Runes (Diablo II)

A rune in Diablo II is a small item which can be placed inside socketed items for bonuses to a wide array of different stats and abilities. Runes can also form runewords, powerful combinations of runes, if certain conditions are met:

• The number of sockets in the item must be equivalent to the amount of sockets needed for the runeword. If there are too many, the runeword will not work.
• The item type must be correct. Some runewords only work in weapons, while some only work in armors etc.
• The runes must be inserted in the correct order.

Upgrading Runes

Runes can be upgraded to higher runes through the Horadric Cube. El through Ort can all be upgraded similarly to gems by placing three of the same type in the cube and receiving one of a higher grade in return.

Higher levels of runes can also be upgraded, but require an additional gem as well. Upgrading to runes higher than Dol can only be done on closed B.Net with ladder characters, or by a single player character.

High Runes

The term 'High Rune'('HR' for short) is a term used by players on Battle.net to refer to the most valuable runes. These are the runes from Mal to Zod. With the release of the D2 expansion Lord of Destruction, HRs replaced the SoJ The Stone of Jordan Ring as the accepted currency among Battle.net players. As a ladder season progresses and the economy stabilizes, the value of HRs drop substantially due to inflation, eventually reaching a point where each high rune shares a common value. This makes it much easier to aquire expensive runes you may need to create high valued Rune Words.

List of Runes

There are 33 runes in total, the lowest which can be found as early as Act 1 Normal and the last which can only be obtained in Act 5 Hell. The table below will rank the runes from most common to rare and also show which boss has the highest dropchance on a given rune.

Nr	Name	Picture	Level Req.	Drop Chance	Boss	Difficulty
1	El		11	50.0570%	The Countess	Normal
2	Eld		11	35.7067%	The Countess	Normal
3	Tir		13	25.2019%	The Countess	Nightmare
4	Nef		13	17.3264%	The Countess	Nightmare
5	Eth		15	18.1371%	The Countess	Nightmare
6	Ith		15	12.3528%	The Countess	Nightmare
7	Tal		17	15.2770%	The Countess	Nightmare
8	Ral		19	10.3674%	The Countess	Nightmare
9	Ort		21	10.8664%	The Countess	Nightmare
10	Thul		23	7.3346%	The Countess	Nightmare
11	Amn		25	6.7373%	The Countess	Nightmare
12	Sol		27	4.5255%	The Countess	Nightmare
13	Shael		29	3.5940%	The Countess	Nightmare
14	Dol		31	2.4055%	The Countess	Nightmare
15	Hel		-	1.8576%	The Countess	Nightmare
16	Io		35	1.2409%	The Countess	Nightmare
17	Lum		37	0.9323%	The Countess	Hell
18	Ko		39	0.6222%	The Countess	Hell
19	Fal		41	0.4701%	The Countess	Hell
20	Lem		43	0.3136%	The Countess	Hell
21	Pul		45	0.2361%	The Countess	Hell
22	Um		47	0.1574%	The Countess	Hell
23	Mal		49	0.1352%	The Countess	Hell
24	Ist		51	0.0901%	The Countess	Hell
25	Gul		53	0.0011%	Andariel	Hell
26	Vex		55	0.0008%	Andariel	Hell
27	Ohm		57	0.0011%	Andariel	Hell
28	Lo		59	0.0004%	Andariel	Hell
29	Sur		61	0.0004%	Duriel	Hell
30	Ber		63	0.0002%	Duriel	Hell
31	Jah		65	0.0002%	Mephisto	Hell
32	Cham		67	0.0001%	Mephisto	Hell
33	Zod		69	0.00003%	Baal	Hell