Horadric Cache

Horadric Cache with tooltip.

Horadric Caches (AKA "goodie bags") are awarded by Tyrael for completing all 5 randomly-selected bounties in each Act. This feature is only available in Reaper of Souls, and only in Adventure Mode. These "goodie bags" are much sought since they can drop special legendary items (most notably the Ring of Royal Grandeur ) that can not be obtained anywhere else.

Patch 2.3 added Horadric Cache materials that are required for high level item crafting and certain Kanai's Cube recipes, and that can only be found in the Caches. Patch 2.3 also added the Bonus Cache, a second Horadric Cache awarded for completing all five bounties in the current Bonus Act, which doubles the total cache materials earned. When the bonus act is completed, another act is randomly selected as the next bonus act, so players can do all 5 acts for bonus in the same game, if they go in the correct sequence, scoring a bonus cache for each. (Prior to Patch 2.3, there were 2 bonus acts in each game, but they only awarded double Blood Shards and did not switch once an act was completed.)

Bonus Cache.

Since Tyrael awards Caches to every player in the game, regardless of their location in the game (in any Act or even a Rift), or participation in any or all of the individual bounties, split-farming is a very popular way for multiple characters to spread out and each do bounties on their own, racking up Caches much more quickly than the could solo, or while all running together on the same bounty. Players can also treat their clan or friends to free caches by completing an act but not claiming the bounty, then announcing that anyone who wants the cache should join their game.

Cache Contents

Horadric Caches drop higher quality items, or have a higher % chance to drop a legendary item, when they are earned on higher difficulty levels. One Cache legendary item is guaranteed for Caches earned on T6, and there is a chance for a second Cache legendary on T8-T10.

Each Cache snapshots the difficulty level it was earned on and which Act it was earned in, so gathering caches on a low difficulty level and opening them on Torment 10 will *not* increase the drop quality. (This was a functional exploit when the system went live back in 2012, but it was soon patched.)

While the difficulty level and the character level is locked in when a cache is earned, the contents and the smart rolls are not set until the cache is opened. This means that players can farm caches with their most powerful character, then twink them to another character of a different class, who can open them and get appropriate items for their class, thanks to the smart loot feature.

Patch 2.3 also greatly boosted the chances for legendary crafting plans (including set plans and gem plans) to drop from Horadric Caches. Thus players in a new season who have not yet found all of the Crafting plans will often see 6-8 of them drop from each Cache and bonus cache, until they have taught them all to the Blacksmith and Jeweler.

Horadric Cache Materials

Act Four Horadric cache.

Act Four Bonus cache.

Patch 2.3 introduced Horadric Cache materials found only in caches and required for Kanai's Cube and high-level crafting recipes.

• Act One: Khanduran Rune
• Act Two: Caldeum Nightshade
• Act Three: Arreat War Tapestry
• Act Four: Corrupted Angel Flesh
• Act Five: Westmarch Holy Water

Caches drop more materials in higher difficulty levels.

• Normal–Master: one material
• Torment 1–3: two materials
• Torment 4–6: three materials
• Torment 7–9: four materials
• Torment 10: five materials

Bonus Cache

A Bonus Cache perk, which doubled the materials awarded for completing the act bounties in a specific order, was removed in Patch 2.5, with the bonus benefit applied to all act bounty caches. The bonus cache, awarded in addition to the act's cache, contained only gold and materials. There are several small stacks of white, blue, and yellow materials, plus the same amount of orange, Horadric Cache materials as fall from the main Cache. This doubling of the total cache mats is the main benefit of earning Bonus Caches.

Horadric Cache-only Items

Reaper of Souls launched with twenty-one legendary items that could only be found from Horadric Caches, all sorted by acts. There is no other way to obtain these items other than via Horadric Caches, and many players spent much time farming all the bounties in specific acts in an effort to find one or more of these special legendary items.

Patch 2.3 introduced higher difficulty levels, and Caches earned on Torment 8-10 have a chance to spawn 2 cache legendary items. (The odds improve on higher difficulty levels.) Thus a player could theoretically get 2 Rings of Royal Grandeur from a single Act One Cache earned on T8-T10.

Act One

Act One caches are the only source of Khanduran Rune material.

Loot from 10 caches in one spot.

• Golden Gorget of Leoric
  • Amulet: After earning a massacre bonus, 4–6 Skeletons are summoned to fight by your side for 10 seconds
• Mad Monarch's Scepter
  • One-Handed Mace: After killing 10 enemies, you release a Poison Nova that deals 1050–1400% weapon damage as Poison to enemies within 30 yards.
• Pauldrons of the Skeleton King
  • Shoulders: When receiving fatal damage, there is a chance that you are instead restored to 25% of maximum Life and cause nearby enemies to flee in fear.
• Ring of Royal Grandeur
  • Ring: Reduces the number of items needed for set bonuses by 1 (to a minimum of 2).
• Sanguinary Vambraces
  • Bracers: Chance on being hit to deal 1000% of your Thorns damage to nearby enemies.

Act Two

Act Two is not a popular Act to Farm thanks to several large/slow bounties and a lack of top quality Cache legendary items. Act Two caches are the only source of Caldeum Nightshade material.

• Cloak Of Deception
  • Cloak: Enemy missiles sometimes pass through you harmlessly.
• Coven's Criterion
  • Shield: You take 45–60% less damage from blocked attacks.
• Gloves of Worship
  • Gloves: Shrine effects last for 10 minutes.
• Illusory Boots
  • Boots: You may move unhindered through enemies.

Act Three

Act Three is among the slowest acts to farm Caches in, and the number of legendary items makes finding one specific of these items the most challenging. The Pride's Fall helm is the one most sought, as it's arguably BiS item several builds that require high resource regen, such as the M6 Demon Hunter.

Act Three caches are the only source of Arreat War Tapestry material.

• Avarice Band
  • Ring: Each time you pick up gold, increase your Gold and Health Pickup radius by 1 yard for 10 seconds, stacking up to 30 times.
• Boots of Disregard
  • Boots: Gain 500 Life Regeneration per second for each second you stand still. This effect stacks up to 8 times.
• Burst Of Wrath
  • Two-Handed Axe: Killing enemies and destroying objects has a chance to grant 20% of your maximum primary resource.
• Envious Blade
  • Dagger: Gain 100% Critical Hit Chance against enemies at full health.
• Overwhelming Desire
  • Amulet: Chance on hit to charm the enemy. While charmed, the enemy takes 35% more damage.
• Insatiable Belt
  • Belt: Picking up a Health Globe increases your maximum Life by 5% for 15 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
• Pride's Fall
  • Helmet: Your resource costs are reduced by 30% after not taking damage for 5 seconds.

Act Four

No legendary items are specially tied to Act Four Caches, so if a legendary cache item is earned, it will be randomly selected from the other acts. This gives a 1/21 chance of any specific cache legendary.

• Act Four caches are the only place to obtain Corrupted Angel Flesh material.

Act Five

Act Five is by far the slowest act to farm of the five, thanks to numerous very large areas. Patch 2.3 changed the Idiot Arrow timer from five minutes to one minute, making this act much more tolerable for hurrying players.

Act Five caches are the only source of Westmarch Holy Water material.

Horadric Caches in bag form, from the RoS beta test.

• Pandemonium Loop
  • Ring: Enemies slain while Feared die in a bloody explosion and cause other nearby enemies to flee in Fear.
• Death’s Bargain
  • Pants: Gain an aura of death that deals 750-1000% of your Life per Second to enemies within 20 yards. You no longer regenerate Life.
• Salvation
  • Crusader Shield: Blocked attacks heal you and your allies for 20–30% of the amount blocked.
• Helltrapper
  • Hand Crossbow: 7–10% chance on hit to summon a Spike Trap, Caltrops or Sentry
• Soulsmasher
  • Two-Handed Mace: When you kill an enemy, it explodes for 450–600% of your Life per Kill as damage to all enemies within 20 yards. You no longer benefit from your Life per Kill.

Horadric Cache Contents

Horadric Caches are limited in what they can drop, and fairly predictable. Each Cache will always hold 5-10 materials (a mixture of white, blue, and yellow), 1-4 gems, 2 Nephalem Rift Keystones, an occasional small stack of Blood Shards (random in number), 1 or 2 Rare items, and a very occasional random legendary item. After Patch 2.3, caches were guaranteed to issue at least one of their Horadric Cache legendaries if earned on T6 or higher, along with 1-4 stacks of the appropriate Horadric Cache material.

A thorough study was undertaken by Diablo.IncGamers.com in early April 2014 during Patch 1.0.2, when 102 bags gathered on level 70 Normal difficulty were opened (on video) and the contents recorded.

As of Patch 1.0.2, April 2012:

• Marquise Gems: 255 (2.5 per bag)
• Materials:
  • Reusable Parts: 347 (3.47 per bag)
  • Arcane Dust: 255 (2.55 per bag)
  • Veiled Crystal: 30 (.3 per bag)
• Rift Key Fragments: 202 (2 per bag)
• Health Potions: 154 (1.54 per bag)
• Blood Shards: 25 (1 per 4 bags).
• Rare Items: 127 (1.27 per bag)
• Legendary Items: 11 (1 every 9 bags)
• Crafting Plans: 0 (Very rare drop, depending on how many plans your Smith doesn't already know.)

Development

Horadric Caches were seen during the Reaper of Souls beta test. Initially they were awarded for every single Bounty, as well as finishing an Act of Bounties. Caches were also awarded from completing a Nephalem Rift (at that time the Rift Guardian only dropped a couple of items, like a random Elite, with the main reward coming in the bag back in town).

In those early days, Caches looked like bags, and came in two sizes, with Lesser Horadric Caches awarded for each bounty and Greater Horadric Caches for a full Act of bounties or a Nephalem Rift.

Drop Contents

What items were obtained from caches, and how the game determined them, evolved quite a bit during the initial implementation. Initially Caches were very random, and the only thing that improved on higher difficulty level was the quality of the Gem (Master and higher could yield Imperial quality gems).

Initially caches did not snapshot on the difficulty they were earned on, and players soon learned to farm up caches on a lower difficulty and then open them on Torment 6 to get better drop odds. There were also rumors about exploiting the Legendary pity timer to increase cache quality, though they were ultimately debunked.

The whole system was much improved in Patch 2.0.5 when the legendary drop rate of caches farmed on Torment 2 or higher began to scale up, increasing to 100% for caches from Torment 6. This rewards players who earn caches on higher difficulty levels, rather than split farming them on easy settings.

Along with split farming, a common way of sharing caches within clans or friend lists is for one player to complete the bounties, then announce in chat that players can join his game for the free cache. Every character in the game gets a Cache when the reward is claimed from Tyrael, whether they were in the game or not while the bounties were completed.