Even Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred's blue items are selling for billions, thanks to Horadric Cube crafting

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred makes a huge number of overhauls to the Blizzard RPG, but one of the most significant is the introduction of the Horadric Cube. A powerful crafting tool that was first seen in Diablo 2, with Kanai's Cube acting as effectively the same feature in Diablo 3, it's the focal point of putting together the best endgame gear. It's definitely a significant upgrade over what we've had before, and there's nothing more telling of that than a glance at the D4 trade markets, where even blue-rarity magic items are selling for billions of gold in specific cases.

In the past, the gear that would bring in big paydays through the Diablo 4 trading system was largely limited to the very best Legendaries and Uniques, boasting full sets of greater affixes with perfect stat rolls. The Horadric Cube has flipped that on its head; while the very top end of those high-rarity drops can still reach the 100 billion gold mark and beyond, you'll now want to pay much closer attention to any blue and yellow items you pick up before you consign them to the bin.

These 'magic' and 'rare' items have typically been little more than salvage material beyond the very early hours of play, especially as Diablo 4 has continued to evolve and experiment with various crafting systems. Lord of Hatred makes much more dramatic shifts in what's possible to achieve by modifying your items, however. Suddenly, these low-rarity gear pieces can be extremely valuable if they have the core stats to act as a perfect base to build upon using the Horadric Cube.

As noted by Icy Veins, listings on sites like diablo.trade tell the story in clear numbers. Manage to snag a max-level blue item with two juicy greater affixes, and you could be looking at a sale price in the tens of billions. A rare with three or four of them can ratchet up towards that magical 100 billion mark. They don't even need to be completely perfect; an ancestral magic amulet with crit chance and crit damage multiplier on it managed to snag an impressive 12 billion despite neither being a greater affix.

On a basic level, this is because Horadric Cube crafting can get rather expensive, due to the materials involved. If an item isn't suitable for your build then there's little point in trying to tweak it yourself, but an endgame blaster who's got all the resources but is lacking that perfect base item will be happy to stump up the gold to take it off your hands and turn it into the exact thing they need.

Crafting is also just more satisfying than simply buying an item outright. I've typically steered clear of trading in ARPGs and favored what's known as 'solo self-found' play, where you only use items you've found yourself. Simply buying the perfect weapon or ring and slapping it onto your build can feel a little underwhelming, even if you've earned the gold to do so by playing.

The Horadric Cube changes that. Now I can actually pick out a good-looking base that suits my needs and manually adjust it, like a cosplayer or crafter eyeing up a distinctive pair of pants that they can cut, sew, and glue to turn into the greaves of their dreams. It's also a great reminder that, if you spot something that looks strong but doesn't suit what you're currently doing, you might want to consider investigating trades before you dump it in a chest to be forgotten about forever.