How to identify items in Diablo 2: Resurrected

Getting to grips with Diablo 2: Resurrected can be an uphill battle. 

The game has a steep learning curve. Some mechanics are intuitive and are all-too-familiar to players with a background in action role-playing games, but others are more nuanced and include multiple layers.

The identify mechanic is a staple of the Diablo series, with its origins rooted in the first game. But Blizzard has iterated on the formula throughout the years. In Diablo 2, unidentified items can be found when looting the corpses of slain enemies. These items are unknown, greyed out, and hidden until they’ve been identified. 

There are several ways to identify items in the game: picking up and using a Scroll of Identify and unlocking and interacting with a character named Deckard Cain. 

Scrolls of Identify are common drops that can be found when killing enemies. Players can identify an item by right-clicking on a scroll and clicking an unidentified item. Tomes of Identify work in a similar manner. They stack up to 20 scrolls, saving inventory space.

The alternative to Scrolls of Identify is Deckard Cain. To unlock him, players will first have to complete the Search for Cain quest, which involves rescuing the recurring character. The quest is key to the main story and will come about naturally when traversing the world. 

To rescue Deckard Cain, simply click on his cage and he’ll appear in town. Talk to him and he’ll offer to identify an item. If he’s not rescued the first time around, the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye will do his bidding and he’ll charge 100 gold for each item identified.