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 attributes with their equipment or with certain Skill Gems. Rarity bonuses are only applied by the person who lands the killing blow to a monster - multiple characters attacking a monster will not stack their item rarity bonuses together. In a party, the characters' quantity bonuses will be added together in addition to party quantity bonuses. Rarity bonuses only apply to equipment drops, and will not affect currency.

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 1-2 monster affixes. They appear in smaller groups.
• Rare: Greatly increased statistics, and given 3-6 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 are life, damage, experience gained on death, item drop rarity and quantity, and flask charges on death. 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

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 3 to 6, but it can grant between 10-15% additional Spell Damage. These variable statistics are called implicit modifiers, as opposed to explicit modifiers, and can be rerolled using a Blessed Orb.

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 basic statistics as a normal item of the same type, but have magical modifiers on them given by affixes, one prefix and one suffix. The level 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 modifiers on an item can be rerolled into different mods using 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 can have up to six affixes - three prefixes, and three suffixes. A rare item with less than six affixes can gain an additional affix with an Exalted Orb, and its modifiers' random values can be rerolled using a Divine Orb. Rare items are given a randomly generated name.

Unique

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

Unique items are meant to be less powerful overall than high-level rare items, but offer unique gameplay and allow creative character builds to be based around them.