Kanai's Cube FAQ

I see a lot of questions popping up about Kanai's Cube since its release, so I am hoping to be able to put together a list of common questions, along with helpful information regarding the cube.

When putting in a stack of items, the cube is smart enough to only use what it needs. If a recipe calls for (5) Death's Breath, and you place a stack of (50), you will have (45) back in your inventory when you complete the recipe.

edit: It has been confirmed that the extracted powers will roll over to non-season as other artisans's are. source

While it has not been confirmed how the transition will occur at the end of Season 4, it is reasonably safe to assume that the stored cube powers will be handled much in the same way that artisan levels/plans are - once the season ends it automatically rolls over to your non-season gear.

Where do I find the Cube? The cube is in a new area of Act 3. In order to obtain the item you must make your way through the first floor of the "Ruins of Sescheron", and finally get to the second zone called the "Elder Sanctum". In this second zone you will find the "Tomb of King Kanai", at which point a small scripted event takes place and you will have the cube and its artisan unlocked in town.

Does the cube take up stash space? No, the cube is now part of the town center along with the other artisans (blacksmith, jeweler, etc.).

What can the cube do? All sorts of stuff, from extracting legendary powers to upgrading rares into legendaries. I will get into the specifics of each recipe later, but for now just realize that the cube is a powerful tool.

So the first recipe everyone loves about the cube is the "Archive of Tal Rasha". This recipe allows you to extract a legendary power from an item, in turn destroying the item itself. In order to do this, you must have (1) of each of the new Legendary Crafting Mats (each act gives a new material in their bounty cache's, (1) Legendary item with a Legendary Affix you wish to remove, and (5) Death's Breath.

You are allowed to have an active Weapon Slot, Armor Slot, and Jewelry Slot. Weapons include all items that are equipped in your hands (weapons, off-hands, and shields). Armor includes all armor, so you can choose one item from Helmet, Shoulders, Gloves, Pants, Boots, Belt, Chest, and Bracers. Jewelry includes Amulets and Rings, so you must choose between a 3rd ring or 2nd amulet essentially.

Note that this only applies to legendaries, and you cannot extract a set item in lieu of equipping said item. Example: you cannot extract Zuni's Pants in the hopes that you would no longer have to equip them to get the set bonus. For further clarification, set items that have legendary affixes such as Krelm's Belt can have their legendary affix extracted...but you cannot gain the benefit of the set. So if you use the belt's power in the cube, and equip the bracers, you do not get the set bonus.

Now, lets say you want to extract the legendary power from The Furnace which is "Increases Damage Against Elites by 40-50%". The first thing to know is that no matter the value of the item you put in, the power extracted will always be at its max. So if your Furnace only rolled 40% elite damage, the ability will extract at 50%. Ok, so as stated above, place your Furnace, (1) each of the legendary act specific mats, and (5) deaths breaths in the cube and hit "Transmute". You will get a warning that you are about to destroy your item, that's ok - hit "OK".

Now that the Furnace's power has been extracted, you need to "equip" it. Within the cube GUI, click the icon marked with a sword (you can see it here). This opens up a book of all the available items you can extract, so rifle through the pages and select The Furnace. Once you have, the image of the sword you clicked on will now show the image of The Furnace. If you want to verify that a specific power is activated, you can open up the details screen in your inventory and scroll to the bottom - it will now show any active attributes coming from Kanai's Cube.

There are some items that cannot have their legendary power extracted such as The Corrupted Ashbringer, The Hellfire Amulet, and Ancestors Grace.

Also of note, you cannot utilize two of the same power. In the example of The Furnace, if you have one equipped on your character, and select The Furnace in your cube, you will not get 2x bonus.

Extracted powers work from any legendary item at any level. So if you find a Starmetal Kukri at level 45, it is no longer useless. Save it, and you can extract that very awesome power once you have the cube and the mats.

Extracting the Ring of Royal Grandeur is the same as wearing one (again you can't wear one and have one in the cube). This opens up great gearing options for the 2x ring slots you now have.

Extracted powers are only available to characters that could normally utilize the original item. A barbarian could not use a power from a monk daibo.