Diablo 2 Resurrected Runewords: how to use them and what they do
The most powerful gear awaits
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Introduced in the Lords of Destruction expansion, Diablo 2: Resurrected Runewords are potent upgrades for your gear. Increasing your online power is key to taking on Diablo 2: Resurrected’s more powerful enemies and bosses. Before Runewords, you had to find unique gear and item sets to reach the highest power levels. That’s no longer the case, thanks to Runes and Runewords.
Runes and Runewords let you craft some of the most potent items inDiablo 2: Resurrected. When used correctly, they take your character’s power and abilities to the next level. Because Diablo 2: Resurrected combines the base game and the Lords of Destruction expansion, you get your hands on Runes and Runewords much earlier in the game, letting you pinpoint how you want to increase your character’s gear power.
Let’s hope the developers include this powerful tool inDiablo 4, becauseResurrected made us want Diablo 4 more than ever. Until then, we’ll just have to keep using theseDiablo 2: Resurrected mods.
What are Diablo 2: Resurrected Runewords?
Runewords are combinations of Runes slotted into specific weapons in a particular order. It sounds complicated because, well, it is. There’s a lot to take into account when crafting Runewords, and you will need to learn all of that before you can start crafting them yourself. They’re worth the effort, though; Runewords are upgrades you apply to your weapons, armor, and other items. They can increase your power exponentially.
You combine Runes to create Runewords, so the first step to applying a Runeword to your gear is finding the correct Runes. You can find Runes throughout Diablo 2; many enemies drop Runes when you kill them, so keep an eye out when taking care of quests and other events.
How to use Runewords in Diablo 2: Resurrected
Before applying Runewords to your gear, you’ll need to gather them. For example, crafting the Runeword Ancient’s Pledge requires you to place the Runes Ral, Ort, and Tal into a Shield with three sockets. Once done, the Runeword will activate and grant a powerful effect. Not all Runewords are equally powerful, so look for those with more potent effects.
The most important thing to remember about Runewords is to place the Runes in the correct order to activate them. Additionally, you must set the Runes into the specific item or items that it supports, and you must choose an item with the number of sockets you need. So, while Ancient’s Pledge can be used in shields with three sockets, making the Runeword Beast requires an axe, a scepter, or a hammer with five sockets. You’d then need to play the runes Ber, Tir, Um, Mal, and Lum into the item in that exact order to activate the Runeword.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
You won’t be able to use Runewords meant for Body armor in anything but items worn on your torso. Likewise, Runewords that require melee weapons won’t be useable in orbs or ranged weapons of any kind. Also, be mindful of names. Just because the item says axe (or something similar) in the name doesn’t make it an axe. Make sure the item type matches the kind of Runeword you are trying to create.
If you take note of the supported item types and set the Runes out in the correct order before socketing them, it should help make the process much easier to follow.
Diablo 2: Resurrected all Runeword recipes
Now that you have a better understanding or Runewords and what they are, it’s time to actually talk about the different Runewords you can craft in Diablo 2: Resurrected. Below you’ll find a full list of the Runewords that are currently craftable, as well as which items you will be able to craft them in, and how many sockets you will need.
Diablo 2: Resurrected all Runeword effects
Each and every Runeword has its own list of effects, too. These effects can vary sometimes, depending on which item you slot them into (if they support multiple types of items). Here’s an overview of all the effects that each Runeword will grant when the recipe is crafted and added to an item.
Ancient’s Pledge
Beast
Black
Bone
Bramble
Brand
Breath of the Dying
Call to Arms
Chains of Honor
Chaos
Crescent Moon
Death
Delirium
Destruction
Doom
Dragon
Dream
Duress
Edge
Enigma
Enlightenment
Eternity
Exile
Faith
Famine
Flickering Flame
Fortitude (Weapons)
Fortitude (Body Armor)
Fury
Grief
Gloom
Hand of Justice
Harmony
Heart of the Oak
Holy Thunder
Honor
Ice
Infinity
Insight
Last Wish
Lawbringer
King’s Grace
Kingslayer
Leaf
Lionheart
Lore
Malice
Melody
Memory
Mist
Myth
Nadir
Oath
Obedience
Obsession
Passion
Pattern
Peace
Phoenix (Weapons)
Phoenix (Shields)
Plague
Pride
Principle
Prudence
Radiance
Rain
Rhyme
Rift
Sanctuary
Silence
Spirit (Swords)
Spirit (Shields)
Smoke
Splendor
Stealth
Steel
Stone
Strength
Treachery
Unbending Will
Venom
Voice of Reason
Wealth
White
Wind
Wisdom
Wrath
Zephyr
Learning Runewords and how to use them can take a bit of getting used to. But, if you follow the outlines above, you should be able to get a start with using these powerful and unique craftables to power up your gear. Of course, you probably won’t need these for your first playthrough, or maybe even your second. But, if you decide to play through the game on harder difficulties, learning the way of Runes and Runewords can make your life a lot easier.
Brittany Vincent is an accomplished freelance video game, technology, and entertainment writer whose work has been featured in various online and print publications. She’s been writing professionally for 15 years and her work can be found in dozens of print and digital publications such as Variety, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Wired, Maxim, Official Xbox Magazine, and more.
The PS5 Pro’s PSSR upscaling gives multiple games a huge visual upgrade – can it compete with Nvidia’s DLSS 3 successor?
I’m a Nintendo Switch expert, here are the best early Black Friday deals right now
NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, November 10 (game #252)
