Business is Booming

Hordes have descended upon my corner of the Rogue Encampment since the announcement that Gheed's shop of fantastic wares has reopened for the benefit of all those new Witch Doctors, Wizards, and mysterious other characters heading my way these days. Even those grumpy old Barbarians, or what's left of them since the Arreat Crater came about, have trickled back for more.

In fact, Khanduars Travel has started running tours through the lands ravaged by the Prime Evils and their minions, starting where else but Gheed's very own home. Unlike the rest of Sanctuary that has only so conveniently forgotten the destruction, terror, and hatred rained down (or up) by those bastards, the Sisters of the Sightless Eye have duly kept up a base of operations in their once meant to be temporary Encampment. Since it's been years and years since Andariel was definitively eliminated from the Catacombs, the Rogue Encampment acts primarily as a historical sight. Since the returned whispers of evil returning to our land have spread, interests has sparked a growing number of tourists to if nothing else, see what they're up against.

You should only see how terrified they look after just the first Act.

- Gheed.

From: Chanda
Subject: Ask Gheed

an iron golem takes on the characteristics of the item its made from....if u made it from an indestructable wouldnt it be invincible?

Chanda,

That seems like a logical idea and you're confusing logic with the myterious magics of the world of Sanctuary. Such things as Durability do not translate to hit points, even though you might think they should when forming an Iron Golem from the "bones" of a weapon.

From: Nina
Subject: Ask Gheed

hi,
how often does clone diablo come up in east nonladder? is it possible to ever even catch him to get a anni charm or is there something special i have to do to summon him?

Whatever Battle.net Realm you are on, this clone Diablo labeled as Uber Diablo in the game but not to be confused with Pandemonium Diablo spawns only after a certain number of Stones of Jordan are sold to merchants. So it depends on you and other players on the servers to sell enough copies of the item, something that doesn't occur so frequently anymore. Don't forge --, you can always gamble at my lovely shop for more.

From: James
Subject: Ask Gheed

Where do I find the Far Oasis in Act II?

You can use Planet Diablo's handy Walkthrough maps to get your answer. To reach the Far Oasis, find its entrance from the Dry Hills.

From: Poseidon
Subject: gambling with you

hey gheed

i like gambling with you and all but i was wondering if there was any chance of get unique or set items from that haul of stuff u keep in ur cart thingy. ive heard of people who got some unique items from you but i was wondering if there was a patch from it because of all the trillions of gold ive given you i haven't found a single one...

any info u can give me is really appreciated an i will continue to throw my gold away for your unlimited ammount of amulets and rings

p.s. i was wondering how i am supposed to give you the spare weapon, small gem, and gold u asked for the first time i saw you... and what the reward was (besides all i need from in this forsaken camp)\

p.s.s. why not hire some goons to eliminate your competition?

your friend,
Poseidon (USWest p.o.s.e.i.d.o.n)

Dear Poseidon,

You're pretty ambitious to take on the name of one of the gods.

I hardly make my business grow by revealing my secrets, but I'll do it special just for you. [That's what she said. -ed] The chance to get unique items from gambling is 0.05% (or 1 in 2000) and for set items, it's 0.10% (1 in 1000). This is just all the more reason to gamble as much as possible -- And it beats being impaled by one of the many spikey monsters out there. Plus, you have a great chance to get magical (89.85%) and rare (10%) items.

Goons to eliminate my competition? People love me too much to tarnish my reputation so. Why would I need to eliminate those piddly other merchants when they hardly take my business away? Besides, I can often make sales on the side by selling my superior wares to them. I wouldn't say ol' Gheed hasn't considered it in the past, with nasty characters out there like Nihlathak, but when you start offing people you find yourself also being targeted for execution.

From: K.S.
Subject: Re: Some questions for Gheed.

Dear Gheed,

I am new to Diablo II and have been playing only the past few weeks. I have a few questions which I hope you may answer for me.

(1) I have saved some runes and want to do a runeword item for the first time. I want to do a "Spirit" item which requires Tal, Thul, Ort and Amn. I read some articles which say you can use a 4 sockets Armor to do a "Spirit" armor, while others said only 4 sockets "Swords" or "Shields" can be used to do "Spirit". It has take me long time to come up with these runes and I really want to do it right.

Also, I understand a magic item even with the correct number of sockets cannot be used to do runeword item. How do I know if an item is a magic item or a plain item? Is it all those items with Blue Words on it are magic items?

(2) My second question is that I have recently found from a drop at the Secret Cow level at Hell difficulty an item "Standard of Hero - Level 90". I just picked it up and placed it in my stack but have not been able to find out what it is used for. Can you let me know what it is?

Many thanks in advance for answering my questions.

Regards,

K.S.

K.S.,

Welcome to the world of Sanctuary and my humble but fantastic enterprise. I'd be happy to answer your question as you get prepared to gamble away your life's savings.

If you check Planet Diablo's Runeword Item Recipes list, you'll see that Spirit works on both swords and shields, but not body armor. Be careful with those precious runes of yours!

On the second matter you are indeed correct: Only normal, non-magical items work for runewords. Magical items with the appropriate number of sockets will not yield you a runeword item. Items with white words are normal non-magical, blue words indicate magical, those with yellow are rare, those with gold are unique, and those with green are set items.

Standard of Hero items have been dropping in cases such as yours, but their origin and purpose remain a mystery but to the High Heavens. Call it a trophy, though there are rumors of cube recipes involving it.

From: Mel Sears
Subject: Ask Gheed

Gheed,

Is there any documentation as to the location of the Sigon pieces?

Mel Sears

Mel,

Sigon's Complete Steel, or rather the individual parts of said set of items, can be located throughout the game but in no particular place. You'll find them more often, of course, off of unique and superunique monsters.

Don't forget, you can always gamble until you get the complete set, without having to worry about being burned to a crisp, poisoned by a giant spider, or torn apart by a testy Duriel!

From: JM
Subject: Resistances

Hey gheed,

Glad that your back,

I'm building a sorceress, and i was trying to figure out how much resistance she need in hell. How much -(negative) resistance do you get per difficulty? And how much do you receive from anya's quest.

Basically in total how much res do I need to have full res in hell, once ive done all the anya quests.

Thx,

JM

Normal subtracts zero from your default zero resistance, but Nightmare takes away 40 and Hell difficulty takes 100. As noted on Planet Diablo's Act V Quests guide, Malah's reward for rescuing Anya is a permanent +10 bonus to all your elemental resistances. Do take care to suit yourself up properly before venturing beyond the questionably safe bounds of the five towns!

The question of how much resistance you need in total isn't one of direct numbers. It depends on whether you're melee- or ranged-based, and how well you avoid hits and spells. Still, it's always best to have the highest resistances possible along with the highest defense rating, so you can reduce the damage taken and reduce the chance to take physical damage as well. Since the resistance penalty is so high in Hell, you want to do everything you can to boost those numbers.

From: SoraBlue501
Subject: Ask Gheed

Im having problems running a mod on battle.net,what should i do?

Mods are meant for single-player and TCP/IP games, not Open Battle.net; it's no wonder you're encountering trouble.

From: Mathew
Subject: Ask Gheed

Hello,

I basically live in two different places and each has a computer that I've put Diablo II on. I was wondering if there is a way to save or send my current character to the other computer so I could continue my game. I sent the files in the "save" folder over email and downloaded them to the other computer but that didn't work. Is there a way?

Thanks for any help,
Mathew Knoell

Mathew,

The D2S file is the most important, but as long as you've copied those save files to the appropriate "Save" folder/directory within the Diablo II folder, it should work just fine. Just ensure that both computers are running the same version of the game, because things won't be pretty if that's not the case. You can always patch the game and give it another go, but the best idea would be to first replace the character save files on the target matchine again first.

In this day and age you don't have a USB flash drive, music player, or network file share to use in lieu of e-mail?

From: Angus
Subject: Maggot Lair Lvl 2

On the lvl 2 maggot lair, there is a swarm that is immortal to physical attacks, and Im using a barbarian and don't know what to do.

In such a situation, I can offer two ideas: Leap Attack and get yourself some elemental damage. There are plenty of Physical Immune monsters (not to mention elemental immune) to deal with in Hell Difficulty, anyway, so you should do your very best to acquire as many elemental damage bonuses as possible. What better way to accomplish than to shop and gamble at Gheed's?

From: some guy
Subject: Question about Diablo

I tried firing up the old game and it installs fast! but i cant seem to change the resoloution of the game! how do i do this? it is currently playing in a 640x480 window with a black border around it to fill up the screen (which is 1280x800) how do i get it to play full screen?

If you're on Windows, try Alt+Enter and if you're on Mac, try Command/Apple+M.

From: Seo Jeong Wook
Subject: about resist' monsters

my diablo2LOD version is 1.10 something, and the problem is that I can't kill those monsters which are resistant to cold (my character is soccer' cold). I can't even damage them... because I'm playing single, I have to kill all those monsters alone, and there is no way for me to do it ...

is there any solution for it?? please give me some direction ~.. thanx.

(soccer' cold -level 83- in hell act 2)

As a Sorceress with limited ability to do physical damage, you must have more than one form of elemental damage with which to lay a beating on the minions of the Three. As a Cold-based sorceress, you should have something like Thunderstorm in your arsenal to back you up. Against the higher hit point monsters, this may still prove annoying, so you may want to consider another secondary skill to use.

Don't forget, the gentleman Gheed is always here to comfort you after battling those horrific hordes of Hell.

From: Thomas
Subject: stones of jordan???

what does it mean when it says something like 1540 stones of jordan sold to merchants?????

Well Thomas, it means that other players on the Realm have sold that number of Stones of Jordan to merchants. After a certain number of them have been sold to merchants within a certain duration, Uber Diablo will spawn only in Hell Difficulty games in various Acts and locations. Watch out for that one-- he's a real beast!

From: Richard
Subject: Ask Gheed

is it possible to run mods that are ment for Diablo 2 and lod 1.10 on Diablo 2 and lod 1.11?

if not is it also possible to make 2 different Diablo 2 directory's so that i can run mods for ver 1.10 and 1.11?

It's theoretically possible to run Lord of Destruction mods on Classic Diablo II but it probably won't work, and even if it does manage to for a time, it will crash.

Rather than having two installations of the game, why not use a version switcher app?

From: Eddie
Subject: Ask Gheed

Gheed,

Has anyone tried placing a horadric cube inside another horadric cube, and if so, what happened?

-ClericOf_Nerull

The last time someone tried that trick, they ended up trapped inside the cubes, which enveloped all of Sanctuary before turning inside out and reversing time. It wasn't pretty, and the Horadrim had to come crawling to the Vizjerei to fix the mess and get the world back to "normal."