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Finding runes, especially higher level runes, is an obsession for many players. This can be a chore, since there's no way to use equipment to increase your odds of finding more runes, or higher level runes. [[Magic Find]] has no effect on rune drops, either quality or quantity; the way to find runes is to kill lots of monsters in larger games, so more total items drop.
=Monsters=
The best way to find a lot of runes, or most anything else in Diablo II, is to get a lot of item drops. Since item drops are best obtained from dead monsters, and since monsters drop more items in larger games, a very good way to find more runes is to kill a lot of monsters in games with a lot of other players. (Use [[Player_Settings#The_Players_X_Command|the /players X command]] to simulate more players if you're going single player.)
Rune hunting is somewhat simplified by the fact that Magic Find is of no benefit (or penalty) to rune finding. So a character truly out to find runes can suit up in all his/her best killing gear, without giving a thought to [[Magic Find]]. This isn't highly recommended, since magic find improves the odds of finding Unique and Set items that are useful or that can be traded (for runes, perhaps), but purely from a rune hunting POV, magic find is useless, and worse than useless if using the MF equipment slows a character's overall killing speed.
Since the goal of most players is to find higher quality runes, the hunting is best done on the highest level monsters that your character can safely and quickly kill. As with magic finding, a balance between killing speed and monster level must be found. Struggling to kill very high level monster because they have a .000001% better chance of dropping a Cham, is not a wise expenditure of time or energy.
Since rune finding is largely a crap shoot, it's best to kill quickly where your character is most capable of killing quickly. Levels with a lot of monsters are best, simply to increase the total item drops. Places like the Secret Cow Level, the Flayer Jungle, or the surface areas of Act One (with their teeming Fallen camps) are popular killing zones due to the high density of fairly weak monsters.
==Special Monsters==
The only monster in the game with a substantially higher % chance to drop runes in [[The Countess]], found on level five of the Forgotten Tower in the Black Marsh level of Act One. Since v1.09 she's had excellent odds to drop at least one rune every time, and in v1.10 her odds were increased still higher. She can not drop the highest runes in the game, but hoping to see any runes above 24 or 25 drop is a fool's game. They do fall from time to time, but the odds are lottery-winning long. Better odds are to find lots of runes in the teens and low twenties, and to cube them up, as well as trading other item finds for mid-to-high level runes, and cubing those up as well.
A few monster types have higher odds of dropping runes because they can not drop armor or weapons, and thus spit out more runes since they have fewer other possible drops. These include [[Wraith]]s, [[Finger Mage]]s, [[Vulture Demon]]s, [[Willowisp]]s, and the [[Swarm]]. These monsters are worth harvesting while rune hunting, but they spawn infrequently and in underwhelming numbers, so few players will find it worth the effort for the slight increase in the odds of finding runes.
=Quests=
=Chests=
Chests (this includes barrels, crates, hidden stashes, etc) are an excellent source of items, including runes. ==More Players = More Runes== More players in the game increase the quantity of items found from chests, by decreasing the odds that the game will select the "NoDrop" option. Total players in the game (no party) — Chance of non-locked chest to drop nothing at all:* 1 or 2 — 43,4%* 3 or 4 — 29.5%* 5 or 6 — 26,0%* 7 or 8 — 25,2% ==Rune Quality Increases with Level== The level that chests drop at is determined by the area of the game they're found on; consult the [[Levels]] section for that information. The level of runes that can be found from chests progresses steadily as you move through the game.
The following list details the highest level runes you can find in any area. All of the lower level runes may also be found there, and in fact are far more likely to appear than the higher level ones.
* Act 4 Hell: Jah/Cham (r31-r32)
* Act 5 Hell: Zod (r33)
