Rarity

Monsters and equipment come in one of four different rarities. The base rarity is Normal (White), followed by Magic (Blue), Rare (Yellow), and Unique (Orange).

Items dropped by monsters, chests, and breakable scenery have a chance to be any of the four rarities. Higher rarity on a monster means it drops more items and is more likely to drop items of high rarity. Additionally, a character can gain more items of higher rarity by increasing the increased item rarity and increased item quantity statistics with their equipment or with certain Skill Gems.

Magic, rare, and unique items found by the player are initially Unidentified and a Scroll of Wisdom must be used to discover their properties. Normal items can be upgraded into magic, rare, and unique items using a variety of Orbs. Magic items can be upgraded into rare items using a Regal Orb.

The number of Sockets that can be found on an item is not affected by rarity; this instead relies on its item level.

Monsters

• Normal: The most common, and spawn in large groups.
• Magic: Increased statistics, and given one monster affix. They appear in smaller groups.
• Rare: Greatly increased statistics, and given three monster affixes. They spawn by themselves, but multiple rares may still be close together.
• Unique: Custom monsters that appear in certain areas, including bosses.

The statistics increased by monster rarity are life, damage, experience gained on death, item drop rarity and quantity, and flask charges gained on death. Monster rarity also reduces the chance to flee.

Monsters of higher rarity drop items of higher item level. Magic mobs drop items one ilevel higher than the area's monster level, and rare/unique mobs' items are two ilevels higher.

Items

Items receive a random rarity with Normal items being the most common and Unique items the least common. Rarity is rolled before base type. The game rolls for rarity, in order, starting with: Unique, followed by Rare, then Magic, if none of the other rarities are rolled the item will be Normal. Increased Item Rarity impacts the chance at each step.

Normal

Normal rarity items are basic items without any extra modifiers on them. They can have static and variable statistics - for example, a Driftwood Wand's base damage is always 4 to 7, but it can grant between 8% and 12% additional Spell Damage. Modifiers on normal items are called implicit modifiers, as opposed to explicit modifiers added by affixes, and can be rerolled using a Blessed Orb if they have a range.

A normal item can be upgraded into a magic item using an Orb of Transmutation, or a rare item using an Orb of Alchemy. Using an Orb of Chance can upgrade a normal item into a magic, rare, or even unique item of the same base type.

Magic

Magic items have the same base statistics as a normal item of the same type, but have magical modifiers on them given by affixes, up to one prefix and one suffix. The types of modifiers that can be found or added to an item depend on its item level.

A magic item with only either a prefix or suffix property can have a second property of the missing type added to it by using an Orb of Augmentation. The affixes can be rerolled with an Orb of Alteration.

A magic item can be upgraded into a rare item using a Regal Orb. It will retain its current affixes and one new affix will be added.

Rare

Rare items function the same as magic items, except they have at most six affixes - three prefixes, and three suffixes. Found rare items or items made rare with an Orb of Chance or an Orb of Alchemy will always have at least 3 affixes, but it is possible to get only 2 by using a Regal Orb. A rare item with less than six affixes can gain an additional affix with an Exalted Orb or through Master crafting, and its modifiers' random values can be rerolled using a Divine Orb. A Chaos Orb will completely re-roll a rare item's affixes. Rare items are given a randomly generated name.

Unique

Unique Items have the same base statistics as a normal item of the same type, but have specific names, unique artwork, and set lists of modifiers instead of affixes. It is GGG's intention that each base item has at least one corresponding unique item.

Unique items are meant to be less powerful overall than high-level rare items, but they are useful at low/mid levels and allow creative character builds to be based around them.

There are also Unique Monsters; usually these are area or act bosses.

Increased Item Rarity/Quantity

Players can boost their chances of getting powerful equipment, uniques, and currency with the modifiers Increased Rarity of Items Found and Increased Quantity of Items Found. The combination of rarity and quantity stats is sometimes called Magic Find or MF, referring to the equivalent stats in Diablo.

Rarity and quantity modifiers can come from player’s equipment, the support gems and , monster rarity, party bonuses, and map bonuses. The modifiers on the character stack additively with each other, and are subject to diminishing returns. Modifiers from the party bonus and monsters stack additively with each other, and are not subject to diminishing returns. The total player bonus stacks multiplicatively with the total party & monster bonus. (An explanation of additive vs. multiplicative can be found here.)

IIR and IIQ do not affect chests, and have no effect on the number or type of currency, items, scrolls, or gems that drop.

Increased Item Rarity (IIR)

Increases the chances of an item being magic, rare, or unique. For example with a total of +100% increased item rarity, you'd get twice as many magic items, twice as many rares and twice as many uniques from normal enemies. This modifier has no effect on the number or type of currency items, scrolls, or gems that drop since they have no rarity like normal, magic, rare or unique. Magic, rare, and unique monsters have an increased item rarity modifier for drops.

When in a party, only the modifier from the player who lands the killing blow on an enemy is applied - multiple characters attacking a monster will not stack their item rarity bonuses together. If one of your minions gets a kill, the minion's IIR is added to yours and the total is used.

Increased Item Quantity (IIQ)

Increases the average number of items that drop from monsters (aka Drop Rate). There is no cap on the usefulness of this modifier, since there is no limit to the number of items a monster can drop. IIQ does not affect chests or strongboxes, and it does not affect the type, quality, or rarity of item dropped, only the chance that something will drop. Therefore even though item quantity doesn't directly apply to maps and increase their odds to drop, increased item quantity still allows players to potentially find more maps.

In a party, each player in the party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops. The base chance for an item to drop varies between monster types, and drop rate increases with monster rarity. The party bonus as well as the any bonus the monster gives are additive with each other and multiply with the quantity bonus of the player who gets the killing blow.