Emergency Item Space
If you have run out of room in your Backpack, Stash or Horadric Cube, you can squeeze one more 4x2 slot by picking up an item, and leaving it on your mouse pointer. You can exit the game and join another, or just quit the game. The next time you play your character the item will still be on your mouse pointer.

Stackable Items
Some items can be stacked to fit, one on top of the other, in the same inventory slot. Examples include: keys, and all items that can be thrown or shot by a bow - arrows, bolts, throwing knives, javelins, exploding potions, poison potions and such. Stackable items have as part of their property description a quantity (even if the quantity is 1) when highlighted. As you use the item, this number decreases until you have exhausted the stack.

You may consolidate stackable items of the same type, like quivers of arrows, by picking up one stack and dropping it onto another stack. The quantities in both stacks are added together to form a new stack. If the resulting stack would exceed the maximum allowable number of stacked items in a slot, any extras will form a separate stack. You cannot un-stack items once they have been stacked. Note that only items that are exactly alike may be stacked. When using ranged weapons, an icon of "crossed arrows" appears on the Play Area whenever your quiver is running low on ammunition.

What is the general order of rarity of items?
From least rare, to most rare: Low Quality Items, Normal Items, High Quality Items, Magic Items, Set Items & Rare Items (same chances), Unique Items.

Lower Quality items start out being most common but ramp to less common than High Quality depending on the Monster Level (if dropped by a monster) or the Dungeon (Area) Level (if spawned from a chest).

Items and Gold Disappear after time when left on the ground
Don't leave items or Gold lying on the ground any longer than necessary. Regular items and Gold disappear in about 15 minutes. Magic, Rare, Set, and Unique items disappear after lying on the ground for about 1 hour.

Durability
The rigors of battle inflict great wear and tear on a hero's equipment, eventually rendering the equipment unusable. Items subject to wear show a numeric Durability rating in their description, when highlighted. The first number indicates the current Durability of the item while the second number represents the item's total Durability. When an item's Durability is low, a silhouette appears in the upper right corner of the Play Area. Items with low Durability will appear in yellow. A red item has 0 Durability and cannot be used or re-equipped until repaired. A blacksmith can repair items restoring them to their original condition. Repairing magically enhanced items can be expensive, but often is worth the gold.

An NPC in town will repair your weapons and armor for a price. By repairing your items each time you visit town you will reduce the danger of having your weapons and armor becoming worn out during battle.

Items can be repaired partially if and only if you have gold on your person AND the item is not broken (0 Durability). Only the gold on your person will be used. Broken items must be repaired fully.

Durability is capped at 333.

Ethereal
Most types of armor or weapon, even one with magical properties, can be Ethereal. Bows and Crossbows cannot be Ethereal. These items appear translucent in the Inventory, and when equipped, they appear translucent on the character wielding them. Their ethereal nature gives them an improved fundamental ability. However, they have decreased Durability and cannot be repaired. You can place Zod Runes (Indestructible) in some Ethereal Items to prevent them from being destroyed. Ethereal Items do not lose Durability on Hirelings. Magic, Rare, and Unique Items can be Ethereal but you cannot get Ethereal Items when Imbuing.

- Weapons: +50% base damage.
- Armors: +50% base defense

Broken Ethereal Items sell for 1 Gold.

Items that spawn as indestructible can not be ethereal at the same time. Hence, most elite unique items that are indestructable will never become ethereal.

What are Low Quality, Cracked, Crude, Damaged items?
All of these items have a lower Maximum Durability than normal, except bows which are still indestructible. Weapons of this type have lower damage than their normal counterparts. Armor of this type has unusually low Defense, often going below the minimum Defense for that piece of armor.

Superior Armor and Weapons
Superior items have improved Defense, and/or Durability. Superior Weapons can have increased chance to hit or damage, and Durability.

Circlets
Circlets are Helms that contain Magical Prefixes and Suffixes that you would not normally get in a helmet. They may also allow you to wear a hat without it showing on your character which will allow say an Amazon to play with her hair showing. Circlets typically have less Defense than regular Helms.

Class-specific Items
There are specific items that are only usable by their intended class, possessing special abilities only pertinent to that class. Be sure to pay close attention to the requirements of each item as listed in its pop-up description to see if an item is class specific.

Charged Items
Some new magic items grant the use of certain skills to any character. Some of these items have skills that are only triggered under certain conditions, such as striking an enemy or being struck by one. Charged Items allow the wielder to use the skill at will, but only a limited number of times. To engage the skill granted by a Charged Item, left-click your right mouse button Skill Selection (or press the S key). The Charged Item skill is listed near the top of your list of available skills; left-click on its icon to select it. The skill can now be performed by right-clicking on a target. Charged Item skills have a limited number of uses, so be sure to check the item's pop-up description or the lower right-hand corner of the skill icon to see how many charges remain. If any of an item's charges are depleted, you can return to a nearby town and recharge the item by having the local Blacksmith repair it.

Weapon Speeds vs Classes
Certain weapons are more effective in certain character classes' hands. The listed speed ('slow,'very fast,' etc.) is relative to other weapons for that specific character. Weapon Speed descriptions, as well as their actual swing rate, can change for a weapon when wielded by two different character classes. The listed speeds ('slow, 'very fast,' etc.) further describe a range of speeds; a 'fast' dagger might be slightly slower than a 'fast' mace, but both will be faster than a 'normal' club.

When numbers are listed for Weapon Speeds such as [0], [-20], [20], the higher the number is, the slower the Weapon Speed. So, [20] is the slowest of the three Weapon Speeds.

If I have a 'very fast' sword, and I equip a magic item that Increases Attack Speed, will it be even faster?
The answer to this is yes as well, however at some point the speed maxes out, and they cease to get faster.

Is there any way to tell when you have reached your maximum Weapon Speed?
No, there is no easy way to tell when you reach the limit. You can get faster than "very fast". (Try the Barbarian Frenzy skill to see just how fast you can get.) It would be very hard to reach the limit, you can almost always get faster. All weapon types probably peak at the same speed, so the fastest possible Polearm weapon swing would probably be just as fast as the fastest possible one-hand sword swing.

How is extra damage calculated in magic weapons that get a certain amount of extra damage from a suffix as well as from a certain percentage of extra damage from a prefix: King's will give up to 200% extra damage and Slaughter will give up to 20 damage to maximum, so on a sword with normally maximum 80 damage will this give 200% over 80 and then add 20 damage?
Yes. In this case, first we apply the percentage, then the addition. This calculation can become very, very complex when factoring in shrines, auras, etc.

Weapon Damage
Damage vs Undead and Damage vs Demons do not display on the Character Screen. You must calculate them separately.

Does the tendency to drop an item vary from Monster to Monster?
No, however Unique Monsters and Bosses have a better chance to drop Magic Items. Champions will either drop Magic Items or Gold. Otherwise, the type of monster doesn't matter.

Does your Character Level figure into what items are dropped?
No. The items get better as Monster Levels and Dungeon Levels rise.

Is there a better chance to find magic items in locked chests?
No. But they are usually double drops.

Transferring Items between Characters (Realm and Open Characters)
You can transfer items between characters by having a friend stay in the game to keep the game open while you transfer characters.

For Realm Characters, you can also create a passworded game on Battle.net and not tell anyone what that password is. If you stay in the game for 5 minutes, it will be placed on a delayed expiration list. So when you leave the game and there are no longer any players in the game, it will still stay up for a while. If you're fast enough (it doesn't have to be too fast), you can drop items in town, quit, switch characters, rejoin your same passworded game, and pick them up with your other character. However be warned this method of transferring items can be risky. If you're unable to rejoin your game in time, you will lose all the items you dropped.

You cannot transfer items between single player characters.

What is Blizzard's policy on transferring items between characters or "muling"?
The transferring of items between Diablo II characters is not supported by Blizzard. Users should be warned that attempts to transfer items between characters online are risky and Blizzard is not responsible for lost items. Storage space is limited in Diablo II both for performance and storage space issues and because the designers wanted players to make decisions as to which items to keep and which items must be thrown away or sold.

Finding Good Items
Here are some tricks to use to get "good" items meaning more Rare, Set and Unique Items. You can trade the good items you find that are not useful to yourself for other items that you can use.

• Get lots of Magic Find. For more information go here.
• Open up all Chests, Rocks, Barrels, etc.. Chests and other similar items have increased chances for drops. Combined with a good Magic Find % you can have a pretty good chance of getting a good item from a chest. There are also certain areas where chests are more common. Carry keys (except Assassins) so that you can open locked chests as well. You can carry some keys in your Horadric Cube.
• Repeatedly Kill Champion and Unique Monsters. Always kill these (if possible). They have a much better chance for good drops. You can even go to areas where they are more common or where they are easier to kill.
• Kill more Monsters. Generally the more monsters you kill within a general amount of time, the more drops you get and the more chances you have to get something good. This is why areas like the Flayer Jungle are popular. You may wish to find areas where you can kill a lot of monsters at once.
• Activate Monster Shrines or Evil Urns. This will create Unique Monsters or Champions that you can kill for better loot.