Being a 20-year-old game, Diablo 2 is making lots of players' heads itch with its complex and archaic game mechanics. It doesn't help that many of these mechanics are poorly explained, and require some expensive trial and error. The Horadric Cube is the biggest offender here, and Runewords are the best example of how much players needed monumental experimentation in order to come up with a list that many players take for granted.
Runewords take the forefront of the Horadric Cube recipe lists, leaving some rarer recipes unknown by a good percentage of players. Some of these lesser-known recipes are even crucial for the late game in Diablo 2. Meanwhile, some players may have been fans of the second game for two decades, but are still unaware that these recipes exist. They needn't suffer any longer.
Updated on December 31, 2021, by Sid Natividad: Everyone's Horadric Cubes are hard at work in providing players some fuel or some motivation to keep them adventuring to Hell and back. It just so happens that the recipe list for the Horadric Cube is quite vast, meaning there ought to be some players out there who still haven't come across some of the more useful ones.
Missing out on some Horadric Cube recipes in Diablo 2: Resurrected can often result in handicapped gameplay since they make things simpler. Thus we've added even more lesser-known Horadric Cube recipes so players can transmute to their heart's content.
13 Antidote Potion
- Health potion
- Strangling gas potion
Apart from exploding Undead Stygian Dolls, Black Souls, or Death Lords, one of the most annoying things ever in Diablo 2's late game is poison. It's a status effect that takes too long to dissipate and can blindside players especially those with low Poison Resist.
Also, some Uber bosses such as Lilith can absolutely wreck players who aren't prepared to deal with them. Thankfully, Antidote potions exist and players can easily stock up on them by crafting them using that simple recipe above.
12 Rare Item Re-roll
- 6 Perfect Skulls
- Rare Item
Item gambling is one of the most profitable and most exciting endgame activities in Diablo 2. It's usually where most gold or resources are spent, especially if they're overflowing in the stash. Much like how players can re-roll the stats of Magic items using Perfect Gems, they can also do the same for Rare items.
They do require more specific stuff though, particularly six Perfect Skulls which shouldn't be too hard to procure as they're about as common as Gems. This will roll the Rare item into another Rare that has different stats but the same type. It's great for re-rolling those Rare rings or amulets.
11 Blood Gloves
- Magic Heavy Gloves/Sharkskin Gloves/Vampirebone Gloves
- Nef Rune
- Perfect Ruby
- Any Jewel
Gloves with a 20 percent Attack Speed increase and come with Amazon skill bonuses tend to sell for quite a sum if they have good corresponding stats. Players can even craft some of these using the Blood Gloves recipe above. The additional stats are impeccable here.
One of those features is Crushing Blow which can range from five to ten percent. That's a useful addition for melee builds, making the Blood Gloves also a great investment for Smiters or Frenzy Barbarians who are built to tackle Uber bosses.
10 Quiver Of Arrows
- 2 Quivers of Bolts
Apparently, Bowazons or the Amazon's bow skills might get some much-needed rebalancing, making bow-builds even more viable sometime in the near future for Diablo 2: Resurrected. That very well means Arrows will be in demand. Playing as bow users have this inherent problem where running out of arrows will force them back to town in a rather disruptive process to refill ammunition.
Luckily, players who have their Horadric Cubes in their inventory can do a bit of loot recycling. Two crossbow bolt quivers can produce an arrow quiver. It's less disruptive than going back to town for sure and requires less walking.
9 Socketing Normal Items
- For body armor: Tal Rune + Thul Rune + Perfect Topaz + Normal Body Armor
- For shields: Tal Rune + Amn Rune + Perfect Ruby + Normal Shield
- For weapons: Ral Rune + Amn Rune + Perfect Amethyst + Normal Weapon
- For helms: Ral Rune + Thul Rune + Perfect Sapphire + Normal Helm
While Diablo 2 gives players a chance to socket their best items, they only get three tries per character via Larzuk's quest (first quest in Act V). Even so, this quest reward simply gives the highest number of sockets available depending on the item's quality. Some Runewords require fewer sockets.
Apart from farming The Pits or Hell Cows, players can try to gamble with Normal items in order to procure socketed items. This will give a random number of sockets regardless of the recipe or item. Furthermore, it only works in Normal (white name) items, not low-quality ones, and certainly not superior.
8 Socket Clearing
- Hel rune
- Scroll of Town Portal
- Socketed item
If players have a socketed item that was once the perfect base for Runeword, but used it up for a weaker Runeword or weaker gems, they needn't worry. That item can still be recovered via the recipe above. This will clear any content in the item's sockets.
Even Runeword items can be cleared of their runes using this recipe (thus players might want to be careful with it). A word of warning though: the cube won't give back the stuff in the socket. Once the recipe is followed, the items in the socket are permanently destroyed.
7 Caster Amulets
- Magical Amulet
- Ral Rune
- Perfect Amethyst
- Any Jewel
One of the reasons caster characters or builds tend to be more powerful than melee builds is that players can easily craft some godly items for them. Caster Amulets are such items, and they're easy enough to obtain (though it's still a gamble).
To craft Caster Amulets (which usually come with a bonus to Faster Cast Rate), players just need to pick up every Jewel or amulet they come across, as well as Ral runes and Perfect Amethysts. Most players will probably already have an abundance of those components.
6 Caster Belt
- Magic Light Belt/Sharkskin Belt/Vampirefang Belt
- Ith Rune
- Perfect Amethyst
- Any Jewel
Caster Belts also make a good supplement for budding caster builds, especially for players who don't have access to high-end stuff like Arachnid Mesh or something similar. Caster Belts have a big chance to come with a base bonus of Faster Cast Rate.
They can also come with other stats such as resists or bonuses to mana or life depending on the Magic Belt's level (must have dropped in a high-level area for better stats). In any case, it's a worthy investment as Caster Belts, like Caster Amulets, have resale value.
5 Hitpower Belt
- Magic Heavy Belt/Battle Belt/Troll Belt
- Tal Rune
- Perfect Sapphire
- Any Jewel
Another crafted belt recipe players might want to follow is the Hitpower Belt. It's perfect for any character with mana issues since Hitpower Belts have a guaranteed base stat roll of "Damage Goes to Mana." Each craft can result in five or 10 percent of that item stat.
For certain builds, this is a huge crutch. Whirlwind Barbarians, Poison/Lightning Javazons, or even Hammerdins come to mind. This way, players can even forego the need for an Insight Runeword on their Act 2 mercenaries.
4 Charm Reroll
- Any charm
- Three Perfect Gems (of any color)
Many players often underrate charms, but these things can save them in Hell difficulty, especially if they have resist stats on them. Thankfully, players don't have to throw away charms they deem useless (especially if they drop from Hell Diablo/Baal).
Instead, players can reroll the charm's specific stat into something else by throwing them into the Cube along with three Perfect Gems. It doesn't matter which gem type or color. Skulls count as well. If they want "+ skill" charms to appear, then they might want to isolate charms that drop from Hell Diablo or Baal, as those are the highest level charms and can reroll those skill stats.
3 Unique Item Upgrading
- Normal-tier Unique Armor: Item + Shael + Tal + Perfect Diamond
- Normal-tier Unique Weapon: Item + Sol + Ral + Perfect Emerald
- Exceptional Unique Armor: Item + Lem + Ko + Perfect Diamond
- Exceptional Unique Weapon: Item + Lum + Pul + Perfect Emerald
Unique items that are best-in-slot for certain builds or characters needn't lag behind their more powerful Runeword peers. Players can opt to upgrade their unique items to the next available tier, assuming the said unique items are only of Normal or Exceptional tier.
It's important to note that the recipe will only upgrade the unique item to the next tier. That means Normal unique items will need to be upgraded twice if players want them to be of the Elite tier. This recipe is also more important for weapons, as damage can make a bigger difference than defense.
2 Blood Helm
- Magic Helm/Casque/Armet
- Ral Rune
- Perfect Ruby
- Any Jewel
Any crafted Blood Helm has a guaranteed stat roll of Deadly Strike, and a small but decent amount of Life Stolen per Hit. That's on top of the life bonus among other random stats such as resists if players are lucky.
The stats and bonuses seem rather meager. However, this recipe is important because it can act as a placeholder for Act 2 mercenary helms until the players can find an Andariel's Visage for them. The mercenary will surely appreciate any amount of Life Steal, as it will help a lot in their survivability.
1 Weapon/Armor Repair & Recharge
- For weapons: Ort Rune + Chipped Gem + Weapon
- For armor: Ral Rune + Flawed Gem + Item
Skill charges on weapons provide a nice alternative to more expensive Runewords, especially if the skill is Teleport, which can spawn on Helms, Amulets, and Staves. It can be a joy to use these budget alternatives, but once players see their recharge cost, they won't seem so budget anymore.
In case players are tired of draining their gold reserves for recharging, they can use their spare Ort and Ral runes instead. Other requirements are Chipped Gems and Flawed Gems, but those are dirt-cheap anyway and are ubiquitous.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.