Diablo 4 Runewords

Even though Runes and Runewords were shown off at BlizzCon 2019, they will not be a part of Diablo IV at launch but the developers still plan on including them in some way with a post-launch update.

Runes and Runewords will not be available at launch and are something the developers plan to return to in the future.

D4 Runes and Rune Words Developer Update Livestream

Question about Runes and Rune words. Are they going to be available in Diablo 4 right at launch or are there any plans in the future?

You know this is one of the really interesting things about developing the game. We're doing as much as possible. One effect of that is because the game is in development. We're experimenting with things. If you look at some of the shots of the skill tree that we've shown, it's changed dramatically. You know, as we've looked at player feedback from showing it off. We can get feedback from players and make adjustments right.

It also means that sometimes, we'll announce features like Rune words. This needs more time to get right and we know especially with something like rune words. Because it's an existing concept in Diablo. If we made up a name and said, oh here's this new system and it's super cool, and here's what it does great. No problem. But if we say oh here's this new system and it's Rune words. And players say well, I remember what rune words were, and this is not Rune words. Then you know we need to make sure that we're fulfilling the player expectations there.

And so that's something that you know we plan to return to in the future.

Diablo 4 Runewords D4

Rune Words Description
Amn + Ko
  • When you freeze a monster, decrease a random skill cooldown by 15%.

Blizzard demonstrated how Diablo 4’s rune word system works in a 2019 BlizzCon panel. In it, an Amn Condition rune, which specifies that the player must freeze an enemy, is socketed with a Ko Effect rune, which decreases a random skill’s cooldown by 15%. The resulting Chest armor then gains an Amn-Ko bonus: “When you freeze a monster, decrease a random skill cooldown by 15%.”

Diablo 4 Runewords

Diablo 4 Gold, Items, Boosting

List of Diablo 4 Runes

Icon Name Category Description
Amn Rune Condition When you freeze an enemy, activate the next socketed rune.
Eld Rune Condition When you are stunned or frozen, activate the next socketed rune.
Eth Rune Condition Every 3 seconds without moving, activate the next socketed rune.
Fal Rune Condition When a pet dies, activate the next socketed rune.
Vex Rune Condition When you use a healing potion, activate the next socketed rune.
Dol Rune Effect When active, gain 50% critical strike chance for 7 seconds.
Ist Rune Effect When active, your next thorns hit deals 30% more.
Ko Rune Effect When active, reduce a random skill cooldown by 15%.
Sol Rune Effect When active, gain a random shrine effect for 7 seconds.
Thul Rune Effect When active, gain 500 damage barrier.

Runes and Runewords

Runewords proved highly popular in Diablo II. Runewords were a way for players to combine runes with items to give an item exceptional attributes. In Diablo II there was a total of 78 different runewords that could be used on basic grey items. Blizzard had planned for runewords in Diablo III but the idea was dropped during development at the time citing that “led to a lack of equipment variety”. Blizzard is now bringing them back to Diablo IV.

Diablo IV features two types of runes, condition runes and effect runes.

  • Condition runes when socketed into an item will activate the next rune if a certain condition is met.
  • Effect runes provide boosting effects and are activated when combined with a condition rune.
  • When runes are combined they create what is known as runewords.

Rune Words

  1. Items used for Runewords must be gray text items, normal, exceptional, or Elite. Low Quality, Superior, and Ethereal can be used, but you can not use magical, Rare, Set, Crafted, or Unique items, even if they have the correct number of sockets.
  2. The item must be of the correct type.
  3. The item must have exactly the correct number of sockets -- no more.
  4. You must socket the Runes in the correct order.

The definitions of Item Types for Rune Word items are:

  • Body Armor -- Armor worn on chest
  • Helm -- Armor worn on the head; including Barbarian Helms, Druid Pelts and Circlets
  • Club -- Clubs and exceptional and elite versions
  • Shield -- Any armor used to block; including Necromancer Shrunken Heads and Paladin-specific Shields
  • Hammers -- War Hammer, Maul, Great Mail, and exceptional and elite versions
  • Maces -- Mace, Morning Star, Flail, and exceptional and elite versions
  • Melee Weapons -- Any non-ranged weapon (Sorceress orbs are not considered melee weapons)
  • Missile Weapons -- Bows and crossbows
  • Weapons -- Melee Weapons, Missile Weapons, and Sorceress orbs
  • Scepters -- Scepter, Grand Scepter, War Scepter, and exceptional and elite versions

Runeword Preparation Recipes

1 Hel Rune + Scroll of Town Portal + Any Socketed Item --> Remove items from sockets

  • Removes the jewels, gems, or runes from the sockets in an item.
  • The items in the sockets are destroyed, and all bonuses granted by those items are removed.


1 Eld Rune + 1 Chipped Gem + Low Quality Weapon --> Normal Quality Weapon of same type

  • ilvl = 1
    • This recipe is useful to upgrade a low quality weapon to normal quality. It can then be used in other recipes to add sockets, in preparation for turning it into a runeword. Any sockets and items in those sockets will be lost after using this recipe.


1 El Rune + 1 Chipped Gem + Low Quality Armor --> Normal Quality Armor of same type

  • ilvl = 1.
    • This recipe is useful to upgrade a low quality armor to normal quality. It can then be used in other recipes to add sockets, in preparation for turning it into a runeword. Any sockets and items in those sockets will be lost after using this recipe.


1 Tal Rune + 1 Thul Rune + 1 Perfect Topaz + Normal Body Armor --> Socketed Body Armor of same type

  • This recipe adds 1-4 sockets to the armor, making it potentially useful for a Runeword.
  • The game always rolls for up to 6 sockets with this recipe. The amount of sockets is then capped to the maximum amount that particular item can have. Armor that can only have up to 2 sockets would therefore have a 1/6 chance of 1, and a 5/6 chance of 2.


1 Ral Rune + 1 Amn Rune + 1 Perfect Amethyst + Normal Weapon = Socketed Weapon of same type

  • This recipe adds 1-6 sockets to the weapon, making it potentially useful for a runeword.
  • The game rolls for up to 6 sockets with this recipe. If a weapon can not have 6 sockets, then the number is capped to the maximum for that particular item after the roll. A weapon with 3 sockets maximum would have 1/6 chance for 1, 1/6 chance for 2, and 4/6 chance for 3.


1 Ral Rune + 1 Thul Rune + 1 Perfect Sapphire + Normal Helm --> Socketed Helm of same type

  • This recipe adds 1-3 sockets to the helm, making it potentially useful for a Runeword.
  • The game always rolls for up to 6 sockets with this recipe. The amount of sockets is then capped to the maximum amount that particular item can have. A helm type that only allows 2 sockets would have a 1/6 chance of 1, and a 5/6 chance of 2.


1 Tal Rune + 1 Amn Rune + 1 Perfect Ruby + Normal Shield --> Socketed Shield of same type

  • This recipe adds 1-4 sockets to the shield, making it potentially useful for a Runeword.
  • The game always rolls for up to 6 sockets with this recipe. The amount of sockets is then capped to the maximum amount that particular item can have. A shield that can only have 3 sockets will have a 1/6 chance of 1, 1/6 chance of 2, and 4/6 chance of 3.

Diablo 4 Rune Words Does not Work?

It may happen that you insert the Runes in the piece of equipment that you want, but for some reason the Rune word is not triggered. Why is that?

  • It is possible that you have slotted the Runes in an incorrect order. Rune order is vital for Runewords.
  • It is possible that you attempted to create a Rune word in the wrong piece of equipment. If you attempt to create a  Weapon-only Rune Word on a socketed armor, you won't create the Rune Word.
  • It is also possible that the piece of socketed equipment you are using doesn't have the EXACT amount of sockets the Rune Word requires.

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