The Hellforge quest in Act 4 will always drop some runes, and it is often used as payment for a rush through the acts. This upgrade recipe is included in the rune chart below. For example, if you have three El runes and need an Eld rune, you can place the three El runes in the Cube and hit the transmute button. Runes can also be combined together in the Horadric Cube this is colloquially called 'cubing up' and it is a common way to get to the next level rune without having to find it in the wild. This is a great trick when you're low on gold and can't afford repairs at a vendor. For example, you can combine a Ral rune with a damaged piece of gear to repair it. Runes can also be used in certain Horadric Cube recipes. They are incredibly rare and can fetch a lot of loot in the game's online economy. Mid and high runes should not be parted with easily. A full list of runewords can be found in the next section. Runewords, as they're called, are some of the most powerful items in the game, right up there with set items and uniques.

However, the real magic of runes comes when you combine them in a specific order in a specific item. Runes are socketable items, just like gems, meaning you can put them into socketed gear to receive their effects. Single runes can drop anywhere in Diablo 2: Resurrected, starting in Normal difficulty through to Hell difficulty.

Low level runewords diablo 2