Runewords are making a comeback in Diablo 4, following their success in Diablo 2. This system builds upon the traditional Gem mechanics of the game, allowing you to craft your own spells for even more build customization. Runewords are only available to players who have purchased the Vessel of Hatred expansion.
What are Runewords?
Runewords consist of two types of runes: the Rune of Ritual and the Rune of Invocation.
- Rune of Ritual: This rune represents the action or condition your character needs to fulfill.
- Rune of Invocation: This is the power or ability triggered once the conditions of the Rune of Ritual are met.
With a wide variety of runes available, you can create numerous combinations to complement your build. Runewords even offer access to skills from other classes, such as:
- Sorcerer’s Teleport
- Barbarian’s War Cry
- Spiritborn’s Vortex
- Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify
- Rogue’s Countering Concealment
- Druid’s Petrify
Every class shares two skills and one aspect in the Runewords system. You can find the different runes in the list below. Some runes even cast the improved version of the skill if you use a Rune that relates to your class, for example, the Enhanced War Cry for Barbarians. If you equip your own class skill, you will always cast the best possible version in case you have skilled more points in your own talent tree.
Offering and Overflow Mechanics
When you perform the action required by the Rune of Ritual, it generates Offering, which is used by the Rune of Invocation to trigger its effect. The amount of Offering generated depends on the difficulty of the action. The more powerful the Rune of Invocation, the more Offering it will consume.
Example:
- The Rune of Ritual Bac generates 50 Offering every time your character moves 5 meters.
- The Rune of Invocation Jah consumes 500 Offering and replaces your next Evade with the Sorcerer‘s Teleport.
- Combining them into BacJah means every time you move 50 meters (10x Bac), your next Evade will turn into Teleport (Jah).
You can monitor Offering generation in your buff bar located above your skills. The icon itself will change in function of the Runeword you equipped. The purple hue on top of the icon indicates how much Offering has been generated so far.
There is also the Overflow mechanic, which occurs when more Offering is generated than needed to trigger the Rune of Invocation. This can apply a bonus, increasing the power of your Runeword.
Example:
- The Rune of Ritual Xol generates 150 Offering whenever you use a power from another class.
- The Rune of Invocation Qax requires 400 Offering and uses all your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage.
- With a 50 Offering Overflow (3x Xol = 450 Offering generated), Qax‘s Overflow bonus kicks in, further increasing damage output.
How to Equip Runewords
You can simply drag and drop the runes in sockets on a piece of gear in order to equip them. There are a few key things to remember when equipping Runewords:
- Two Sockets Required: Only gear with two sockets can hold Runewords – this includes Helms, Chests, Pants, and 2-Handed Weapons.
- Replaces Gems: Runewords cannot coexist with gems on the same item.
- Equip Limit: You can only equip two Runewords at a time, so choose wisely to complement your build.
- No Duplicate Runes: You cannot equip the same rune twice on your gear.
How to Obtain Runes
Runes come in three rarities: Magic, Rare, and Legendary. The rarity affects the strength of both the trigger and the effect, as well as the Offering generation or requirements.
They will be unlocked with a quest in the Vessel of Hatred campaign, and can then be obtained through a variety of endgame activities. However, completing Kurast Undercity can reward you with more runes. Additionally, they can be crafted or traded with other players.
In terms of storage, runes conveniently stack in your inventory or stash, and they will automatically be added to the “Socketables” tab of your inventory.
Runewords List
Runes of Ritual
| Rune | Rarity | Offering Gain | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
 Cem | Magic | 75 Offering | Cast Evade. |
 Cir | Magic | 300 Offering | Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. |
 Moni | Magic | 100 Offering | Cast a 2 Mobility or Macabre Skill after moving. (Cooldown: 0.25 seconds). |
 Yax | Magic | 200 Offering | Drink a Healing Potion. |
 Zan | Magic | 150 Offering | Cast an Ultimate Skill. |
 Feo | Rare | 1000 Offering | Become Injured or Crowd Controlled (Cooldown: 10 seconds). |
 Neo | Rare | 200 Offering | Deal damage after not taking any within 2 seconds. |
 Noc | Rare | 10 Offering | Inflict a Crowd Control. Gains half the offering when inflicting a Slow or Chill. |
 Poc | Rare | 5 Offering | Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. |
 Ahu | Legendary | 10 Offering | Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies. |
 Bac | Legendary | 50 Offering | Travel 5 meters. |
 Igni | Legendary | 25 Offering | Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. (Up to 500 Offering). |
 Lith | Legendary | 25 Offering | Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. |
 Nagu | Legendary | 100 Offering | Maintain at least 1 Summon for 5 seconds, up to 6 Summons for maximum benefit. |
 Tam | Legendary | 25 Offering | Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill. |
 Xol | Legendary | 150 Offering | Evoke power from another Class. |
 Yul | Legendary | 50 Offering | Cast a Skill with a Cooldown. |
Runes of Invocation
| Rune | Rarity | Offering Requirement | Cooldown | Power | Overflow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ceh | Magic | 100 Offering | 1 Second | Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies unhindered for 8 seconds. | Summon Multiple Wolves |
 Gar | Magic | 25 Offering | 1 Second | Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%. | Gain Multiple Stacks |
 Lum | Magic | 5 Offering | 1 Second | Restore 1 Primary Resource. | Increased Resource Restored |
 Qua | Magic | 50 Offering | 1 Second | Gain 10% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 50%. | Increased Duration |
| Tal | Magic | 30 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke one Spiritborn‘s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies. | Increased Swarms Spawned |
 Teb | Magic | 100 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Necromancer‘s Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die. | Increase damage by 1% per Offering |
 Tec | Magic | 50 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within. | Increased Size |
 Ton | Magic | 20 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Sorcerer’s Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies. | Increased Meteorites Spawned |
 Tun | Magic | 25 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke one Rogue’s Stun Grenade, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies. | Increased Grenades Spawned |
 Chac | Rare | 20 Offering | Invoke Durid Lightning Bolts striking a nearby enemy | Spawn more Lightning Bolts | |
| Kry | Rare | 300 Offering | 3 Seconds | Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies. | Increased size |
 Lac | Rare | 400 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken. | Increased Duration |
 Mot | Rare | 150 Offering | 1 Second | Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud (duration 3 seconds), reducing damage taken per shadow. | Gain Multiple Shadows |
 Ner | Rare | 600 Offering | 6 Seconds | Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth. | Increased Duration |
 Qax | Rare | 400 Offering | 1 second | Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage. | Further Increased Damage |
 Que | Rare | 300 Offering | 1 second | Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier. | Increased Duration |
 Thul | Rare | 300 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies. | Increased Size |
 Tzic | Rare | 200 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Spiritborn’s Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and Knocking Down enemies. | Increase damage by 1% per Offering |
| Wat | Rare | 100 Offering | 1 Second | Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. | Increased Duration |
 Xal | Rare | 300 Offering | 3 Seconds | Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds. | Gain More Maximum Life |
 Zec | Rare | 100 Offering | 1 Second | Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 1 second. | Further Reduced Cooldown |
 Eom | Legendary | 100 Offering | 1 Second | Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.1 seconds. | Further Reduced Cooldowns |
 Jah | Legendary | 250 Offering | 2 Seconds | Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable. | Store Excess Offering |
 Ohm | Legendary | 600 Offering | 2 Seconds | Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt. | Increased Duration |
 Vex | Legendary | 150 Offering | 5 Seconds | Gain +1 to all Skills for 10 seconds. | More Skill Ranks, up to 3. |
 Xan | Legendary | 700 Offering | 1 Second | Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower. | Cast increases damage by 1% per 10 Offering |
 Yom | Legendary | 500 Offering | 5 Seconds | Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and grants 100 Resource. | Increase Stun Duration |
Runecrafting
At the Jeweler, you can combine three of the same runes to create a new one. The new rune will always be different from the ones you traded off, and when using Magic or Rare runes, you might even obtain a rune of a higher rarity.
Mythic Unique Crafting
In addition to rune crafting, you can craft Mythic Uniques with runes. Each Mythic Unique requires 10 runes of three different types, along with a 
Resplendent Spark. This is an additional layer to the existing Mythic Unique crafting system. However, it is worth noting that farming Legendary Runes for this purpose may prove to be quite challenging.
| Item | Ingredients |
|---|---|
 Ring of Starless Skies | Resplendent Spark x1, Ohm x10, Tzic x10, Cem x10 |
 Heir of Perdition | Resplendent Spark x1, Jah x10,  Que x10, Gar x10 |
 Harlequin Crest | Resplendent Spark x1,  Eom x10, Lac x10, Ton x10 |
 Andariel’s Visage | Resplendent Spark x1, Tam x10, Qax x10, Zan x10 |
 Tyrael’s Might | Resplendent Spark x1, Lith x10, Feo x10, Met x10 |
 Shroud of False Death | Resplendent Spark x1, Bac x10, Kry x10,  Ur x10 |
 Melted Heart of Selig | Resplendent Spark x1,  Vex x10, Thul x10, Tun x10 |
 The Grandfather | Resplendent Spark x1, Xol x10,  Kaa x10, Yax x10 |
 Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander | Resplendent Spark x1, Yom x10, Poc x10, Cir x10 |
 Shattered Vow | Resplendent Spark x1,  Xan x10, Ner x10, Teb x10 |
 Doombringer | Resplendent Spark x1, Ahu x10, Neo x10, Lum x10 |
The Runeword system in Diablo 4 gives players the ability to mix and match powerful effects across different classes. Ever since Diablo 2, players have been asking for the return of Runewords. With Vessel of Hatred, the time has finally come!
