Diablo 2: Resurrected: How to Add Sockets to a Weapon or Armor

Adding sockets to a weapon or armor piece in Diablo 2: Resurrected is crucial to optimizing your character. You get this during Act V’s quest, Siege on Harrogath, where you’ll get an item known as the Horadric Cube, or you can speak with Larzuk the Blacksmith to get this done.

There are specific combinations of runes that empower your character, and they result in powerful runeword, the primary reason to make sure your socket placement is perfect. Here’s what you need to know about adding sockets to your weapons or armor in Diablo 2: Resurrected.

How to add Sockets In Diablo 2: Resurrected using Larzuk

How to add sockets to weapons in D2: Resurrected — Image via Blizzard

There are two ways you add sockets to weapons and armor in Diablo 2: Resurrected, and between the two, Larzuk is the simpler, more reliable method of adding sockets. The second way is through the Horadric cube, and the major difference between them is that Larzuk only gives it to you as a quest completion reward, and you can only receive that reward once during your playthrough of Resurrected.

The quest you have to complete to earn this reward is Siege on Harrogath, a fairly straightforward mission in which your goal is to kill a demonic general, Shenk The Overseer.

Whichever item you ask Larzuk to add sockets to will get the maximum number of sockets for that particular item. When you return to Larzuk, you can select any item you have in your possession. Larzuk will unlock the maximum number of sockets for that particular item, which is determined by the hidden level of that item in Diablo 2: Resurrected.

Every item in Diablo 2: Resurrected has a hidden item level (often abbreviated to “ilvl” ), and that item level determines the maximum number of sockets it can get. An item’s level is determined by the level of the monster that drops it, and the monster’s level is in turn determined by the level of the area in which that monster is found.

To put it simply, the later in the game the item is found, the more sockets Larzuk will be able to put into it.

Unique, Rare, Set items – one socket
Magic items – one to two sockets, at random
White and Gray items – Maximum number of sockets based on item level, calculated based on the level of the monster that dropped it, which scales with difficulty.

How to add Sockets In Diablo 2: Resurrected using the Horadric Cube

How to add sockets in D2: Resurrected — Screenshot by Gamepur

Here’s how to add sockets with Horadric Cube recipes:

To add sockets to a weapon, transmute a normal weapon with a Ral rune, an Amn rune, and a perfect Amethyst.
To add sockets to armor, transmute a normal armor with a Tal rune, a Thul rune, and a perfect Topaz.
To add sockets to a shield, transmute a normal shield with a Tal rune, an Amn rune, and a perfect Ruby.
To add sockets to a helm, transmute a normal helm with a Ral rune, a Thul rune, and a perfect Sapphire.

Item level is also a factor when adding sockets to items using the Horadric Cube, but the cube will not necessarily add the maximum number of sockets possible. Instead, it will add a random number of sockets between one and the maximum number for that item.

So, if your item’s maximum number of sockets is three, the cube will add either one, two, or three sockets. There’s no way to control this – it’s just luck. So you always risk getting the wrong number of sockets when using the Horadric Cube, but unlike Larzuk, you can use it as many times as you want.