Diablo 4 Masterworking Guide: What It Does and Does Not Do

Neviriah

Senior Editor

Published Sep 14, 2026Updated Oct 27, 2026

Before we explain what exactly Masterworking is in Diablo 4, we want to clarify one important thing: Masterworking cannot add new affixes to an item in Diablo 4. Ever. It takes the affixes your gear already has and makes their numbers bigger. If you came here asking how to masterwork a new stat onto your gear, the simple answer is that the system you want is Tempering, or the Add Affix recipe in the Horadric Cube. Both are covered in their own guides.

Now that the biggest misconception is out of the way, here is what Masterworking does do, because it is still one of the largest power gains in the game.

What Is Masterworking

Masterworking is the endgame upgrade system at the Blacksmith. Upgrading an item through Masterworking increases its Quality, and as Quality goes up, the values of its existing affixes increase with it. A finished, fully masterworked item is dramatically stronger than the same item untouched, with the exact same affixes at higher numbers.

It works on Legendary, Unique, and Mythic items, and unlike the old system, an item no longer needs to be tempered first.

Masterworking requires Gold and Obducite. You will collect Obducite as you progress through the game (we cover its sources below).

How to Unlock Masterworking

Masterworking unlocks itself. The first time you pick up Obducite, the material used for Masterworking, the Masterworking tab appears at the Blacksmith, and Tempering comes with it. There is no unlock quest, no Pit requirement, and nothing else to activate.

If you read somewhere that you need to clear a Tier 46 Nightmare Dungeon and unlock the Pit first, you found a guide from 2024. That path was removed seasons ago, and it is, unfortunately, one of the most common pieces of stale advice still floating around the internet.

Farming Obducite

If you want to focus solely on getting materials for Masterworking, your Obducite per hour is basically your masterworking speed. These are the current main sources:

• Nightmare Dungeons are a great source, especially with the Treasure Breach sigil affix (which fills the run with Treasure Goblins and showers Obducite), or a guaranteed Horadric Strongroom. Craft Sigils at the Occultist to fish for the good affixes!

• Kurast Undercity runs can reward a good amount when combined with a Tribute of Refinement.

• Infernal Hordes provide Obducite from the reward chests at the end. Just make sure to open the Spoils of Materials.

• Mercenary bartering is worth a quick daily check as it occasionally has materials.

The Pit is not in this list because it no longer drops Obducite as its normal completion reward, so it is not a dedicated Masterworking farm anymore.

Season 15 tip → Spend your Smoldering Ashes on the Urn of Masterworking. This way, each time Obducite drops, the Urn gives you a chance to receive extra Obducite.

Quality and the Capstone Bonus

As stated above, Masterworking increases an item's Quality, up to a maximum of 25. Each time you masterwork, you improve the item's Quality by a random 2 to 5. Every point of Quality adds 1% to all affix values and 1% to the item's base stats, so at Quality 25, the item is 25% above where it started.

After reaching Quality 25, you can pay for one additional upgrade to receive the Capstone Bonus: a 50% boost applied to one randomly chosen affix, which can land on a regular affix, a tempered affix, or a Greater Affix on the item. Random is the keyword, and that is why the next section exists.

Rerolling the Capstone With Neathiron

If the Capstone lands on the wrong affix, you can reroll it. The reroll costs Obducite, gold, and Neathiron, and it does not affect your Quality progress. Neathiron drops from late-game content, such as farming the open world (e.g., Helltides) in Torment difficulty IV or higher, World Bosses, Bartuc in Infernal Hordes, Astaroth in Escalation Dungeons, and Belial. On a build-defining item, rerolling until the Capstone hits your ideal stat is standard practice, the same patience game as the Greater Affix temper loop. Materials spent on rerolls are not refunded.

Something else worth knowing is that the Capstone Bonus can stack on top of a Greater Affix if it lands on one. A GA (Greater Affix) with the Capstone on it is the strongest version of an affix the game can produce, and it is the end goal of the whole crafting pipeline for that slot.

You Cannot Reset Quality Anymore

The old system that many players still know let you reset an item's Masterworking and start over. That is gone. Quality levels cannot be reset, and the only do-over the system offers is the Capstone reroll above.

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