How (and why) to get the Puzzle Ring in Diablo 3

What is a Puzzle Ring? Why do you want one for your character when you’re playing Diablo 3? Well the answer is both simple and complicated. It’s simple, because a Puzzle Ring is a random loot drop legendary ring. While equipped, the ring provides you with a random Treasure Goblin who will run around picking up all the white quality vendor trash so you don’t have to. In addition to vacuuming all the white items, it will randomly drop an uncommon, rare or even sometimes legendary item for every 12 to 16 normal quality items (aka vendor trash, aka your crafting materials component parts) that it picks up.

So far, pretty simple. Not a power you’d want to use in Kanai’s Cube or otherwise go out of your way to get, right? Well, yes… but that doesn’t mean you don’t want the Puzzle Ring. Because it turns out there’s actually a very good reason to use the ring inside Kanai’s Cube, and it’s not to apply the power to your jewelry slot, either.

The Realm of Greed

When disenchanted in Kanai’s Cube and only in Kanai’s Cube, do not break it down at the Blacksmith the ring has another, much more interesting ability. It opens a portal to the Realm of Greed, also known as the Treasure Realm, also known as so much loot everyone kill all the goblins take all the loot loot loot you will turn into Daffy Duck in that one episode with the treasure cave it’s exactly like that. When you place the Puzzle Ring in Kanai’s Cube, you can use it to open a portal to this vast and amazing realm full of loot.

But beware — while most of the Demons in the Realm of Greed are minor nuisances at best and slight inconveniences at worst, there’s one demon there who will provide more of a challenge. That demon is Greed herself, and not only is she no pushover but you often find yourself in a quandry while fighting her. If you go full bore after Greed and kill her as fast as you can, then there will be fewer Treasure Goblins spawning during the fight for you to kill, and once Greed dies, any surviving Treasure Goblins will escape and take all of the loot they have on them with them.

A piece of loot worth more unused

So for a more lucrative Treasure Haul, you have to take it easy on Greed and focus more of your efforts on killing the Goblins. But if you do that, you increase the chances of Greed killing you, and the amount of area damage and charges she can do can kill a player in one hit on higher Torment difficulties. It’s ultimately up to you — do you want to make hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions of gold and increase the overall loot, or do you want to burn Greed down fast so she doesn’t kill your party?

The Puzzle Ring is a fascinating drop in Diablo 3 entirely because it’s often better used in the Cube than worn — one successful Realm of Greed Treasure Haul can put you into the billions of gold and will mean you’ll never have to worry about how much it’s going to cost to transmute gems or items ever again, and that isn’t even counting using an Ancient or Primal Ancient Puzzle Ring, which will increase the loot and difficulty appropriately. So the next time one of these rings drops for you, remember — that ring is worth a lot more than if you wear it.