The Horadric Cube returns in Diablo IV with the Lord of Hatred expansion, and it is the most substantial crafting system the game has ever had. Introduced in patch 3.0.0 alongside Season 13, Season of Reckoning, the Cube acts as a full crafting station in Temis, the new endgame hub in the Skovos region.
1. How to Unlock the Horadric Cube
Horadric Cube
The Horadric Cube is not handed to you at the start of the expansion. It is locked behind the Lord of Hatred campaign and becomes usable only after completing the main storyline. Players who have not purchased the expansion cannot access it at all.
Temis is the gleaming capital of the Skovos region and is designed as the ideal endgame hub for Diablo 4. Once you complete the Lord of Hatred campaign, it becomes a streamlined space housing every system you need, including the Horadric Cube.
After completing the campaign and a short introduction quest, the Cube unlocks and becomes available as a crafting station for all characters on your account from that point forward.
- The Horadric Cube is exclusive to owners of the Lord of Hatred expansion.
- The expansion is available in Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions for $39.99 and includes Vessel of Hatred for players who do not already own it.
- Completing the campaign takes approximately 8 to 12 hours. There is no shortcut to unlocking the Cube outside of finishing the storyline.
- Legacy items cannot be crafted or used in the Horadric Cube. Pre-expansion gear marked as Legacy is locked out of all recipes.
2. Horadric Cube Interface and Recipe Categories
Transfigure Item
Once you interact with the Cube in Temis, the interface is split into two clear recipe categories on the right side of the screen. Knowing which category handles which job will save time every time you open the station.
Selecting a recipe brings up a list organized into two categories: Item Transmutation and Gear Modification. Once you choose a recipe and place the required items into the Cube, the system automatically pulls any necessary crafting materials from your material tab.
Hit the Transmute button, and the result appears. There is no need to manually drag materials one by one.
2.1. Item Transmutation
The Item Transmutation tab focuses entirely on converting your existing gear into new pieces. Select this category from the interface when you want to execute the following core crafting actions:
- Combining duplicates into a single new item
- Upgrading item rarity (Common to Legendary, Rare to Unique)
- Recycling Unique items for rerolled stats
- Crafting Unique Charms from Ancestral Uniques
2.2. Gear Modification
The Gear Modification tab focuses on altering and enhancing the specific stats of your existing equipment. Select this category from the interface to fine-tune your endgame builds using the following methods:
- Adding a new affix to a gear that has not hit its rarity cap
- Rerolling an affix to a different category (Chaotic) or within the same category (Focused)
- Removing an affix from Magic or Rare items
- Rerolling the Unique power on Ancestral Uniques
- Permanently enhancing gear through Transfiguration
Both categories draw from the same material pool. Any item modified through the Cube becomes a compound item, indicating it has been crafted on.
Patch 3.0.1 fixed an issue where multiple Horadric Portals would spawn when completing a Horadric Strongroom while in a party. The Horadric Strongroom is a Skovos dungeon activity that drops Cube materials directly.
3. Crafting Materials
Every recipe has a material cost. Resources like Primordial Dust sit in your materials tab, cannot be traded, cannot be duplicated, and are consumed automatically when you craft. The rarer the dust tier, the more demanding the recipe and the harder the content you need to run to farm it.
3.1. Primordial Dust Tiers
Raw Primordial Dust
Primordial Dust comes in multiple tiers. The base tier drops from War Plans Cache Rewards and Tree of Whispers caches, while rarer variants also require Elite Monster kills at higher Torment difficulties.
| Material | Primary Sources |
|---|---|
| Raw Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers |
| Coarse Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers |
| Refined Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers, Elite Monsters |
| Volatile Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers, Elite Monsters |
| Attuned Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers, Elite Monsters |
| Enhanced Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers, Elite Monsters |
| Pure Primordial Dust | War Plans Cache, Tree of Whispers, Elite Monsters |
Raw Primordial Dust is consumed by nearly every recipe in the Cube. Treat it as your primary bottleneck resource. Torment I and above is where rarer dust variants start dropping consistently from Elite Monsters.
3.2. Infused Horadric Resin
Infused Horadric Resin
You can obtain Infused Horadric Resin by salvaging Talisman Charms and Seals. It is required specifically for Charm-related recipes and does not come from the standard Primordial Dust farming loop.
If you plan to use the Charm crafting recipes, set aside duplicate or unwanted Charms for salvaging rather than discarding them.
4. Tuning Prisms
Tuning Prisms are optional additions to certain recipes that reduce randomness in the outcome. Without one, a reroll or modification pulls from the full affix pool for that item slot. Using a Tuning Prism significantly helps reduce the possible outcomes, though it is not a guarantee.
All standard Tuning Prisms drop from War Plans Cache Rewards and from Elite Monsters at higher difficulty tiers. The table below lists every Prism, the affix category it focuses on, and its primary use.
| Tuning Prism | Affix Category |
|---|---|
| Chromatic Tuning Prism | Resistances |
| Resourceful Tuning Prism | Resource generation |
| Aggressive Tuning Prism | Offensive stats |
| Adept Tuning Prism | Skill ranks and core stats |
| Protector’s Tuning Prism | Defensive stats |
| Pragmatic Tuning Prism | Mobility and utility |
| Entropic Tuning Prism | Transfiguration (safe path) |
| Kullean Tuning Prism | Transfiguration on amulets only |
The Entropic and Kullean Prisms operate entirely differently from the six standard Prisms. They interact exclusively with the Transfiguration recipe and carry permanent consequences for any item they are used on. Their full mechanics are covered in Section 7.
5. Item Transmutation Recipes
Lamentation Choker of Glynn’s Anvil Amulet
Item Transmutation is the half of the Horadric Cube dedicated to turning items into something new. Common, Magic, and Rare items can all serve as crafting bases in Lord of Hatred, meaning items you would previously salvage on autopilot now have real value as starting points for a crafted piece.
5.1. 3 to 1 Transmutation
Cost: 3 items of the same type (equipment, Talisman, or Rune)
Feed the Cube three pieces of equipment or Talisman items of the same type, and it produces one new random item of that type. This is the classic Diablo II formula and the cheapest transmutation available. It works on Runes as well, giving a reliable path to combine lower-tier Runes toward higher ones.
5.2. Recycle Unique
Cost: 3 copies of the same Unique item
Three copies of the same Unique item transmute into a fresh version of that Unique with rerolled stats. This is the endgame loop for perfecting Unique items: farm three, recycle, and repeat until the affix rolls meet your build requirements. It is significantly more efficient than hoping for a perfect natural drop.
5.3. Upgrade to Legendary
Upgrade to Legendary
Cost: 1 Rare item + 1 Pure Primordial Dust
This recipe transmutes a Rare item into a Legendary with a random Legendary power. Tuning Prisms can be used to modify the category of the Legendary power that is added. Using an Aggressive or Adept Tuning Prism here gives you the best chance of landing a power relevant to your build.
5.4. Upgrade to Unique
Upgrade to Unique
Cost: 1 Common item + 1 Enhanced Primordial Dust + 10 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe transmutes a Common item into a random Unique of the same type. The outcome is entirely random within that slot’s Unique pool. The easiest way to source Common items for this recipe is through a new character, where Common gear drops freely.
Do not rely on this recipe as your primary method for targeting a specific Unique, since the pool per slot is large enough to make exact results unlikely.
5.5. Reroll Set Charm
Cost: 1 Set Charm + 25 Raw Primordial Dust + 50 Infused Horadric Resin
This recipe transmutes a Set Charm into a different Charm from the same Set. If you have the correct Set but the wrong Charm within it, this is the direct fix rather than farming blind. A consistent supply of Infused Horadric Resin from regular Charm salvaging is necessary for repeated use.
5.6. Craft Unique Charm
Craft Unique Charm
Cost: 1 Ancestral Unique + 3 any Unique Charms + 1 Enhanced Primordial Dust + 50 Raw Primordial Dust + 100 Infused Horadric Resin
This recipe transmutes a Unique equipment item into a Unique Charm, retaining the original item’s aspect. Some Unique items are excluded from this recipe. The Horadric Seal specifically allows two Unique Charms, so there is room to double up on strong effects.
5.7. Amalgamation
Amalgamation
Cost: Varies by item type
This recipe transmutes several copies of the same item to upgrade it, and is limited to specific consumables, socketables, and dungeon keys. Amalgamation is how you create the two new gem tiers introduced in Lord of Hatred: Horadric and Flawless Horadric gems, which cannot be produced by the Jeweler.
If your build leans heavily on gem bonuses, this recipe will be a regular fixture in your crafting sessions.
6. Gear Modification Recipes
Gear Modification covers changing what is already on a piece of gear rather than converting items into new ones. This can range from changing a Unique’s power affix range to completely rerolling multiple affixes, and even adding extra power previously only seen in Season 11’s Sanctification mechanic.
6.1. Add Affix
Add Affix
Cost: 1 Common, Magic, Rare, or Legendary item + 1 Coarse Primordial Dust + 5 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe adds a random affix to gear when the item has not yet reached its rarity cap. The limits are: Magic 2, Rare 2, Legendary 3 to 4. It is different from rerolling and is commonly used when upgrading gear toward Legendary.
Pair with a Tuning Prism to push the added affix toward a useful category. The cost is low enough to use freely on strong Magic or Rare bases before committing heavier materials.
6.2. Chaotic Reroll
Chaotic Reroll
Cost: 1 Magic, Rare, or Legendary item + 1 Refined Primordial Dust + 15 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe randomly rerolls an affix to a different category entirely. Use a Tuning Prism to direct which type of affix the outcome focuses on. For example, an Aggressive Tuning Prism steers the result toward offensive stats.
Without a Prism, Chaotic Reroll is a pure gamble. Reserve unguided uses for items where the current affix is so poor that any outcome is an improvement.
6.3. Focused Reroll
Focused Reroll
Cost: 1 Magic, Rare, or Legendary item + 1 Refined Primordial Dust + 15 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe rerolls a specified affix category to a different stat within that same category. For example, it can turn Crit Chance into Attack Speed when both fall under the Offensive category.
Focused Reroll is the natural follow-up to Chaotic Reroll: once you have pushed an affix into the right category, Focused Reroll is how you tune to the precise stat your build needs.
6.4. Remove Affix
Remove Affix
Cost: 1 Magic or Rare item + 1 Refined Primordial Dust + 15 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe removes a random affix from Magic or Rare items only. It cannot be used on Legendaries. Its best use is in combination with Add Affix, cycling through affix combinations on a strong base item until you land the right setup.
6.5. Unique Power Reroll
Cost: 1 Ancestral Unique + 1 Attuned Primordial Dust + 100 Raw Primordial Dust
This recipe rerolls the Unique power on an Ancestral Unique. If the power affix rolled low, this lets you keep rolling until it reaches the maximum value. The Raw Primordial Dust cost of 100 per use is steep. Reserve this for Ancestral Uniques that are already close to ideal on every other affix.
7. Transfiguration
Transfiguration
The Transfiguration is the most powerful and most permanent modification the Horadric Cube can perform. It adds a bonus modifier to Legendary, Unique, or Mythic gear that functions as a permanent, expanded version of the Season 11 Sanctification system.
- Transfiguration is, in almost all cases, a one-time action on a given item.
- Without a Kullean Tuning Prism, the item has a very high chance, almost certain, of becoming Unmodifiable with no benefit gained. Always use a Prism unless you prefer the gamble.
- The Entropic Prism is the safe option. The Kullean Prism is exclusively for amulets and comes with its own trade-offs.
- The right Prism choice comes down to the item slot and how much risk you can absorb.
7.1. Entropic Tuning Prism
Entropic Tuning Prism
The Entropic Tuning Prism removes both the riskiest and the most powerful outcomes from Transfiguration. By using it, you are guaranteed that the item will either improve or remain in its original state. However, using an Entropic Tuning Prism has a 100% chance of making the item Unmodifiable afterward.
This Prism is the safe path for valuable gear you cannot afford to lose to a bad roll. Use it when you are ready to accept the result as the item’s permanent final state.
For slots like boots or pants, where stats are more generic, and the item is easier to re-farm, skipping the Prism and accepting the gamble is a reasonable call. If it bricks, you start over with a new drop.
7.2. Kullean Tuning Prism
Kullean Tuning Prism
The Kullean Tuning Prism is intended exclusively for amulets. When used in the Cube, it adds a random bonus in the form of an additional Legendary affix. Unlike the Entropic version, this Prism allows the amulet to remain Modifiable after Transfiguration is complete.
The Kullean Prism is expected to be among the most valuable materials in Lord of Hatred’s economy. A few things to know before spending one:
- The available aspect pool contains approximately 30 generic options, including Accelerating Aspect, Aspect of Inner Calm, and Aspect of Might.
- Class-specific aspects are not included in the pool.
- The amulet remains Modifiable after use, so you can keep re-rolling until you land the aspect you need.
- Know your build’s target aspect before spending a Kullean Prism.
8. How to Farm Cube Materials
The material grind is what gates every Horadric Cube recipe at high Torment tiers. Most recipes rely on materials farmed from Elite Monsters, Cube Spoils from War Plans, Undercity Tributes, and Whisper Caches.
8.1. Undercity
Undercity
The Undercity is the most targeted farming destination for Horadric Cube materials because you can specify what drops you want through Bargains. Beyond Bargains, Undercity also offers modifiers that reward a large amount of Cube materials, further increasing its value as a dedicated farming run.
When you need a specific Primordial Dust tier and want some influence over what drops, Undercity is your best consistent option.
8.2. War Plans
War Plans
The War Plans in Temis are the primary source of Tuning Prisms and rarer Primordial Dust variants. After completing the campaign, travel to Temis and use the command table to create a War Plan. Complete all chosen activities to claim rewards from the War Chest.
- Nightmare Dungeons
- Helltides
- The Undercity
- Lair Bosses
- Infernal Hordes
- The Pit
Undercity Tributes and Whisper Caches provide supplemental material drops alongside War Plans completions. Whispers can also overlap with any activity you select, keeping material gains efficient throughout the session.
8.3. Horadric Strongroom
Horadric Strongroom
The Horadric Strongroom is a dungeon activity in Skovos that drops Cube materials directly. Patch 3.0.1 fixed an issue where multiple Horadric Portals would spawn when completing it in a party.
Run it in a group once the fix is confirmed stable on your platform, as group play is the intended way to approach it for volume farming.
8.4. Elite Monsters
Elite Monsters drop Primordial Dust at all Torment levels. A few things to know about the drop cadence:
- Raw Primordial Dust begins dropping from level 20 campaign Elites, making early stockpiling viable.
- Rarer dust variants, including Volatile, Attuned, Enhanced, and Pure, require Torment I and above to farm at a useful rate.
- The higher the Torment tier, the better the quality of dust on offer.
Elite farming works well as a passive source during any War Plans run, since Elites spawn throughout every activity in the chain.
