                    Diablo 2 Expansion - Lord of Destruction
                         Horadric Cube Recipies FAQ
                          Version 1.2, 07/06/2001
                     by Brian Kern <wingchild@home.com>

______________________________________________________________________________

                      This FAQ is copyrighted material.

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 Future revisions of this FAQ may be found at http://www.gamefaqs.com .

______________________________________________________________________________


Table of Contents

1. Revision History
2. Introduction
3. Cube Q&A
    
     3.1. What is the Cube? Where can I get one?
     3.2. What can you do with this cube?
     3.3. Crafted items? What are those?
     3.4. A warning about valid recipies..
     3.5. Stone of Jordan - Defined
    
4. Cube Recipies!
    
     4.1. Conversion recipies
     4.2. The Skull Recipies
     4.3. The Resist Gear Recipies
     4.4. Potion Recipies
     4.5. Ammo and Throwing Weapon Recipies
     4.6. Weapon Recipies
    
5. Credits and Contact Info


______________________________________________________________________________

  1. Revision History
______________________________________________________________________________

v1.2, 07/06/2001, 5:30pm
 I've received two questions as to what an SoJ is, so there's a new section
 under Q&A for all you newbie types. :)

v1.1, 07/04/2001, 3:00pm
 Formatted everything for posting and submitted to GameFAQs.

v1.0, 07/04/2001, 2:30pm
 Is there no good guide that contains info on the Horadric Cube for the Common
 Man? I swear, I hate going to sites and wading through their eight different  
 pages of slop just to find one recipie I need... hence this FAQ.


______________________________________________________________________________

  2. Introduction
______________________________________________________________________________


Welcome to the D2 Expansion Horadric Cube FAQ. This is another FAQ spawned out
of my unhappiness with other products on the 'net. Hats off to my fellow
gamers - MoonlightOwl, FireStar, FireSlinger, and Exailious - for they both
contributed and gave me people to play with while I was compiling info.

- Brian


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  3. Cube Q&A
______________________________________________________________________________


This section will handle general questions and answers about the Horadric
Cube.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 3.1: What is the Cube? Where do I get one?                                 |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

The Horadric Cube is a Quest item that you recieve in Act 2. It's a part of
Quest 2 - retrieving the Staff of Kings. You have to cruise down to the Halls
of the Dead and locate the golden chest on the third level in order to get the
Cube.

Cubes are permanent quest items. You can only ever hold one. You'll keep your
one cube from Act 2 Normal straight on through Act 5 Hell.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 3.2: What can you do with this Cube?                                       |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

The Horadric Cube has four major functions to it. The first is the ability to
do transmutations; changing items into other items.

This function comes into play quite heavily in the Staff of Kings quest in Act
2, and again in the Khalim's Will quest of Act 3. In both cases, you have to
assemble a variety of items, slap them together in the cube, and then
transmute them to come up with the proper quest related item.

Second, transmutation allows you to do some pretty nifty things with normal
items, as the recipies section will show later. :)

Third, the Horadric Cube's transmutation power is used to create Crafted
Items, a new class of item in the D2 Expansion.

And, finally, perhaps the Cube's most important feature ... it's extra stash
space! The Cube can hold 3x4 worth of gear, but when it's closed, it's only
2x2 in size. That's an extra 8 square item spaces to use!!  .. okay, so this
isn't as important in the Expansion where they've doubled the Stash size for
us, but still! Space is space.  Some people like loading the cube with resist
gear and carrying it wherever they go, so they can switch to it rapidly when
engaging certain kinds of monsters.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 3.3: Crafted Items? What are those?                                        |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

New to the Expansion, Crafted Items are something like Set items you can
create, but without the Set part. When you throw just the right combination of
stuff into the Cube and transmute it, you'll get an item that has certain
preset modifiers (five max) and up to five more random magical prefixes and
suffixes, for some truly powerful gear.

The Cube creates these. Crafted item recipies aren't listed, because there are
way too many, and they're going to get their own FAQ. Look for it on GameFAQs.
:)


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 3.4: A warning about valid recipies..                                      |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Pay close attention to the documentation below. You'll find that people on
Battle.net are only too happy to give you a hot new Cube recipie that
incorporates a pre-existing one. Example:

Hot New Recipie --
3 rings + 2 perfect Rubies + 1 SOJ = Holy Ornate Plate w/ 900+ Defense!


The catch here is that 3 rings by themselves will become 1 amulet. The Cube is
a little piggish - anything extra that happens to be there when a valid
recipie is invoked will be consumed too. So, you'd wind up with one amulet,
having lost two perfect Rubies and a Stone of Jordan. On top of that, the
amulet will probably suck. ;)

Learn your recipies, and be wary of those you hear from others.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 3.5: Stone of Jordan - Defined                                             |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

A couple of people have written in to ask, "What the heck is a Stone of 
Jordan, and where do I get one?"

The SoJ is a unique ring. Back in Diablo 2, prior to patch 1.08, it was the 
absolute best ring a caster could find. The SoJ packs +1 to All Skills, +25%
mana, and a couple other stats that make it very attractive to casters.


For a long while, the SoJ was the currency by which all other things were
rated in the trading channels. Blinkbat might go for 1 or 2 SoJs; four or five
Perfect Skulls could net you one SoJ. 

The reason is because even though they were rare, you could gamble them. All 
you needed was the Nagelring and the Manald Heal, the two previous unique
rings, and you could have a shot at gambling the SoJ from Elzix (or your 
gambling NPC of choice). People used to horde these things to trade for great
rare gear or specialized uniques that players were abusing, Blinkbat being
the canonical example.


The SoJ recipie exists to give people a way to spend all those spare SoJs,
as now there are lots of ways to get a + to all skills, and high resist rare
rings will be a necessity, due to the modifications to resists on Nightmare 
and Hell difficulty. 


______________________________________________________________________________

  4. Cube Recipies!
______________________________________________________________________________


Well, it's about time. ;) I decided to list these recipies in the order of
importance; lame recipie sections get demoted to the bottom of the heap.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.1: Conversion Recipies                                                   |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Conversion recipies take one thing and either upgrade it, or respawn it with
new modifiers.


3 Gems of the same type      ==> 1 Gem of the next higher grade    
  and of the same grade

This is the primary way to upgrade your gems.
3 chipped -> 1 flawed, 3 flawed -> 1 normal .. so on.


3 Perfect gems + 1 jewel     ==> 1 new jewel
3 Perfect Gems + Ring        ==> Magical ring.
3 Perfect Gems + Amulet      ==> Magical amulet.
3 P.Gems + 1 magical item    ==> Another magical item of the same type.

All of these recipies are basically the same. 3 Perfect Gems of any stripe
combined with a magical item will spawn a new magical item that has the same
type as the one used. 3 PGems and a ring = a new magic ring, 3 PGems and an
Amulet = a new magic Amulet, so on.

I find these to be a waste of gems. I haven't received anything good during
transmutations.


3 Amulets                    ==> 1 Ring
3 Rings                      ==> 1 Amulet

This is a nice conversion, maybe you'll get something decent for all those
throwaway rings you pick up. Odds are against it though; it's theorized that
the level of the item you use affects the max modifiers you can get on the
transmuted item. Better materials for better results.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.2: The Skull Recipies                                                    |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

These recipies are why PSkulls sell so well in the trading channels. :)


3 Perfect Skulls             ==> Adds 1 socket to the Rare you use.
+ 1 Stone of Jordan        
+ 1 Rare

This cube recipie has the same function as Quest 1 from Act 5. Be sure to not
use magical items, as 3 PGems + 1 Magical = a new Magical ..


Perfect skull                ==> High quality Rare of the same type
+ 1 Stone of Jordan
+ 1 Rare Item

This recipie was added to give people with 40 SOJs something to do with them.
Most people are going to have to abandon SOJs in favor of resists, now that
Hell difficulty runs at -100 to all.. :(

The items spawned with this are reported to be `high quality`, having
modifiers found around lvl60 or so.


6 Perfect Skulls             ==> Low Quality Rare of the same type
+ Any 1 Rare        

This was the classic 6-skull recipie in standard D2, and usually gave a very
high quality rare back. In the Expansion, this recipie has been reduced, and
it's said that it only grants modifiers around lvl40. More incentive to burn
up those SOJs, I suppose..


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.3: The Resist Gear Recipies                                              |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

These recipies let you create nifty resist gear.


6 Perfect Gems  (non-skull)  ==> Prismatic (16-25% Resist All) Amulet
+ Amulet

1 Ring + 1 emerald           ==> 1 Viridian Ring (Poison Resist)
+ 1 Antidote Potions

1 ring + 1 ruby              ==> 1 Garnet Ring (Fire Resist)
+ 1 exploding potions

1 ring + 1 sapphire          ==> 1 Cobalt Ring (Cold Resist)
+ 1 thawing potions

1 Ring + 2 Topazes           ==> 1 Coral Ring (Lightning Resist)

With the exception of the Prismatic formula, gem quality doesn't matter for
these. Any will do.

It's been said that rares can spawn from these that also have the correct
resist modifier. I've never seen it happen.. but it'd be awfully cool if it
did.


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.4: The Potion Recipies                                                   |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

These recipies are something everyone will use all the time. ;)


1 health potion              ==> 1 Antidote Potion
+ 1 Strangling Gas potion

3 health potions             ==> 1 Partial Rejuvination Potion
+ 3 mana potions

3 Health potions             ==> 1 Full Rejuvination Potion
+ 3 Mana
+ 1 Gem
Gem quality doesn't matter.

3 partial rejuv potions      ==> 1 Full Rejuvination Potion

Pick up all the mana potions and chipped gems you see, and use them to create
rejuvs. Rejuvs are the bread and butter of the high level player, as they heal
life and magic instantly, where typical potions take precious seconds to fill
your bar back up. Nothing quite like a good rejuv potion for a boss fight!


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.5: Ammo and Throwing Weapon Recipies                                     |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

2 Quivers of Arrows          ==> 1 Quiver of Bolts
2 Quivers of Bolts           ==> 1 Quiver of Arrows

Pretty standard conversion. Sometimes handy for Bowazons.


1 Axe Class weapon           ==> One stack of Throwing Axes.
+ 1 Dagger Class weapon

1 Spear                      ==> 1 stack of Javelins
+ 1 Quiver of arrows


.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 4.6: Weapon Recipies                                                       |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

These recipies shouldn't even be in the game. :) I've gotten any use out of
any of them. Lame! The only neat thing is that other weapon recipies might be
in the makings somewhere. Doubtful, though.


1 Diamond                    ==> 1 Savage Bardiche
+ 1 staff
+ 1 kris
+ 1 belt

Magical small shield         ==> Small shield of spikes
+ 1 spiked club
+ 2 skulls

3 chipped gems + 1 Sword     ==> 1 Socketable Long Sword

4 Health Potions             ==> Long Sword of the Leech
+ 1 Ruby
+ 1 non-normal long sword

______________________________________________________________________________

  5. Credits and Contact Info
______________________________________________________________________________


- Credits

Blizzard Entertainment, for some of the finest games around. A good part of
my life has been devoted to Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo.

GameFAQs.com, for providing the best online gaming resource that we have in
this troubled day and age. :)


- Contact Info

Do you have additions or corrections for this FAQ? Further questions that
weren't answered the first time around? A burning desire to *know*? Send an
email over to <wingchild@home.com>.

Cube recipies will be verified as they're sent in, and added if they work. You
can get cute and submit stupid non-working recipies if you want, but it'll
just mark you as an idiot. :) Please test before submitting.

As always, full credit will be given to the people responsible for any
contributions or corrections.



                         (c) 2001, by Brian Kern
                    Limited reproduction rights as assigned.
