In Diablo 2, the amount of great loot for players to find seems to be endless. Many players are filled with excitement when Tal Rasha’s armor, the Grandfather Sword, or a dual leeching item (a discontinued item that steals life and mana from enemies) is flung into the air from a chest or fallen foe.
However, one group of items seem to be the most coveted among players – runes. These powerful items can be used in the gem sockets of items to imbue an item with a special ability. Examples of some of these abilities are regenerate mana, an increased light radius, a stat bonus, or an increase to a character’s resistances. Let's hope runes are included in Diablo 4, seeing as how they weren't in Diablo 3.
10 Not All Runes Are Equal
One misconception among players is that all runes are equal; however, some runes are a lot harder to find. Anyone who has spent a few hundred hours playing Diablo 2 can attest to this. It doesn’t take long before a stash box is cluttered with El and Eld runes.
Runes like the highly sought-after Cham and Ber runes are rarer and, by extension, much harder to find. It goes without saying that the rarer runes grant items vastly more powerful abilities when socketed.
9 Magic Find %
Many items include a bonus to a character’s percentage to produce a magic item when killing an enemy or opening a chest. This is one of the best abilities for an item to possess, as it makes finding better items much more likely.
Here’s the problem when it comes to finding runes – any increase to a character’s percentage to find magic items doesn’t apply to runes. This increase, sadly, also does not help a player find a rarer rune, versus a more common one. There are only a few ways to increase the chances of finding a rune when treasure is found.
8 The More, The Merrier
One way to increase the chance of making a rune appear when treasure is found is to join multiplayer sessions. Each additional player (up to eight) increases the chance of runes being given. This is because the more players there are in a multiplayer session, the more creatures will be present to kill.
The more creatures there are on a level, the greater the chance of one of them dropping a rune when they are slain. Therefore, when rune hunting, it is better to do it with some companions rather than solo.
7 Some Creature Have A Higher Rune Drop Rate
There are a handful of creatures in Diablo 2 that have a slightly higher chance of dropping a rune than others. The first type of creature is any member of the Ghost family of monsters like Wraiths or Specters. Vulture Demons, members of the Willow Wisp group of creatures, members of Swarm group, and Finger Mages are the other creatures with an increased chance of dropping a rune.
The reason for this is simple; these creatures don’t use armor or weapons, so they can’t drop those items. This increases the chance of them dropping other item types, including runes.
6 Higher Difficulty
Another way to increase the chance of finding a rune is by playing Diablo 2 on one of the higher difficulty settings. There are four options: Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Hardcore. However, a player might just want to stop at the Hell setting if they like their character.
The difficulty setting doesn’t directly impact the chance of a rune dropping, but higher levels have stronger creatures for the player to fight. Stronger monsters have a greater chance of dropping better treasure like runes. The chance of rarer runes being dropped by enemies and chests also increases at the higher difficulty settings.
5 Runes Can Be Upgraded
After playing for a while, you have collected a lot of spare common runes but haven’t had much luck finding some of the rarer ones. All is not lost, because it's possible to combine runes to make better runes. This is done by using the Horadric Cube; which is found in the Halls of the Dead in Act II.
For the most common runes, it takes three of the same rune to make one rune of the next level. Uncommon runes also require a gem in addition to the three runes. Rarer runes require only two of the same rune and a larger gem to make a better version.
4 The Countess
The Countess is a unique creature that is encountered on the fifth floor of the Forgotten Tower. This tower is located in the Black Marsh area of Act I. Rune hunters will want to defeat the Countess as much as possible.
The reason for this is because she has a much higher chance of dropping a rune than any other creature in the game. Not only does she have a higher rune drop rate, but the Countess can drop some of the more uncommon runes, but not the rarest runes. Here’s one helpful hint, she is weakest against physical, lightning, poison, and magic damage.
3 Mephisto’s Soulstone
Players of Diablo 2 are quite familiar with Mephisto, the final boss of Act III. Upon killing Mephisto, he will drop his Soulstone. Players need to hang onto this stone until they reach the Hellforge in Act IV. If someone loses it, they can talk to Cain to make it reappear in their inventory.
Upon shattering the Soulstone on the Hellforge, the character is guaranteed to get a rune. The player actually has a very good chance of getting some of the rarer runes this way; though they are just as likely to get an El rune instead.
2 Rescue On Mt. Arreat
The Rescue on Mt. Arreat is a fairly simple quest in Act V that can be started by speaking to Qual-Kehk in the Frigid Highlands. The objective of the quest is to rescue fifteen barbarians being held prisoner. After saving these barbarians, return to Qual-Kehk and speak to him. As a reward, he will give the player three runes; a Tal, Ral, and Ort rune.
These are fairly common runes, but remember, lesser runes can be combined to make stronger runes. Therefore, if a player has the time and patience for repetitive farming, they can eventually get the best runes in the game by playing this quest over and over…and over again.
1 Chest Thieving
Just like runes, not all treasure chests in the game are equal. Some chests have a higher chance of dropping better treasure. It is easy to spot these chests due to the sparkle effect around them. One trick to increasing the chance of finding a rune is to seek out these sparkling chests.
Check online Diablo 2 guides for reliable locations for these chests. Once a chest that is easily accessible is found, simply run through the level and claim the treasure it drops. There is no need to fight any monsters, just run to the chest, open it, and collect the loot. Rinse and repeat.