All runes have their uses, even the really low ones that most of the community ignores when they drop. Below is a collection of my thoughts and then my final evaluation on what to do with all runes once they are obtained.
Single Uses of Runes[]
Oftentimes, there are situations where there are runes that you can just use once and be guaranteed a useful effect for the rest of the game (as long as you don't die and lose them). They are:
1. Making runewords. Early useful runewords include Stealth (Tal+Eth), Steel (Tir+El), Lore (Ort+Sol), and Spirit (Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn)
2. Putting runes in socketed items for their individual effects. A good early game example of this is putting a tir rune or two into a helmet for the +mana on kill, to help with early game chronic mana shortages.
Save the runes for these use cases, make the items, and then forget them. This guide is about what to do in the long term for saving every rune.
Cube Recipes[]
Certain cube recipes are highly useful.
- El runes make low quality armor regular quality.
- Eld runes make low quality weapons regular quality.
- Tal+Thul are needed to socket body armor
- Ral+Amn are needed to socket weapon
- Ral+Thul are needed to socket helm
Crafting[]
Crafted items range from being very useful for leveling mid-level characters, to being BiS for end-game gear. The best crafting recipes are caster amulets (Ral), blood gloves (Nef), blood (Eth)/safety (Ort) boots, and blood rings (Sol).
Cubing[]
Some runes are not very useful, but they can be cubed into runes that are highly useful or sought after.
Trading[]
Some runes are highly sought after by the community, and are more useful as currency for trading than cubing.
Rune List and what to do with them[]
| Rune | Best Use | Other Use |
|---|---|---|
| El-Tir | Cube up to Nef | Cube recipe, but so common that there's no need to save them |
| Nef | Blood Gloves | Cube up if desired blood gloves are made |
| Eth | Blood Boots | Cube up if better unique boots or acceptable rare boots are found |
| Ith | Caster Belt | Cube up |
| Tal | Cube Up | Blood Belts can potentially be pretty good for physical characters, but
unique belts are better |
| Ral | Caster Amulet | Trade: Caster amulets are both highly prized and highly variable, so people often
trade these in bulk |
| Ort | Safety Boots | Cube up if better unique boots or acceptable rare boots are found |
| Thul-Amn | Cube up to Sol | Cube recipes |
| Sol | Blood Ring | Cube Up |
| Shael-Lem | Cube Up | |
| Lem | Useful for gold find barbs, sometimes tradeable | |
| Pul | Runeword Recipes | Trade |
| Um | Add to items for +resist all | Runewords/Trade |
| Mal | Trade | |
| Ist | Trade: Highly valued and common currency | Add to items for +MF% |
| Gul | Mosaic Runeword | Trade in Ladder; cube up in non-ladder |
| Vex | Many useful runewords | Trade; highly valued for rune words |
| Ohm | some useful runewords | Trade |
| Lo | Grief and Fortitude runewords | Trade |
| Sur | Cube; not particularly valuable runewords, and cubing makes Ber | Niche runewords |
| Ber | Enigma and Infinity Runewords | If desperate, two Bers can be used to make a Jah for Enigma |
| Jah | Enigma and other runewords | Trade; not quite as sought after as Ber but still highly valued |
| Cham | Socketed into an item for the CBF mod | Runewords; none are particularly popular or BiS, but some are notable |
| Zod | Socketed into an ethereal item for Indestructible | Breath of the Dying/Obsession Runeword |