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Diablo 2 Expansion - Lord of Destruction
Horadric Cube Recipies FAQ
Version 2.0, 08/28/2001 by Brian Kern

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Future revisions of this FAQ may be found at http://www.gamefaqs.com .

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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 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


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1. Revision History
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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.


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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 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


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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?                                 |
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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?                                        |
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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..                                      |
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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.


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4. Cube Recipies!
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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.1: Conversion Recipies                                                   |
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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