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There comes a point in Diablo 2: Resurrected where gold no longer matters and players will grind after the best gear, but runes and their runewords can break up that grind, leading to a better player economy than Diablo 3. Originally, runes were added with the expansion to the original Diablo 2 game, titled Lord of Destruction. These runes appear in every act and on every difficulty, though the runes do have different levels, so some won’t appear until much later in the game.
Runes function similarly to gems, in that they are collectible items that can be socketed into armor and weapons to give them better stats. Runes, however, also have hidden properties. If players combine them in a certain order with the proper items, they gain additional effects. This system of combining is known as the runeword system.
For example, one of Diablo 2: Resurrected’s best early runewords is “Stealth,” which combines the Tal and…
