runes

Despite the name, the runes.txt table does not hold the runes themselves — those live in Misc.txt (as items) and gems (as socket-stat sources). This table holds the runeword definitions: the recipe (which runes, in what order), what item types they apply to, what stats the resulting runeword grants, and whether it's enabled in the game.

181 rows total — every row carries a Name (Runeword1, Runeword2, …, Runeword181); there are no blank-Name placeholder rows or Expansion section marker like the affix files have. Of the 181, 99 are live in the current game (complete = 1); the remaining 82 are legacy or unused.

What's in a row

The 53 columns split into five groups.

Identity & display

Gating

The disallow* columns are explicit forbid overrides (rare); the firstLadderSeason / lastLadderSeason window is the day-to-day mechanism that makes new runewords ladder-only and eventually releases them to non-ladder. A runeword complete=1 with firstLadderSeason set and no lastLadderSeason is currently ladder-only — that's how Cure and Bulwark work in 2026, even though no disallow* column is set.

Item-type filter

The walk goes upward through the itype hierarchy. If a runeword allows tors (body armor) and you socket it in a Dusk Shroud (itype lite → tors), it works. If a runeword allows lite and you socket it in an Archon Plate (itype heav → tors), it doesn't — Archon Plate is heavy, not light. The walk only goes up the hierarchy, never sideways.

Rune sequence

Runeword length is determined by how many RuneN slots are filled. Distribution of the 99 complete runewords:

Stat block

T1 is a holdover from a planned multi-tier system that never shipped — there is no T2 block.

Asterisk columns

*Rune Name, *RunesUsed, *Patch Release, *eol are all engine display/marker columns — the asterisk prefix signals to the loader that they're for display or file-format housekeeping, not gameplay. The runeword's actual identity is Name (Runeword42); the runes-used data is in Rune1–Rune6. Don't query against asterisk columns expecting strict gameplay semantics.

Variable rolls

Most runewords are fully determined — Enigma's +2 to all skills is always +2. But some have Min < Max on one or more stats and roll within that range:

When reporting rolls, always show the range, not the average.

Worked example: Enigma

The canonical body-armor runeword. *Rune Name = Enigma, Name = Runeword<N>:

The engine validates the socket sequence (left-to-right rune codes match Rune1–Rune6), confirms the item type matches (tors walked upward from the specific body-armor base), then applies the seven T1* stats.

Gotcha: rune order matters

Runewords must be socketed in left-to-right rune order. Stealth in body armor is Tal-Eth (r07, r05) — socketing Eth-Tal does not produce Stealth, just two socketed runes with their individual stats. The engine reads sockets left-to-right and matches against the Rune1–Rune6 sequence; any mismatch fails silently.

Cross-references

• gems — Rune1–Rune6 codes (r01–r33) match the rune entries here, which carry the socket-stat data when a rune is socketed elsewhere. Note runes-as-items also live in Misc.txt with the same codes.
• itemtypes — itype*/etype* reference the item-type taxonomy.
• itemstatcost — T1Code* ultimately resolves to stat IDs defined here (via Properties.txt).
• cubemain — rune-upgrade recipes (3 ×r12 → 1 ×r13) feed the runes that go into runewords.
• Properties.txt — defines what each T1Code* resolves to (one or more itemstatcost stats with display logic).
• Misc.txt — defines runes as inventory items (the Rune1–Rune6 columns reference the code field there).