Runewords is a feature that has been brought back to Diablo 4 from its previous titles, allowing you to make use of Invocation and Ritual Runes to create a skill that is automatically cast.
Certain skills will be triggered when Offering is generated through the conditions of a Ritual Rune, which causes the skill on an Invocation Rune to be cast.
Using these will allow you to further alter your builds to enable the use of these additional skills when you face your enemies.
How To Unlock Runewords?
Runewords are available for those who have purchased the Vessel of Hatred Expansion, and these are introduced during the expansion’s Main Campaign.
While you may obtain Runewords through their normal methods, these powerful “stones” are later introduced during the Fundament of Fate Quest.
How To Get Runes?
One of the best ways to farm Runes is to do runs of the Kurast Undercity activity, which will guarantee that runes are dropped if you use certain Tributes.
These Tributes can be added before you open a portal to the Kurast Undercity and will provide you with rewards once you open the chest after defeating the boss at the end.
Other ways to obtain Runes would be to defeat bosses that you encounter, open Tree of Whisper coaches, conquer strongholds and even defeat Elite enemies.
How To Activate Runewords?
To activate a Runeword, you will need to socket a Rune of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation on the same piece of equipment to create a condition and effect. (This creates the Runeword)
The Rune of Ritual will have conditions that need to be completed such as evading, inflicting crowd control, spending your primary resource, and more.
The Rune of Invocation determines what skill will be cast once enough Offering has been generated by the Rune of Ritual.
Once a Runeword has been created by socketing both types of runes, Offering will be generated, and the skill will be cast automatically once you have enough.
List of All Runes
Ritual Runes
Ritual Rune | Rarity | Offering | Condition |
Ahu | Legendary | 10 | Lucky hit: Up to a 100% chance against injured enemies. |
| Bac | Legendary | 50 | Travel five meters. |
Lith | Legendary | 25 | Stand still for 0.3 seconds. |
| Tam | Legendary | 25 | Cast a non-channeled core skill. |
Xol | Legendary | 150 | Evoke power from another class. |
| Yul | Legendary | 50 | Cast a skill with a cooldown. |
Cem | Magic | 75 | Cast evade. |
| Cir | Magic | 50 | Cast the same non-channeled skill three times in a row. |
Moni | Magic | 25 | Cast a skill after moving (Cooldown: 0.25 seconds). |
| Ur | Magic | 10 | Your minion or companion kills an enemy or dies. |
Yax | Magic | 200 | Drink a healing potion. |
| Zan | Magic | 150 | Cast an ultimate skill. |
Feo | Rare | 1,000 | Become injured or crowd controlled (cooldown: 20 seconds). |
| Kaa | Rare | 2 | Lose 1% of your max life. |
Neo | Rare | 200 | Deal damage after not taking any within two seconds (Resets if invulnerable). |
| Noc | Rare | 10 | Inflict a crowd control that isn’t slow or chill. |
Poc | Rare | 5 | Spend 5% of your max resource. |
Invocation Runes
Invocation Rune | Rarity | Offering | Cooldown (Seconds) | Effect |
Eom | Legendary | 100 | 1 | Reduce your active cooldowns by 0.25 seconds. |
| Jah | Legendary | 500 | 2 | Replace your next evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming unstoppable. |
Ohm | Legendary | 500 | 2 | Evoke the Barbarian’s Enhanced War Cry, increasing your movement speed and damage dealt. |
| Vex | Legendary | 400 | 1 | Gain +3 to all skills for 7 seconds. |
Xan | Legendary | 800 | 1 | Your next skill cast will be a guaranteed critical strike and overpower. |
| Yom | Legendary | 500 | 2 | Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a barrier. |
Ceh | Magic | 100 | 1 | Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for eight seconds. |
| Gar | Magic | 25 | 1 | Gain 2.5% critical strike chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%. |
Lum | Magic | 5 | 1 | Restore one primary resource. |
| Met | Magic | 100 | 1 | You leave the Necromancer’s Desecrated Ground behind you for three seconds, dealing damage to enemies within. |
Ono | Magic | 25 | 1 | Evoke the Druid’s Dancing Bolts, seeking and dealing damage to enemies. |
| Tal | Magic | 100 | 1 | Evoke the Spiritborn’s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies. |
Teb | Magic | 100 | 1 | Evoke the Necromancer’s Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and healing you when they die. |
| Tec | Magic | 100 | 1 | Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within. |
Ton | Magic | 20 | 1 | Evoke the Sorcerer’s Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies. |
| Tun | Magic | 100 | 1 | Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, stunning and dealing damage to enemies. |
Kry | Rare | 500 | 3 | Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and pulling on enemies. |
| Lac | Rare | 800 | 1 | Evoke the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken. |
Mot | Rare | 150 | 1 | Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud, reducing damage taken per shadow. |
| Ner | Rare | 700 | 6 | Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining dodge chance, movement speed, unstoppable, and stealth. |
Qax | Rare | 400 | 1 | Your next non-basic skill cast spends all of your primary resource to deal up to 100% increased damage. |
| Qua | Rare | 400 | 1 | Restore an evade charge and gain 7% movement speed for 5 seconds, up to 30%. |
Que | Rare | 400 | 1 | Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a barrier. |
| Thul | Rare | 400 | 1 | Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting freeze and vulnerability onto enemies. |
Tzic | Rare | 250 | 1 | Evoke the Spiritborn’s Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and knocking down enemies. |
| Wat | Rare | 100 | 1 | Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you execute them. |
Xal | Rare | 200 | 1 | Gain 20% maximum life for 6 seconds. |
| Zec | Rare | 200 | 2 | Reduce your active ultimate cooldown by 4 seconds. |
How To Remove Runes?
Runes can be removed by going to a Jeweler, who can unsocket them and this will be done for free, allowing you to remove all Runes from a piece of equipment.
You can also replace Runes by simply applying a different one to the piece of equipment that has them, which will return the replaced Rune to your inventory.
Verdict
Runewords are a great way to add some spice to your builds, especially if they can help you survive or easily tear down your enemies.
You will always need one of each type of Rune, which is what forms the Runewords and these will be shown on the equipment that you have inserted them into.
Playing around with different Runewords and builds can eventually help create the ultimate setup for your characters, which goes along nicely with all the other available features.
