Quest List, Walkthrough, and Character Help - Guide for Diablo 2

Diablo 2 Quest List, Walkthrough, and Character Help for PC. Version 2.0
By Nik Heiden. Copyright July 18, 2000 (creation)
DO NOT COPY OR PLAIGARISE
*NOW INCLUDES DIABLO 2 EXPANSION*
(.1.)Contents:
(.1.)Contents
(.2.)Version History
(.3.)Quest List
(.4.)Walkthrough
(.5.)Character Help
(.6.)Horadric Cube (and special thanks)
(.7.)Diablo 2 Expansion: The Lord of Destruction
(.8.)Copyright and Legal Stuff
(.2.)Version History:
Version 1.0: FAQ Creation.
Version 1.1: Added Missing waypoint in Act 2
Added Horadric Cube section
Deleted fake waypoint in Act 2
Version 1.2: Changed many minor typos and mistakes
Updated Horadric Cube section
Version 1.3: Updated Horadric Cube section
Many more minor changes in writing
Version 1.4: Updated Horadric Cube section
Updated Character help
Fixed still more minor typos and changes
Added Special Thanks
Version 1.5: Added hidden doors in act 1
I must be a bad typist because I fixed many more typos
Version 1.6: First update since 8-22-00
Character help update
Added little save trick (after character help)
Version 1.7: Another character help update
Nothing major. Few minor notes added to Horadric cube.
Version 1.8: 1st update in a long time.
Few character help mistakes have been fixed.
Many typos fixed.
Added quest rewards.
Updated special thanks list.
Version 1.9: Nothing major or minor that I changed.
Version 2.0: Major update.
Added Expansion Set information.
Finished with the !@#$ typos.
Added a little here and there throughout the walkthrough.
(.3.)Quest List:
ACT 1:
1.)The Den of Evil: This is your first quest of the game. It is pretty
easy
and you should have no trouble completing it. Given to you by Akara.
Reward: 1 skill point
2.)The Sister's Burial Grounds: This is harder than the first quest but
it is still pretty easy. Given to you by Kashya after completing the Den
of Evil.
Reward: A free hireling from Kashya
3.)Saving Deckard Cain: This quest is (I thought) easier than The
sister's
burial grounds. It also allows you to return to Tristram. Given to you by
Akara after completing the sister's burial grounds.
Reward: A ring (magical=normal, rare=nightmare and hell)
4.)The Corrupted Tower: This quest is the easiest way to make money in
the
first act. The tower's bottom floor has 3 treasure rooms. Given to you by
a book in the Dark Wood.
Reward: Treasures at level 5 of the tower.
5.)The Horadric Malus: This quest allows you to get a rare item out of a
normal item from Charsi. Given to you by Charsi after entering the Black
Marsh and completing the tower.
Reward: An imbue from Charsi
6.)Killing Andariel: The hardest (obviously) of all the quests in Act 1.
Andariel is the boss of the first act. Given to you by Deckard Cain after
beating the Horadric Malus.
Reward: A gem of normal perfection and access to Act 2
ACT 2:
1.)Clean out the sewers: This quest is pretty easy if you don't rush
around
corners swinging your weapon. The enemies are easy also. Given to you by
Atma.
Reward: 1 skill point
2.)The Horadric Staff: This quest is easy but not easier than the sewers.
It
is completed near the END OF THE ACT. Given to you by Deckard Cain.
Reward: Access to Duriel
3.)The Tainted Sun: This quest is also easy. Just kill the enemies before
they get you. Given to you by walking around the Far Oasis and Lost City
and by talking to Drognan.
Reward: None
4.)The Arcane Sanctuary: This is HARD!! Anyone will definitely die twice
on
his or her first time playing this place. Given to you by Drognan after
making the Horadric Staff.
Reward: Access to the Canyon of the Magi and you get the correct tomb
symbol
5.)The Summoner: This guy is easy but he has lots of minions. He dies so
fast. Given to you after finding the summoner in the Arcane Sanctuary.
Reward: He just guards the end of the arcane sanctuary so the same
rewards
as the arcane sanctuary quest
6.)Finding Tal Rasha's Tomb and Killing Duriel: Finding Tal Rasha's Tomb
is
easy. Killing Duriel is not. Given to you by Deckard Cain after finding
the Horadric Cube.
Reward: A rare and/or a unique item(s)
ACT 3:
1.)The Golden Bird: This is easy after you find the statuette. Given to
you
after finding the statuette.
Reward: 20 permanent life points
2.)Blade of the Old Religion: This is VERY easy. Given to you by talking
to
Hratli after completing the first quest.
Reward: A hireling and a rare ring
3.)Khalim's Will: This quest is not hard but not easy. The "parts" are
spread
over a large area. Given to you by Cain after completing the first quest.
Reward: Entrance to the Durance of Hate
4.)Lam Esen’s Tome: This quest is kinda hard but not very hard. Given to
you
by Alkor after entering Lower Kurast.
Reward: 5 stat points
5.)Killing the Council Members: This is kinda easy. Just don't get
surrounded. Given to you by Ormus after entering the Kurast Causeway.
Reward: Khalim’s flail
6.)Killing Mephisto: This is hard but not extreme. I still died a lot.
Given
to you by Cain after destroying the Compelling Orb.
Reward: A rare and/or unique item(s) and his soulstone
ACT 4:
1.)Killing Izual's condemned spirit: This is easy. Again, just don't get
surrounded. Given to you by Tyrael.
Reward: 2 skill points
2.)Destroying Mephisto's Soulstone: This is harder than it looks. The
smith
keeps killing you. Given to you by Cain.
Reward: 4 gems: 1 normal, 2 flawlesses, and 1 perfect
3.)Terror's End: This is actually pretty easy. Diablo comes alone so he
is
kinda easy. Given to you by Cain after completing the second quest.
Reward: A rare and/or unique item(s) and beating the game.
(.4.)Walkthrough:
ACT 1:
Waypoints: Rouge Encampment, Cold Plains, Stony Field, Dark Wood, Black
Marsh, Outer Cloister, The Jail Level 1, Inner Cloister, and The
Catacombs Level 2.
You start off in the Rouge Encampment. Charsi is the blacksmith, Akara is
the leader of the rouges and she sells potions, scrolls, and staves,
Kashya is the leader of the rouges in battle and she lets you hire rouges
from her after killing Blood Raven, Gheed is a merchant and he gambles,
sells UNIDENTIFIED items at extreme prices (I got death's touch from a
gambler (see character help for more information on gambling)), and sells
keys, and Cain (after you save him) identifies your items for free. After
talking to everyone, you will have your first quest, the Den of Evil.
Find the exit to the town and explore the Blood Moor completely. Don't go
into the Cold Plains yet. After killing everything in the Blood Moor, go
back to town and sell everything you picked up. Put any gems in your
stash. You can buy better equipment and potions now so go and do that. If
you still have money, get as many keys as you can but don't get any more
than 18. After you are situated, leave town and find the Den of Evil and
kill everything off in there. When you finish, go back to town and get
your reward from Akara. Every time your inventory fills up, go back to
town and sell everything. While you are up there, try to buy better
items. If you need more money, repair things before you sell them and you
will make more money off them. Talk to Kashya and you will get your next
quest. Now you can go into the Cold Plains. Explore there thoroughly.
Helpful hint, ALWAYS activate waypoints. It's easier to travel through
them than town portals except when running from enemies. Don't go in the
Stony Field yet. Find the Burial Grounds and kill Blood Raven. She shoots
arrows at you and, sometimes, fire arrows. Kill her undead helpers first
and kill her ASAP or she will raise more undead. If you need to, go back
to town and sell everything. Next, go to the crypt and the mausoleum for
easy items, gold, and experience. Then, go through the Stony Field. Don't
enter the underground passage yet. After complete exploration, enter the
cave and clean that place out. Then go through the underground passage.
Again, complete exploration. If you are wondering why you must explore
everything, it is because of three things; gold, experience, and items.
After getting into the Dark Wood, Find the waypoint before you leave. You
will return here later. You can ether explore the Dark Wood now, or find
the Tree of Inifuss and leave. Your choice. Anyway, whenever you decide
to leave, go to the Stony Field and find the Cairn Stones. Look at the
scroll and input the pattern by touching the stones. You should see a red
portal after the lightning show. Enter it. Welcome back to Tristram. TIME
FOR REVENGE!!! Remember Griswold in the first Diablo? You get to kill
him!!! Revenge on him for never getting good items until AFTER the hard
parts of the game. Not only that, but you get to search Wirt's body!!! He
drops lots of gold and his leg. Maybe it was worth it to pay him so
much!!! Anyway, click on Cain's Gibbet to let him down and save him or
you could stare at him and laugh because of his incompetence. Get all the
gold. I think there is gold in Pepin's house but I'm not sure. Kill
everything and leave. If Griswold is too hard for you, you don't have to
fight him. You can just leave him there. I recommend trying anyway
because he drops a magical item. Anyway, now you can return to the Dark
Wood. Explore it if you haven't already. Just make sure you read the
moldy tome book that gives you the forth quest. Then, enter the Black
Marsh. Explore it thoroughly and go into the tower. Get down to the
bottom level but explore everything on the way down. On the bottom floor,
enter the first room on the left. Clean it out. MAJOR GOLD. Next, enter
the first room on the right. Clean it out. MAJOR GOLD number 2. Go in
ether the top right or the top left doors and clean the countess off the
Earth. MAJOR GOLD number 3. Go out the opposite way you came in. Easy
huh? Hint: If you are low on gold, quit the game and come back here. You
don't get major gold number 3 but it's worth it. Anyhow, kill everything
in the pit or the hole or whatever. Then, go to the Tamoe Highlands and
kill everything. Enter the dungeon and kill all that oppose you. Next,
you want to enter the Monastery. Wipe up everything in the outer cloister
and go to the barracks. Clean it out and don't forget Charsi's hammer.
Helpful hint: if you imbue Wirt's leg, you get a strong weapon off the
start. Don't imbue it if you have a weapon with 7-16+ damage and more.
Enter the jail and explore that thoroughly. On your map, you will
sometimes find squares with no doors on them. Look closely for hidden
doors. They are usually highlighted or stick out in some way. Inside,
this secret will be gold, chests, and (sometimes) enemies. Look for these
in the Catacombs as well. Anyway, back to the game. Go to the inner
cloister and clear that. Finally, enter the catacombs. On the last level,
the quest log button will appear to show that it is the bottom level.
Kill everything until you get to double doors. Yes Andariel is in there.
She has help so be careful. Try to get Andariel by herself. Then she is
easier. Be wary of the HEAVY poison she throws at you. Killing her gets
you a normal (not chipped) gem of some kind and a bunch of other
(chipped) gems and stuff. DON'T GO TO THE NEXT ACT YET!!! Kill everything
left in Andariel's chamber first. Then you can leave.
ACT 2:
Waypoints: Lut Gholein, Sewers Level 2, Dry hills, Far Oasis, The Halls
of the Dead Level 2, Lost City, Palace Cellar Level 1, Arcane Sanctuary,
and the Canyon of the Magi
Ahh.. Lut Gholein. Desert paradise. Fara is the blacksmith, Jerhyn is the
leader of Lut Gholein, Drognan sells potions and staves and scrolls, Atma
gives you the first quest and then becomes useless, Griez lets you hire
people which die fast and don't do much, Lysander sells potions and only
potions, and Cain is back. Talk to everyone and clear out the sewers. Try
to avoid getting surrounded by the undead and kill the guys who raise
them first. After that, return to Atma for the reward. Next, talk to Cain
for the next quest. Go into the desert and clean house. Kill 'em all.
Next, clean up the dungeon in the Rocky Waste. Then, go to the Dry Hills.
Clean it up and enter the next dungeon. Find the Horadric Cube and take
it back to Cain. Cain tells you some of its uses and you keep it for the
rest of the game if you want. It's a good idea because it holds more
space for you. If you don't want it, drop it and let it disappear.
Anyhow, finish the dungeon and move on the Far Oasis. Kill all the guys
and enter the bug hole. Before you enter the bug hole there should be a
darkness change. It's your next quest. Anyway, be careful here. The walls
are closed tight so running is hard if there are guys behind you. Kill
everything and get the shaft for the Horadric Staff. Get to the Lost City
and kill all the queers. Explore the sewers thoroughly and go to the
Valley of the Snakes. Kill all as usual. Enter the Claw Viper Temple and
kill all. It's 2 levels. You complete two quests here pretty much. The
headpiece is here and it is completing a quest but the game registers it
complete when you use the Horadric Staff in Tal Rasha's real tomb. The
other is the Tainted Sun. Kill everything in the Temple. Return to town
and do your business. Then, talk to Drognan, Cain, and Jeryhn and clean
out the Palace. On the third level of the cellar, you will find a portal.
Kill all the bad guys first and then enter the portal. Welcome to the
Arcane Sanctuary. Prepare to retrieve corpses of your dead bodies. This
is the hardest part of the game. The guys swarm you and you can run, but
the waypoint is in a central location and the paths are small. Try to
clean out as much as possible. If you can, clean out everything. You will
at least gain some levels. The summoner is somewhere in the level. Find
him and kill him. He is EASY. The guys in the level are harder than him.
All he does is curse you. Kill him and read the diary. The Canyon of the
Magi portal appears. Go in when you are ready. This is easier than the
Arcane Sanctuary. Go in all the tombs for max items, gold, and
experience. Don't forget to clear out the Canyon of the Magi first. In
Tal Rasha's true Tomb, put the Horadric Staff in the glowing altar thingy
and it blows the wall open. If you were using the Horadric Staff, get a
new (GOOD) weapon because the boss is on the other side of the wall. Make
sure you cleaned out the Tomb and enter the wall. Duriel slows you down
after a few seconds with a freeze aura but you can still move. He is
strong and fast if you are slowed. He is still not that hard. Hack him up
and enter the next room. THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS ROOM except Tyrael.
Talk to him. Go to town and talk to everyone. Do your stuff and talk to
Meshif. He will take you to....
ACT 3:
Waypoints: Kurast Docks, Spider forest, Great Marsh, Flayer Jungle, Lower
Kurast, Kurast Bazaar, Upper Kurast, Travincal, and The Durance of Hate
Level 2.
Welcome to glorious (joke) Kurast. Well, you still get the docks right?
RIGHT? No. OK. Talk to everyone and buy new stuff. You should not have
any quests yet so don't worry. Hratli is the blacksmith, Cain is back,
Ormus sells scrolls, potions, and staves, Alkor sells potions only and
gambles, and Asheara lets you hire people who are good and sells stuff.
First off I recommend hiring a person who casts cold magic from Asheara.
The wildernesses in this area are huge so don't get killed too much. Kill
off the short guys first and take out the shaman second because the
shaman doesn't really resurrect them too much. Now leave town. The "Dark
Wanderer" will walk a little and disappear. Kill the demons. Now explore
the Spider forest. Along your way, you should find a statuette off a guy
you killed. Pick it up and go back to Cain. Give it to Meshif and give
Alkor the Golden bird. Talk to Alkor again and you get 20 permanent life
points. Now talk to Cain and Hratli. You should get two more quests. Do
your business in town and finish exploring the Spider forest. Explore the
dungeons. One will have Khalim's eye in it. Get it and finish exploring
the Spider forest. Don't forget the waypoint. Next, Clear out the Great
Marsh. Explore any dungeons and go to the Flayer Jungle. Clear it out and
explore the dungeons. Somewhere along the way, you should find the Blade
for your second quest. In one of the dungeons, there is Khalim's brain.
Don't forget that as well. Next, go to the Lower Kurast. Clear it out.
Explore ALL the temples. If you don't find the book, don't worry. Go to
the Kurast Bazaar. Clear it out and explore ALL the temples. You should
find the black book. If not look in the Lower Kurast and the Kurast
Bazaar temples harder. If you still didn't find it, get it later and
explore the sewers. Get Khalim's heart and leave. Explore Upper Kurast.
Look in ALL the temples. If you still didn't find the black book, look in
Lower Kurast and the Bazaar again. If you did not find the black book, I
can't help you. Next, go to the Travincal. Kill off the council members
and get the flail. Destroy the Compelling Orb with the Transmuted Flail.
Go through the Durance of Hate killing everything. On the third level,
Mephisto waits. I actually thought he was harder than Diablo. Look out
for Mephisto's white sphere thing. It hurts BAD. Sometimes it kills you
in one shot. The trick is to stay at hand to hand combat because that is
where Mephisto is weak. He will poison you yes. Don't worry. Keep
slicing. If you run out of potions go to town and get more. Come back
down and keep slicing. He will die eventually and you will get his
soulstone and a bunch of other stuff. Go to town and do your business.
Talk to everyone. Go back down and clear out the rest of the place. Go
through the Portal to Hell to get to....
ACT 4:
Waypoints: The Pandemonium Fortress, City of the Damned, and the River of
Flame
OK. This is the last Act. Small. Buy your stuff and talk to Cain and
Tyrael. First 2 quests. Leave and explore the place. Kill off everything
and move on the Plains of Despair. Kill everything and fight Izual. Talk
to him when he dies. Next, go to the City of the Damned. Kill everything
and go to the River of Flame. Kill everything. Good luck on the Smith.
His strength is really high. He killed my guy in two hits!!! Get the
hammer off him and go to town. Identify it and get Mephisto's soulstone.
Go to the Hellforge and put the stone and the altar. Smash it with the
hammer. Now get all the gems. Go to the Angel guarding the single path
that says that this is the way to Diablo. Go through the path. Kill
EVERYTHING on the path. Get to the end and you should be in the Chaos
Sanctuary. The mages are a big pain. Try to kill them first. When you get
to a big Star, go left and kill everything. Open the seal(s) and go
right. Kill everything and open the seal(s). Finally, go up and kill
everything. Open the seal(s). When you open a seal, there should be more
guys. Only 3 seals do this. The reason you want to open the top one last
is because the guys up there are harder than the others. If you did the
other seals first, then all you have to do is kill the aura enchanted,
thief, ect. mage. After killing the guys, Diablo will appear in the
center. Don't get scared. He's kinda easy. Just look out for his red
lightning. After killing him, you have 70 seconds to do whatever. Do your
level up if you have one first. Then, get the stuff and go to town.
Identify everything and sell if you still have time. On to Nightmare
Difficulty. (I died 10 times on Duriel in nightmare)! The difficulties
don't change the quests or my walkthru above. Advice: DON'T DIE. I'm
serious! It's NOT healthy...
(.5.)Character Help:
Having problems with your character? Dying too much? Can't find out what
to get for your guy? Look no farther. The section of the FAQ will help
you begin your game. The best type of armor (Ornate Armor) requires 170
strength. You can't get it until nightmare difficulty or level 25 so
build strength early on. My level 16 Barbarian has strength up to 100.
Good luck...
Amazon: One of the easiest classes. She's best with spears and bows. I
think bows are better but it's your choice. You should get armor that is
pretty strong as well since you will be using two-handed weapons a lot.
You can do pretty much whatever you want on skills. Dodge and avoid are
very good and I recommend raising those as high as possible. You have to
build your skills depending on what you are using. With spears, Jab is my
favorite skill. It will speed up attacks with pikes and lances. With
bows, it depends on what the enemies' magical resistances are. You should
work on multiple shot as well. Guided arrow is probably my favorite bow
spell. Build that up too. A good amazon will kill guys in PvP (player vs.
player) that are 20 levels higher or maybe even better. The deadliest
class in dueling.
Barbarian: I think this one is the easiest. Just get a weapon and
possibly a shield and go kill things. Armor is not immediate, but it will
help. Two-handed weapons are good and two weapons are even better if they
are both good. Skills are your choice mostly. Some good ones are
whirlwind, the masteries, double swing, find potion, find item, and howl.
Whirlwind is THE best skill a barbarian gets. Upgrade it to 20 ASAP. Howl
will keep the enemies away if you are surrounded. Great spell. The
masteries are great if you build them up high enough. Double swing will
make your attacks very strong with two weapons. Bash is OK if you build
it up high enough as well but leap attack is better in my opinion. You
will not usually use skills with him but they are there when you need
them. Barbarians are the third best PvP class. Whirlwind annihilates many
players at once and it takes them out in one hit. He isn’t too great
against an amazon or a sorceress because they use long range attacks.
Necromancer: The hardest to make effectively. With this guy, don't get
two-handed weapons until way later. Defense is what you need. Work mainly
on defense. Get a good one-handed weapon. On your skills, DON'T BUILD UP
TEETH. Build up corpse explosion, golem and golem mastery, bone spear,
bone armor, bone spirit, and poison nova. Corpse explosion will clear out
crowds. Kill a guy and use the spell on his corpse. It damages nearby
enemies with 60 - 100 percent of the corpse's life. Use it on advanced
guys for the max damage. Golems will save you a lot. Build these up until
you can get iron golem. Then fire golem. Bone spear is great. It passes
through your target and hits another behind it and it passes through him
and so on. Good for making corpses for corpse explosion. Bone armor will
save your life time and time again. Upgrade it a lot. Bone spirit is
great on bosses but it only attacks single enemies. Use bone spear on
enemies in groups and bone spirit on single guys. Poison nova is good for
getting rid of the guys around you. Upgrade that a lot also. I did this
guy without curses but its your choice. Curses are OK. Decrepify will
slow enemies so you can run. Amplify Damage is pretty good and so is Iron
Maiden. Use them a lot. Necromancers are the worst duelers. They die from
pretty much any class. The only spell good in dueling is bone spirit, but
an amazon will make that useless with her ability to slow projectiles.
Paladin: If you can't do this guy right, you need help. He is very easy
to do and a good help for multiplayer games. Just get a good weapon and
good armor and you are set. He is even good with a bow. Skills are pretty
easy also. Try to build up on the resistances, might, blessed aim,
prayer, zeal, and fanaticism. The resistances will help the enemies'
fire, lightning, or cold damage stay low. However, you should just wait
until you can get Salvation. Might raises your damage dealt. Blessed aim
allows you to hit guys easier. Prayer will help you if you have time to
regenerate your life. Zeal kills a lot of guys with one "swing."
Fanaticism increases attack speed. Need I see more? Couple zeal and
fanaticism and you are one really bad guy. Your partners will also like
you better while you are using fanaticism or concentration. I will let
you decide what to do with your skills. It won't make too much of a
difference except in multiplayer. In PvP, a paladin is forth best in my
book. He can be third and take out barbarians, but when they leap, thorns
doesn’t work. Using concentration and blessed hammer is the best
combination of skills for a paladin. He can take out anyone close enough
to him. Long range is where they perish. Anything that shoots at you will
kill you in PvP.
Sorceress: Hard off the start but it gets easier. She is great with
staves and can use OK armor. Get a staff that raises your skill points or
raises your resistances. Try to run a lot if you are having trouble.
Skill points should be put into teleport, frozen armor, shiver armor,
chilling armor, glacial spike, fireball, hydra, the masteries, frozen
orb, and fire spells. Teleport saves your butt plenty of times but you
only need one skill point there. The cold armor spells freeze enemies
that hit you. Great for melee and even ranged combat. Glacial spike
freezes multiple enemies. Great for running. Fireball hurts if upgraded
high enough but fire wall does massive damage when upgraded to level 28.
Hydra will help a lot but not as much as some of the other spells. The
masteries help keep your damage up and the lightning spells help keep you
away from danger. You should not build up on firebolt. Only put one point
there so you can get fireball. Charged bolt isn't the best ether. Put no
more than 3 points there. Frost nova and lightning nova aren't the best
spells ether. Fire spells do the most damage anyways. Get them high on
levels. Frozen orb is the spell of choice for cold sorceresses. It will
kill fast and freeze everything in range. Try to focus on only one area
of spells. I would prefer fire or ice. Lightning just doesn’t do anything
for damage. Fire does more damage but cold freezes enemies. Fire wall
does up to 1000 damage per second on level 28 I think. When dueling, a
good sorceress will be very good at killing other players at any level,
but it fails to a good amazon unless you hit that amazon first.
All Characters: Don't try to level off your stats. Try to pour points in
strength and dexterity. Once in a while, put points on vitality. Energy
is almost never needed but put points there only if you are a sorceress
or really REALLY need mana. Like I said before, you need 170 strength to
use the best armor. You can't use it by leveling off your stats. Another
hint is to gamble. It may be expensive but it pays off. If you are
looking for a set, go on the internet and look for the items you need. If
what you need is a sabre, gamble on sabres. It's almost the only way to
get full sets in single player (not trading with other people). I think
that a gambler has 1 or 2 unique, rare, or set items that he hides with
all of his other worthless things on the gambling screen. Sometimes you
will get lucky and find a unique item. It's well worth the gold when you
get something you want. If you don’t know what to gamble on, try amulets
or rings. If you decide to gamble on rings, know that you probably will
not get a Stone of Jordan without Nagelring and Manald Heal. BE VERY
CAREFUL ON YOUR STATS AND HOW MANY LEVELS YOU HAVE WHEN YOU ADVANCE
ACTS!!! I completely messed up a perfectly good necromancer because I
sent him to act 4 nightmare on level 33 (he killed diablo in nightmare
too!!!) and now I can’t get him to make levels. Make as many levels as
nesscessary before moving on. When playing multiplayer, don’t leave your
teammates alone or make weaklings play the front line with necromancers
or sorceresses. That’s poor management. The Barbarian (or Paladin) should
be at the front line ahead of EVERYONE else. Paladin second. Then,
spellcasters and Amazons. Another thing, when you have a necromancer in
your party, try not to turn everything into ice cubes. The necro needs
corpses. With a sorceress and a necro, try to make the sorceress use fire
instead of cold. Fire does the most damage. Without a necro but you have
a sorceress, let the sorceress use cold. It benefits everyone in the
party except necros.
Monster’s levels depending on difficulty:
Nightmare: +30 levels
Hell: +50 levels
Ex: level 1 monster in normal = level 31 monster in nightmare and level
51
monster in hell
Levels you should be around if you explored everything:
Normal: After Act 1: around level 15 (doesn’t really matter)
After Act 2: around level 22 or 23 (again doesn’t really matter)
After Act 3: around level 25 to 28 (kinda matters)
Nightmare: Before starting: level 30 (27 with good (GOOD) stuff
(matters))
After Act 1: level 33 (matters)
After Act 2: level 36 to 38 (matters greatly)
After Act 3: level 41 to 43 (matters greatly)
Hell: Before starting: level 50 (matters greatly)
Through Hell, it doesn’t matter much on levels since you will finish the
game after killing diablo. You can kill him on level 50 and you’ve still
completed the game. But, if you really need it, I’ll give more average
levels.
After Act 1: level 53
After Act 2: level 55 to 57
After Act 3: level 61 to 62
After Act 4: level 63 or higher
Note for above and below: This is single player. Not multiplayer.
Here is a little trick for you guys who die a lot (open characters only):
copy the entire contents of the Diablo 2 save directory to a backup
directory. When you die, you can reload the backup to your Diablo 2 save
directory. Now, you will never lose experience in the harder
difficulties. Be sure to backup your files after every successful game.
Be warned, if you found a keepable item(s) and you died before backing up
your guy, don’t restore the guy unless he dies a million more times or
you will lose that item(s). This also works with Battle.net open
characters. You can give away an item(s), leave, restore your guy, and
then get the item(s) from the guy you were just trading with. Then,
backup your guy. You might want to talk to the other guy about this so he
doesn’t think you ripped him off....
If nothing helped you, e-mail me your problem and I will try to help you
personally.
(.6.)Horadric Cube: This section is about anything I find out about the
Horadric Cube. So far, I have found that three gems of the same type and
the same perfection equal one gem that is one higher perfection than the
last three were. Putting any items in with the gems destroys the item(s).
Three amulets equal a ring and three rings equal an amulet. Putting
around 6 gems in with an amulet or ring gives the ring new properties but
without it's original properties. Don't put 3 gems with the same type and
perfection or you will only get a gem with a higher perfection, not a
ring or amulet. After defeating Diablo, start again in normal and get
Wirt's Leg and transmute it with a town portal tome. This will take you
to the hidden cow level called the Moo Moo Farm. This is NOT as easy as
you think. The cows almost never end but you get a lot of items. The Cow
King drops a lot of stamina potions, some healing and mana potions, and a
couple items. This whole trick only works once per difficulty AFTER
killing Diablo. Check out the backup\restore part of character help. If
you don’t find anything good in the cow level, quit, restore, and try
again. MOO!
The following was sent by Derek (sorry I forgot your battle.net name!)
Put 3 Perfect skulls in with an amulet and you should get an amulet that
gives you a 1 or 2 skill point-boosting amulet for your guy. It has a 1
of 1 chance of working.
Ed: I’ve gotten this to work with any combination of 3 perfect gems. This
transmution changes the rare amulet and it can have *ANY* new attributes.
The amulet is random every time you do the transmutation with 3 perfects
but this will only work with perfects. To force this to work, do the
backup directory thing (at the end of character help) and try your
combination(s). If you don’t like what you get, quit, restore your guy,
and do it again. You will get what you want eventually. HOWEVER, be
warned that the amulet that adds 2 to your skill levels requires level
67. The one that adds 1 to your skills levels requires level 22. You may
not want to try this until later.
P.S.: My favorite amulet has the following: 
+2 character skills
+5% mana steal
+4% life steal
Prismatic (around 20 to all resistances)
+57 to mana
+59 to life
Beat that!
The following was sent by IggyboyAT:
1 Emerald (of any quality) + 1 ring + 4 Antidote Potions = One Viridian
Ring. This ring adds to Poison resist. What it adds to Poison Resist % is
random.
1 Ruby (of any quality) + 1 ring + 4 Exploding Potions = One Garnet Ring.
This ring adds to Fire resist. What it adds to Fire resist % is random.
1 Sapphire (of any quality) + 1 ring + 4 Thawing Potions = One Cobalt
Ring. This ring does the same thing as the Garnet Ring except it adds to
Cold resist. (These first three formulae do not work with amulets)
1 spear class item + 1 quiver of arrows = 1 stack of javelins
1 axe + 2 daggers = a stack of throwing axes
3 health potions (any quality) + 3 mana potions (any quality) = one
rejuvenation potion
3 health potions + 3 mana potions + 1 gem = one full rejuvenation potion
I add: Please use chipped, flawed, or, if you are desperate, normal.
Using perfects like this is a BIG waste.
6 gems (of any kind) + 1 sword class weapon = one socketed long sword
2 quivers of arrows = one quiver of bolts
2 quivers of bolts = one quiver of arrows
3 Perfect Gems (of any type) + 1 magical item = one new random magical
item. Tends to work better with the items you find in nightmare and above
difficulties. Be careful about using any of you best items unless they
suck and can be replaced. You will not get a unique, rare, or set item.
The following was sent in by Sabin:
Using IggyboyAT’s tricks above with the resistance rings, if you make one
and put in your inventory, leave the game and reenter, the ring will be
different. Sometimes it will be worse and sometimes it will be better. It
is like gambling. It works with all versions of the game and you don’t
need to put it in a specific spot in your inventory. Just don’t equip it.
Ed: I tried this and it works.
This section will be updated as much as I can. Please send me anything
else you known about the cube. Warning: Don't put your best items in the
cube and transmute unless you know what you are doing. You'll see...
Special Thanks to:
IggyboyAT for reminding me about the 3 gems equal a gem with a better
perfection and all of his contributions.
Derek for his contributions.
Patrick for reminding me about the hidden doors in act 1.
Sabin for his contributions.
{ANS}Koreakilla for being my best online friend
All my friends on Battle.net
Only the GOOD people get in my special thanks list.
If you want to look me up on Battle.net, my logons are Hot~Clan~Ultima
and {ANS}Owner
(.7.) Diablo 2 Expansion: The Lord of Destruction:
Well, the expansion is not out as of yet, but I’ve found out some
information about it. It will come out in the first half of 2001
sometime. I think we’re all praying that it’s soon. The expansion will
add an act to the normal game. It will be act 5, with harder enemies than
act 4. Act 5 will be about the size of acts 1 and 2 but it will be
smaller than act 3 and larger than act 4. It will have 6 quests and I
think there are 9 waypoints. There will also still be 3 difficulty
levels. You will still only be able to get to level 99 as your maximum
character level and level 20 as your maximum on your skills. There will
be new horadric cube formulae and Blizzard says that it will be more
useful than diablo 2’s cube. You will be able to get elite items, which
are better than exceptionals. The best example they have of an elite item
is with a pike. The normal item is a pike, the exceptional is a lance,
and the elite will be a war pike. You will be able to find unique
exceptionals, too. I haven’t seen any of those yet. You will be able to
find jewels, which will increase you weapons’ power if the weapons are
socketed. As of yet they are magical (one prefix and one suffix), but
blizzard MIGHT make them rare. You may also find socketed rare and
magical items in the expansion. If you’ve cheated with your open
characters then you’ll know what I mean. There will be items that only
certain character classes can use. Sorceresses get orbs, which do very
little damage but will increase skills dramatically. I forgot most of the
other classes’ items so I won’t start listing them. You will have 2 new
character classes. They are the druid and the assassin. I haven’t seen a
picture of the druid yet (although I haven’t looked), but if you want to
see an assassin, goto act 3 in Diablo 2 and look for Natalya. She’s an
assassin. For skills, druids can change forms into animals and use
nature-type magic. Assassins get martial arts, traps, and some magical
abilities. That’s pretty much all I’ve found out so far. If you’ve
learned anything I haven’t covered here about the expansion, please
e-mail me and tell me about it.
(.8.)Copyright and Legal Stuff:
This document is my work and may NOT be changed in ANY way. It is
protected by federal law. You have the right to print this off and use
it, but you may NOT call it your own. If you print this document, you
must also print this section of the FAQ. Any questions, comments, and/or
suggestions please contact me at: [email protected]. I usually
respond in about 1 to 2 days. Thanx, Nik.