Diablo II

This page is for the original release. For the 2021 remaster, see Diablo II: Resurrected.

Diablo II

Developers
	Blizzard North
Publishers
	Blizzard Entertainment
Japan	Capcom
Release dates
Windows	June 29, 2000
Mac OS (Classic)	July 26, 2000
macOS (OS X)	March 28, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	ARPG
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Diablo

Diablo
Diablo	1997
Diablo II	2000
Diablo III	2012
Diablo II: Resurrected	2021
Diablo Immortal	2022
Diablo IV	2023

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Diablo II is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric ARPG game in the Diablo series.

The game received the Lord of Destruction expansion pack in June 2001. Like prior Blizzard games, both titles were supported simultaneously. The initial support cycle lasted until October 2011 with patch 1.13d, during which time the disc check was removed (supposing an official workaround is used), many bugs were fixed and balancing was refined. Four additional compatibility patches were published between March and June 2016, the latest being 1.14d.

The game was succeeded by Diablo II: Resurrected September 2021, but the original 2000 version with the latest patch is still available for sale on Battle.net. Running this version on present-day systems does not cause major issues, but unofficial methods are needed for modern quality-of-life improvements like widescreen resolution unless running Resurrected.

General information

Diablo II Forum

Unofficial Diablo Wiki

Battle.net Support for game

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Base game uses SecuROM 3 DRM. Lord of Destruction uses SecuROM 4 DRM. Both were removed in patch 1.12; see Run game without CD. Released on 3 CDs.
Battle.net		Digital download.

Multiple demo versions are available from BlizzardArchive.com.

Version differences

The Diablo Battle Chest is a box set containing Diablo II and Lord of Destruction, as well as an official strategy guide for both games. Older copies (2006 and earlier) of the Battle Chest include Diablo.

Later editions of the BestSeller Series budget release include both Diablo II and Lord of Destruction.

The Battle.net version of the game (prior to the release of Diablo II: Resurrected included native support for Intel Macs and modern Windows. If a retail version is already owned, the serial key can be registered with a Battle.net account to get the digital release for free. Note that Diablo II and Lord of Destruction are separate downloads.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion pack includes new classes and a new story act.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Lord of Destruction	Included with the Diablo Battle Chest. Can be bought from the Battle.net store.

Essential improvements

Patches

The game updates automatically when connecting to Battle.net, though it is still possible to download and apply patches manually. Older patch versions can be found at www.patches-scrolls.de and at soggi.org.

Official patches

The most up-to-date standalone installer version for the retail release is 1.14d.

Official support for Intel Macs was added in via the v1.14a patch.

Install the Diablo II patch only if Lord of Destruction is not installed.

Operating System	Diablo II	Lord of Destruction
Windows	Blizzard FTP Server	Blizzard FTP Server
Mac	Blizzard FTP Server	Blizzard FTP Server

D2DX

D2DX is a complete solution to make Diablo II run well on modern PCs, with high fps and better resolutions.

Adds widescreen support for 1.14d and lower.

Bypasses the internal 25 FPS limit and allows up to 60 FPS.

Peixoto's patch

Peixoto's patch allows nearest neighbor or xBRz scaling in DirectDraw mode.

High resolution patch compatibility

Diablo II: Patching only to version 1.12a is recommended for the use of the high resolution patch.

Lord of Destruction: Patching only to version 1.12a is recommended for the use of the high resolution patch.

When using 1.12a, official Battle.net play will not be available, as that requires the latest patch.

Run game without CD

As of patch 1.12, the game officially supports running with no CD. Some newer copies of the game are set up to run with no CD by default.

If CD keys are registered on the Battle.net website, disc-free installers can be installed, even the discs themselves are lost.

Although there is no limit to how many computers the game can be installed to, only one computer can be logged in to Battle.net with a given CD key at a time.

For older copies of the game, do the following:

(Re)install and copy files

Perform a "full" installation (not a minimal install) of Diablo II (and Lord of Destruction if applicable). Install patch 1.12 or later. Copy all .MPQ files from the Diablo II (and LoD, if applicable) discs to <path-to-game>. Ignore any files that already exist. For most users, you will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the Play disc (LoD owners should also copy D2xMusic.mpq from the LoD disc). Notes For the Mac OS version, rename D2Music.mpq to Diablo II Music (for LoD, also rename D2xMusic.mpq to Diablo II Expansion Music.

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos
Download Diablo 2 No Intro Mod. Extract data to the installation folder. Start the game with the -direct -txt command line arguments.

Use BaseMod

Use Succulent

Game data

In-game automap settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Diablo II
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

For single player only. See Battle.net save files for details on the multiplayer save system

The path %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Diablo II is applicable as of the v1.14 patch.

Battle.net save files

Battle.net Realm characters are stored in the cloud and are tied to the Battle.net account; however, they are only accessible on the realm (regional server) on which they were created (US-East, US-West, etc.). They are not playable in singleplayer, LAN, Open Battle.net, or direct-IP connection online play. Realm characters expire after 90 days of inactivity; to reset the inactivity timer, you will need to perform basic activity, such as buying or selling an item or killing a monster. In addition, newly created Realm characters expire after 10 days unless they are played for at least 2 hours during those 10 days. "Open" (non-Realm) characters are used for single-player, LAN, Open Battle.net, and direct-IP-connection online play; they are not playable on the Battle.net Realms. They are stored locally in the "save" folder in your DII installation folder. Note that there is no hack protection for Open characters.

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Maximum resolution available for the base game is 640x480. LOD expansion introduces 800x600. See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use Succulent for a better experience.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use MultiRes and GameCompanion.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Available via Sven's Glide Wrapper.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Single player is capped at 25 FPS; See Mouse lag/low frame rate in single player.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

640x480 is the highest available resolution for the vanilla version of Diablo II without Lord of Destruction expansion pack. 800x600 is the highest available resolution for the Lord of Destruction expansion pack.

Use D2DX
Download the d2dx.zip file. Extract glide3x.dll file from the archive into <path-to-game>. Run the game with the -3dfx command line argument.

Use D2MultiRes

This allows true (unstretched) high resolution, resulting in a bird's eye view and the ability to see more of the surrounding area. Patch the game to version 1.12a. Higher versions are incompatible with D2MultiRes. Install D2MultiRes. Set the game to use Direct3D or DirectDraw by running D2VidTst.exe (may require Windows Vista compatibility mode). Run D2MultiResGame.exe (may require Windows Vista compatibility mode). Go to menu → Options -> Video Options -> Resolution to choose a new resolution. Notes This is considered a hack on Battle.net.

Input

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		4.0 also supported.
Subtitles		On by default. Can be toggled
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		A3D 2.0 & EAX 2.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				US and EU versions
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Japanese release.
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation: Diablo II / Lord of Destruction.
Russian				1) Unofficial translation by Fargus / Dm / L`Autour – text or audio 2) Unofficial translation subtitle in video by 8 bit / frezzze
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8
Online play		8

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	4000, 6112

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		2D Playing 2D with vorpX requires DGVoodoo2 and vorpx DGVoodoo2 base profile.

Issues fixed

Graphical glitches and/or slowdowns in full screen mode

Run the Video Test again

Use D2DX

Colorization problems Windows Vista and newer

Update the game to v1.14b or newer.

Better performance with Glide wrapper

Diablo II supports three different rendering modes: DirectDraw, Direct3D and Glide. DirectDraw offers the worst performance, and does not support perspective effects. Direct3D offers better performance but causes color issues on many newer machines. Glide offers the best performance of them all, no color issues, and improved ground textures to boot, but is not natively compatible with non-3DFX graphics cards. However, there are many Glide wrappers that emulate Glide in OpenGL. The most popular of these is Sven's Glide Wrapper, which was specifically designed for this game; other general-purpose Glide wrappers that work with multiple games are also available.

How to Download the Sven Glide Wrapper[citation needed]

Download the latest version of Sven's Glide Wrapper, and extract it to <path-to-game>. Run glide-init.exe. Click the Deutsch-English button to switch the menu language to English. Click the Query OpenGL-infos button. A video test should run. Click Renderer, then set texture-memory to the recommended value. Click Test. A video test should run. Assuming it runs correctly, exit. Run D2VidTst.exe. Several video tests should run; afterwards, it should prompt you to choose between the three graphics modes. Select Glide. Since the 1.14 update, the D2VidTst.exe has been removed. To enable Glide, use the -3dfx command line argument. Launch Diablo II. Note that the Glide Wrapper sets the gamma to maximum by default.

Additional useful Sven's Glide Wrapper settings

Type	Name/Code	Info
Settings	window-mode	Be aware that when used in combination with static size window-scaling the mouse cursor will jump around the screen when opening your inventory via the keyboard. All window-mode-specific settings only work if you have this setting enabled.
Settings	captured mouse	If you're running in a window, or in fullscreen with a second monitor attached, this will lock the mouse cursor to the game screen. If you are running in fullscreen on your only monitor, this will have no effect.
Settings	keep aspect ratio	Turn this on if you have a widescreen monitor, and are running in a window or have Desktop Resolution on, to force the game to display in 4:3 letterbox rather than stretched.
Settings	window extras	Turning this on will allow you to resize the window in Windowed Mode.
Settings	refreshrate	If you are running in Fullscreen Mode and are having problems, try setting this to the refresh rate of your monitor.
Settings	desktopresolution	In Fullscreen Mode, this makes it so that, instead of changing the output resolution of your graphics card, the game is scaled up to that resolution. This can decrease performance, so it's recommended to turn this on if and only if your monitor has trouble displaying 640x480 and/or 800x600 resolutions (some TFT monitors have this problem), or if you want to use bilinear filtering.
Renderer	32 bit rendering	Turn this on if and only if your graphics card has trouble rendering 16-bit color.
Renderer	bilinear filtering	If Settings - desktopresolution is enabled, this can increase image quality at the expense of performance.
Renderer	supersampling	If Extensions - WGL_ARB_render_texture is enabled, this can increase image quality at the expense of performance.
Renderer	shader-gamma	In Windowed Mode, this will make the gamma setting only affect the Diablo II window. Also, try this setting if you are trying to take screenshots, but they come out lighter or darker than what is displayed on screen. However, this reduces performance.
Renderer	keep desktop composition	Under Windows Vista/7, this will stop the game from disabling Aero effects. This can decrease performance.
Extensions		Usually all of these should be enabled, except for the ones listed as unsupported. The main exception is WGL_ARB_render_texture, which increases the image quality if Desktop Resolution"is activated or if you are running in windowed mode and have changed the window size, at the expense of performance. If you are having problems, try disabling extensions.

Battle.net Verify Error

If are unable to connect to Battle.net on Windows Vista or newer, the problem is that the installation folder is a location which requires administrator access (i.e. the default install location, C:\Program Files (x86)).

Install the game to a non-protected folder (e.g. C:\Games[citation needed]

Run the game as administrator[citation needed]

Unhandled Exception: Access Violation (c000005) Error

Run Diablo II.exe in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3.[citation needed]

Install the Glide Wrapper[citation needed]

Mouse lag/low frame rate in singleplayer

Diablo II caps the frame rate at 25 FPS in singleplayer mode; some users have reported that this causes mouse lag.

Multiplayer mode does not have this cap.

One workaround is to create a password-protected "Other Multiplayer" game; "Other Multiplayer" characters are shared with singleplayer mode. This does not require a full connection to Battle.net or a LAN, and nobody will be able to join the game unless the IP address and password are given. However, unlike in single-player mode, the map will be randomly regenerated each time (though teleporting between any visited waypoints is possible).

Another workaround is to install BaseMod.

Battle.net accounts

"Legacy" Battle.net accounts (for Diablo II and WarCraft II) are not the same as Battle.net 2.0 accounts (for Diablo III, StarCraft Remastered, StarCraft II, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft). An account can be created in-game.

Up to eight characters can be created per account, but there is no limit on the number of accounts a player can have. A separate copy of the game is not needed for each account. However, if Diablo II is installed on multiple computers using the same CD key, only one of those computers can be connected to Battle.net at one time.

Cannot detect a valid TCP/IP address

Make sure that the hostname is different from localhost.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
DirectDraw	6.1
OpenGL		Mac OS and OS X only.
Glide	3.0
Software renderer

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)					OS X support arrived in March 2002, then universal binary support in 2007.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video, Smacker Video Technology
Multiplayer	Battle.net

Command line

Command-line arguments

Command	Description
-w	Runs the game in windowed mode (also fixes slow start on Vista/7)
-ns	No Sound
-skiptobnet	Connects to closed Battle.net on start
-nofixaspect	(windowed mode only) Disables the 4:3 ratio lock otherwise enforced when maximizing the game window.
-act5	New Single Player characters start in Act 5 with character level set to 33

In-game commands

Command	Description
/fps	Shows diagnostic information such as FPS, memory usage and latency
/nopickup	Disables picking up of items unless ALT (show items) is held
/soundchaosdebug	Fills out the available amount of sound channels with all sounds found in Diablo 2
/players X	where X is 1 to 8, changes the "player count" (to increase difficulty and experience gain) to the set amount (single player and local network play only)

Mods

Fixed Font

Fixes the 5 looking like a 6 in one of the game's fonts.

Median XL: Ultimative

A total conversion mod for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction that modifies the game by replacing character skills, improving items and monsters, and adding new uberquests (1.13c recommended).

BaseMod

A mod that fixes many bugs (and includes some bugfixes from other creators, like Fixed Font mod) and adds few important QoLs.

PlugY

A mod that adds infinite and shared storage along with other features.

Project Diablo 2

A mod that maintains the Lord of Destruction experience and provides consistent ladder resets while improving on the game as if development never ceased.

Succulent

A single-player mod that makes the game closer to Diablo 1 and the original Diablo 2 (1.00-1.06) while providing some quality of life and other improvements.

System requirements

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	650 MB	1.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 6.1 compatible

Mac OS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	8.1	9.2.2
Processor (CPU)	G3 processor or equivalent
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	650 MB	950 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA video card