I wanted to put this in the D2:R New Player Help Forum or the Items and Crafting Forum. But, we don’t have those here. 
Hopefully, someone will find this information useful.
Rune List and Upgrade Chart
Low-level Runes |
Rune |
|
Highest Dropped By |
|
Needed to Upgrade |
El |
|
|
|
3 |
Eld |
|
|
|
3 |
Tir |
|
|
|
3 |
Nef |
|
|
|
3 |
Eth |
|
|
|
3 |
Ith |
|
|
|
3 |
Tal |
|
|
|
3 |
Ral |
|
The Countess (Normal) |
|
3 |
Ort |
|
|
|
3 |
Thul |
|
|
|
3 + Chipped Topaz |
Amn |
|
Hellforge (Normal) |
|
3 + Chipped Amethyst |
Mid-level Runes |
Rune |
|
Highest Dropped By |
|
Needed to Upgrade |
Sol |
|
|
|
3 + Chipped Sapphire |
Shael |
|
|
|
3 + Chipped Ruby |
Dol |
|
|
|
3 + Chipped Emerald |
Hel |
|
|
|
3 + Chipped Diamond |
Io |
|
The Countess (Nightmare) |
|
3 + Flawed Topaz |
Lum |
|
|
|
3 + Flawed Amethyst |
Ko |
|
|
|
3 + Flawed Sapphire |
Fal |
|
|
|
3 + Flawed Ruby |
Lem |
|
|
|
3 + Flawed Emerald |
Pul |
|
|
|
2 + Flawed Diamond |
Um |
|
Hellforge (Nightmare) |
|
2 + Topaz |
High-level Runes |
Rune |
|
Highest Dropped By |
|
Needed to Upgrade |
Mal |
|
|
|
2 + Amethyst |
Ist |
|
The Countess (Hell) |
|
2 + Sapphire |
Gul |
|
Hellforge (Hell) |
|
2 + Ruby |
Vex |
|
|
|
2 + Emerald |
Ohm |
|
|
|
2 + Diamond |
Lo |
|
|
|
2 + Flawless Topaz |
Sur |
|
|
|
2 + Flawless Amethyst |
Ber |
|
|
|
2 + Flawless Sapphire |
Jah |
|
|
|
2 + Flawless Ruby |
Cham |
|
|
|
2 + Flawless Emerald |
Zod |
|
|
|
|
Note:
The Countess’ rune drop table depends on the difficulty you’re playing on, whether it’s Normal, Nightmare or Hell.
It is also possible to find Lum and Ko runes on Nightmare difficulty and Gul to Lo runes on Hell difficulty, but these are from her monster loot table, not her rune drop table. You should not target farm those specific runes from the Countess, as the drop rate is incredibly low.
Source: https://gamerjournalist.com/diablo-2-resurrected-the-countess/
14 Likes
There’s an error I believe, for Um you need 2x Pul + flawed diamond, not 3x
3 Likes
Secret Horadrum troll cube recipe: 2x Zod = 1 El.
Just kidding.
5 Likes
Correct, 2x Pul.
From the Arreat Summit:
2 Pul Runes + 1 Flawed Diamond = Um Rune
You might want to add (NM) and (H) to the respective Forge and Countess entries.
1 Like
I wouldn’t mind a way that allows runes to be downgraded honestly.
Though that recipe would be quite troll…
1 Like
Oh yeah the Cham rune? Yeah a 1:1 rune downgrade recipe would be handy.
I’d say for mid runes and lower, 1 rune + something (probably gems) = 2 of lower rune. Otherwise its not really worth bothering with.
For high runes definitely 1:1 though.
create a game named “O zod N cham”
easy downgrade
1 Like
O Cham N Jah… Not so easy downgrade.
2 Likes
But my Cham rune is rarer! sadface
If I would have only known this BEFORE I spent the 100,000 years upgrading all of these El runes! 
the countess can drop up to Lo on hell but only ist on the special table.
2 Likes
You are correct. My apologies. It was a lot of work for me to transfer this information from my personal (D2:LoD) documents to here and format it for this forum. (I’m surprised this was my only typo – hehe).
Thanks!
I thought that was obvious, but I will edit the OP. 
2 Likes
No worries I just cubed some Pul runes, that’s why it was easy to spot. 
So I can’t get 4 Bers out of a Cham? Awww.
yeah okay on second thought that makes sense.
Well, that Doom Polearms look great on your merc. Congratulations, you have holy freeze and Might at the same time 
I’ve added extra information to the OP.
Thanks!
I have question.
Does this table released by Blizzard back then or experimented and figured out by a hardcore no life player? Or by a website where multiple players made an input on it?
The official D2 battle.net website from back in the day had (and still has) a cube recipe list, among other things.
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/cube.shtml
It’s been slow to load lately (and sometimes fails entirely), probably because it’s running on old server infrastructure and is getting overloaded with new traffic because of D2R.
There’s a few recipes listed as ladder-only, but that’s not a thing in D2R anymore. You can use any of those recipes in any game mode in D2R.
Just wanna point out, countess’ Lo drop is vanishingly rare. It only happens if she rolls her normal drop table which is far less likely than her rune drop table, then if it does get rolled she is more likely to drop nothing at all from it than a rune, then if she drops a rune it’s probably not a Lo.
The monsters near her actually have better odds of dropping Lo.
1 Like