Diablo 2 Expansion - Lord of Destruction Horadric Cube Recipies FAQ Version 2.0, 08/28/2001 by Brian Kern ______________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ is copyrighted material. LIMITED REPRODUCTION LICENSE: This FAQ may be posted, emailed, or saved to a disk without express permission, provided that the FAQ remains unaltered, and the full copyright notice is in place. Removing the copyright notice and rights disclaimer voids any rights assigned. Exclusions: This FAQ may not be used for promotional purposes, nor may it be incorporated in guides, magazines, secured websites, or in any state or place where a fee is charged in order to obtain the information contained within. All professional use rights are retained by the author. All copyrights and trademarks are held by their respective owners, when not specifically mentioned. Diablo 2 is (c) 2000 Blizzard Entertainment. Future revisions of this FAQ may be found at http://www.gamefaqs.com . ______________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1. Revision History 2. Introduction 3. Cube Q&A 3.1. What is the Cube? Where can I get one? 3.2. What can you do with this cube? 3.3. Crafted items? What are those? 3.4. A warning about valid recipies.. 3.5. Stone of Jordan - Defined 3.6. Cube Bugs 3.6.1. How to remove a socket from a rare 3.6.2. Cube-based Diablo 2 crashes 4. Cube Recipies! 4.1. Conversion recipies 4.2. The Skull Recipies 4.3. The Resist Gear Recipies 4.4. Potion Recipies 4.5. Ammo and Throwing Weapon Recipies 4.6. Weapon Recipies 5. Credits and Contact Info ______________________________________________________________________________ 1. Revision History ______________________________________________________________________________ v2.0, 08/28/2001, 11:30am Updating for the 1.09 patch. Removed the cube bugs section. Added the Rune Upgrade formulae. v1.4, 07/11/2001, 1:00pm *Weird* bug added (Unsocketing a rare) and a crash-bug added. v1.3, 07/09/2001, 11:45pm Expanded upon the 3PGems + Magical recipie to include Charms. v1.2.1, 07/08/2001, 11:00pm Fixed a few formatting errors and added a note about the Resist Gear recipies not working in the Expansion. Keep an eye on that. v1.2, 07/06/2001, 5:30pm I've received two questions as to what an SoJ is, so there's a new section under Q&A for all you newbie types. :) v1.1, 07/04/2001, 3:00pm Formatted everything for posting and submitted to GameFAQs. v1.0, 07/04/2001, 2:30pm Is there no good guide that contains info on the Horadric Cube for the Common Man? I swear, I hate going to sites and wading through their eight different pages of slop just to find one recipie I need... hence this FAQ. ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the D2 Expansion Horadric Cube FAQ. This is another FAQ spawned out of my unhappiness with other products on the 'net. Hats off to my fellow gamers - MoonlightOwl, FireStar, FireSlinger, and Exailious - for they both contributed and gave me people to play with while I was compiling info. - Brian ______________________________________________________________________________ 3. Cube Q&A ______________________________________________________________________________ This section will handle general questions and answers about the Horadric Cube. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 3.1: What is the Cube? Where do I get one? | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' The Horadric Cube is a Quest item that you recieve in Act 2. It's a part of Quest 2 - retrieving the Staff of Kings. You have to cruise down to the Halls of the Dead and locate the golden chest on the third level in order to get the Cube. Cubes are permanent quest items. You can only ever hold one. You'll keep your one cube from Act 2 Normal straight on through Act 5 Hell. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 3.2: What can you do with this Cube? | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' The Horadric Cube has four major functions to it. The first is the ability to do transmutations; changing items into other items. This function comes into play quite heavily in the Staff of Kings quest in Act 2, and again in the Khalim's Will quest of Act 3. In both cases, you have to assemble a variety of items, slap them together in the cube, and then transmute them to come up with the proper quest related item. Second, transmutation allows you to do some pretty nifty things with normal items, as the recipies section will show later. :) Third, the Horadric Cube's transmutation power is used to create Crafted Items, a new class of item in the D2 Expansion. And, finally, perhaps the Cube's most important feature ... it's extra stash space! The Cube can hold 3x4 worth of gear, but when it's closed, it's only 2x2 in size. That's an extra 8 square item spaces to use!! .. okay, so this isn't as important in the Expansion where they've doubled the Stash size for us, but still! Space is space. Some people like loading the cube with resist gear and carrying it wherever they go, so they can switch to it rapidly when engaging certain kinds of monsters. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 3.3: Crafted Items? What are those? | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' New to the Expansion, Crafted Items are something like Set items you can create, but without the Set part. When you throw just the right combination of stuff into the Cube and transmute it, you'll get an item that has certain preset modifiers (five max) and up to five more random magical prefixes and suffixes, for some truly powerful gear. The Cube creates these. Crafted item recipies aren't listed, because there are way too many, and they're going to get their own FAQ. Look for it on GameFAQs. :) .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 3.4: A warning about valid recipies.. | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Pay close attention to the documentation below. You'll find that people on Battle.net are only too happy to give you a hot new Cube recipie that incorporates a pre-existing one. Example: Hot New Recipie -- 3 rings + 2 perfect Rubies + 1 SOJ = Holy Ornate Plate w/ 900+ Defense! The catch here is that 3 rings by themselves will become 1 amulet. The Cube is a little piggish - anything extra that happens to be there when a valid recipie is invoked will be consumed too. So, you'd wind up with one amulet, having lost two perfect Rubies and a Stone of Jordan. On top of that, the amulet will probably suck. ;) Learn your recipies, and be wary of those you hear from others. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 3.5: Stone of Jordan - Defined | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' A couple of people have written in to ask, "What the heck is a Stone of Jordan, and where do I get one?" The SoJ is a unique ring. Back in Diablo 2, prior to patch 1.08, it was the absolute best ring a caster could find. The SoJ packs +1 to All Skills, +25% mana, and a couple other stats that make it very attractive to casters. For a long while, the SoJ was the currency by which all other things were rated in the trading channels. Blinkbat might go for 1 or 2 SoJs; four or five Perfect Skulls could net you one SoJ. The reason is because even though they were rare, you could gamble them. All you needed was the Nagelring and the Manald Heal, the two previous unique rings, and you could have a shot at gambling the SoJ from Elzix (or your gambling NPC of choice). People used to horde these things to trade for great rare gear or specialized uniques that players were abusing, Blinkbat being the canonical example. The SoJ recipie exists to give people a way to spend all those spare SoJs, as now there are lots of ways to get a + to all skills, and high resist rare rings will be a necessity, due to the modifications to resists on Nightmare and Hell difficulty. ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. Cube Recipies! ______________________________________________________________________________ .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.1: Conversion Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Conversion recipies take one thing and either upgrade it, or respawn it with new modifiers. 3 Runes of the same type ==> 1 Rune of the next higher type This is a nifty new 1.09 patch recipie. This recipie only works for the first nine runes - El thru Ort. Three Orts can make one Thul. This recipie does not work for any higher level of rune. 3 Gems of the same type ==> 1 Gem of the next higher grade and of the same grade This is the primary way to upgrade your gems. 3 chipped -> 1 flawed, 3 flawed -> 1 normal .. so on. 3 Perfect Gems + 1 Jewel ==> 1 new Jewel 3 Perfect Gems + 1 Charm ==> 1 new Charm 3 Perfect Gems + Ring ==> Magical Ring 3 Perfect Gems + Amulet ==> Magical Amulet 3 P.Gems + 1 magical item ==> Another magical item of the same type. All of these recipies are basically the same. 3 Perfect Gems of any stripe combined with a magical item will spawn a new magical item that has the same type as the one used. 3 PGems and a ring = a new magic ring, 3 PGems and an Amulet = a new magic Amulet, so on. I find these to be a waste of gems. I haven't received anything good during transmutations. 3 Amulets ==> 1 Ring 3 Rings ==> 1 Amulet This is a nice conversion, maybe you'll get something decent for all those throwaway rings you pick up. Odds are against it though; it's theorized that the level of the item you use affects the max modifiers you can get on the transmuted item. Better materials for better results. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.2: The Skull Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' These recipies are why PSkulls sell so well in the trading channels. :) 3 Perfect Skulls ==> Adds 1 socket to the Rare you use. + 1 Stone of Jordan + 1 Rare This cube recipie has the same function as Quest 1 from Act 5. Be sure to not use magical items, as 3 PGems + 1 Magical = a new Magical .. Note that you cannot add sockets to a socketed item, can only add a single socket, and can't socket items that don't normally take sockets. Perfect skull ==> High quality Rare of the same type + 1 Stone of Jordan + 1 Rare Item This recipie was added to give people with 40 SoJs something to do with them. Most people are going to have to abandon SoJs in favor of resists, now that Hell difficulty runs at -100 to all resistances. The items spawned with this are reported to be `high quality`, having modifiers at item level 66. 6 Perfect Skulls ==> Low Quality Rare of the same type + Any 1 Rare This was the classic 6-skull recipie in standard D2, and usually gave a very high quality rare back. In the Expansion, this recipie has been reduced, and it's said that it only grants modifiers around item level 40. More incentive to burn up those SoJs, I suppose. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.3: The Resist Gear Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' These recipies create resist gear. They didn't work in 1.08; they do in 1.09. 6 Perfect Gems (non-skull) ==> Prismatic (16-25% Resist All) Amulet + Amulet 1 Ring + 1 Perfect Emerald ==> 1 Viridian Ring (Poison Resist) + 1 Antidote Potion 1 Ring + 1 Perfect Ruby ==> 1 Garnet Ring (Fire Resist) + 1 Exploding Potion 1 Ring + 1 Perfect Sapphire ==> 1 Cobalt Ring (Cold Resist) + 1 Thawing Potions 1 Ring + 1 Perfect Topaz ==> 1 Coral Ring (Lightning Resist) The level of resistance on the rings will always be random. .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.4: The Potion Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' These recipies are something everyone will use all the time. ;) 1 Health Potion ==> 1 Antidote Potion + 1 Strangling Gas potion 3 Health Potions ==> 1 Partial Rejuvination Potion + 3 Mana Potions 3 Health Potions ==> 1 Full Rejuvination Potion + 3 Mana Potions + 1 Gem Gem quality doesn't matter. 3 Partial Rejuv Potions ==> 1 Full Rejuvination Potion Pick up all the mana potions and chipped gems you see, and use them to create rejuvs. Rejuvs are the bread and butter of the high level player, as they heal life and magic instantly, where typical potions take precious seconds to fill your bar back up. Nothing quite like a good rejuv potion for a boss fight! .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.5: Ammo and Throwing Weapon Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' 2 Quivers of Arrows ==> 1 Quiver of Bolts 2 Quivers of Bolts ==> 1 Quiver of Arrows Pretty standard conversion. Sometimes handy for Bowazons. 1 Axe Class weapon ==> One stack of Throwing Axes + 1 Dagger Class weapon 1 Spear ==> 1 stack of Javelins + 1 Quiver of arrows .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 4.6: Weapon Recipies | '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' These recipies shouldn't even be in the game. :) I've gotten any use out of any of them. Lame! The only neat thing is that other weapon recipies might be in the makings somewhere. Doubtful, though. 1 Diamond ==> 1 Savage Bardiche + 1 Staff + 1 Kris + 1 Belt Magical Small Shield ==> Small Shield of Spikes + 1 Spiked Club + 2 Skulls 3 Chipped Gems + 1 Sword ==> 1 Socketable Long Sword 4 Health Potions ==> Long Sword of the Leech + 1 Ruby + 1 non-normal Long Sword By "non-normal", I mean magical or rare. Magical is obviously the best choice. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. Credits and Contact Info ______________________________________________________________________________ - Credits Blizzard Entertainment, for some of the finest games around. A good part of my life has been devoted to Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. GameFAQs.com, for providing the best online gaming resource that we have in this troubled day and age. :) Silverwolf_X for testing out the Charm recipie and sending me the info on the results. Silverwolf_X for coming up with that incredible rare-unsocketing bug. Congrats! - Contact Info Do you have additions or corrections for this FAQ? Further questions that weren't answered the first time around? A burning desire to *know*? Send an email over to . Cube recipies will be verified as they're sent in, and added if they work. You can get cute and submit stupid non-working recipies if you want, but it'll just mark you as an idiot. :) Please test before submitting. As always, full credit will be given to the people responsible for any contributions or corrections. (c) 2001, by Brian Kern Limited reproduction rights as assigned.