Diablo II: Ironman mod

Version 7.0 Coming Soon. STAY TUNED!

Beta testers wanted. Please join our discord to learn how to apply as a beta tester

Discord: Discord.gg

Requirements:

• Diablo II LOD with D2SE installed

Ironman is a hardcore-only mod based heavily on the Ironman style of game play, and as such imposes many rules and limits on what can or cannot be done in-game. The mod however does not fully comply with Ironman gameplay, as NPC interaction is allowed, hirelings can be hired... and so forth.

Hardcore-only means that every character created by default is in Diablo II hardcore mode. The ability to create softcore characters is gone. Hardcore is the only real way to play Ironman as it tests your abilities to the limits.

Ironman?

The Ironman game-play style represents a significant shift from traditional gaming experiences, especially in the context of Diablo II. With Ironman, players begin with nothing and can buy, repair, or pick up gold. Everything used must come from the land itself. The lack of gold's significance transforms the game's economic system, as monsters don't drop gold, and players can neither hold nor transact with it.

Too Many Changes to List Here!

Play to discover, and read both links provided here to learn about the Mod and its features. Join the discord server and ask as not everything is documented yet. Thanks.

D2: Ironman Docs

D2: Ironman Mod Documentation (GitLab)

Runewords, Gemwords, Stonewords

New Sets (Dozens of new Sets)
New Uniques (over 1400)

• Hundreds of New Runewords
• Hundreds of New Gemwords
• Hundreds of new Stone Words (All Diablo 3 gems added to D2)

Dozens of of new sets, hundreds of unique items, and dozens of new properties. Hundreds of new runewords. Put any of the same gem in all sockets to create Gemwords.

Magic Essence Harvester!

Nothing goes to waste! Take all the junk magic, rare, set, or unique items in the game and store their magic essense in the Harvester. This will destroy the item in question. You can then use Magic Essence Points to create all kinds of magic items and mods.

Use Rare Shard, Set Stone, or Unique Particle to create rare, set, and unique versions of those items (found at one of the NPCs in town)

Magic, Set, Rare, Uniques:

• For Creating Rare: 300 Essence Points
• For Creating Set: 500 Essence Points
• For Creating Unique: 750 Essence Points

Smithing Hammers

New item type called Smithing Hammers that drop. Each smithing hammer cubed by itself produces a base item type. Use this base item type to start building your custom items.

Item Salvager

Like in Diablo 3, SALVAGE ITEM PARTS by cubing any white items with the Harvester

• Now every different item type/quality gives different item parts when salvaged.
• Low quality items will not salvage too many item parts.
• Normal quality items may salvage more item parts.
• High quality items may salvage even more parts.

Formula is ROUND( (ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3 ) for how up to how many item parts you can salvage. The cost to forge items is ROUND( ((ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3) * 1.5 )

Salvaging items is a tricky business. You may destroy the item and not get any parts at all. Or you could get a lot of parts. Salvaging items is always a gamble.

• For salvaging Magic: ROUND( (ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3 ) * 3.5
• For salvaging Rare: ROUND( (ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3 ) * 3.75
• For salvaging Set: ROUND( (ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3 ) * 4
• For salvaging Unique: ROUND( (ITEL_LEVEL / 4) + 3 ) * 4.25

2,000+ new cube recipes added for salvaging system.

For example:

Salvaging Magic Item iLVL 20

• 20/4 = 5, 5+3 = 8, 8 * 3.5 = 28~ish item parts.

Salvaging Unique Item iLVL 20

• 20/4 = 5, 5+3 = 8, 8 * 4.25 = 40~ish item parts.

Town Portals are replaced by the necessity to walk or run to waypoints for inter-level travel, making waypoints crucial rather than mere shortcuts. Item and inventory management becomes vital, with a careful consideration of weapon durability and a lack of attachment to particular items.

New Gameplay Mechanics

New gameplay mechanics require balance changes to items, skills, monsters, and overall gameplay. The approach of simply diving into packs of monsters is replaced by strategic running, tackling enemies one or two at a time, and managing resources efficiently.

Inventory management becomes more complex, with increased backpack and stash space, thanks to Yohann's PlugY, allowing infinite stash pages. Potions are only obtainable through game drops, and inventory must be carefully watched, especially with armor and weapons.

Players must use weapons conservatively, employing regular or magic weapons for ordinary foes and saving high-damage weapons for bosses. Intelligent gear choices are required for different monster types, often requiring two sets of gear.

Gem Bag and Gem Extractors
Rune Bag and Rune Extractors (Gone from 7.0)

In 7.0, Runes and Stoned (D3 gems) can be stacked up to 100 each. Just cube any two of the same rune or stone to start a stack. Cube any stack by itself to extract one rune or stone.

Store gems and runes into gembags and runebags to save space. To extract use an extractor found at one of the NPCs.

Full Hireling Inventory (Thanks to Baron Josh)

Hirelings, or non-player characters aiding the player, require attention, protection, and assistance. Once dead, they cannot be re-hired, so keeping them alive is essential. They can be hired for 0 gold but lose their items if they die. They can use additional equipment like belts, boots, gloves, rings, and amulets.

Remote Stash

Remote stash drops at 10,000 kills.

Kill Bonuses (new stat, killcounter)

Kills by Summoned Minions do not increase the killcounter stat.

This is an Ironman Mod. You cannot use your summons to kill monsters to get the killcounter stat up. In order to get item bonuses and drops, you need to use different gameplay strategies to kill monsters yourself to get the bonuses.

Kill X number of monsters to get Bonus

• Kill Bonus 10 - Minor Healing Potion
• Kill Bonus 25 - Minor Healing Potion
• Kill Bonus 50 - Minor Healing Potion
• Kill Bonus 50 - Random Magic Weapon
• Kill Bonus 100 - Random Magic Armor
• Kill Bonus 150 - Random Magic Belt
• Kill Bonus 200 - Random Magic Gloves
• Kill Bonus 250 - Random Magic Cap
• Kill Bonus 300 - Random Magic Ring
• Kill Bonus 350 - Random Magic Amulet
• Kill Bonus 400 - Random Magic Ring
• Kill Bonus 450 - Random Magic Belt
• Kill Bonus 500 - Demon Chest
• Kill bonus 1000 - Random Rare Weapon
• Kill bonus 1000 - Random Rare Armor
• Kill bonus 1250 - Random Rare Full Helm
• Kill bonus 1500 - Random Rare Belt
• Kill bonus 1750 - Random Chain Gloves
• Kill bonus 2000 - Random Rare Ring
• Kill bonus 10000 - Portable Remote Stash

Demon Chests & Keys

Demon drop 5 Tiers of Demon Chest & Demon Keys Cube them together to get random items of various qualities.

Ironman Gameplay

In Ironman Modifications, underused skills become valuable, Vitality becomes crucial, and gems provide strategic choices. Players must also keep track of waypoints, work as a team in MultiPlayer, and experiment with non-traditional weapons. Care should be taken when using the 'Players X' command to avoid overwhelming challenges.

Hardcore Ironman mode is the pinnacle of this gameplay style. All characters are Hardcore by default, making potion and item management and conservative play vital, especially as players progress through levels.

Ironman brings a fresh, complex, and strategic approach to Diablo II, encouraging players to think and act differently, manage resources wisely, and cooperate effectively. It enriches the gameplay experience by introducing more challenges and a need for thoughtful decision-making, making the game feel new and engaging.

The Ironman style of gameplay is radically different from what you may have experienced.

• You start with nothing.
• You can buy nothing.
• You can repair nothing.
• Everything you use will come from the 'land'.

Diablo II's economic system was woefully lacking. This is remedied by the fact that gold has little to no use in the game.

• Monsters won't drop gold.
• You cannot hold gold in inventory or stash.

You may find a random pile here or there. That's okay. You can't pick it up anyway.

Town Portals are non-existent. Every time you want to go to town, you will have to walk or run to a waypoint. This will change the way you play the game drastically. Now the waypoints will actually be useful, instead of just being shortcuts to different levels, they will be your sole means for inter-level travel.

Item/Inventory management skills become a real necessity in Ironman. Your favorite weapon must be carefully used. Once it is gone, it is gone. Durability was lowered (though not greatly) to make more items in the game useful.

Players should not get attached to certain items and their properties or bonuses. With monster modification, it will require you to have different items and strategies for different monsters. Durability can be increased or repaired with moderately expensive yet balanced cube formulae.

This new gameplay also requires changes to items, skills, monsters, and balancing! Those are carefully implemented and will be balanced over time as the need arises.

Gameplay:

RUN! Seriously. Unlike Battle.net where you put on the best gear and dive into a pack of monsters which makes the gameplay stale and boring, almost every problem in Ironman can be handled by running.

The only time you will find yourself in serious trouble is when a boss ambushes you with Holy Freeze as an Aura, or come up against a pack with of monsters who are 'Fast'.

When in doubt, put distance between you and that pack of monsters. Let them come to you one or two at a time and deal with them. There is no shame in falling back!

Pick up everything. You have an increased backpack. Your stash is larger. If you think you can use it, put it into your pack. Stash it when you get to town. You will need it later, trust me.

With Yohann's PlugY, you will never run out of stash space. This plugin provides 'infinite' pages in the stash. You will often find yourself running with tons of potions. This is completely normal. Don't be embarrassed. Potions will only be available through game drops.

As much fun as those tiny little charms are, they become a burden when you realize that all of those bonuses don't make up for your lack of space in your inventory. Use them, get rid of them, see what they do in your cube.

Watch Your Inventory!

Nothing will give you more grief than to have that nice set of armor beat completely off your body by high damage HTH monsters. Keep a set or two in your backpack and when necessary, change it out to reflect the situation.

The same goes for weapons. You will undoubtedly find a nice weapon that can inflict massive damage. You will cry when you watch it break because you didn't use it conservatively.

Use regular/magic weapons for standard monster-bashing. Use your Uber-Gear when you are about to fight the big boss and his minions. You have two weapons slots, use them. (Amazon gets off easy here, as does Sorceress.)

Just like it should be in RPGs, you intelligently decide which gear to use for which monster. You will find yourself running with two sets of gear, one for normal monsters, one for bosses, and you will be using the 'W' switch key very often.

Protect Your Hireling!

If you like to use them, get used to helping them. If you thought you carried lots of potions before, wait till you have to nursemaid them around!

And because once dead, they are impossible to hire, it is in your (and their) best interest to keep them alive. Remember, you cannot Town-Portal to pull them out of a dangerous situation. If they are in trouble, you had better wade in and rescue them, or hope they weren't carrying good gear when they go down.

Hirelings can be hired for 0 gold at any time. The penalty is that your hireling will lose any items you put on them. Better make sure they are safe and help them not die.

Hirelings will be balanced and adjusted to make them better. Hire costs will also get lowered. Hireling can now use belts, boots, gloves, rings, and amulets in addition to the helm, weapon, and armor.

Ironman Modifications

Skills. Until full skill changes go into effect, you will come to appreciate the underused skills. Think of new and interesting ways to employ them. Nothing makes an Ironman multiplayer party happier than a Paladin with High-Level Prayer. Seriously.

Stats. No matter what your class, Vitality becomes very important. Not only for the life but the Stamina as well. Enough said. You have more stats per level up. Use them wisely.

Gems. You will develop your own opinion about them. Save them for higher gems? Recipes? Or use them and lose them? The choice is yours.

Keep your way-points in mind. Know where the last one was. If you have to fall back and dash up to town, you are going to have to go down the previous WP and work your way back.

When playing in MultiPlayer, make sure you can work as a team. This cannot be stressed enough. It's pretty sad to see two or three people arguing over a regular, non-magical Claymore in Act I. It is also really funny to watch a party fight over a low-quality cracked item (I've seen it happen!) Ironman is fun! :)

Even though your Assassin is best when Clawing monsters to death, there might be a time when that Rare Bow you just found can be very effective. Don't be afraid to try weapons that aren't the 'norm' for your class. Eagle Orbs have low durability, and losing a real nice one because you weren't paying attention serves you right!

Be careful when using the 'Players X' command. Although it is tempting, you will regret it when you spawn a horrendous pack of GoreBelly's and cannot get through them because of their HP's last longer than your weapons and armor.

Hardcore Ironman

Every character created is Hardcore by default.

The ultimate way to play IM. Become the master of falling back. Potion and item management skills increase tenfold in importance. Be conservative. Especially after you have clawed your way up a few levels.

New characters start with:

• Horadric Cube
• Magic Essence Harvester
• Rune Bag
• Gem Bag

Armor/Weapons/Misc

• NPC will never spawn Armors/Weapons/Potions of any kind.
• NPC will never spawn TP/ID scrolls or books.
• Changed all item prices to 1 gold
• Gheed will only have 1 ring in gamble window
• Charsi sells Gembags and gem extractors
• Akara sells Runebags and rune extractors
• Lowered item durability across the board
• Added/changed level requirements for many items
• Magic/Rare arrows/bolts with up to 3 sockets

Added Sockets to almost all itemtypes

Added Elemental Bolts & Arrows with Magic & Rare properties

Magic, Rare, and Unique Charms

Too many changes to list!

Play to discover, and read all the documentation linked at the top!

D2: Ironman Docs Ironman Mod Documentation (GitLab)

I hope you enjoy. Join our discord server Discord.gg