Horadric Cube Recipes: Sockets, Item Upgrades and Every Recipe

The Horadric Cube is one of the most useful items in Diablo 2 Resurrected: it combines quest items, adds sockets, upgrades items to a higher tier, upgrades runes and gems, and makes potions. This guide lists every Cube recipe with icons, including the ones added in Reign of the Warlock (RotW).

The rune upgrade recipes (3 El → Eld … 2 Cham → Zod) are in the full table of the Rune List guide.

1.Where to Find the Horadric Cube and How to Use It

• The Cube drops from a chest on Halls of the Dead level 3 in Act 2, a dungeon entered from the Dry Hills.
• It takes 2×2 in your inventory and holds 3 columns × 4 rows inside. Large items (for example a 2×4 polearm) can be used in recipes as long as they fit.
• Put the ingredients inside and press Transmute. If the recipe is right, the ingredients turn into the result; if not, nothing happens.
• You can also use the Cube as extra storage — just don't press Transmute by accident when its contents match a recipe.
• Unless stated otherwise, the result gets random properties like a dropped item. Some recipes use a fixed item level (iLvl), others calculate it from your character level.

2.Quest and Portal Recipes

Put in the Cube	Result	Notes
+	Horadric Staff	Staff of Kings + Amulet of the Viper. Placed in the Orifice of Tal Rasha's true tomb in Act 2 to reach Duriel.
+ + +	Khalim's Will	Khalim's Flail + Khalim's Brain + Khalim's Heart + Khalim's Eye. Used in Act 3 to smash the Compelling Orb and enter the Durance of Hate.
+	Secret Cow Level portal	Wirt's Leg + Tome of Town Portal. Transmute in the Rogue Encampment in Act 1; the character must have completed the Baal quest on that difficulty.
× 3	Pandemonium portal	Key of Terror (The Countess) + Key of Hate (The Summoner) + Key of Destruction (Nihlathak). Transmute in Harrogath on Hell difficulty; it opens a random portal to the Furnace of Pain (Uber Izual), Matron's Den (Lilith) or the Forgotten Sands (Uber Duriel). The icon is representative; the three keys are different items.
+ +	Uber Tristram portal	Diablo's Horn + Mephisto's Brain + Baal's Eye (dropped by the mini Ubers). Transmute in Harrogath on Hell; defeating Uber Mephisto, Uber Diablo and Uber Baal drops the Hellfire Torch.

3.Reign of the Warlock: Colossal Ancients

A new fight added in Reign of the Warlock. Act bosses in a Terror Zone drop a statue each; combining all five in the Cube opens the portal to the Colossal Ancients.

Put in the Cube	Result	Notes
+ + + +	Colossal Ancients portal	Talic's Anguish (Andariel), Korlic's Pain (Duriel), Madawc's Ire (Mephisto), Bul-Kathos' Nightmare (Diablo), Worusk's End (Baal).

The reward is a set of new unique jewels:

Jewel	Dropped by
Defender's Fire	Talic the Defender
Defender's Bile	Talic the Defender
Protector's Frost	Korlic the Protector
Protector's Stone	Korlic the Protector
Guardian's Thunder	Madawc the Guardian
Guardian's Light	Madawc the Guardian

4.Adding Sockets

Put in the Cube	Item	Sockets
+ +	Normal or ethereal body armor	1–4
+ +	Normal or ethereal weapon	1–6
+ +	Normal or ethereal helm	1–3
+ +	Normal or ethereal shield	1–4

• The item must be unsocketed and of normal quality; Low Quality and Superior items do not work.
• The number of sockets is random and capped by the maximum the base can have at its item level. The Cube rolls a number from 1 to 6; anything above the cap becomes the cap, which is why the maximum is the most likely result:

• If you want a guaranteed number of sockets, Larzuk's quest reward in Act 5 adds the maximum number of sockets to a normal item (once per difficulty).

Other socket recipes:

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
+ + +	Unsocketed rare item	Adds 1 socket (if the item can have sockets)
+	Any socketed item	Removes every socketed rune, gem and jewel, which are destroyed; the item keeps its empty sockets

5.Upgrading Items to a Higher Tier

Turns a Normal base into Exceptional and an Exceptional base into Elite. The item's name and properties stay the same; only the base changes (e.g. Rixot's Keen moves to a Gladius base but is still Rixot's Keen). Ethereal items stay ethereal, and sockets and socketed items are kept. The new base's strength and level requirements apply.

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
+ +	Normal unique or set weapon	Exceptional
+ +	Exceptional unique or set weapon	Elite
+ +	Normal unique or set armor	Exceptional
+ +	Exceptional unique or set armor	Elite
+ +	Normal rare weapon	Exceptional
+ +	Exceptional rare weapon	Elite
+ +	Normal rare armor	Exceptional
+ +	Exceptional rare armor	Elite

"Armor" here also covers helms, belts, boots, gloves and shields. The set item upgrade recipes were added in 2.4.

6.Reign of the Warlock: Charm Upgrades (Latent → Renewed)

In Reign of the Warlock the "Latent" versions of the Sunder charms are turned into "Renewed" ones with a Perfect gem, a rune and a Worldstone Shard.

Put in the Cube	Result
+ + +	Renewed Rotting Fissure
+ + +	Renewed Cold Rupture
+ + +	Renewed Crack of the Heavens
+ + +	Renewed Flame Rift
+ + +	Renewed Bone Break
+ + + + +	Renewed Black Cleft

Worldstone Shards used: Western, Eastern, Southern, Deep and Northern. Black Cleft needs three different shards.

7.Rare Item Recipes

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
+	Rare item	A new rare item of the same type. Item level = ⌊0.66 × character level⌋ + ⌊0.66 × old item level⌋
× 6	Rare item (3×2 or smaller)	A new rare item of the same type. Item level = ⌊0.4 × character level⌋ + ⌊0.4 × old item level⌋

The Stone of Jordan recipe gives a higher item level and therefore better odds, but it uses up the Stone of Jordan.

8.Magic Item Recipes

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
+ +	Any magic item	A new magic item of the same type with the same item level. Any three Perfect gems work.
× 3	—	Magic amulet (item level = ⌊0.75 × character level⌋)
× 3	—	Magic ring (item level = ⌊0.75 × character level⌋)
+ +	Socketed normal weapon	Magic weapon with 1–2 sockets (item level 30); any three regular gems
+ +	Magic weapon	Magic weapon with 1–2 sockets (item level 25); any three Chipped gems
+ +	Magic weapon	Magic weapon with 1–2 sockets (item level 30); any three Flawless gems
+ + + + +	Amulet	Prismatic amulet: All Resistances +16–20 (item level 50)
+	Ring	Jade ring: Poison Resist +21–30%
+	Ring	Garnet ring: Fire Resist +21–30%
+	Ring	Coral ring: Lightning Resist +21–30%
+	Ring	Cobalt ring: Cold Resist +21–30%
× 4 +	Magic sword	Sword "of the Leech": 4–5% Life Stolen per Hit (item level 30)
+ +	Magic shield	Shield "of Spikes": Attacker Takes Damage of 4–6; Paladin and Necromancer shields included
+ + +	—	Savage polearm: +66–80% Enhanced Damage (item level 50)

The ring recipes create item level 30 rings that can also roll a random suffix. The quality of the gems, potions, club and shield ingredients doesn't matter; "Ruby" and "Diamond" can be any grade.

9.Turning Low Quality Items into Normal Ones

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
+	Low Quality weapon (Crude, Cracked…)	Normal weapon of the same type, item level 1
+	Low Quality armor	Normal armor of the same type, item level 1

Any Chipped gem works. Because the new item is item level 1, the number of sockets it can get is limited.

10.Repairs

Put in the Cube	Item	Result
	Any weapon	Fully repairs durability
+	Any weapon	Repairs and restores charges
	Any armor	Fully repairs durability
+	Any armor	Repairs and restores charges

The gem type doesn't matter (Chipped for weapons, Flawed for armor when recharging). Ethereal items cannot be repaired in the Cube.

11.Upgrading Gems

Put in the Cube	Result
× 3	Flawed Ruby
× 3	Emerald
× 3	Flawless Sapphire
× 3	Perfect Diamond

Three gems of the same type and grade become one gem of the next grade; this works for every gem and for skulls. If you need many Perfect gems, cube them up to Flawless and then use a Gem Shrine — it is more efficient.

12.Potions

Put in the Cube	Result
× 3 + × 3 +	Rejuvenation Potion
× 3 + × 3 +	Full Rejuvenation Potion
× 3	Full Rejuvenation Potion
+	Antidote Potion

Potion quality and gem type don't matter.

13.Miscellaneous Recipes

Put in the Cube	Result	Notes
+ + +	Token of Absolution	Resets your skill and stat points (respec). The essences drop from Act bosses: Suffering (Andariel and Duriel), Hatred (Mephisto), Terror (Diablo), Destruction (Baal). After the three free resets from the Den of Evil quest, this is the only way to respec.
× 2	Arrows	A random amount of arrows
× 2	Bolts	A random amount of bolts
+	Javelin	Any spear
+	Throwing Axe	Any axe and dagger

14.Data Source

Recipes are for Diablo 2 Resurrected 3.3 (Reign of the Warlock). For rune upgrades see the Rune List; for runewords see the Body Armor and Weapon guides.