It goes without saying that one of the best parts of Diablo 2 is the Runewords upgrade system, and Blizzard has hinted that it may make a return in Diablo 4. When? Your guess is as good as mine, but given the vast amount of customization that’s already available in the action RPG game, Diablo 4 is shaping up to be the series’ best adventure yet.
For those who have never played Diablo before but got lured into the Diablo 4 beta and ensnared in Lilith’s web, runewords are just that – words made out of runes. In Diablo 2, you could collect runes with different letter combinations on them, then fuse them together to make a powerful runeword that could be added to your weapons and armour. So, for example, my all-time favourite runeword, Enigma (I even have it on a bracelet), was made up of JahIthBer and equipped players with an extra teleport and movement speed.
There are a lot of upgrade systems already planned for the Diablo 4 endgame, but at a virtual roundtable PCGamesN attended, lead class designer Adam Jackson hints that we may see the runeword system resurrected (ha ha, see what I did there?) in the highly anticipated sequel.
When asked if there are any plans to add the system to the game, Jackson replies with “we like runewords, they’re very cool.” With a wry smile he clarifies, “we don’t have anything to announce about whether or not they’ll be in the game in the future, but we do think they’re a really cool idea. That’s all I’m going to say right now.”
I, for one, would love to see the return of Runewords – although I expect there will be a Diablo 4 twist involved. As I said in my Diablo 4 gameplay preview, Blizzard’s woeful world very much harkens back to the darkness and despair of Diablo 2, so I think the feature would be a welcome return to form and a great throwback to what many see as ‘the good old days.’
We have a list of all the current Diablo 2 Resurrected Runewords if you’re looking to get ahead of the potential curve. If your eyes are on the game’s current features ahead of the Diablo 4 release date, though, we have a rundown of all five Diablo 4 classes for you to sink your bloodied teeth into.