Diablo 4’s ‘Loot Reborn’ is now live for all players, serving as a much needed balm for eyes strained from comparing countless overly-complicated Rare items. Itemization is much simpler now, with the added bonus of being able to add new affixes, or stat bonuses, to items yourself. This system is called Tempering, and I’ll explain how it works, why you should do it as soon as possible, and what it’ll cost you.
Why Temper?
Rather than yellow, or “Rare,” items dropping with four affixes that seem overly complex, Season 4 has pared back the number of affixes to just two and culled a lot of the less obviously-useful ones from the game. This means Rares, while still useful, won’t be dropping at their full potential. That’s where Tempering comes in.
By using Tempering Manuals, which drop from any enemies you’ll face on any World Tier and level, you can add those missing affixes to gear. The manual isn’t used up in the process, and the reagents to add a new affix are cheap enough that you should at least consider throwing a few solid choices on your weapons while you level.
The drawback to Tempering is that each item can only be rerolled a certain number of times. Your first Temper doesn’t cost the item any reroll chances, so it’s incentivized that you throw caution to the wind while you’re leveling for cheap, added power.
How to Temper
To Temper an item, simply visit any Blacksmith and select the anvil icon from their shop. You’ll be prompted to select an item to Temper (A), a Tempering Manual (B), and pay the requisite material cost (C).
You’re limited on which sorts of Tempering Manuals you can select based on the type of item you’re Tempering (similar to the limitations of Legendary Aspects). For example, weapons can only use Manuals of the Offensive or Weapons categories. The Tempering Manual you choose will have a set of Augments, one of which will be selected at random:
Once you select your item and Tempering Manual, you can add a random Augment by clicking “Temper Item.” If you don’t get the Augment you want, you’ll have to try again, which costs the item one of its charges of Temper potential (found in the bottom right of an item’s tooltip). Once you’ve used up all your charges, the item is “bricked,” and stuck with whatever the last Temper granted it.
Once a Manual “category” (like weapon manuals) is selected, you can only reroll the Temper from Manuals of that category. Manuals can also drop at differing rarities (Magic, Rare, and Legendary), which increases the stat range of their Augments.
Tempering costs and resources
The more powerful the item, the more a Temper will cost. You’ll need a steady supply of materials:
- Iron Chunks and Rawhide: Found from the overworld, salvage loot, or as rewards for quests and Tree of Whispers Bounties
- Veiled Crystals: Salvaged from Rare items
- Baleful Fragments: Salvaged from Legendary weapons
- Coiling Wards: Salvaged from Legendary armor
- Abstruse Sigils: Salvaged from Legendary jewelry
But fret not, as you’ll only be paying Iron Chunks, Rawhide, and Veiled Crystals well into item power 600 at World Tier 3. Just be sure you’re salvaging your excess loot and you should have plenty of house money to play the stat slots with.
