Runes in Diablo 4

Official: Diablo 4 won't launch with Runes

In an unexpected twist, Blizzard announced in December 2022 that Runes won't be in Diablo 4 at launch. Previously, the game contained a "condition and effect" Rune system that was first showcased at BlizzCon 2019. At some point between now and then, Blizzard decided to ax the feature, either due to the system not meshing well with the game's other systems or intentionally saving it for future content.

Will likely appear in a season or expansion

Although Runes won't be in at launch, Blizzard softened disappointment by saying that Runes will likely be introduced as content in an upcoming quarterly Season or expansion. It's unknown if the system will be the same as before or something different.

What was the old Diablo 4 Rune system?

Runes played an integral part in Diablo 2. These are items that, when combined and socketed in the right combination into an item, make the socketed item much more powerful. Runes returned in Diablo 3, but in a different form: adding bonuses to the player's skills.

In Diablo 4, Runes will revert to Diablo 2's model of socketing them into items. Blizzard says there will be two types of Runes in Diablo 4 [1]:

• Condition Rune: conditions that need to be present for the Effect Rune to activate
• Effect Rune: what happens if the conditions of the Condition Rune are present

What's an example of a Runeword from the old system?

Blizzard demonstrated how Diablo 4's Runeword 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%."

List of Diablo 4 Condition Runes (cancelled)

Blizzard had revealed 5 Condition Runes, which required certain conditions to be met in order to activate the adjacent socketed Rune:

• Amn Rune



• Eld Rune



• Eth Rune



• Fal Rune



• Vex Rune

List of Diablo 4 Effect Runes (cancelled)

To pair the Condition Runes with, Blizzard had announced 5 Effect Runes. These Runes produced an effect once the condition of the Condition Rune were met.

• Dol Rune



• Ist Rune



• Ko Rune



• Sol Rune



• Thul Rune

Was a Rune progression system also planned?

Diablo 4's old Rune system supported Runewords with only two Runes (e.g., Eth+Thul), but the ability to chain more Runes together was also planned: