What you need to know about Runes and Runewords in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred

Long-time Diablo fans probably remember Runewords from Diablo 2, in which you collected Runes to socket into your gear and combine to create Runewords, which were similar to affixes on Diablo 4 Legendary gear. Runes are returning for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, though you’ll have to buy the expansion to collect Runes of your own.

Here are the details on what Runes are, how to combine them into Runewords, and where to find them.

What are Runes and Runewords?

Runes are equipped in gem sockets and must be paired into Runewords to activate their special abilities. Runes can only be socketed into helm, chest, legs, and weapon slots, each of which have a maximum of two sockets available to create a Runeword. (Previously helms could only have one gem socket, but this has been increased to two.) You can have two Runewords (two pairs of Runes) active at any given time by applying two Runes to any of these pieces of gear. You cannot equip two of the same rune simultaneously, even if part of a different Runeword.

While you can socket Runes in your weapon, it’s probably advisable not to do, as you only have two sockets for weapons and you’ll probably want to use them for gems, which have unique (and powerful) effects when socketed into weapons.

Like other gear in the game, Runes have come in Magic (blue), Rare (yellow), or Legendary (orange) qualities. Each quality level has a pool of possible Runes available. As you collect Runes, they’ll be stored in the new Socketables tab in your inventory along with Gems.

How to create a Runeword

There are two types of Runes, and combining one of each creates a Runeword:

• Runes of Rituals (17 available): The conditional trigger event that activates  the Runeword.
• Runes of Invocation (28 available): The effect the Runeword has when triggered.

Each Rune of Ritual generates Offerings when triggered, and each Rune of Invocation costs Offerings to cast. A Rune of Ritual that’s easy to trigger will typically generate a small number of Offerings, and a rare or difficult to trigger Rune of Rituals will typically generate a large number of Offerings.

That means Runewords won’t proc constantly: you must accumulate enough Offerings to trigger the Runeword effect. The cost of a Rune of Invocation will tend to depend on the potential impact of the effect. And if you generate more Offerings than the Runeword requires, it triggers an Overflow effect — but not all Invocations have an Overflow effect.

Once you create a Runeword by socketing a Ritual and Invocation Rune pair, you’ll see a purple icon appear over your action bar. This icon will fill up as you generate Offerings, and empty as the Invocation is triggered.

Where to get Runes in Vessel of Hatred

Runes are introduced during the Vessel of Hatred campaign quest, at the end of the Darkening Clouds storyline when you hand in the quest Fundament of Faith — there’s no minimum level or other requirements. Completing this quest will reward you a Kurast Armory Cache and a couple of random Runes. Until you complete this quest, Runes won’t drop, so start in on the campaign quest immediately. However, once you’ve finished the campaign once, alts that skip the campaign should have access to Runes immediately.

Once unlocked, Runes can drop from almost any content as a random reward. The higher the difficulty level, the higher the chance of higher quality Rune drops.

However, these activities are guaranteed sources for Runes:

• Vessel of Hatred campaign bosses
• Whisper Caches will always reward at least one Rune 
• World Bosses will always drop at least three Runes
• Cleaning a Stronghold (once per account) drops Magic quality Runes
• Running Kurast Undercity using a Rune Tribute

How to craft Runes in Vessel of Hatred

You can’t target farm Runes, so you may find yourself with unwanted duplicates. Any Runes you don’t want can be transmuted into different Runes at the Jeweler.

To transmute Runes, you will need three identical Runes. The Rune Crafting window has a different recipe for each possible set of Runes, but unfortunately it doesn’t clearly tell you what the Runes are, so you need to hunt in the menu a bit to find the right option. Consuming These three Runes will give you a single new Rune, which will always be different from the Rune you started with.

Here are the Rune Crafting options:

• Combine three magic (blue) Runes for a chance at a different magic (blue) or rare (yellow) Rune.
• Combine three rare (yellow) Runes for a chance at a different Rare (yellow) or legendary (orange) Rune.
• Combine three legendary (orange) Runes for a chance at a different rare (yellow) or legendary (orange) Rune.

In addition to the Runes, Jewelers can also craft specific Mythic Unique equipment which require a Resplendent Spark along with a specific combination of Runes. Here are the Mythic Uniques you can craft, along with the Runes required:

• Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander: 10 Yom, 10 Poc, 10 Cir
• Andariel’s Visage: 10 Tam, 10 Qax, 10 Zan
• Doombringer: 10 Ahu, 10 Neo, 10 Lum
• Harlequin Crest: 10 Eom, 10 Lac, 10 Ton
• Heir of Perdition: 10 Jah, 10 Que, 10 Gar
• Melted Heart of Selig: 10 Vex, 10 Thul, 10 Tun
• Ring of Starless Skies: Ohm x10, Tzic x10, Cem x10
• Shattered Vow: 10 Xan, 10 Ner, 10 Teb
• Shroud of False Death: 10 Bac, 10 Kry, 10 Ur
• The Grandfather: 10 Xol, 10 Kaa, 10 Yax
• Tyrael’s Might: 10 Lith, 10 Feo, 10 Met

All Runes of Rituals in Vessel of Hatred

These are the trigger conditions half of a Runeword. Here are the available Runes and the number of Offerings they generate:

Magic Runes

• Cem (75 Offerings): Use Evade
• Cir (50 Offerings): Cast same non-channeled skill 3 times
• Moni: (25 Offerings) Cast a Skill after moving
• Yax (200 Offerings): Drink a Healing Potion
• Zan (150 Offerings): Cast an Ultimate skill

Rare Runes — drop in Expert difficulty of higher

• Feo (1000 Offerings): Become Injured of Crowd Controlled
• Neo (200 Offerings): Deal damage after not taking any within 5 seconds
• Noc (10 Offerings): Inflict a Crowd Control that isn’t Slow or Chill
• Poc (5 Offerings): Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource

Legendary Runes — 

• Ahu (10 Offerings): Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies
• Bac (50 Offerings): Travel 5 meters
• Lith (25 Offerings): Stand still while fighting
• Tam (25 Offerings): Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill
• Xol (150 Offerings): Evoke power from another Class
• Yul (50 Offerings) Cast a Skill with a Cooldown

All Runes of Invocation in Vessel of Hatred

These are the effect half of a Runeword. Here are the available Runes, the number of Offerings they cost, and their Overflow effects:

Magic Runes

• Ceh (100 Offerings): Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds; Overflow summons multiple Wolves
• Gar (25 Offerings)  Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%; Overflow gains multiple stacks
• Lum (5 Offerings) Restore 1 Primary Resource; Overflow increases the number of Resources Restored
• Tal (100 Offerings): Evoke the Spiritborn‘s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies; Overflow increases the Swarms Spawned
• Teb (100 Offerings): Evoke the Necromancer‘s Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die
• Tec (100 Offerings): Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within; Overflow increases the Earthquake size
• Ton (20 Offerings): Evoke the Sorcerer’s Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies; Overflow increases the Meteorites Spawned
• Tun (100 Offerings): Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies; Overflow increases the Grenades Spawned

Rare Runes (drop in Expert difficulty or higher)

• Kry (300 Offerings): Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies
• Lac (400 Offerings): Evoke the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken; Overflow increases Shout duration
• Mot (150 Offerings): Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud (duration 3 seconds), reducing damage taken per shadow; Overflow increases the Shadows Spawned
• Ner (600 Offerings): Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth; Overflow increases the Concealment duration
• Qax (400 Offerings): Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage; Overflow increases the Damage done
• Qua (50 Offerings): Gain 7% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 35%; Overflow increases the Speed Boost duration
• Que (300 Offerings): Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier; Overflow increases the Barrier duration
• Thul (400 Offerings): Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies; Overflow increases the Frost Nova size
• Tzic (250 Offerings): Evoke the Spiritborn’s Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and Knocking Down enemies
• Wat (100 Offerings): Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them
• Xal (200 Offerings): Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds; Overflow increases the Maximum Life duration
• Zec (200 Offerings): Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2 seconds; Overflow increases the Cooldown Reduction

Legendary Runes

• Eom (100 Offerings): Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.1 seconds; Overflow increases the Cooldown Reduction
• Jah (400 Offerings): Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking farther, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable
• Ohm (600 Offerings): Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt; Overflow increases the War Cry duration
• Vex (1000 Offerings): Gain +3 to all Skills for 7 seconds; Overflow increases the Skill Gain duration
• Xan (800 Offerings): Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower
• Yom (500 Offerings): Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and granting 100 Resource