Corruption and the Vaal Orb
A Vaal Orb corrupts an item. Corruption is a gamble with four equally likely outcomes. The use message tells you which one happened.
| Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|
| Nothing else | The item is corrupted and unchanged |
| Corrupted implicit | The item gains one extra implicit modifier |
| Values rerolled | As if a Divine Orb had been used |
| Reforged | The item becomes a new Rare of the same item level; any implicit is lost |
After corruption. The tooltip ends with "Corrupted". A corrupted item can no longer be modified by any orb: no new sockets, no new runes, no rerolls, no rarity change. It can still be identified, equipped and traded.
Specials
- Runeword items: the "reforged" outcome becomes Unravelled. The word is lost, and the item becomes a corrupted Normal item whose runes still give their own bonuses. The other outcomes work, and a Divine-like reroll widens the word's value ranges by 10%.
- Sockets: a reforged item keeps its sockets and runes.
- Unidentified items stay unidentified.
- Glyphs: a Vaal Orb does not work on glyphs yet (not yet in the game).
- Uniques: corruption works on them (Unique items).
Possible implicits. Examples: more attack speed on weapons, more critical damage on amulets, resistances on body armour, shields, rings and amulets, more life on armour, more movement speed on boots.
When to use it. Corrupt only a finished item you can afford to lose, or a duplicate you want a lucky roll from. Never corrupt a half-crafted item. Since the base keeps working, a "nothing happens" result is still a perfectly good item, and sometimes the corruption is what makes it unique among its kind.
Related: Currency and orbs, Runewords.