Runes and Runewords

What are Runes?

Added in Patch 2.0 for the Vessel of Hatred, two runes can be combined to form a Runeword. Runewords offer a unique way to elevate your character’s abilities by crafting custom powers. All across Sanctuary, you'll come across two kinds of Runes: Ritual and Invocation. When slotted in an item together they form a Runeword.

• Ritual Runes specify an action you must take to generate Offering.
• Invocation Runes grant a powerful effect when enough Offering has been generated.

How Do Runewords Work?

When a Ritual and an Invocation Rune are slotted into the same item, it creates a Runeword. For example:

• If a Bac Ritual Rune and a Jah Invocation Rune are slotted icnto the same item, the Runeword is BacJah.
• Bac generates Offering of 50 every time you move 5 meters.
• Jah requires 500 Offering to activate so when the Bac Rune has generated 500 Offering, the Jah effect will finally activate and teleport you when you evade and make you unstoppable.

BAC Ritual Rune	+	JAH Invocation Rune
Creates "BacJah" Runeword

What is Offering

Runes operate on a resource system called Offering, which is generated by Ritual Runes when their specific requirements are met such as "moving 5 meters" or "drinking a health potion". Invocation Runes then consume this Offering to trigger their powerful effects. The more challenging the Ritual Rune’s requirement, the more Offering it generates. Conversely, the Offering needed to activate an Invocation Rune scales with the strength of its effect.

Sometimes, you'll generate more Offering than what's needed to activate your Invocation Rune. This is where the Overflow mechanic comes into play. Many Invocation Runes gain additional bonuses when you exceed the required Offering, briefly enhancing their effects such as 'Increased Duration' or 'Increased Damage'.

When you have Runewords equipped the buff icon will sit above your skill bar. The gauge will fill up as you perform the action of the Ritual Rune and when full, the Invocation Rune will execute automatically.

Runewords Offering Gauge

Limitations

The only control you have over when that can occur is by not performing the Ritual Rune action that completes the fill of the Offering gauge until you want the Invocation to execute which in many cases is impossible (walk 5 meters) or at least inconvenient (cast a skill with cooldown).

Check the Diablo 4 Runewords Planner for all combinations

Diablo 4 Runewords Planner

How are Runewords Created?

To create a Runeword, you need to socket both a Ritual Rune and an Invocation Rune into an item with two Sockets:

• Helm (2 sockets now available)
• Body
• Legs
• Two-Handed Weapons

Any Ritual Rune can pair with any Invocation Rune, offering flexibility. Runes are available in three rarities: Magic, Rare, and Legendary, with higher rarities delivering more potent effects.

However, you can only have a maximum of 2 Runewords equipped at the same time and the same Rune can not be equipped twice.

Visit a Jeweler to unsocket your runes for free.

Where to Get Runes

Runes will begin to drop throughout Sanctuary from monsters once you have completed the quest 'Fundament of Faith' (Map) in Vessel of Hatred. You'll get them in cache rewards too. They are also tradeable with other players.

Crafting Runes

You will have an excess of Runes and these need not go to waste. The Jeweler can craft your old runes into other random runes.

• 3 Runes with the same name to craft a new random rune.
  • The random rune has 85% chance to be of the same quality and a 15% chance to roll as a higher quality.
  • When crafting 3 Legendary Runes the random reroll will always be another Legendary rune.
• Each craft also costs 4,000 gold.

Crafting Runes at the Jewelers

Crafting Mythic Uniques with Runes

As well as creating Runewords, Runes can be used to craft Mythic Unique items. The following Mythic Uniques can be crafted as follows.

Every recipe requires 2 x Resplendent Sparks, plus other runes as detailed below.

Click heading to SORT.

Mythic	Ingredients
Ring of the Starless Skies	Ohm x 6, Tzic x 6, Cem x 6
Heir of Perdition	Jah x 6, Que x 6, Gar x 6
Harlequin Crest	Eom x 6, Lac x 6, Ton x 6
Andariel's Visage	Tam x 6, Qax x 6, Zan x 6
Tyrael's Might	Lith x 6, Feo x 6, Tec x 6
Shroud of False Death	Bac x 6, Kry x 6, Moni x 6
Melted Heart of Selig	Vex x 6, Thul x 6, Tun x 6
The Grandfather	Xol x 6, Mot x 6, Yax x 6
Ahavarion Spear of Lycander	Yom x 6, Poc x 6, Cir x 6
Shattered Vow	Xan x 6, Ner x 6, Teb x 6
Doombringer	Ahu x 6, Neo x 6, Lum x 6
Nesekem the Herald	Yul x 6, Wat x 6, Tal x 6

Important Notes on Runes

• Runes can be traded.
• Runes are stackable in the socketable inventory tab.
• A maximum of 2 Runewords can be equipped
• The same Rune cannot be equipped twice.
• Runes can be used in crafting.

Ritual Runes List

Below is a list of all the Runes of each type (Ritual/Invocation), their quality (Magic, Rare, Legendary), gains/requirements, and effects.

Click heading to SORT.

Rune	Quality	Offering Gain	Effect
Ahu	Legendary	10	Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies.
Bac	Legendary	50	Travel 5 meters.
Cem	Magic	75	Cast Evade
Cir	Magic	50	Cast the same non-Channeled Skill 3 times in a row.
Feo	Rare	1000	Become Injured or Crowd Controlled (Cooldown: 10 seconds).
Igni	Legendary	25	Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. (Up to 500 Offering).
Lith	Legendary	25	Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds.
Moni	Magic	35	Cast a Skill after moving. (Cooldown: 0.25 seconds)
Nagu	Legendary	100	Maintain at least 1 active Summon for 5 seconds, gaining Offering for each up to 6 Summons.
Neo	Rare	200	Deal damage after not taking any within 2 seconds. (Resets if Invulnerable.)
Noc	Rare	10	Inflict a Crowd Control that isn’t Slow or Chill.
Poc	Rare	5	Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource.
Tam	Legendary	25	Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill.
Xol	Legendary	150	Evoke power from another Class.
Yax	Magic	200	Drink a Healing Potion
Yul	Legendary	50	Cast a Skill with a Cooldown.
Zan	Magic	150	Cast an Ultimate Skill.

Invocation Runes List

Click heading to SORT.

Rune	Quality	Offering Req.	Effect	Skill Details	Overflow	CD Sec
Ceh	Magic	100	Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds. Cooldown 1 Second.		Summon Multiple Wolves	1
Eom	Leg	100	Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.1 seconds.		Further Reduced Cooldowns	1
Gar	Magic	25	2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.		Gain Multiple Stacks	1
Jah	Leg	400	Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable.	Transform into lightning, becoming Unstoppable and surging to the target location, dealing Lightning Damage around you upon arrival.		2
Kry	Rare	300	Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.	Creates a cyclone that Pulls (CC) enemies inward followed by a crushing downdraft that deals Lighting Damage to them.		3
Lac	Rare	400	Invoke the Barbarian's Challenging Shout, taunting enemies and reducing your damage taken for 3 seconds.		Increased Duration	1
Lum	Magic	5	Restore 2.5 Primary Resource.		Increased Resource Restored	1
Mot	Rare	150	Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud, reducing damage taken per shadow.	Surround yourself with protective shadows. Gain Damage Reduction. Each time you take direct damage, that damage is reduced and a shadow is consumed.	Gain Multiple Shadows	1
Ner	Rare	600	Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth.	Grants Dodge Chance and increases the Movement Speed.	Increased Duration	6
Ohm	Leg	600	Invoke the Barbarian's War Cry, increasing your damage dealt by 15% for 6 seconds.	Bellow a mighty war cry, increasing your damage dealt.	Increased Duration	2
Qax	Rare	400	Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage.		Further Increased Damage	1
Qua	Rare	50	Gain 7% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 35%		Increased Duration	1
Que	Rare	300	Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.	Rocks surround you granting a Barrier that absorbs some of your Maximum Life in damage.	Increased Duration	1
Tal	Magic	100	Evoke the Spiritborn’s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies.	Spawns a swarm at the target inflicting Poison Damage.	Increased Swarms Spawned	1
Teb	Magic	100	Invoke the Necromancer’s Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die.	Increase damage by 1% per Offering.		1
Tec	Magic	100	Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within.	Stomp the ground causing a localized earthquake that inflicts Physical Damage.	Up to 100% Increased radius.	1
Thul	Rare	300	Invoke the Sorcerer's Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze (CC) and Vulnerable onto enemies.	Frost Nova makes enemies Vulnerable.	Up to 100% Increased radius.	1
Ton	Magic	20	Invoke the Sorcerer's Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies.	Summon a meteor that strikes the target location, dealing damage and Burning (DoT) the ground.	Increased Meteorites Spawned	1
Tun	Magic	100	Invoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning (CC) and dealing damage to enemies.	Grenades dropped at your location stunning (CC) and applying Physical Damage.	Increased Grenades Spawned	1
Tzic	Rare	250	Invoke the Spiritborn's Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and Knocking Down (CC) enemies.	Stomp in front of you, releasing a shockwave that deals Physical Damage and Knocks Down (CC) enemies.		1
Vex	Leg	100	Gain +1 to all Skills for 10 seconds.		More Skill ranks, up to 3.	1
Wat	Rare	100	Invoke the Necromancer's Horrid Decrepify, Slowing (CC) enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.	When you or your Minions hit an enemy afflicted with Decrepify below 10% Life, they are instantly killed. Does not work on Bosses.		1
Xan	Leg	900	Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower.			1
Xal	Rare	200	Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds.		Increased Duration	1
Yom	Leg	500	Invoke the Druid's Petrify, Stunning (CC) enemies and restoring Primary Resource	Increase Stun (CC) duraction.		5
Zec	Rare	200	Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2 seconds.		Further Reduced Cooldown	2

Runes Archive

When Diablo 4 was first announced Runewords were in, then they were out, then they were rumored to be coming back sometime in the distant future, and then unexpectedly, they arrived. Below is the information released during that time.

+ Expand to see the Archive of Runes.

Runes do not appear in Diablo 4. This page details the runes that were teased early in development. Although they are not in the game now they haven't been ruled out. Full details on all that's been uncovered can be found in the Runewords page. Yeah, totally. How would I say this? We like rune words. They're very cool. We don't have anything to announce as far as if they're going to be in the game in the immediate future. We do think they're still a really cool idea, and that's all I'm going to say right now. Condition Runes AMN When you freeze an enemy, activate the next socketed rune. ELD When you are stunned or frozen, activate the next socketed rune. ETH Every 3 seconds without moving, activate the next socketed rune. FAL When a pet dies, activate the next socketed rune. Effect Runes IST When active, your next thorns hit deals 30% more. KO When active, reduce a random skill cooldown by 15%. SOL When active, gain a random shrine effect for 7 seconds. THUL When active, gain 500 damage barrier.

Changes to Runes and Runewords

Patch 2.0, October 8, 2024

• Added in Vessel of Hatred