What Exactly is Magic Find?

The "X% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Item" is an Affix found on Magical, Rare, Set, and Unique Items as well as on Runewords, that is commonly called "Magic Find" or "MF" for short. In basic terms, Magic Find increases the chances of dropped items being of Magic or better quality (so, Magic, Rare, Set, or Unique). Calculations are quite simple - if you have +100% Magic Find, an item that previously had a 1% chance to be Magic/Rare/Set/Unique is going to have its drop chance increased by 100% for a total of 2% chance. 

Important: Magic Find DOES NOT increase the rate at which items drop from defeated monsters. It just increases the chances of dropped items being of Magical or better quality. In other words, Magic Find increases the average quality of your loot, not its amount. 

This means that the more Magic Find you have, the more high rarity items you are going to drop; +100% Magic find will ~double your higher rarity drop rate, +200% MF will triple it, and so on. Ultimately, it's all up to RNG, but tipping the RNG in your favor will give great results sooner or later. 

If MF Does not Affect the Ammount of Dropped Items, What Does?

The Players X Command. The number of players in a game affects the strength of monsters you will encounter and the number of items they will drop. This means that Magic Find will work better in Multiplayer games. But, what if you wanted to increase drop rates while playing solo? Well, this is where the aforementioned command comes in. Basically, it tells the game that there are more players in your game than there actually are, which increases monsters' toughness and improves their loot tables. However, there is more to the command than just that. 

Players X Command is executed by typing "/PlayersX" where X = 1-8 in the chat, and affects: 

• The difficulty of monsters. For example, typing "/Players4" is going to simulate a 4-player multiplayer game, and the toughness, attack rating, and damage of encountered monsters will be adjusted to reflect that.
  • Monsters receive a 50% increase in life for each additional "Player" in your game; 2 Players - 150% Life, 4 Players - 250% Life, 8 Players - 450% Life, etc.. 
  • Monsters receive a 6.25% increase in Attack Rating and Damage for each additional "Player" in your game; 2 Players - +6.25% AR and Damage, 3 Players - +12.5% AR and Damage, and so on. 
• The number of dropped Items. The higher number you choose, the more items you'll find. What the command actually does, is it lowers the chance of Monsters not dropping loot at all. Just be aware that enemies will get considerably tougher as well. 
  • This does not affect Super Unique Monsters, Unique Monsters, and Champions. These types will always drop a specific number of Items - Super Uniques - 2 Items, Uniques and Champions - 1 Item. 
  • Only Odd numbers affect the No Drop Chance. /Players5 is enough to reduce the No Drop Chance of Bosses to a minimum, but /Players3 gives very comparable results - Use /Players3 when farming Bosses for the best efficiency. /Players7 caps the No Drop Chance for Normal Monsters as it's the highest possible odd number you can select - using /Players8 will only make monsters stronger without affecting their loot. 
• The amount of Experience you get from Monsters. Tougher Monsters = more Experience, yay. 
  • Slain Monsters grant 50% More experience for each additional "Player" in your game; 2 Players - 150% Experience, 3 Players - 200% Experience, and so on. 

Important: The "Players X" Command will only work in the single-player mode. You can't use it on Battle.net. Also, the difficulty you set will remain in place until you manually change it or completely close the game - logging your character off won't change it back to Players 1. 

What Else is not Affected by the Magic Find Stat?

The only thing Magic Find actually does is it helps you get more Magical, Set, Rare, and Unique Items. This means that it won't affect: 

• The total number of items that drop nor the drop rate of the particular item types, such as Rings, Weapons, Armors, and Amulets. 
• The level of items that drop (this is affected by the level of the area you drop items in). 
• The drop rate of Exceptional and Elite Items, and the drop rate of Charms (/PlayersX command helps with these, however). 
• The number of Jewels you drop. However, it will affect the rarity of Jewels - with higher MF, you will find more Rare Jewels. 
• The drop rate of Runes. Again, this is affected by the /PlayersX command, not magic find. 
• The chances of getting Rare and Unique Items from Gambling (Gambling has set chances for all item rarities: Unique - 0.05%, Set - 0.1%, Rare - 10%, Magical - 89%). 

What /PlayersX Difficulty Setting is Optimal for Magic Finding?

This all depends on what you're trying to do: 

• As mentioned above, /Players3 is optimal for farming bosses. If you want to earn more experience, however, you might want to consider increasing the difficulty further. Increasing it to /Players5 is going to improve the loot slightly, but increasing the difficulty beyond that point won't affect drop chances of items any further. 
• When fully clearing areas, /Players7 is going to yield the best results. Rising it all the way up to /Players8 will only increase the difficulty and experience of monsters. This is also the best strategy for farming Runes, Charms, and Jewels (be aware that Magic Find does not affect the drop chance of Runes, however, /PlayersX does).  
• If you're only targeting Super Unique Monsters, Unique Monsters, and Champions, increasing the /PlayersX Difficulty won't affect the loot tables - leave it at /Players1 and just stack as much Magic Find as you're comfortable with. 

How Much Magic Find is Optimal?

For all intents and purposes, anything between 200% to 400% Magic Find is enough for general purpose MF Builds. Some hyper-specialized builds can stack over 600% Magic Find and still be able to clear areas they were designed for. In general, you want to optimize your build in a way that will result in a good combination of Clear Speed and MF, as having great Magic Find with terrible Clear Speed or vice versa is counterproductive and very inefficient. 

Answering the question, the "optimal" amount of Magic Find will mostly depend on your chosen farming location, Character Build, Gear, and personal skill level. Try starting at 300% Magic Find and go up until your clear speed starts to slow down noticeably. If you experience clearing problems at 300% MF, do it the other way around: 

• If you have zero problems when clearing an area, consider swapping some of your gear for additional Magic Find items. 
• If you struggle to clear an area, consider dropping some MF Items in favor of gear that's going to increase your character's overall strength. 

Does Magic Find Work With Chests and Barbarian's Find Item Skill?

The short answer to both of these is yes. 

• Since Update v1.08, Magic Find works on Chests, Corpses (slain Rogues, Skeletons, etc.), Barrels, Urns, Stashes, and all other openable/breakable items you find during your travels. This also means that doing "Chest Runs" is a viable strategy for Magic Finding. 
• For updates v1.08 D2/S2X and later, Magic Find works with Barbarian's Find Item Skill. Thanks to this, Barbarian is great for Magic Finding in areas with high numbers of Unique and Super Unique enemies (Find Item gives you an extra item roll which greatly increases the total number of items you get). 

What Areas are the Best for Magic Finding

We've prepared a complete breakdown of these areas and you can find it down below. In general, all Level 85 areas are great as Champions, Uniques, and Super Uniques found in them can possibly drop any item in the game. This happens because their level matches the quality level of any particular treasure class item (which means that ANY item that drops from them has a chance to roll to be a Set or Unique piece). 

How Does the Magic Find Work With my Merc and/or Minions?

Magic Find Gear you put on your Mercenary won't affect your chance to drop magic items. however, when your Merc kills something, both your Merc's and yours Magic Find will be taken into account for drop calculations. This means that your Merc can potentially have a much higher Magic Find than you. As for Minions, they can't equip any Items so their Magic Find is always equal to yours. 

Should I Target Specific Items When Magic Finding?

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is: Despite the fact that certain Unique Items have higher chances of dropping from specific Monsters/Uniques/Bosses, their Drop Rate (even with very high Magic Find stat) is so low that you're better off applying the "Shotgun" approach. Just farm in areas where you feel the most comfortable or areas where you achieve the best clear speeds and you will see results. It is a numbers game and you're more likely to get high-quality stuff when you "roll" for it more - more kills = more drop chances = more high-quality items. 

What is the Best Starter Magic Finding Character Build?

All things considered, it is the Blizzard Sorceress. This is because:

• She deals very high Damage, even when built on a budget/with a high MF focus, thanks to her ability to reduce the Cold Resistance of monsters with Cold Mastery. 
• She offers amazing mobility with Teleport which means that you don't need Enigma and thus you can spend your currency more optimally. 
• You can farm Mephisto very easily by luring him and teleporting to the other side of the blood mote. This is a very easy and efficient way of farming for your MF gear (Great items He can drop include Harlequin's Crest (Shako), Arachnid Mesh, Stone of Jordan, and all other Uniques/Set Pieces with treasure class of 78 or lower). 

Note: We went over the Blizzard Sorceress MF build in another guide, you can find it HERE. 

Magic Find Sounds Great. What are the Drawbacks, Though?

The biggest drawback of stacking MF is that you compromise your character's strength in the process. Magic Find is an affix, which means that you basically trade it for other, more combat-oriented, affixes, like +Skills, +Attack Rating, +Faster Cast Rate, Resistances, etc. While this is not as important when playing solo or in the regular ladder, you should think twice before stacking MF on your Hardcore Character and taking it to a dangerous area. 

Lower Kurast

We start off with a very popular location for the so-called "Chest Runs*". Lower Kurast is one of the easiest locations for farming high-tier equipment, charms, jewels, gems, and high-tier Runes. It is located in Act III and you will first discover it after traversing through the Flayer Jungle; it has a Waypoint, so you can warp to it quickly after you find it for the first time, which saves precious time. Just like all other maps, Lower Kurast features a randomly-generated layout with some pre-determined elements that are always placed on the map. In this case, there will always be one or two campfires next to which there are always huts with Super Chests (huts are always generated to the upper-right - one Super Chest, and the upper-left - two Super Chests, of the campfires). Moreover, Lower Kurast always spawns large amounts of openable Weapon Racks, Logs, Corpses, and regular Chests, all of which are affected by your Magic Find stat. The most efficient way of doing a "Lower Kurast Run" is to simply skip all the monster spawns and go straight for the Super Chests and other openable loot sources. This is usually done by using a character with access to the Teleport Skill - a Sorceress when on a budget, and any build that uses Enigma later on. 

Important: The difficulty setting, you're playing on, determines the number of patterns containing high-tier runes that you can roll when opening Super Chests. This means that, in single-player games, you should always run Lower Kurast on /Players5 (if you're looking for lower Runes) or /Players7 (if you want to maximize the drop rate of Gul, Vex, Ohm, Lo, Sur, and Ber Runes - this is the best way of farming Runes for Enigma and Infinity). 

Farming Runes in Lower Kurast - To make Lower Kurast Rune Runs as quick and efficient as possible, you have to invest in a Teleport Character with a high Faster Cast Rate breakpoint. Moreover, if you want to maximize your efficiency, you will have to learn how the map is generated so that you can quickly determine if there are one or two Campfires and how far from the Waypoint they are - quickly spotting a "bad" Lower Kurast map and skipping it actually results in better loot/hour overall (this does not apply in single-player games, because maps are not re-rolled unless you change difficulties - once you roll a "good" map, by jumping between difficulties, you can simply stick with it). To optimize your runs even further, you should use the Waypoint to teleport to the Act IV town and save&exit there; this is because the Waypoint in Act IV is very close to where your character spawns after logging in to the game. 

Note: It's the first location and we're already cheating (a bit) as this map does not require you to have any Magic Find if you want to focus solely on farming Runes from Super Chests. If you're after Items, however, running through the whole map and opening every Stash while having a high MF stat is the way to go. 

*To clear things up for those of you who don't already know what a Chest Run actually is - in a Chest Run, you avoid monsters (usually by using Teleport), and speed-run through a map searching for Chests and Super Chests (Super Chests are Chests that appear in specific locations and contain a pre-determined loot pattern - there are 65536 different patterns, some of which feature high-end Runes). While Magic Find works on regular Chests, it does not affect Super Chests at all. 

• The quickest Rune-farming location for Single-Player
• Can be run on a budget with a Sorceress 
• Does not require Magic Find if you want to focus solely on farming Runes 
• You can farm Runewords like Enigma and Infinity very quickly in here 
• There's an abundance of regular Chests, Weapon Racks, and other Stashes, which makes Lower Kurast a decent spot for farming rares with MF as well 

• This farm is much less efficient on Battle.net due to randomized maps and the inability to change the player number settings 
• Requires map re-rolling and getting an optimal layout might take some work 
• You will need a Character with access to Teleport if you want to farm efficiently 
• For the best results, you will have to farm on /Players7 which can be risky for Hardcore characters 

The Pit

This Cave Level is located underneath the Tamoe Highland. The quickest way to the entrance leads through the Waypoint located in the Outer Cloister - after teleporting make your way to the Highland; The Pit's entrance should be very easy to find, just follow the path that leads from the Monastery. By all accounts, It is one of the easiest Level 85 Magic Finding locations (on Hell difficulty), which makes it ideal for relatively low-risk runs. However, keep in mind that lightning, fire, and cold-immune enemies can spawn inside, which makes single-element builds less viable (a low-level Sorceress with a build that focuses on one damage source might struggle in The Pir, for example). 

One of the biggest upsides of The Pit is its relatively large size - it has two levels - paired with a good amount of Boss pack spawns. Level 1 always spawns from 6 up to 8 Boss packs, and Level 2 (which is much smaller than level 1) spawns from 2 to 3 Boss packs and a guaranteed Uber Chest. A well-developed character with access to Teleport is recommended for this area as it has a large monster density and traversing it on foot is both lengthy and dangerous. Overall, The Pit is one of The Best Magic Finding Locations in Diablo 2 Resurrected. 

• Great for well-developed characters with Teleport (so, Sorcs and Enigma users) 
• Monsters in The Pit are relatively weak 
• 8-11 Boss packs + a Uber Chest guaranteed each run 
• The entrance is very easy to find - just follow the path from the Monastery 

• Not having access to Teleport makes farming in The Pit very inefficient 
• Low-level and poorly-equipped Characters might struggle in The Pit as the place features high monster density 
• Cold, Lightning, and Fire immunes spawn there regularly which makes some builds struggle 

The Mausoleum

This underground area is located underneath the Burial Grounds in Act I. As most of the other popular Magic Finding Areas, the Mausoleum is a level 85 area. One of its defining features is the fact that it has some of the weakest monsters of any high-level zones in the game - this makes it perfect for budget and not-yet-fully-geared characters. Just be aware that the Mausoleum is teeming with Undead monsters which are immune to Leeching effects. It can be accessed from the Cold Plains Waypoint, but it's at quite a distance from it. 

Despite being relatively big, it contains only from 4 to 5 Boss packs, which is less than other similar locations. Still, it is much safer than other Level 85 areas, which makes it worthwhile for weaker and Hardcore characters. Also, Mausoleum has a relatively low monster density, and thus it's great for learning how to skip monster packs or for doing more relaxed loot runs. All in all, if you want to check if your character is strong enough to Magic Find in level 85 areas, this is an amazing place to verify it. 

• Monsters that populate the Mausoleum are relatively weak and shouldn't pose much of a threat to geared up characters 
• Low monster density ensures a relaxing farming experience 
• If you're new to Magic Finding, this area will serve as a nice tutorial 

• Despite the relatively large size, Mausoleum only has 4-5 Boss pack spawns, which is less than other worthwhile areas of comparable dimensions 
• It's located quite far away from the closest Waypoint which lowers the loot/hour even further 
• It's filled with Undead, which means that Life and Mana Leech won't work 

Maggot Lair Level 3

While this is one of the level 85 areas and thus you can drop any item in the game in it, Maggot Lair is hard to recommend; You have to go through 2 whole cave levels to reach level three, the corridors are claustrophobic which makes fast movement and skipping monsters difficult, and there are not enough Boss packs on level 3 to redeem it - from 4 to 5. Why mention it then? Well, as mentioned above, you still can find any item in the game there, and venturing into the Maggot Lair should make you appreciate other spots from this list just a tiny bit more. 

• Any item in the game can be found here, as it's a level 85 area 
• Good for masochists 

• Difficult to navigate 
• Monsters are hard to skip because of cramped corridors 
• Only 3rd floor is level 85, so there's a lot of running involved 
• Who likes maggots, anyway? 

The Ancient Tunnels

When compared to the other level 85 area from Act II, Ancient Tunnels shine brighter than Sirius, thus, there's no wonder that many people call them one of the best locations in the game for magic finding. This underground area features high monster density which makes it great for farming. Moreover, it's quite compact, yet there is enough space for maneuvers. On top of that, cold-immune monsters never spawn there (with a notable exception of cold immune Uniques, but these spawn extremely rarely). As a result, Ancient Tunnels are ideal for Blizzard Sorceress; the build seems to be designed for them - just try it out and you won't regret it. 

What makes this area truly shine is the fact that a Blizzard Sorc can easily clear it while stacking as much Magic Find as she can (that's what the lack of cold immunes does). On the other hand, any build that relies on Lightning Damage (so, Lightning Sorc, Death Sentry Assassin, Lightning Javazon, etc.) will struggle here as Lightning immunes are a very common occurrence. Also, the area is not ideal for melee builds as it's mostly populated by the undead (Leech affixes won't work). You should expect anywhere from 6 up to 8 Boss packs in the Ancient Tunnels and a nice chest at the end. 

• Good monster density 
• Corridors are quite spacious which makes outmaneuvering enemies quite easy 
• A relatively small area with up to 8 Unique spawns 
• Great location for a Blizzard Sorc 

• If you're unlucky, the Lost City Waypoint can be located rather far away from the entrance 
• Lightning immune monsters spawn very frequently in Ancient Tunnels 
• It's crawling with Undead, so Life Leech won't work 

Disused Reliquary, Ruined Fane, and Forgotten Temple

We cover these three in one section as they are all located in Act III and they all suffer from the same problems. Mainly, they feature a very low monster density - you can expect only 2 Boss packs in each of them (even The Mausoleum looks nice in comparison). Their only redeeming feature, when it comes to enemies, is the fact that they are level 85 areas and any item in the game can potentially drop in them. On the other hand, all three of these have a lot of chests, stashes, corpses, and other openable items which are all affected by the Magic Find stat. This, compared with low monster density equals an interesting area for chest runs. Disused Reliquary and Ruined Fane are located under Travincal, and Forgotten Temple can be found underneath the Upper Kurast. 

If you're looking for level 85 areas that are relatively safe for your Hardcore character, you might want to consider one of these but you'll quickly realize that the "safety" is not worth your suffering (farming in these areas is painfully slow and opening chests can get boring very quickly). 

• Quite safe to farm 
• Level 85 areas with all the corresponding benefits 
• A lot of openable stashes; a safe spot for relaxed chest runs 

• Very low monster density 
• Generally not worth the effort 

The River of Flame

This dangerous and extremely hot area is located beneath the City of the Damned in Act IV. It is one of the two biggest Level 85 areas in the base game (the other one is also located in act IV). Monsters that spawn here often boast various resistances, which makes it rather tricky for some builds. If you're up for the challenge, however, it can be a decent place to Magic Find. 

River of Flame spawns from 6 to 7 Boss packs which might seem like a lot, but its vastness means that you have to cover a lot of ground before you find each of them; this also means that a character with good mobility is recommended. On the other hand, the entrance is very often located in close proximity to the City of the Damned Waypoint. 

• Any item in the game can be found here 
• Allows you to utilize your character's mobility to its fullest 
• The entrance is often very close to the Waypoint 

• A vast area with a lot of ground to cover between Boss packs 
• Enemies often boast resistances 
• Some smaller enemies don't have loot tables at all 

Chaos Sanctuary

This level 85 area is located at the end of Act IV and serves as the seat of power of Diablo himself. It features a great monster density and an easy-to-navigate layout which makes it one of the most popular online Diablo 2 Resurrected magic finding locations. To access it, take the River of Flame Waypoint and follow the statues. 

While the area is great for farming overall, the super uniques who guard the seals and the Diablo himself are not actually capable of dropping gear with a treasure class of 78. This means that the best drop from Chaos Sanctuary comes from random Boss packs - the area spawns from 6 to 7 of them each time. 

• Easy to navigate 
• Great monster density 
• A lot of Unique spawns for the size 
• One of the most climatic zones in Diablo 2 Resurrected 

• Diablo and seal guards can't actually drop the highest treasure class items 
• Monsters in the area are some of the strongest in the game 

The Worldstone Keep

This entire area (levels 1, 2, and 3) is a level 85 zone which means that it's the biggest area capable of dropping items with a treasure class of 78. Moreover, unlike the other level 85 areas, The Worldstone Keep has a Waypoint located directly in it (at level 2, which is not ideal and encourages you to skip a level or access the 1st level from the Ancient's Way after clearing levels 2 and 3). 

In Worldstone Keep, you can expect an excellent monster density and anywhere from 6 up to 8 Boss packs. The downside is, the monsters you'll encounter there are famous for causing a lot of problems to underequipped characters. 

• Easy to access through the Waypoint 
• Good monster density 
• Can drop any item in the game 

• The Waypoint is located on level 2, which is not ideal 
• Monsters inside are extremely difficult 
• The area has 3 levels and Boss packs are spread between them 

Throne of Destruction

This area is quite similar to the Worldstone Keep, as it features great monster density and you can drop any item in the game here. Moreover, enemies you'll encounter here will give you a run for your money. At the end of the area, you will find the Lord of Destruction himself, Baal. The closest Waypoint is located in the Worldstone Keep level 2. 

Inside the Baal's Throneroom, you will find from 4 to 5 Boss packs. Moreover, you can clear the 2nd and 3rd levels of the Worldstone Keep on your way down, which is a good way of maximizing your drops/hour. Also, Baal and the minions he summons, unlike Diablo and his seal keepers, are capable of dropping items with a treasure class of 78. 

• Great monster density 
• Baal and the waves he summons can drop any item in the game 
• You can combine this area with the Worldstone Keep levels 2 and 3 for more efficient farming 

• Monsters in the area are extremely dangerous 
• A character without good mobility will take a while to travel from the Worldstone Keep to Baal's Throneroom 

Hell Mephisto

We include this one as a bonus, as we've mentioned a cheeky tactic, that makes defeating Mephisto trivial, earlier in this guide. Mainly, if you have access to Teleport (so, if you're a Sorceress or have an Enigma, or even run a Ranged Barbarian build with Leap), you can lure Mephisto to the southern part of his chamber and teleport through the blood mote. Doing so will confuse the AI as it won't be able to reach you. As a result, Mephisto will just wander in circles close to the mote, which will make him very vulnerable to your ranged attacks. This way, you can defeat him without any damage - you can even do Hell Mephisto runs on a naked Sorc and don't break a sweat. 

While loot from Hell Mephisto is not as good as loot you can get from level 85 areas, you can still drop very valuable items from him. These include various types of Runes, Crown of Thieves, The Oculus, Gheed's Fortune, Hellrack, Steel Shade, Harlequin Crest, Thrang-Oul's Claws, Lidless Wall, Dracul's Grasp, and pretty much all other Set Pieces/Uniques with treasure class of 78 or lower. Overall, this is one of the quickest and safest Magic Find farms in Diablo 2 Resurrected. 

• The easiest spot to farm for high-level gear 
• You can easily solo Mephisto on /Players3 or even /Players5 with the above-mentioned tactic 

• The cheeky tactic Requires you to have access to Teleport 
• It's a level 78 area, so Loot tables lack some of the really powerful end-game items 

END NOTE

If you have any more questions about Magic Finding in Diablo 2 Resurrected, feel free to ask them - we will do our best to give you a comprehensive answer. 

We hope that you have found this guide useful and informative. If you liked it and want us to add more guides such as this one, please let us know! Also, we will be happy to receive constructive criticism that will help us improve our future work so leave your suggestions in the comments section below.