, Frost Nova, Teleport and Stun Grenades, as well as providing other boons like increasing Crit Chance or restory a character’s primary resource. What runes you’ll want to pair can vary greatly depending on your class, build and playstyle.

To create a runeword you’ll need to socket two runes into a piece of armor - helmets, chest armor and pants all work. You can only have two runewords equipped at once, and you cannot reuse any runes - if you use the “Zan” rune in a runeword to generate Offering when you use an Ultimate skill, you cannot use another Zan rune in a second runeword. Offering generated only applies to the Invocation rune it’s paired with and generates separately, so if you have a “Cem” rune for one runeword and a Zan rune for another, Cem would generate Offering for its paired Invocation rune whenever you dodged, while Zan would generate Offering for its paired Invocation rune whenever you used an Ultimate skill, and they would charge and proc at different times.

On the plus side, you can unsocket runes from gear by visiting a Jeweler. This costs nothing and doesn’t destroy the runes nor the armor they were socketed in, so you’re free to experiment with runewords as much as you want.

Below you’ll find a list of all the runes in Diablo IV:

List of Runes¶

Rune Crafting¶

Finding Runes is all well and good, but the rarest Runes are awfully hard to find. You’ll also likely end up accumulating dozens of lesser Runes that you have no use for… if only there was a way to kill two birds with one stone? Fortunately, there is! Talk to any Jeweler and navigate to the “Rune Crafting” tab and you’ll find options for recycling Runes - combine three Runes you don’t need and you’ll get a chance to roll random magical, rare or legendary Runes. Obviously the legendary Runes are the best of the bunch, but trashing junk Runes and creating uncommon Runes that can in turn be used to roll for legendary Runes. Any Rune drop is potentially profitable with a little bit of luck!