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General Tips †

  • Repair/Recharge cost is very low in ES. You no longer have to worry about the recharge cost. Superior Runeworded items will never bankrupt you.
  • Other mercenaries than Act 2 mercenaries are also useful. All mercenaries have useful support skill(s) like an aura, warcires, etc.
  • Mercenaries hired in Hell has the same stats as the ones hired in Normal (Only the aura of the Act 2 mercenaries changes each difficulty). You can change your mercenary without losing their stats, so I recommend hiring each mercenary at least once to see how they work.
  • Weaken, Iron Maiden and Decrepify reduce monster's physical resist by 60% while Amplify Damage reduces by 90%. Now Amplify Damage isn't the only melee curse to be considered.
  • Inner Sight also reduces monster's physical damage by 5-35% (more than 70% when fully synergized), and this works on top of another curse.
  • Damage Augmenter is a free bonus charm included in the starting items. A must for all physical attack builds, but useless for pure casters. You can make one by a cube recipe for your old characters. 
    Wirt's Leg + Tome of Identify -> Damage Augmenter
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Getting Started †

Starting out in Eastern Sun for the first time, or playing untwinked can be quite a challenge. Here are a few tips that should make it easier:

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Tactics †

  • You start out with a very low chance to hit, so go after easy targets like Fallen until you gain a couple levels.
  • (Edit) All monsters' life was roughly doubled in R5, and characters are given 500 fulminating potions instead, which would let you gain a few levels with ease.
MonsterLevelRemarksMonsterLevelRemarks
Fallen2Dark Spearwoman3Fast
Quillrat2Gargantuan Beast3Stun
Zombie2SlowHungry Dead3Slow
Dark Hunter3FastSkeleton3
  • Please note even the weakest monsters have a twice higher level than you, and this level difference make it very difficult to hit monsters. Attack Rating would be given the highest priority.
  • Don't be afraid to flee back to town and start a new game if you get too many monsters coming after you at once.
  • Every character class can benefit from a javelin/shield combo early on. This gives you the benefit of ranged combat (thrown), or melee combat with the additional defense of a shield. Also, cubing any javelin/throwing/quiver by itself, resets the quantity to 255. Useful to remember if you are out in the wilderness and you get the low quantity warning. [dawe1313]
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Equipments †

  • Socketables: Don't be afraid to stick the socketables you find into a weapon or peice of armor...you can take them out anytime you want by putting the socketed item in your Horadric Cube together with a key. Nothing is destroyed, you get your gems, jewels, or runes back, as well as the item they were in.
  • Gemwords/Runewords: Everyone can benefit from gemwords early on. If you fill all the sockets in a white item with the same type and quality of gem, you'll get a CtC skill as well as the listed bonuses. Many useful low level runewords are also available.
  • Buying Gems: Wish you had more gems of a certain type? You can buy more from Akara, or make a pgem using Secret Recipie #14.
  • Socket Weapons/Armor: Following list shows the maximum socket numbers of the items available in normal Act 1. Because socketables are so powerful and flexible, it's a good idea to stock one or two of maximum socket items when you find them at the shop, for you and your hireling. Please also note hirelings can equip gloves, belt and boots in ES.
Max SocketsMax Sockets
Melee Weapons2-3