How to unlock and get Runewords in Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred

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The Runeword system is another nifty feature introduced to Diablo 4 in the Vessel of Hatred expansion. It’s let you combine Runes and socket them in your equipment to borrow abilities from different classes, summon animal spirits, boost movement speed, reduce your cooldowns, and plenty more powerful abilities besides. They are essentially souped up Gems and are conducive to even more intricate build tweaking, especially with the new Spiritborn class.

How to unlock Runewords

To unlock Runewords, you need to complete the Fundament of Faith quest in the Chapter 2 of the Vessel of Hatred campaign. When you report back to the council in Kurast, Ormus will give you a Kurast Armory Cache containing several starter Runes. An on-screen pop-up will also walk you through the basics.

How to use Runewords

To activate a Runeword, you need to slot a Rune of Ritual with a Rune of Invocation on the same piece of gear. They work in tandem with the Rune of Ritual acting as a trigger and the Rune of Invocation as the effect. Here’s a breakdown of how the two Rune types work together:

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Rune TypeColourEffect
Rune of RitualYellowGenerates Offering when you perform a specific action such as evade, drink a healing potion, cast your Ultimate, and so on, as explained in the Rune description.
Rune of InvocationPurpleTriggers a specific action, passive, or buff when you’ve accumulated the required amount of Offering from the Rune of Ritual such as invoking a spirit, restoring Vigor, or boosting Critical Strike Chance by a set percentage.

Open up your inventory and click on the Socketable tab. Here, you’ll see all the Runes you currently have. Hover over a Rune then drag and drop it onto a piece of gear like armor, boots, a weapon, and so on. Repeat for the second Rune to activate the Runeword. Once combined, the cause and effect chain will trigger automatically as you quest and explore.


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Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Runewords: Jeweler menu.
You can combine three copies of a Rune to craft a new one at the Jeweler. Captured by VideoGamer

Note that you can only use Runeword on pieces of gear with two slots and can only have two Runeword pairs activated at any given time – two pieces of gear with Runewords. If you happen to come across three copies of the same Rune, you can craft a brand new one of a potentially higher rarity by combining them at the Jeweler. There’s an 85% chance it will be of the same rarity and a 15% of a higher quality Rune.

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Runewords: Jeweler menu.
Visit the Jeweler to unsocket a Runeword pair. Captured by VideoGamer
✓ Tip

Should you need to unsocket a Runeword combination, visit a Jeweler, select the Unsocket tab, click on the pliers icon on the left and then on the gear with the Runeword you want to deactivate. The Runes will return to the Socketables portion of your inventory.

How to get Runes

You can get Runes as drops from World Bosses, Strongholds, story bosses, Whisper Caches, elite enemies, and as rewards for completing the Kurast Undercity timed-dungeon. Kurast Undercity is by far the most efficient way to farm as you can use Rune Tributes to significantly increase your chances of getting Runes when you defeat the dungeon’s final boss.

All Runewords list

Below, you’ll find a full list of all the Runes of Ritual and Runes of Invocation available in the Vessel of Hatred expansion:

Runes of Ritual

RuneRarityOffering GainRequirement
CemMagic75Cast Evade
YaxMagic200Drink a Healing Potion
CirMagic50Cast the same non-Channeled Skill 3 times in a row
ZanMagic75Cast an Ultimate Skill
MoniMagic25Cast a skill after moving – 0.25 sec Cooldown
NeoRare200Deal damage after not taking any within 2 sec – resets if Invulnerable
FeoRare1000Become Injured or Crowd Controlled – 10 sec Cooldown
NocRare10Inflict a Crowd Control that isn’t Slow or Chill
PocRare5Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource
KaaRare2Lose 1% of your max Life
YulLegendary50Cast a Skill with a Cooldown
XolLegendary150Evoke power from another class
TamLegendary25Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill
AhuLegendary10Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies
LithLegendary25Stand still for 0.3 sec
BacLegendary50Travel 5 meters

Runes of Invocation

RuneRarityOffering RequirementCooldownEffect/Skill/Buff
GarMagic251Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%
LumMagic51Restore 1 Primary Resource
TecMagic1001Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies in its radius
TunMagic1001Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning, and dealing damage to enemies
TebMagic1001Evoke the Necromancer’s Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die
TonMagic201Evoke the Sorcerer’s Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies
TalMagic1001Evoke the Spiritborn’s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies
TunMagic1001Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies
CehMagic1001Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds
QueRare3001Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting a Barrier
QuaRare501Gain 7% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 30%.
WatRare1001Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them
QaxRare4001Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage
XalRare2001Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 sec
ZecRare2002Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2 sec
NerRare6006Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth
QaxRare4001Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage
MotRare1501Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud, reducing damage taken per Shadow
LacRare8001Evoke the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken.
TzicRare2501Evoke the Spiritborn’s Concussive Stomp, dealing damage, and Knocking Down enemies
KryRare3001Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage, and Pulling In enemies
ThulRare4001Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies
VexLegendary10001
Gain +3 to all Skills for 7 sec
XanLegendary8001Your next Skill will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower
OhmLegendary6002Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage
JahLegendary4002Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable
EomLegendary1001Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.1 sec
YomLegendary5005Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and granting 100 Resource

About the Author

Tom Bardwell

Tom is guides editor here at VideoGamer.

Diablo 4

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
  • Genre(s): Action, Action RPG, RPG