Leoric's Crown

For the crown as it appears in previous games, see Undead Crown (disambiguation).

Leoric's Crown is a Legendary helm in Diablo III. It requires character level 8 to drop normally, but the Skeleton King will drop it at levels 5 to 65 the first time he is killed in Campaign Mode.

The unique legendary power improves standard gem effectiveness significantly, but does not apply to special socketable items like Legendary Gems and Soul Shards. It applies to the gem in the hero's actual helm if the power is activated in Kanai's Cube. It is desirable while leveling to improve the Ruby experience bonus, and in the endgame is perhaps most useful to builds desiring large amounts of Cooldown Reduction via a Diamond.

This legendary power was added in Patch 2.1.0, so it is not present in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 console versions.

Stats (Level 70)

Leoric's Crown
Legendary Helm

• 660 - 759 Armor

Properties:

• One of 3 Magic Properties (varies):
  • +626 - 750 to a primary stat
• +2 Random Primary Magic Properties
• +1 Random Secondary Magic Property
• Increases the effect of any non-Legendary gem socketed into the helm by 75 - 100%.
• 1 empty Socket

The crown of the Black King. The taint of his madness wafts from the metal, clinging to any jewel that comes near it.

Guaranteed drop

This helm is guaranteed to drop from the Skeleton King the first time a character kills him in Campaign Mode between level 5 and 65. This is the only time in the main game a specific legendary item is guaranteed to drop, aside from the Boon of the Hoarder gem. This frequently makes the Broken Crown the first Legendary item acquired by characters leveled through the story, since the Skeleton King is the very first boss.

This perk prompted some leveling strategies to include a Campaign Mode as far as the Skeleton King fight before switching to Adventure Mode and its denser rewards. The guaranteed Crown has good stats and improves the experience bonus from a head Ruby.

The drop guarantee can be reset by starting a new campaign.

As a quest item

During the quest A Shattered Crown, the crown of King Leoric is found in the Chancellor's Tomb, and repaired by Haedrig Eamon. It is ultimately used to unlock The Royal Crypts and placed on the Skeleton King's head to awaken and defeat him. The fact that this item then drops from his body upon defeat suggests that it may literally be the crown used in the story.

However, Quest Items are not managed through the loot and inventory system in Diablo III, and in gameplay terms the quest events are completely unrelated to the equipment. Leoric's Crown may drop as a regular random loot item before or after its appearance in the campaign, and may not drop at all during these quests if the character is outside the required level range. If the hero happens to obtain the Crown before doing the quest, it may be stashed, equipped, salvaged or sold like any other piece of equipment, and is unaffected by any events in the story.

Trivia

This section contains facts and trivia relevant to this article.

• It is one of the three items originally belonging to King Leoric (the others being Leoric's Signet and Wrath of the Bone King, plus PS3-only Leoric's Gauntlets) that can be found outside the Horadric Caches. It is also the only item of his belongings to appear in all three games.
• Despite the fact that this item has a special effect that requires a gem, when this property was just added, it was actually possible for this item to drop with no sockets, thus making the effect completely useless without Enchanting.
• The Broken Crown looks like a damaged version of Leoric's Crown, and it was briefly dropped by the Skeleton King before Leoric's Crown took that role. However, according to its lore text, the Broken Crown was worn by Rakkis, a much more ancient King - the two crowns are not related.

Patch changes

• Patch 2.4.2 - Leoric's Crown now drops from the Skeleton King as low as level 5.
• Patch 2.2.0 - The Skeleton King now drops the improved version of Leoric's Crown the first time he is killed by a hero, replacing the Broken Crown which had previously dropped in this way.
  • The "improved version" presumably refers to the 2.1.0 changes and legendary power.
  • The level range of this drop was not specified in patch notes. The Broken Crown had been stated to drop between Level 11 and 65, but Level 20 was rumored regarding Leoric's Crown.
• Patch 2.1.0 - Updated with unique legendary power. Formerly had none, but had guaranteed Area Damage property, the only helm in the game to do so.