Game Rating

At release: 9/10

Hellfire expansion: 10/10

Currently: 4/10

Compliments and Complaints

The game spawned a whole bunch of similar games and basically a sub-genre for RPGs, so you have to give it a lot of credit. To me, it feels like they basically took a board game like Heroquest (or the cerebral Dungeons and Dragons) and tried to make it come alive. Instead of dice, they used random number generators (which is the basis for pretty much everything random in all similar games now), but they followed a lot of normal rules about monster fighting and looting. Here are my compliments:

You can choose from three somewhat unique classes (each has different attributes and attribute ranges), plus 3 more if you include the Hellfire expansion. This is a great way for players to find characters that match their playstyle.
There are tons of items that can drop including special unique items that are extra rare and consumable items that can modify your character or equipment (sometimes temporarily).
There are three difficulties to work up through, including remaking games on any difficulty (which yields different randomized quests each time). This gives a way to keep playing the game, but have different things happen to mix it up a bit.
Killing enemies is very fun (when you can reach them).

Overlooking the age of the game (and thus some of the visuals, systems, etc.), here are my complaints:

The movement of the characters is painfully slow, particularly when paired with ranged monsters always automatically fleeing when approached. This makes melee characters suck against ranged monsters (which is basically half of the monsters).
The drop rates for the best items are really low. When combined with how slow clearing levels can be, they require too much time to grind out. The same can be said of getting experience to level characters.
There are still a few bugs in the game to this day (like how increased mana shield decreases the amount absorbed).
There isn’t too much character customization and ways to make a build unique other than playing different classes and intentionally trying different things (made worse by #1).
General killing and clear speed is a bit slow for my liking, but it probably won't bother most players.

Tips

Where to find Save files: C:\GOG Games\Diablo\hellfire

Hellfire Expansion (which includes the ways to open up special quests AND transfer items between characters!)

Mods

Hellfire: Enhanced (makes all uniques findable and fixes the mana shield bug)

Diablo 1 HUD Mod (which pulls all Diablo items and spells into Diablo 1)

Diablo 1 Mods

Transferring Items

You will find the Cornerstone of the World (the CoW) in a small room on level 1 of the Crypt. By placing an item on it, that item will be available for another character of yours in other games. There is only one Cornerstone of the World and it is common for all games; thus, as soon as you pick up the item on it in any game, you will no longer be able to get it from any of your games. Remember that you should never be in the Crypt with any of the two characters that are involved in the swap for it to work. The reason for this is that the game will save and restore the content of the CoW if you are on level 1 in any save game. The effect may range from not being able to transfer the item at all to actually duplicating the item (which, like the infamous cursor duplication is of course a bug). The table below should clarify the result. I recommend that you always save the game while in town when you want to transfer an item via the Cornerstone of the World. This quest will never show up in the quest log.

Duplicating Items

From: https://www.angelfire.com/on/hobbyuniv/howdupe.html

DUPING STUFF

First you got to choose the item you want to dupe!
Then you make sure you have a potion or scroll on your belt but (make sure not to put a good scroll or an elixir, because you might lose the item.
Then you set the item that's going to be duped by you on the ground.
Then walk away from that item about 5 to 7 spaces (but try to do it vertically, because it is so much easier).
Then you click on the item that you are going to duped, your character will start walking to the item.
The instant your character picks up the item, you click on the potion, elixir or scroll on your belt.
And at the moment you duped the item the other person's screen (If you are on battle.net) will say "A Duplicate has been detected by another player."
The potion that you clicked on will still look like a potion but the name will change, and when you set it on the ground, your potion will be gone and there will be the item you want with the right picture. There will be duplicates of the item in your inventory.

WARNINGS of DUPING

When you do this, make sure not to ever have 2 of the same duped items on the ground, or the game will say:"Duplicate item detected, destroying duplicate....." Then it will destroy one of your items.
And some people like me, don't like to dupe (which is cheating) too much and duping is definitely cheating. I admit. I do dupe every once a while. So is up to you to dupe or not.

HELPFULNESS of DUPING IN B.NET

Duping stuff has some very obvious advantages, as do all cheats. And I will go over a few of them for you.
1. If you need a book or something, and you don't have enough gold, dupe something and sell it for your needed money.
2. If you have one awesome ring and the other is a crappy one, ditch the crappy one then dupe the cool one and put it on you.
3. If you have something that someone really needs, then you have two choices to make:
  1. If you have that item and you have no uses, then of course, just give it to them.
  2. If you have the item and you need it, then dupe it in case they run off with it, you can still have some sort of backup.

Reference

Jarulf’s Guide (embedded below)

Jarulf's Diablo 1 Guide.pdf

*Note: I did find a murky pool in the crypt.

*Note: The expansion levels have the following dungeon level:

The Hive Is equivalent to Caves.
The Crypt is equivalent to Hell.

Monsters

Diablo 1 Monsters

Black Deaths (which permanently remove 2 life points every time they hit you)

Formulas

Damage Received

“of thieves” Having an item with this suffix will reduce any trap damage by 50%. In Hellfire it will in addition reduce the damage from any magical or ranged attack from monsters by 50%. This effect is not cumulative if you have more than one item with the suffix.
“- damage taken” Having any item with a suffix that reduces damage (or in the case of a cursed suffix,increases it), will reduce any damage, even magical, done by a monster by the combined amount of all the suffixes you are wearing. Damage can never be reduced below 1 by this effect.
“Reflect” In Hellfire the Reflect spell will reduce the amount of melee damage a monster does to a player by 20 to 29%.
1. player vs player All magic damage is halved in player versus player attacks. This includes the damage by Bone Spirit, which will only reduce 1/6 of current life.
Resistance Having any item which gives you resistance will reduce any magical attack of the same type by the total resistance of that type you have. Maximum resistance is 75%, which is shown with the letters MAX. Note: resistances are percentile.
Mana Shield If you are using a Mana Shield, it will reduce the damage by 33% in Diablo and by (1/(3·slvl) ·100)% (if slvl is higher than 7, set slvl to 7) in Hellfire. In addition it will remove mana instead of life.

Checks for hit recovery are done between step 4 and 5 and will thus not be affected by the use of Mana Shield.

Damage Done

Damage done by players is composed of two parts, character damage and weapon damage. The character damage is based on your character’s stats and can be calculated with the formulas below. To that damage you add the damage of any weapon, or weapons in the case of the Bard, you have equipped.

To Hit

if the target monster is an Illusion Weaver that is currently running away, exit as it is at the moment immune to any attack
if the target monster is Stone Cursed, the attack is an automatic hit, go directly to damage calculations
calculate 50 + Dex/2 + ToHititems + clvl + bonusplayer
in Hellfire, if the player has any item with the ”penetrate armor” effect, temporarily reduce ACmonster asappropriate
subtract ACmonster
in Hellfire, if the attack is an adjacent quarter damage attack, subtract 70 - 2·clvl (minimum 30)
if the value calculated is below 5, set it to 5
if the value calculated is above 95, set it to 95
the value now achieved is the final chance to hit (FTH)
a hit is secured if Rnd[100] < FTH

The steps 3-8 above can be summarized to:

FTH = 50 + Dex/2 + ToHititems + clvl + bonusplayer - ACmonster - penaltyquarter damage

In Diablo, ToHititems includes the effect of items with the ”penetrate armor” effect.
The bonusplayer is 20 for Warriors and 0 for all other classes.
penaltyquarter damage only applies to certain attacks in Hellfire, see chapter 2.2.2 for more information.
Note that if FTH is below 5 or above 95 it is adjusted to 5 and 95. This is commonly referred to as the auto hit and auto miss of a character.

Damage

calculate Rnd[maxbase weapon damage - minbase weapon damage + 1] + minbase weapon damage (this is basically a random value within the weapons base damage range)
add +% damage
add +damage
add character damage
if the attacker is a Warrior or Barbarian then double damage if Rnd[100] < clvl (critical hit)
if the monster is undead or an animal, adjust the damage according to the table in chapter 5.1 under monster type, that is, under certain circumstances multiply damage by 1.5 or divide damage by 2
if the monster is a demon, triple the damage if the player is carrying any item with the ”+200% damage versus demons” effect
1. (broken if used with bows)
in Hellfire, if the attacker has an item with the devastation effect and Rnd[100] < 5, triple the damage
in Hellfire, if the attacker has an item with the jester’s effect:
1. 50% of the time multiply damage by Rnd[100]/100
2. the other 50% multiply damage by 5·(Rnd[100]+20)/100
in Hellfire, if the attack is an adjacent ”quarter” damage attack, divide the damage by 4 (hence the ”quarter” damage)
in Hellfire, if the attacker has an item with the peril effect, double the damage
the value now achieved is the final damage (FD)
deal FD to the target

Critical Hit

Warriors and Barbarians have the ability to do a critical hit while doing melee attacks. The chance for a critical hit is clvl% and a critical hit does twice the damage.

Classes

Warrior

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Warrior

Rogue

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Rogue

Sorcerer

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Sorcerer

Monk

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Monk_(Hellfire)

Bard

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Bard

Barbarian

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Barbarian_(Hellfire)

Spells

Bone Spirit

From: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Bone_Spirit_(Diablo_I)

Regardless of Spell Level and other stats, it will always deal damage equal to 1/3 of the target's current Life (not maximum Life) in Magic damage.

Items

Unique Weapons

Unique Armor

Unique Jewelry

Empyrean Band (which has the “of Thieves” affix which reduces trap damage by 50% and also applies to ranged attacks and spells)

Note: Magical items have a 16% chance to be unique.

Every unique item that I want can be farmed in Normal and all of those drop best on dlvl 15, except Shirotachi which is dlvl 11

Staves

When stave charges are depleted, the staff still works as a weapon and can be fully refilled without any consequence (other than gold cost).

Consumables

Healing Potions and Scrolls

Most oils only stay on the items until you create a new game (meaning you select “New Game” from the main menu with a character, not simply logout of your session).
Only oils that affect durability carry over when you start a new game.
Oil of Permanence is an oil that drops in single-player which makes an item indestructible.

Character Builds

Jil

Warrior (Male) - using a club and shield: Jil (Tower of Druaga Anime Show)

Spells:

Town Portal
Reflect
depending on which immunities ranged enemies have, maybe use -
- fireball [lvl 3 - 68 magic, 14 mana]
- lightning [lvl 8 - 66 magic, 6 mana]
- blood star [lvl 1 - 70 magic, 25 mana]

Weapons

Note: A Warrior attacks fastest with a sword or club (.45).

Civerb’s Cudgel (mace [1-8]) -2 magic, -5 dexterity, +200% total damage versus demons (have)

Armor

Defensive strategy: block what you can and mitigate whatever gets through.

Note: warriors have automatic maximum block speed.

Note: if you get enough damage reduction, you shouldn't have "stun" animations and thus don't require any hit recovery! This works well on the warrior with “Reflect” and a shield.

Helm -
1. Godly Great Helm of osmosis (+170 - 200% armor, -5 or 6 damage from enemies)
Chest -
1. Scavenger Carapace (AC -6 - -10, +5 dexterity, +40% resist lightning, -15 damage from enemies) (have)
Shield -
1. Godly Tower Shield of absorption (+170 - 200% armor class, -3 damage from enemies)

Jewelry

Amulet -
1. Obsidian Amulet of thieves/harmony (+31 - 40% to all resists, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery)
Rings -
1. Ring of Engagement (AC 5, -1 or -2 damage from enemies, 1-3 damage to attacker, reduces target’s armor by 87.5%)
2. (1) Obsidian Ring of thieves/harmony (+31 - 40% to all resists, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery)

Birgitte

Rogue (Female) - using a bow: Birgitte Silverbow (The Wheel of Time Books)

Spells:

Town Portal
maybe Golem

Weapons

Note: A Rogue attacks fastest with a bow (.35).

1. Gnat Sting hunter’s bow multiple arrows (3), unusual item damage (1-2), quick attack, indestructible
2. Windforce Long War Bow [1-14 damage] (+5 strength, +200% damage, knocks target back) (I should be able to farm for Eaglehorn or this by resetting games and walking into level 9, then clicking on the slain hero enough times since it always drops long battle bows or possibly long war bows.)

Armor

Defensive strategy: ranged characters shouldn’t get hit much to begin with, but dodge everything else with AC from dex and items.

Helm -
1. Gotterdamerung (AC 60, +20 all attributes, all resistances=0%, -4 damage from enemies, -40% light radius)
Chest -
1. Armor of Gloom (AC 225, all resistances=0%, -20% light radius, no strength requirements) Note: This item does not drop normally.

Jewelry

Amulet -
1. Gold Amulet of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)
Rings -
1. (2) Gold Ring of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)

Gandalf

Sorcerer (Male) - using staff and casting apocalypse: a fire-looking spell: Gandalf (Lord of the Rings Books)

Spells:

Apocalypse (which can only be learned from the book that drops off the boss Na-Krul of Hellfire), since it isn’t based on a type of elemental damage and thus can not be reduced.
Town Portal
Learn them all just because you can

Note: Maximum base slvl (spell level) is 15. With the correct items equipped, the modified slvl (spell level) can be brought to a maximum of 20.

Note: When casting a spell from a scroll or staff, if you know the spell, it will have the same slvl as the learned spell (including any modifications from items). If you don’t know the spell, it will be cast at slvl 1 (plus any modifications from items).

There is a bug, however. If you cast a spell from a scroll and currently have another spell hot keyed, it will use the slvl of the hot keyed spell instead of the spell you are casting. This is true even if you don’t know the spell.

Weapons

Note: A Sorcerer attacks fastest with a spell (.4).

Note: Spells on staves take the place of a suffix.

1. Arch-Angel’s Staff (+2 to spell levels) of Magi (allows user to cast the “Magi” spell which completely refills the player’s mana)
  - “Of Magi” can never be bought from Adria, but can drop or maybe be bought from Wirt (since the spell qlvl is 20 and Adria can only do up to 16).
2. Arch-Angel’s Staff (+2 to spell levels) of Mana (allows user to cast the “Mana” spell which refills the player’s mana) (have)
  - This item can be bought straight from Adria with enough time and reloading of games.

Armor

Defensive strategy: ranged characters shouldn’t get hit much (but maybe get a golem to tank for him).

Helm -
1. Thinking Cap - +30 mana, +20% resist all, +2 spell levels, altered durability (1) (but keep in mind that blacksmith oil can permanently raise the durability of items) (have)
Chest -
1. Naj’s Light Plate - +5 magic, +20 mana, +20% resist all, +1 spell level, no strength requirements

Jewelry

Need: 1 Obsidian prefix, 2 Dragon’s prefix, 1 of thieves suffix, 1 of harmony suffix, 1 of the zodiac suffix.

Amulet -
1. Obsidian/Dragon’s Amulet of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+51 - 60 mana, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)
Rings -
1. (2) Obsidian/Dragon’s Ring of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+51 - 60 mana, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)

Miroku

Monk (Male) - using a staff: Miroku (Inuyasha Anime Show)

Spells:

Town Portal

Weapons

Note: A Monk attacks fastest barehanded (.35) or with a staff (.4).

Note: A Monk can do adjacent quarter damage with a staff.

Note: A Monk gains double the damage from attributes if using a staff or being bare-handed:

Monk with staff or bare-handed: (Str+Dex) · clvl / 150
Monk with other weapons: (Str+Dex) · clvl / 300

Note: A Monk can also block with a staff and with at least one hand bare.

1. Magical War Staff [8 - 16 damage] with:
  1. King’s (+76 - 100% chance to hit / +151 - 175% damage) W prefix 28
  2. of haste (fastest attack speed) W suffix 27
  3. of mana shield (thus adding effective health pool) (have)

Note: A King’s War Staff can be bought from Adria in Normal, but it will contain a spell instead of a suffix (self-tested).

Armor

Defensive strategy: the monk should have 95% block chance (since monsters have a baseline 5% chance to hit).

Helm -
1. The Undead Crown (AC 8, 0-12.5% steal life) (have)
Chest -
1. Arkaine’s Valor [ring mail gives +100 AC] (AC 25, +10 vitality, -3 damage from enemies, fastest hit recovery) (have)

Note: monks armor count equation differs based on the type of chest armor according to the following equations:

Monk with plate: Dex/5 + ACitems
Monk with mail (or unique plate): Dex/5 + ACitems + clvl/2
Monk with leather, other light armor (or unique mail): Dex/5 + ACitems + 2·clvl

Jewelry

Amulet -
1. Obsidian/Gold Amulet of thieves/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/+16 - 20 all attributes)
Rings -
1. (2) Obsidian/Gold Ring of thieves/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/+16 - 20 all attributes)

Mikasa

Bard (Female) - using dual-wielded swords: Mikasa (Attack on Titan Anime Show)

Spells:

Town Portal

Weapons

Note: A Bard attacks fastest with a sword or club (.5).

Note: A Bard only benefits from the fastest weapon equipped.

Note: A Bard can do adjacent quarter damage with two swords.

Note: For the Bard, damage enhancements from the king’s and merciless series of prefixes (+% damage) are added together if they occur on both weapons. It is then applied to the sum of both weapons’ damage. Damage from enhancements of the slaughter series is only applicable to the weapon it comes on.

Dual-wield Swords -
1. Shirotachi (great sword [10-20]) +6 lightning damage, penetrates target’s armor (half AC), fastest attack, one-handed
2. Use a Bastard Sword [6-15 damage] (as it has the highest base damage). Affixes for Swords:
  - King’s (+76 - 100% chance to hit / +151 - 175% damage) W prefix 28
  - Crystalline (+200 - 280% damage done) W prefix 5
  - of bashing (penetrates 75% of armor) W suffix 17
  - of haste (fastest attack speed) W suffix 27
  - of blood (5% life steal) W suffix 19
  - of the heavens (+12 - 15 to all attributes) W suffix 25

(I should be able to farm for this by simply resetting games and walking into level 9 and clicking on the slain hero enough times on a bard since it always drops bastard swords.)

Armor

Defensive strategy: AC from dex and items, then rely on thieves and all resistance.

Helm -
1. Veil of Steel (+15 strength, +15 vitality, -30 mana, +60% armor, +50% resist all, -20% light radius) (have)
2. Royal Circlet (AC 40, +10 all attributes, +40 mana, +10% light radius)
Chest -
1. Godly Full Plate Mail of thieves/harmony (+170 - 200% armor, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery)

Jewelry

Amulet -
1. Obsidian/Gold Amulet of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)
Rings -
1. (2) Obsidian/Gold Ring of thieves/harmony/the zodiac (+31 - 40% to all resists/+21 - 30% chance to hit, absorbs half of trap, magical, and ranged attack damage/fastest hit recovery/+16 - 20 all attributes)

Gimli

Barbarian (Male) - using axes: Gimli (Lord of the Rings Book Series)

Spells:

Town Portal

Weapons

Note: A barbarian attacks fastest with a club or axe (.4).

Note: A barbarian can do adjacent quarter damage using an axe, a two-handed sword or a maul, without having a shield equipped at the same time.

Note: Using an axe or club on a barbarian changes the damage from strength by dividing by 75 instead of 100.

Note: Mauls also give the barb the inherent “of stability” modifier and reduce hit recovery from .3 to .2 (unless using a harmony suffix).

Note: A barbarian NOT using a shield gains additional damage at vit*clvl/100.

Note: A barbarian automatically has maximum block speed.

Axes -
1. Bloodslayer (broad axe [8-20]) -5 all attributes, +100% damage, +200% total damage versus demons, -1 spell level
2. Great Axe [12-30 damage] with:
  - Crystalline (+200 - 280% damage done) W prefix 5
  - of haste (fastest attack speed) W suffix 27

Armor

Defensive strategy: max resistances and some AC, but mostly just kill everything before it can kill you.

Note: The Barbarian also gets 1% resistance per level.

Note: if you get enough damage reduction, you shouldn't have "stun" animations and require any hit recovery! This works well on the barbarian because damage>1.25xclvl (instead of damage>clvl as on every other class).

Helm -
1. Godly Great Helm of harmony (+170 - 200% armor, fastest hit recovery)
Chest -
1. Bovine Plate (AC 150, -50 mana, +30% resist all, -2 spell levels, +50% light radius, indestructible) (have)

Jewelry

Amulet -
1. [Any prefix] Amulet of the zodiac (?, +16 - 20 all attributes)
Rings -
1. Ring of Engagement (AC 5, -1 or -2 damage from enemies, 1-3 damage to attacker, reduces target’s armor by 87.5%) is a MUST, since the barbarian actually gets a 100% hit chance reduction and already has a lower chance than other classes due to low dexterity.
2. Empyrean Band (+2 all attributes, fast hit recovery, absorbs half of trap damage, +20% light radius) (have)

Key Bindings

F1 - Displays help.

P - Pause's the game.

ESCAPE - Brings up the main menu.

B - Open the spell book

C - Views the character information.

I - Examine inventory.

Q - Reads the quest log.

S - Displays the spell book.

Z - Zooms in or out.

SHIFT - Hold down when attacking to prevent the character from moving.

TAB - Displays the map.

+/- - Zoom the map in or out.

ARROW KEYS - scroll Automap.

1-8 - use specific belt item.

F5-F8 - Highlight spells in spell book and press f5-f8 to assign hotkey. Once assigned, the key will prepare that specific spell.

F9-F12 - Auto Send messages during auto play.

ENTER - Open message window or send message.

SPACEBAR - Closes all open windows.