Rough guide to the “do not cube” runes

Hi everyone,

So I’ve leaned quite a bit about runes on this forum and I am far better informed than I was just meandering through normal by myself.

One of the things that surprised me was learning that the value of certain low and mid-level runes was not nearly as simple as a linear cube equation.

Based on browsing the forums, are these the top 3 examples of low/mid runes that you DO NOT just throw in the cube and transmute simply because you have enough to move up to the next level?

Ral
Hel
Ist

Transmuting high runes is still a bit down the road for me, but if there are any obvious pitfalls to watch out for there, feel free to point those out too.

I’m trying not to think of how many Hel runes got smashed together out of sheer habit, but I do take some comfort from the fact that I did hang on to my Pgems instead of selling them to Charsi…


Thanks in advance!

With basically every high rune, you're better off selling the rune for Ists, then buying the rune you want for Ists.

Vex for example can be sold for 2 Ist, Ohm is 3 Ists. If you cube 2 Vex for an Ohm, you lose 1 Ist of value. This holds for I think every rune higher.

Even for Gul, you can sell it for Ist + Um or Pul, so 2 Guls cubed loses you 2 Pul or 2 Um.

Actually, current prices are (approximately on this site and SC NL) like

Gul = Ist + Um (or Pul)
Vex = 2 Ist
Ohm = 3 Ist
Lo = 4 Ist
Sur = 5 Ist
Ber = 6 (or 7) Ist
Jah = 9 (or 10) Ist
Cham = 3 (or 4) Ist
Zod = 4 (or 5) Ist

No rune is double the price of the one before, so never cube.

The basics of rune trading you can find here: forums/how-much-is-x-rune-worth-t290116.html

Don't look at the price lists, they continuously change over time.

For ladder right now:

Um = Pul = Lem ( Um maybe a little bit more)

Ist = Mal
2 Ist = Vex Pul
5 Ist = 4 Gul
Vex Ist = Ohm ( Ohm is getting cheaper right now)
Lo = Sur = Zod (depending on the day one might be slightly more)
2 Lo = 3 Ohm
Cham = Ohm or Ohm Pul ( Cham is gaining)
Jah = 13 Ist
Ber = 7 Ist

Hel is quite stable, Ral is in demand.
Io, Fal, Ko and even El you will find people with need. Basically every rune in the ladder runewords right now has some value.

This is oversimplifying, but you can sell 20 of just about any rune besides Shael for Ist. Tir Tal Sol Eth Ith Nef etc etc. People are almost always looking to buy low runes in bulk. If not on this site, on another. I used to cube most low runes, but now save 20 or 40 and sell.

On the low runes, apart from the 2 you quoted ( Ral / Hel),
I'll add Sol for something that is usually easy to resell. As said above, there is also a market on others, but smaller.

And abovet hat, no cubing on all the "valuable" runes, i.e. from Lem and onwards, you'll be pretty much always losing value.

I cube anything below Ral.

Hel and Lem+ I keep.
( Lem and Pul, you can trade a few, 4-6, for an Ist, Um can worh ~ 0.3+ Ist and Mal ~ 0.6+ Ist)

The rest (below Lem) I try to sell for Perfect Gems (and sometimes I cube to Hel or Lem if they accumulate - and I have enough gems...)

And I keep 1 of each low/mid rune for "emergencies"

Without checking the price history, I'd go out on a limb and say you're generally better off package-selling, rather than cubing, not only the crafting runes and reroll-hels but also those in commonly rerolled lower runewords.

Specifically, Spirit and Insight.
Don't necessarily expect to sell packs of Thul over and over but full packs of Tal Thul Ort Amn should be relatively easy to reliably sell for more than you'd get individually or cubed. Even more so if you add the Hel as well.

Even packs of El, Eld, and Eth runes will be bought by those looking to keep rolling and re-rolling Breath of the Dying.

Edit: I traded with a guy the other day who buys each of the aforementioned runes in packs of 10 for an Ist. He buys 15/15 bases and keeps rolling BOTD until he gets a perfect roll then sells it for 150 Jah. I laughed and asked if it worked. He laughed back and responded that he wouldn't be doing it if he didn't make a profit. Touche.

Um seems to be less desirable than Mal. I've ended up cubing Um runes. Theoretically they seem to trade even with 2x Um = Mal. But in reality it seems to be easier to deal with Mal. You do need to have Topaz lying around though.

6x Um = 2 Ist
3x Mal = 2 Ist

departure wrote: 2 years ago

Um seems to be less desirable than Mal. I've ended up cubing Um runes. Theoretically they seem to trade even with 2x Um = Mal. But in reality it seems to be easier to deal with Mal. You do need to have Topaz lying around though.

6x Um = 2 Ist
3x Mal = 2 Ist

I'll pay 3 Ist for those 6 Um any day of the week.

SnowSnow wrote: 2 years ago

departure wrote: 2 years ago

Um seems to be less desirable than Mal. I've ended up cubing Um runes. Theoretically they seem to trade even with 2x Um = Mal. But in reality it seems to be easier to deal with Mal. You do need to have Topaz lying around though.

6x Um = 2 Ist
3x Mal = 2 Ist

I'll pay 3 Ist for those 6 Um any day of the week.

You should add me on bnet then. I've got 6 Um for you. Right this second I'm waiting on dclone, but I can trade today.

departure#1405

I cube everything below Ral to get Ral and Dol to get Hel.

It takes 14,281,868,906,496 El runes to cube a single Zod rune.

Don't cube... sell

Thanks again everyone for the helpful advice. I am (slowly) getting the hang of this rune stuff.

I play single player and I can't sell my runes.
I needed a last Ber for Infinity and decided to run Countess for runes after I saw a video on Youtube for the exact purpose. I kept every rune and cubed them (I don't pick them up anymore, lower than Lum).

So I killed her 2500 times and got 67 Lum, 59 Ko, 36 Fal, 38 Lem, 17 Pul, 11 Um, 9 Mal, 12 Ist and one Sur from a mod around her.

That Sur made a big deal, reducing the time needed to reach Ber in half.

So I cubed all of them to the Ist, Gul, then Vex, Ohm and Lo.
After the final cubing of the two Lo and Sur, finally made the desired Ber and gave Emilio a great gift: Infinity.

Since then I never pick the low runes anymore and found another Ber and a Jah, and yesterday the very first Cham. Now I need a good base for Enigma.

Florian_G wrote: 2 years ago

I play single player and I can't sell my runes.
I needed a last Ber for Infinity and decided to run Countess for runes after I saw a video on Youtube for the exact purpose. I kept every rune and cubed them (I don't pick them up anymore, lower than Lum).

So I killed her 2500 times and got 67 Lum, 59 Ko, 36 Fal, 38 Lem, 17 Pul, 11 Um, 9 Mal, 12 Ist and one Sur from a mod around her.

That Sur made a big deal, reducing the time needed to reach Ber in half.

So I cubed all of them to the Ist, Gul, then Vex, Ohm and Lo.
After the final cubing of the two Lo and Sur, finally made the desired Ber and gave Emilio a great gift: Infinity.

Since then I never pick the low runes anymore and found another Ber and a Jah, and yesterday the very first Cham. Now I need a good base for Enigma.

Holy crap, your perserverance is out of this world, well done! Hats off to you, you crazy bastard! xD

Single player off-line?

If yes, there are some tricks to re-use the same map over and over again.
And in this case you could re-genetate Lower Kurast until get one map with two super chests, and keep farming it over and over.
Theoretically is one of the fastest (and most boring ) ways to get high runes.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/meta/lower-kurast-farming-guide