Puzzle Ring

The Puzzle Ring is a Legendary Ring in Diablo III. It requires character level 29 to drop. In addition to its unusual legendary power - causing a goblin to pick up Normal Items and periodically drop a better item in exchange - it can be transmuted in Kanai's Cube to open a portal to The Vault.

Unique power

The summoned goblin permanently accompanies the character, and keeps the Normal Items it picks up. It does not pick up items dropped from a character's inventory, nor those intended for Transmogrification. The goblin will make a sound when its item collection counter reaches max and it drops a Rare Item, which will always have 6 affixes, or infrequently a Legendary Item. The counter persists through death, changing locations, and un-equipping the ring, though it resets between game sessions.

The Rare Items received from the goblin are not a worthwhile compensation for the Normal Items taken: both qualities are primarily salvaged for their Veiled Crystals and Reusable Parts, respectively, and Kanai's Cube allows direct 1-to-1 conversion of Parts to Crystals with low overhead cost. For every 1 Veiled Crystal from the rare, the player misses at least 7 Reusable Parts for each of the dozen or more normal items the goblin scavenged, an abysmal exchange rate. Only the chance for a Legendary Item is potentially a net positive, depending on a player's willingness to sacrifice crafting materials on this pursuit.

As a transmutation item

Any Puzzle Ring can be transmuted in Kanai's Cube, destroying it in process, to open a one-time portal to the The Vault. The Cube recipe book does not list this option - the Ring is simply placed in the Cube and transmuted. The Vault is a short level filled with treasure and a few enemies including several Treasure Goblins, ending with a fight against Greed. "Vault runs" from lower-level rings do not yield as many riches, regardless of character level. Using an Ancient or Primal Ring on the other hand will instead lead to The Ancient Vault, a midnight-dark version of the same level in which every single Vault Sentry has been replaced with a Treasure Goblin.

Stats (Level 29)

Puzzle Ring
Legendary Ring

Clearly the product of an ingenious and befuddling mind, this ring has interlocking pieces that rotate and shift to reveal strange glowing patterns. Every configuration reveals a different magical property.

Past versions

In at least one version of Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition, it was possible to drop Normal Items from the inventory for the goblin to collect.^[1] This is no longer possible on the current PC version.^[2]

Prior to the Reaper of Souls era, the legendary power granted a chance to spawn a normal, enemy Treasure Goblin when the character was hit by monsters. The chance was very low - it could take several minutes of being hit repeatedly by a crowd of enemies before the goblin would appear.^[3] The power worked on Followers and the goblin scaled its loot to the current Difficulty.^[4]

Patch changes

• Diablo III release: Present at launch with no unique power.^[5]
• Patch 1.0.4: Numerous Legendary Items given unique powers; previously dropped items remain as they were.^[6] New Puzzle Rings now have "This ring sometimes calls forth a Treasure Goblin when you are hit."^[3]
• Patch 2.0.1: Unique legendary power replaced with the current version.
  • PTR Patch 2.0.1 - v.2.0.0.21806: Now rolls the number of white items needed before dropping a Rare or Legendary from 12-15, down from 40.^[7]
• Patch 2.2.0: Goblin is faster and ranges farther. Fixed bugs related to player deaths registering as goblin kills.^[8]
• Patch 2.3.0: Kanai's Cube added, with ability to transmute Puzzle Ring into portal to The Vault.
• Patch 2.6.5: Ancient Puzzle Rings now open The Ancient Vault.^[9]

References