The Horadric Staff (quest)

Quest Two: The Horadric Staff

• Quest Name: The Horadric Staff
• Triggered By: Returning the Horadric Scroll to Deckard Cain or recovering the Horadric Cube
• Given by: Cain
• Location: Horadric Cube: Halls of the Dead, Staff of Kings: Sand Maggot Hive level three, * Viper Amulet: Claw Viper Temple, level two
• Reward: The Horadric Cube is kept after the quest, and used throughout the game for many useful purposes. More info about it here.
• Quest Priority: It is mandatory if you are playing alone, but not mandatory if you party with someone else who has the Horadric Staff.

To complete this quest you must find a Horadric Cube, the Staff of Kings, the Amulet of the Viper, and combine the Staff and Amulet in the Cube and transmute them into the Horadric Staff. You then show that to Cain and he will give you the fourth quest, and you will be allowed into the Palace of Lut Gholein to continue on in the act.

• The Cube is found on level three of the Halls of the Dead, a dungeon area below the Dry Hills.
• The Staff of Kings is found in a chest by the Queen Maggot on level three of the Maggot Lair, found below the Far Oasis.
• The Viper Amulet is found in a golden chest on level two of the Claw Viper Temple, the entrance to the temple is in the Valley of Snakes, a small surface area off of the Lost City.

These three quests can be done in any order, but the logical progression is Cube, then Staff, then Amulet, since that's the order you'll reach them as you move through the act. Obtaining the Amulet is the third quest of the act, but you need it to make the Horadric Staff, so these two quests partially overlap.

Once you have the Cube and both pieces of the staff, you stick the staff and headpiece (Viper Amulet) into the Cube and transmute them into the Horadric Cube. You then show that to Cain, and he will tell you what it can be used for and give you the next quest.

Tips: You can get a cube from another character and save yourself the trouble of doing the Halls of the Dead. If other characters finish the Staff or Amulet areas in your game, enough of those items will drop for everyone who doesn't have one already, and you can hop down through their Town Portal and get one with no effort.

The Halls of the Dead are a pretty easy area. The Sand Maggots are a little trickier. You should be sure to find the Far Oasis waypoint before you enter the hive, or it's a long walk back afterwards. Be careful in the Queen's area, she emits a very toxic poison when she dies and it will take you down to one hit point in very short order. The Claw Vipers are part of this quest also, but since they are the whole Quest Three, read on for more info on them.