Diablo 2 Expansion - Lord of Destruction
Horadric Cube Recipes FAQ
Version 3.0, 12/16/2003
by Brian Kern
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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 recipes..
3.5. Stone of Jordan - Defined
4. Cube recipes!
4.1. Upgrade recipes
4.1.1.  Rune upgrades
4.1.2.  Gem upgrades
4.1.2.  Equipment upgrades
4.1.3.  Equipment repairs
4.1.4.  Adding sockets
4.1.5.  Removing sockets
4.2. Respawn recipes
4.2.1.  Spawning new magical items
4.2.2.  Spawning new rare items
4.3. The Resist Gear recipes
4.4. The Potion recipes
4.5. Weapon Creation recipes
4.5.1. Weapon recipes
4.5.2. Throwing Weapon and Ammo recipes
5. Credits and Contact Info
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1. Revision History
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v3.0, 12/16/2003, 5:46pm
Home sick today and missed my old FAQs. Updating for 1.10. Someone had to. I
mean, it's only been what, two years since I last touched this document? And
you thought I'd forgotten about it..
Anyway, cleaned up and totally re-did the ToC, stripped useless sections,
re-did the organization of existing ones and added a couple new thanks to
the new v1.10 recipes. Way to go, Blizzard! I love when companies update
older games, too.
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 recipe to include Charms.
v1.2.1, 07/08/2001, 11:00pm
Fixed a few formatting errors and added a note about the Resist Gear recipes
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 recipe I need... hence this FAQ.
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2. Introduction
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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 the old
Prophecy team, though most of them got swallowed up by FFXI.
The FAQ has been updated so that it deals strictly with the most current level
of play; that is to say, the D2 Expansion patched to level 1.10. Distinctions
for recipes of lower patch levels have been removed, though I have still
included distinctions for recipes that require a particular character type
to function (as several are Ladder-only, for example).
- Brian
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3. Cube Q&A
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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 recipes 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 recipes 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 recipes..                                      |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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 recipe that
incorporates a pre-existing one. Example:
Hot New recipe --
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
recipe 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 recipes, 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 recipe 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.
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4. Cube recipes!
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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.1: Upgrade recipes                                                       |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Upgrade recipes convert an existing item into a better version of itself.
How this is achieved varies by the recipe.
___ 4.1.1: Rune upgrades ____________________________________________________
You can upgrade your runes by using one of the below formulae; note that
you'll probably have to patch up and use a certain character type to make the
most of it.
3 El Runes                          = Eld Rune   2
3 Eld Runes                         = Tir Rune   3
3 Tir Runes                         = Nef Rune   4
3 Nef Runes                         = Eth Rune   5
3 Eth Runes                         = Ith Rune   6
3 Ith Runes                         = Tal Rune   7
3 Tal Runes                         = Ral Rune   8
3 Ral Runes                         = Ort Rune   9
3 Ort Runes                         = Thul Rune  10
3 Thul Runes  + 1 Chipped Topaz     = Amn Rune   11
3 Amn Runes   + 1 Chipped Amethyst  = Sol Rune   12
3 Sol Runes   + 1 Chipped Sapphire  = Shael Rune 13
3 Shael Runes + 1 Chipped Ruby      = Dol Rune   14
>> v1.10 Single Player, Open, or Ladder character required