Basics of Diablo II

Gold

Gold again, such as in diablo 1 is the main purpose of buying items throughout all the acts in diablo II. The rate of gold remains the same throughout different acts.

Gold does not share space with items or weapons in your backpack as it did in Diablo I.

Your character can carry 10,000 Gold Per Level, so a Level 10 Character can carry 100,000 Gold. The Maximum amount of gold that can be carried is 990,000 at level 99.

When in a party, Gold that is picked up is split among party members. When a party member picks up a stack of Gold, Gold is evenly divided among the members with any remainder going to the one who picks up the pile. Gold is only split when Party members are in the same map area or "zone" as shown on the Automap or party menu. Gold Splitting cannot be turned off, which is something to keep in mind when trying to exchange Gold between party members. To exchange Gold among party members without splitting the Gold use the Secured Trading Screen in town. Another option includes leaving the party to pick up the Gold, which avoid the split, then rejoining the party. You can also drop Gold in Town or an area, then make sure no one in the party is in the same area when the pile of Gold is picked up off the ground.

When you die, your character loses a percentage of the total Gold both carried and stored in the Stash. The percentage is equal to your character level -- but not to exceed 20%. After deducting the death penalty from the gold your character is carrying, the rest falls to the ground in a pile. If the penalty uses up the gold being carried, the remainder of the penalty is deducted from the Stash.

In Single Player the death penalty will not take away all your gold. No gold is taken from the Stash and 500 gold per character level is exempt from the death penalty. For example, if a level 10 Single Player character with 5,000 gold dies, no gold is lost.

Your Stash

Near your starting location in each of the four Acts you will find a large chest - your Private Stash. It is a secure and safe place to store precious items and gold you find along the way. Use your Stash to hold any items you intend to keep, but don't want taking up precious space in your Inventory. Items left on the ground or in town will disappear after about 15 minutes of not being around.

You are the only one who can access your Stash. Another character cannot look inside or access your stash for any reason.

The items in your stash are saved during the game, and when you exit the game. You only have to worry about losing items in your stash when you die on Hardcore mode. The stashes capacity is determined by player level only -- as follows:

Level	Maximum Gold	Level	Maximum Gold
1-9	50,000	50-59	300,000
10-19	100,000	60-69	350,000
20-29	150,000	70-79	400,000
30-39	200,000	80-89	450,000
40-49	250,000	90-99	500,000

Stash carries across acts and difficulty levels. Items in your stash carry across acts so you will see the same items and gold in your stash in any act or difficulty level.

Scrolls
There are only two types of scrolls- Scrolls of Town Portal and Scrolls of Identify. Both types are extremely useful during your character's travels and can be used by right-clicking on the scroll. If you do not find enough of them, there will always be a vendor in town who will sell you some..

A scroll of Town Portal opens a magical blue gateway from the wilderness to the nearest city. A Town Portal remains active until your character enters it from town and returns to the place where it was originally cast. Casting a new Town Portal will close any other Portals previously cast by that character.

Scrolls of Identify are used on unidentified magically enchanted items, helping you decide whether to equip or sell them. When you use an identify scroll, your cursor will change into a question mark. Move the cursor over an unidentified item and left-click to make the magical properties of the item appear in its description. Magic Items cannot be used until they have been identified.

Town Portal When activated a scroll of Town Portal will open up a portal near your character. The portal is a gateway to the nearest safe stronghold, town, or city. Portals remain active until your character re-enters and returns to the place from which the portal was originally activated. Newly summoned portals will cancel out any previous portals cast by your character.

The destination of the Town Portal is listed above it as well as the name of the player who opened the Town Portal.

Players who have gone hostile to you will not be able to use your Town Portal and you cannot use theirs..

When using a Town Portal in Parties, remember to make sure everyone in your party has used your Town Portal to return to battle before using it. Otherwise you may close the Town Portal leaving someone in town, forcing you to open another one which will waste a Town Portal Scroll.

Escape Portal. When going through large areas between Way Points it's a good idea to open up an escape Town Portal. You can use it to retreat from danger or to get back to your body much faster if you die.

Town Portals are your best escape from other players who might try to kill you. If a player becomes Hostile, quickly use a Town Portal to escape to the safety of town if you wish to avoid player to player combat.

Imortal Portals are excellent against bosses. It requires 2 people to create a town portal. If you and a lot of your friends are fighting a major boss and are really getting weak everyone can head up to town using either portal. Run to someone who heals you and run back down to the dungeon making sure that the 2 people that casted the town portals go through the other players portals instead of their own which will keep the portals open for reuse over and over again. Identify Identify scrolls are extremely important as they allow your character to fathom the properties of magically enchanted items, enabling your character to equip and use those items. Right-click on an Identify scroll to activate it. Your mouse cursor will change into a question mark. Move the point of the cursor over the item in your character's inventory that you wish to identify and left click. The item's properties will now appear in its description.

Items that say Unidentified must be Identified before you can equip them or see their stats.

Tomes (Books)

Designed to hold volumes of similar spells, each tome can store up to 20 scrolls of the same type. Vendors who sell scrolls generally sell Tomes as well. Right-click on a Tome to cast one of the Scrolls stored within it. When a Tome is empty, it remains in your inventory until it is replenished with more Scrolls, sold, dropped, or traded.

Add Scrolls to a Tome in your inventory by dropping the scroll directly on to the tome or picking up a scroll with the inventory closed. Dropping one Tome onto another Tome consolidates them both into a single Tome.

You may also hotkey the use of a Tome, so that when you click on one of your pre-selected hotkeys, a single scroll in a Tome will be used to cast a Town Portal.

Waypoints The world of DII is huge and often there are great distances between towns and your different quests. The waypoints allow you to instantly teleport to the nearest town or to anyother way point that has been activated.

Within every town and at various places throughout each Act you may find Waypoints. Click on them to bring up the Waypoint Menu, displaying a list of destinations.

Waypoint Menu This menu shows all possible locations to which you can travel. Be sure to click on Waypoints as you find them to add their location to your Waypoint Menu. Waypoint destinations appearing in gray text are ones you have not yet discovered and activated. You may also access Waypoints from other Acts using the Act Tab in this menu. Since Waypoints are saved with your character between games, they are a quick way to bypass areas you have already explored.

The most important thing to remember about Waypoints is to always click on a new one when you see one. Once you have clicked on a Waypoint, you will be able to move to that Waypoint from any other Waypoint.

Party Members do not share Waypoints with each other, however, there is a way around this. A player can share a Waypoint with another player by traveling to a Waypoint location and opening up a Town Portal. The person without the Waypoint location can now use this Town Portal to reach the undiscovered Waypoint, and can now activate it and add it to their Waypoint List.

When using Waypoints to switch between acts, it's best to first go to the main town of new act you're traveling to. This will allow you to safely load the act in town where you cannot be attacked. From there, you can use the Waypoint to go to other Waypoints in the act.

The Belt

Belts play an important role in the survival of your character. Designed to provide quick access, most belts contain multiple slots, loops, and cords from which to suspend potions and other vital items. The larger a belt is, the more potions and scrolls a belt can store. Wearing a sash or larger belt expands the initial 4-slot capability of your characters belt by adding one or more extra rows of four slots. While only four slots are normally displayed on the Interface Bar, you can access the additional slots by highlighting any of the visible belt slots or by pressing the "~" key to toggle the belt open and closed.

You can drink a potion from your belt by right-clicking over the potion. A number (1-4) also appears in each occupied belt slot. Pressing one of these hot keys is a fast way to drink a potion without having to click on it.

Larger belts have other advantages. When you drink a potion or read a scroll, the item above it drops down to replace the consumed item. If you have a potion or scroll in a hot key slot and you pick up another of the same type, the item automatically stacks above the first one. This continues until the stack is full. If there is no more room in the belt, the potion is placed in the backpack.

Health potions and Mana potions are both automatically placed in the belt when they are picked up. You may place scrolls of Identify and Town Portal as well as the other drinkable potions in your belt. However, an item of these latter types such as a Rejuvenation Potion is not automatically placed into your belt.

Dungeon Randomization

Some Dungeons and Areas have random layouts. However there are some areas will always be the same such as:

Forgotten Tower Level V (actually 2 variations) Inner Cloister Cathedral Tristram Catacombs Level 4 Some levels of the Palace Duriel's lair Kurast Causeway Travincal Sewer Level II

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