Diablo 4 Tempering and Masterworking Guide

Unlock the full potential of your gear in Diablo 4.

By Ali Usama

Diablo 4 Season 4 has introduced a new feature called Tempering. It’s a crafting system to personalize your gear in the game. With it, you can add two specific stats, affixes, to your items. If you want to Temper any equipment, you can do this at the Blacksmith using Temper Manuals.

Once your item is Tempered with its new affixes, you can level up the item with Masterworking. It requires special materials from The Pit, which is a new challenging end-game dungeon series. Masterworking basically supercharges your gear’s stats, taking your character’s abilities to a higher level. With Tempering and Masterworking combined, your gear will not only be more powerful, but more flexible and visually impressive.

How Tempering Works in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 Tempering System

In the past, Diablo games had your weapons gear drop with all its affixes in place. You could then reroll one from Occultist, but that was about it. However, the developers have changed the scenario in Diablo 4 with the Tempering system. Now, you can add two specific affixes to your non-unique gear through Manuals.

Imagine these Manuals as books of recipes and these recipes are affixes. They drop from bosses, world bosses, and the grueling Nightmare Dungeons. Consuming a manual unlocks new affixes that you can add to your items through the Tempering process. If you find a manual of a lower rarity than one you’ve already used, it can even boost the stats range of your affixes.

Each manual falls into one of six categories, and each category matches up with certain types of gear:

  • Weapons: Just for weapons.
  • Offensive: For weapons, amulets, gloves, and rings.
  • Defensive: For shields, helms, chest pieces, pants, and amulets.
  • Utility: For shields, helms, chest pieces, pants, amulets, gloves, and boots.
  • Mobility: For amulets and boots.
  • Resource: For amulets and rings.

For tempering, select two Manuals and roll for affixes by spending some Gold, Veiled Crystals, and salvaging gear materials. If the attempt doesn’t work and you don’t receive the desired affix, you can Temper again, but be careful—each item has a limited number of rerolls available. Use them up and once the Temper counters end for a gear, you’re stuck with what you’ve got.

How to Masterwork Items in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 Masterworking Feature Working

Once your item is fully Tempered, it’s ready for Masterworking at World Tier 4. Masterworking can increase your item’s stats significantly but you’ll need special materials from The Pit—an endgame dungeon series—to do Masterwork on gear. It’s a twelve-level process where each level ups your affixes by 5%, with a huge 25% boost to one random affix at levels four, eight, and twelve.

To enter The Pit, you’ll first need to complete a priority quest upon reaching world tier four. Here, you’ll gather Runeshards, the currency needed to open The Pit. You’ll face a race against time inside, defeating enemies to fill up a bar that once topped, opens a portal to the boss. After defeating this last enemy boss, you’ll be able to unlock the chest having all the valuable materials you require to use the Masterwork system. Be as fast as you can inside The Pit, and you might even level up your tier level, unlocking access to even rarer materials.

With both Tempering and Masterworking at your disposal, your builds in Diablo 4 can be more flexible, powerful, and dazzling. Whether you’re enhancing a sorcerer’s icy reach or a barbarian’s crushing blows, these crafting systems offer a deep, rewarding way to make your mark in Diablo 4.