Diablo 4 Tempering Guide: How to Upgrade Gear Efficiently

Tempering is a core gear upgrading system in Diablo 4 Season 14. Alongside Masterworking, it’s essential for boosting damage output and defense in endgame content.

This guide covers every core detail of the tempering system. You will learn its basic functions, endgame value, material costs, farming tips, and step-by-step tricks to craft perfect D4 equipment with tempering.

What Is Tempering in Diablo 4

Tempering is a Blacksmith crafting mechanic. Players can attach designated bonus affixes to eligible gear after gathering required crafting materials.Open the Blacksmith menu and select the second-to-last icon to access tempering, located right before Masterworking.

Core Tempering Basic Rules

• Only Rare (yellow) or higher quality items can be tempered. Normal and Magic gear are not eligible.
• Both Non-Ancestral and Ancestral gear support tempering, but they consume different crafting materials.
• Temper Manuals are mandatory to unlock new affix pools at the Blacksmith.
• Each Diablo 4 class owns its exclusive set of Temper Manuals and matching affix bonuses.
• Ancestral items carry fixed Temper Charges (1 to 5 times). Once charges run out, you need Scroll of Restoration for extra rerolls to get Greater Affix (GA).
• Each gear piece can only hold one tempered affix at a time.

Temper Manuals Drop Sources & Farming Tips

Temper Manuals are one-time consumables. After using a manual, its corresponding affix pool will be permanently unlocked for matching gear.

For example, a Spiritborn Temper Manual can unlock up to 40% extra damage for Centipede, Eagle, Gorilla and Jaguar skills. This buff can be tempered on weapons, gloves, rings and amulets.

All Reliable Temper Manual Farming Spots

1. Tree of Whisper reward caches
2. Helltide event treasure chests
3. Nightmare Dungeon boss drops
4. War Bounty rewards from Nightmare Dungeon War Plan nodes
5. Undercity district boss loot

Fast Alt Character Manual Farm Trick

Collect and stock all Tree of Whisper caches on your main character. Switch to your alt class and open all stored caches. This is the simplest way to gather plenty of manuals for secondary builds.

Six Temper Categories & Compatible Gear Slots

There are six temper affix groups in Diablo 4: Weapons, Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Mobility, Resource. Not all categories work for every gear slot. Below is the full matching list:

• Weapons: Offensive, Weapons
• Helmets: Defensive, Utility
• Chests: Defensive, Utility
• Gloves: Offensive, Utility
• Pants: Defensive, Utility
• Boots: Mobility, Utility
• Off-Hand: Offensive, Weapons
• Shield: Defensive, Utility
• Rings: Offensive, Resource
• Amulets: Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Mobility, Resource

Amulet is the most flexible slot. It supports all six temper categories, so you can customize its tempered affix to fit any build’s endgame needs.

How to Reroll Tempered Affix Values

Every tempered stat has a random value range from minimum to maximum. You need to reroll repeatedly to hit your target number.

Ancestral gear comes with free built-in Temper Charges. After using all free charges, every extra reroll requires a Scroll of Restoration.

When your ancestral gear runs out of temper charges and you want to re-roll for a perfect GA affix, stock up on Scroll of Restoration fast. You can buy Diablo 4 S14 materials to skip endless Infernal Hordes farming.

Where to Farm Scroll of Restoration

1. Infernal Hordes event waves
2. High Torment difficulty Artificer’s Pit runs
3. High-level Undercity boss fights

Full Tempering Material Cost Breakdown

Temper Manuals unlock affix options, but raw crafting materials are required to complete tempering operations. Material demands vary based on gear quality and type.

Non-Ancestral Gear Temper Materials

• Rare/Legendary/Unique Armor: 25 Rawhide, 10 Veiled Crystals
• Rare/Legendary/Unique Weapons: 50 Iron Chunks, 20 Veiled Crystals
• Rare/Legendary/Unique Rings & Amulets: 25 Iron Chunks, 10 Veiled Crystals

Ancestral Gear Temper Materials

All Ancestral Legendary and Unique items cost 25 Forgotten Souls per temper.

Material Farming Guide

• Veiled Crystals: Salvage any Rare armor, weapon or jewelry.
• Forgotten Souls: Salvage all Ancestral gear (Normal, Magic and Rare Ancestral drops all produce this material).
• Mass material farm method: Run Nightmare Dungeons with the "Materials Reserve" affix and open every chest inside the dungeon.

Best Temper Priority Order for All Builds

Follow this upgrade sequence to gain the fastest power spike for your endgame build.

1. WeaponsTemper weapons first. They bring the largest damage boost and improve your clear speed significantly.
2. Build Core Unique ItemNext, temper the mandatory unique that your entire build relies on. Take Whirlwind Barbarian as an example: prioritize Gohr’s Devastating Grips to add Critical Strike Damage and other key offensive stats.
3. Jewelry (Amulet > Rings)Temper cooldown reduction, critical strike chance or critical damage on rings and amulets based on your build’s stat demands.
4. Remaining Armor PiecesFinish tempering chest armor, helmets, pants and boots last.

Tempering vs Masterworking: Core Differences

Tempering and Masterworking are two separate gear upgrade systems with distinct functions.

Tempering Features

Add one custom, player-selected affix to your gear piece.

Masterworking Features

Raises the item’s base stat values, and randomly upgrades one existing affix into a Greater Affix.

Masterworking Reroll Rule

If you dislike which affix gets upgraded to GA, spend 10 million gold, 200 Obducite and 1 Neathiron to reroll the result.

The final capstone Masterwork upgrade may target your tempered affix as the GA bonus. You can reroll unlimited times with enough materials until you get your ideal outcome.

Common Tempering Mistakes to Avoid

These wrong operations waste tons of rare crafting materials. Avoid them during your seasonal upgrades.

Do Not Waste Materials on Non-Ancestral Gear Long-Term

You can temper Non-Ancestral gear as temporary transition equipment while leveling. But its tempered affix cannot turn into Greater Affix, so long-term investment is not worth it. Save rare materials for your Ancestral gear versions.

Do Not Skip Salvaging Unused Gear

Rawhide, Iron Chunks and Veiled Crystals mainly come from salvaging extra Rare equipment. New players often ignore looting and salvaging, leading to material shortages in late game.

Always Prepare Backup Gear Copies

The full gear upgrade chain is Temper → Masterworking → Horadric Cube Transfiguration. Transfiguration locks affixes permanently. If you roll a useless stat, you will lose the item without a spare backup to restart crafting.

Never Use Scroll of Restoration on Non-Ancestral Gear

Scrolls are limited high-value reroll items. Non-Ancestral gear cannot unlock GA, so only use its built-in free Temper Charges. Save all Scrolls for Ancestral Legendaries, Uniques and Mythic Uniques.

Do Not Neglect Temper Manual Farming

Although manual drop rates are boosted this season, you still need consistent farming runs to collect all required recipes. Helltides, Undercity and Nightmare Dungeon bosses are stable sources, plus Tree of Whisper caches provide passive manual drops.

Key Season 14 Temper System Updates

Season 14 launched massive adjustments to tempering mechanics that previous seasons did not have.

1. Unique and Mythic Unique items can now receive temper bonuses, which was blocked in old patches.
2. Mythic becomes a fully craftable gear quality. All Mythic Unique drops spawn as Ancestral base items. Classic top-tier uniques like The Grandfather, Ring of Starless Skies and Heir of Perdition are renamed Iconic Mythic Uniques.
3. Tempered affixes on Mythic gear always roll maximum value. You still need rerolls to convert max stats into Greater Affix.

Core suggestion: Only spend temper materials on Ancestral Uniques and Mythic Uniques to unlock powerful Greater Affix buffs.

Frequently Asked Tempering Questions

How to Unlock Tempering in Diablo 4

The temper function at Blacksmith is available from game start. You only need to collect Temper Manuals to unlock new affix options.

Can You Reroll Tempered Affixes Multiple Times

Yes. After exhausting built-in Temper Charges, use Scroll of Restoration for unlimited rerolls. Rerolling is highly recommended for Ancestral and Mythic gear to obtain Greater Affix.

Can Unique and Mythic Unique Items Be Tempered

Yes. This function is a core part of the Mythic 3.0 system launched in Season 14.