Death's Breath, Blood Shards, gold and crafting materials are the currencies of the endgame. Here you'll see where to get each one fastest and how to make targeted use of Kadala, Horadric Caches and treasure goblins.
At a Glance: What to Farm Where
- Death's Breath: Nephalem Rifts on Torment XVI, hunting elite packs, with Sage's Journey.
- Blood Shards: Greater Rifts at the tier you clear in under three minutes.
- Bounty materials: Bounties on Torment XVI, ideally in a group of four.
- Parts, Dust, Crystals: salvage your loot and convert surpluses in the Cube.
- Gold: solo Nephalem Rifts with Boon of the Hoarder, plus the Vault.
Crafting Materials
Since patch 2.5.0 materials take no inventory space and have practically no stack limit.
- Reusable Parts: from salvaging normal (white and grey) items at the Blacksmith.
- Arcane Dust: from magic items.
- Veiled Crystal: from rare items, one per item.
- Forgotten Soul: one per (non-crafted) Legendary or Set item, three per Ancient; Nephalem Rift Guardians drop 0–2, at least one from Torment VII.
- Primordial Ashes: 55 per salvaged Primal item.
- Death's Breath: elites from level 61, bosses, treasure goblins, Nephalem Rift Guardians and Horadric Caches — not Greater Rift Guardians.
What You Need the Materials For
The biggest consumers are the Cube recipes:
- Upgrade Rare (Hope of Cain): 25 Death's Breath, 50 each of Parts, Dust and Crystals, a level 70 rare item.
- Extract Power (Archive of Tal Rasha): 1 of each of the five bounty materials + 5 Death's Breath.
- Reforge (Law of Kulle): 5 of each bounty material + 50 Forgotten Souls.
- Convert Set Item (Skill of Nilfur): 10 Forgotten Souls + 10 Death's Breath; never Ancient.
- Convert Materials (Iben Fahd): 100 of one type + 1 Death's Breath + an item whose rarity sets the result (normal = Parts, magic = Dust, rare = Crystals).
- Upgrade to Primal (Curiosity of Lorath Nahr): 100 Primordial Ashes + a Legendary or Set item. You can only wear one of these.
Enchanting (Forgotten Souls for Legendaries), high-level gems and training your artisans also cost materials. The Altar of Rites asks for 500 Death's Breath and 300 Forgotten Souls in one sacrifice.
Farming Death's Breath
The chance per elite pack rises with the Torment level:
- Torment VI: 77%
- Torment VIII: one guaranteed, 15% for a second
- Torment XII: two guaranteed
- Torment XVI: three guaranteed, 75% for a fourth
Your biggest lever is Sage's Journey: three pieces double your Death's Breath. The bonus emanates, so it works on your follower too. On Torment XVI that means 6 or 8 per elite pack, and more than 2,000 per hour at a brisk pace. In the Altar of Rites one seal doubles the amount again, and another lets your pet pick up Death's Breath.
- Farm regular Nephalem Rifts: elite packs are what counts, and the Guardian drops Death's Breath too.
- Full map? Keep clearing after the Guardian.
Blood Shards: Cap and Sources
You pick up Blood Shards like gold; they are shared by all heroes of the same mode. Your cap is 500 plus 10 per tier of your highest Greater Rift completed solo — group clears don't count. A solo GR 100 means 1,500; anything above stays on the ground.
- Greater Rift Guardian: 127 + 3 × tier, so 427 at GR 100.
- Nephalem Rift Guardian: more from Torment II on, but less than in Greater Rifts.
- Horadric Cache: 135 on Torment XVI.
- Blood Thief: a treasure goblin that drops only Blood Shards.
- Challenge Rift cache: 475, once per week.
Shards only grow by 3 per tier, so run time is what matters: GR 90 in about three minutes (with downtime) gives almost 8,000 shards per hour, GR 100 in a little over four minutes only around 6,000. More in the Greater Rifts guide.
Kadala: Spending Blood Shards Wisely
Kadala stands in every town and only takes Blood Shards:
- Armor and off-hands: 25
- Rings: 50
- Weapons: 75
- Amulets: 100
Every purchase has a 10% chance to be Legendary or Set, regardless of difficulty; one in ten of those Legendaries is Ancient. After your first solo GR 70, every Legendary has a 0.25% chance to be Primal. Stats almost always match your class. Kadala doesn't sell cache Legendaries such as Ring of Royal Grandeur.
- Skip amulets and weapons — expensive and spread thin; rings last.
- Armor slots hold 8 to 21 legendary and set items per class and slot (table): with ten in the pool, one specific item costs around 2,500 shards on average, for the Monk's helm (21) more than twice that.
- For a set, gamble the piece with the smallest pool and convert it with Skill of Nilfur.
- The Altar's Kadala seal doubles the Legendary chance. The shard sacrifices (1,100 to 1,600) need solo GR 60, 80, 90, 100 and 110 — save up to your cap for them.
Horadric Caches
Complete all five bounties of an act and talk to Tyrael, and every player in the game gets a Horadric Cache. On Torment XVI it holds:
- 1,640,000 gold and 135 Blood Shards
- 90 Parts, 92 Dust, 35 Crystals and 6 Death's Breath
- 22 of the act's bounty material (Torment X: 10, then 2 more per level)
- gems, rare items and 2 cache-only Legendaries
Play as four players in four acts, which is almost four times as fast. The Altar's bounty seal doubles your caches. More in the bounties guide.
Treasure Goblins: Types and Loot
Goblins flee and open an escape portal — interrupt it with damage. As elites, they can drop Death's Breath too.
- Treasure Goblin: gold, gems, materials, items.
- Gem Hoarder: 20–25 gems.
- Blood Thief: only Blood Shards.
- Odious Collector: materials including Death's Breath, often missing plans.
- Malevolent Tormentor: high Legendary chance; teleports.
- Insufferable Miscreant: more weapons and armor; helpers distract you.
- Gelatinous Sire: splits into six (nine in a group of four) small goblins with double loot each.
- Gilded Baron: treasure piles full of gold.
- Rainbow Goblin: a portal to the rainbow level Whimsydale.
The Rainbow Level Whimsydale
Rainbow Goblins don't spawn in Nephalem Rifts, Greater Rifts or the Vault. With about a 1% chance a unicorn princess appears there with the rare Cosmic Wings. For materials or gold the hunt isn't worth it.
The Vault and Greed
The Vault is the realm of Greed, mistress of the treasure goblins:
- Goblin portal: when a treasure goblin dies in Adventure Mode at level 70 outside Nephalem Rifts, it rarely leaves a golden portal — only for players who were there.
- Puzzle Ring: put it into Kanai's Cube and click Transmute. An Ancient or Primal ring opens a version full of goblins; low-level rings give less.
Inside you'll find millions of gold and gems. With Sage's Journey and Broken Crown (regular gem in the socket) you get double the Death's Breath and gems.
Greed waits in the Inner Sanctum. During the fight up to seven small goblins jump off her back, and their portal can't be interrupted. Her strongbox holds two guaranteed Legendaries; if you don't own Boon of the Hoarder yet, Greed drops it. The realm closes 60 seconds after you open the strongbox; then you can open a new Vault in the same game. According to the preview, the Season 40 Journey ("Light's Calling", starting October 2, 2026) asks you to kill Greed on Torment X.
Farming Gold
Gold pays for enchanting (each roll costs more), transmogs, gems, crafting, repairs, empowering Greater Rifts and Squirt's essences (500,000 each). Kadala doesn't take gold.
- Boon of the Hoarder: 25% chance per kill for a gold explosion, +1.5% per rank, 100% at rank 50 (the maximum). Only your own kills count, and it does nothing in Greater Rifts.
- Goldwrap: gold you pick up raises your armor by the same amount for 5 seconds.
- Avarice Band: +1 yard gold and globe pickup radius per pickup, 10 seconds, up to 30 stacks; emanates.
- Paragon: Gold Pickup Radius at 0.1 yards per point; pets pick up gold automatically.
Farm solo in Nephalem Rifts, and kill mostly normal monsters — Boon of the Hoarder only triggers on your own kills. On top come caches, Gilded Barons and the Vault.
Common Mistakes
- Opening caches "on high Torment": what counts is the difficulty you completed them on.
- Never raising the shard cap: only solo Greater Rifts raise it.
- Hunting goblins in Nephalem Rifts for the Vault: no portal opens there.
- Salvaging Puzzle Rings: every ring is a Vault run.
- Boon of the Hoarder in groups: it only counts your kills.
FAQ
What is Death's Breath used for in Diablo 3?
Death's Breath is the material dropped by elites — needed for almost every Cube recipe, for enchanting and for the Altar of Rites.
How do I raise my Blood Shard cap?
Complete a higher Greater Rift solo. The cap is 500 plus 10 per tier of your highest solo clear.
Can Kadala give Ancient or Primal items?
Yes. One in ten Legendaries from Kadala is Ancient, and after a solo GR 70 each one has a 0.25% chance to be Primal.
How do I get into the Vault?
Through a rare portal a treasure goblin leaves outside Nephalem Rifts, or by transmuting a Puzzle Ring in Kanai's Cube.
Where is the fastest place to farm Death's Breath?
Nephalem Rifts on Torment XVI with Sage's Journey (on you or your follower) and the Altar seal for double Death's Breath.
Does a Horadric Cache's content depend on where I open it?
No. It depends on the difficulty you completed the bounties on; opening it only rolls the item stats for your class.
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