Game Info
From d2pwiki
In Diablo 2, there are many new and returning concepts to the game. Some will be obvious, the others not so much. Here's a quick overview of the general concepts of some, and how they help!
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Gold
Gold is definately one of the basics. Almost all monsters you kill can drop gold. It's rather common, but is still highly valuable. Not as much in trading as it is in the game, but that doesn't matter. With it, you can buy items, you can repair your weapons and armor, you can ressurect or hire a mercenery, and gamble. There's many, many uses for it, all of which are very helpful.
When you die, a percent of gold is lost in that process, not to exeed 20% (Upon reaching level 20), and at lower levels, it won't hurt as bad. The loss begins on your character, and if there is any in your stash, goes right to that. You're able to carry 10,000 gold per level of character, up to a maximum of 990,000 at level 99. This is nice and all, but most of the time, you'll be carrying far less, as when you die, whatever is on your character and isn't counted within your "On death" loss, is then dropped to the ground for all players to snatch up. It's common courtesy to not touch someone's gold, but often times, this isn't the case. Not everyone is respectful of each other.
Every few levels, your stash gold space grows a little bit, up to a maximum of 2,500,000 at level 99, which is quite a bit of moolah. But getting to be that high becomes very tough at higher levels. Even so, your stash will always be able to hold more gold than you can. Also, when you go to a merchant, and don't have enough gold on your person, it is automatically taken from your stash gold. This saves trouble of having to run to the stash, then to the merchant you need. Definately a good time saver.
Stash
The stash also has it's own unique features.
First, it's able to store items in an eight by six grid (Eight high, six wide), which is also unable to be gotten into, except by your own character. This way, if you find a piece of equipment you like, but only needs used at certain times, you can put it in your stash, then get it out later when you need it. Many duelers and Magic Finding characters do this so they have extra options for switching out to in tough situations. The stash is just another place to put equipment when you need to save it for later.
Scrolls and their uses
Once you get into the game, you'll scout your character and inventory over, discovering you have some form of weapon, sometimes a shield, but you'll also see a pair of scrolls. One is a Scroll of Town Portal, the other a Scroll of Identify. Both scrolls are used highly in the game (The first moreso than the second), and here we'll explain them.
First, you have the Scroll of Town Portal. Whenever you leave a town, you're able to use this, or a Tome of Town portal, which is just a little larger, but can hold up to 20 scrolls in it's pages. Using one of the two items will open up a nifty blue portal that you or any partied members can go through, instantly traveling from the town in your act's portal to yours, or vice versa. However, as soon as you take the portal from town to where the opposite portal lies, it disappears, closing. You can always reopen another, but it takes up another portal. But if you and a party member open up two portals, go through, then return using the opposite's portal, neither close, offering a permanent way to get back, until one of you takes their own portal from town.
The other scroll and tome, the Scroll / Tome of Identify allows you to identify any item that you don't know about. All blue, gold, yellow, and green items you find in the open won't be able to be used right away. Using this scroll allows you to understand the item, revealing the magical properties, and then can be equiped or used by any character qualified to. You can also use Decard Cain to identify items if you've found him, and he works the same as the scrolls, but works for free, so long as you've completed his quest. Most of the time, though, carrying a tome helps, expecially if you're going to find a lot of items quick, and in a rush to keep moving, rather than running back to town.
Waypoints
After a little exploration, you may find some strange markings in the ground, that when you hover your mouse over, says "Waypoint," which means it's of value to you... And it is! A waypoint allows you to use that waypoint to reach any other within the difficulty you're in, so long as you've discovered it. This means you can go from Act 1 to act 3 halfway through it in the blink of an eye.
Often times, players will ask for a portal to a waypoint. This means that if you go to a waypoint that someone else doesn't have, drop a town portal, and party the other player, they will be able to get to the waypoint, also activating it for later use. Once activated, you can use them at any time in that difficulty for that player. However, some are hard to find, and many are surrounded by monsters. Be careful!
Belt
Upon getting into the realm of Diablo 2, you'll notice you can get hurt. A lot. Many characters have a belt aiding them. It sounds strange, but it's true! A belt can allow for one to three extra slots on your four hotkey slots for potions and scrolls. You can store health, mana, rejuvination potions of any type, as well as the two types of scrolls on it. Normally, it has a single four strip there, but with different belts, you can gain the maximum of four strips, giving you sixteen slots for potions to aid!
When you use it, you can right click the potion to use it, as well as using the hotkeys (Normally 1, 2, 3, or 4 on your keyboard), allowing you quick access to much needed health or mana. Your mercenery can even use them, as long as you're holding shift when you click the button. This instantly gives the potion to your mercenary (Don't use Mana potions!), healing them slowly. The belt is definately a life-saver to many characters.
Random Dungeons
After going a bit into the game, restarting online a couple times, and playing a while, you'll begin realizing that dungeons are randomly generated. This makes it so that you don't have the exact same adventure every time! Innovation at best! However, there are some dungeons that aren't random, and always set. Some include Tristram, the Throne of Destruction, and Arreat Summit, just to name a few. There are many others to be found. After a while, you'll realize how they're set, and be able to navigate them in no time.
