Diablo II: Resurrected – Hardcore / How to Survive (Act II – Normal)

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Hardcore – How to Survive Act II – Normal

Please note: all credit goes to Zax!

General Tips

  • Keep 1 antidote with you.
  • Hire Combat Mercenary with Prayer aura, he will be very usefull and if you level up properly and equip him with some decent stuff, he can practicaly solo whole normal difficulty with exception of boss encounters.
  • Be vigilant, Players killer usualy starts to hunt in ACT II Normal.
  • Learn more about recipes in Horadric cube, they might really help you.
  • You can buy 3 socket breast plates and 3 socket shields from Fara.
  • Lysander can sell better Healing and Mana potions than Akara.

Common Places and Events Which Can Get You Killed

Player killers (PK): Sewers is commonly known place where many player killers try to kill others. They will wait for you to go down to sewers and then declare hostility and immediatelly follow you to kill you. Same can be done with town exist to wilderness so be very carefull around suspicious players who have higher level. Its not a rule, but commonly used unique weapon by PK charger paladins “Bonesnap” require level 24 so yeah…


Burning dead Archers: These skeleton archers can be found in Sewers, they can be dangerous in big numbers as they shoot Fire arrows which deal quite a lot of damage, so dont face too many of them at once or they will overwhelm you and you will die.

Radament: Super unique Greater Mummy at the end of Sewers level 3. He has army of Skeletons and skeleton mages. Radament is Extra fast and is quite strong figher at close range. He can also poison you. Have some Antidotes with you and try to lure his skeletons away to kill them out of his range otherwise he will keep reviving them. Skill or efects which destroy bodies can help (Find Potion, slain monster rest in piece, raise skeleton, find item, Find Potion, Cold skills…) Radament can also super poison you so be carefull with that as it can drain your Life at extreme speed.

Poison/Super Poison: ACT II has many monster who can deal poison damage to you. Sometimes can poison effect remain for a very long time slowly draining your Life. Monsters has also chance to deal super poison attack which you will notice by very strong poison effect which cannot be outhealed by Health potions. If you dont have antidote with you, quickly visit town to heal yourself. You will notice poison by green color like on screen below.

Lightning Beetles: These beeltes release charged bolts when they are hit. If you dont have resistance to Lightning and face more beetles at once, they can do a lot of damage. You will see beetles in many ACT II locations and can see them right outside of town sometimes. Charged bolt damage is also often buffed by special abilities of unique Beetles or their minions, dealing bonus Fire or Cold damage.

Creeping Feature: Super unique Mummy in Stone tomb level 2. You dont have to go here, but if you do just be carefull as Creeping Feature is Extra strong so he can do quite a lot of dmg and is always Cold enchanted too.

Greater Mummies: A lot of Health and several dangerous attacks, unholy bolt dealing magic dmg, they can poison you and also they will keep reviving skeletons and mummies. Be carefull when you will see few of them in one big room or in champion pack as they can do a lot of dmg at long range and block you with revived undead.

Maggot Lair: Generaly hated location because of narrow paths and lighting beetles. Danger here is that you can be stuck between monster or other players and monsters. It can happen o battle net or even when playing solo. If you are stuck, use town portal to get out.

Coldworm the Burrower: Super unique Coldworm the Burrower is Cold enchanted so Cold nova is released upon death together with additional bonus poison damage. If your resistances are weaker, use merc to kill her while you are out of Cold Nova raneg. Coldworm can be found at the end of Maggot Lair.

Fangskin: Super Unique Snake Fangskin is Extra fast and Lightning Enchanted and has few minions with him. He is quite dangerous enemy. As all snakes his pack can use Charge attack which always hits and they can keep knocking you around with it if you let them surround you. Try to use merc as bait and have way to get out back to first level if you are in danger. Fangskin is at second level of Claw Viper Temple.

Blunderbores: Not dangerous alone but if they surround you, you will be in big trouble because they have pretty strong attack and chance to stun you. Blunderbores can be found in Pallace and Tal Rasha´s Tombs.

Summoner: Super Unique monster guarding entrance to Canyon of the Magi at end of Arcane Sanctuary. Try to lure out monster who are close to him or kill them before you use the stairs to move to Summoner platform. If you dont clear monsters first, you can get easily stuck between them. And Summoner will kill you with his Fireball and Glacial Spike which do a lot of damage on normal.

Ancient Kaa the Soulless: Super Unique Greater Mummy in one of the fake Tal Rasha´s Tomb. Same nasty enemy as normal Greater mummy but on top of it with bonus poison damage, mana burn, extra strong and Lightning enchanted. You dont have to fight him if you dont want to.

Duriel: ACT II final boss and dangerous enemy to all who are not prepared properly to face him. I have seen a lot of players die to him on normal and he is often feared boss. Duriels is melee fighter who can attack pretty fast and he is using Holy freezy aura so he is nightmare for any melee character. Here are tips which will greatly help you against him:

  • Prepare some Rejuvenation potions.
  • Thawing potions(drink few of them to resist his cold damage better.
  • Breast Plate and Helm from Fara socketed with rubies to raise your Life.
  • High block chance is the best way how you can coutner him because most of his dmg goes from melee attacks. He will not be able to do much to you with high block.
  • Be properly leveled up, preferably to lvl 24.
  • Mercenary can really help against Duriel, he can tank him while you kill him or other way around if you are durable enough and Mercenary having strong weapon.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15028 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices.

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