Ethereal Farming Guide
Last Updated:October 22, 2024|Changelog
Introduction
Ethereals are powerful rare weapons that could only be found during Season 24 and now in Season 32. They have incredible stats, a random Legendary power, and a free passive for your class. Read our Ethereal Mechanics Guide for full details on how they work.
This article, however, isn't interested in any of that. We're following the famous Pokémon slogan Gotta Catch 'Em All because although Ethereal items disappear after Season 24, you can keep their transmogs forever if you find all 21 Ethereals (3 for all 7 classes including the Necromancer). Unless you are a die-hard Diablo 3 blaster, you probably won't have the time to endlessly hunt on all classes for this achievement. That's where we come in, let's dive into the strategies and builds you'll need to find them as fast as possible!
Let's review how Ethereals drop:
- They are account bound (cannot be traded), so you have to find them yourself.
- They only drop from monsters, chests and destructibles.
- They cannot be crafted at Kanai's Cube or gambled from Kadala.
- They can drop at any level (the lowest we've seen is level 5), but at a reduced power level.
- They follow normal Smart Loot rules, meaning you have a small chance to find Ethereals for other classes.
- They are not an item rarity like Ancient and Primal Ancient; they are unique items in the loot table.
This means you have a much higher chance to find one at low levels (~16% chance) than at 70 (~1% chance). Notice with this Loot Table Resource that there is a large spike in legendary drops at level 31, making it harder to find Ethereals beyond that point. We will explain how to take a ridiculous advantage of this down in the strategy section.
Strategies
There are two main methods to find Ethereals based on your objective for them. One method will find them in the blink of an eye for your transmog achievement, but the Ethereals themselves will be low level and underpowered. The other method will give you the ultimate weapons of destruction you'll want for your end-game pushes, but they'll be harder to find. Either way we have you covered!
The "Snapshot" Method
This is the fastest way to find Ethereals, but they will be low level and underpowered. You should only use this method if you're trying to complete the transmog achievement and have no desire to use these Ethereals at level 70. Remember how we can find more Ethereals if we can stay a low level and reduce the loot table? We can actually snapshot the game at whatever level we want (we'll choose level 12 because it worked the best for us on PTR), switch to another character, and farm them effortlessly.
The only downside is you'll need the assistance of another person to pull this off. Time to call up those friends and tell them to blast Season 24 with you! Or just ask someone kindly in chat as it only takes 1 minute of their time. Let's walk through how it works step-by-step:
- Player 1 makes a brand new level 1 character on Normal difficulty, and levels themselves to exactly 12 with a Gem of Ease. This should take no longer than 1 minute to do.
- Players 1, 2, 3, 4 make characters they'd like to farm Ethereals on and levels them to 16+. You must be at least 4 levels higher than the game level (12) so the snapshot stays in place. You don't have to go higher than 16 if you don't want to, it won't matter much. Make sure you all have a 70 weapon equipped with a Rank 25 Gem of Ease to smash the content.
- Player 1 makes a game on their level 12 character on Torment 6, and invites Players 2, 3, 4 to join on their 16+ Ethereal farming characters.
- Player 1 leaves the game on their level 12 character, and rejoins on a character they'd like to farm Ethereals.
- The game is now snapshotted at the level 12 loot table, giving you a FAR better chance of finding Ethereals!
- Once everyone has found their Ethereals in that game, repeat steps 2-4 until you have every Ethereal for all classes.
| Class | Level 12 Snapshot Ethereal Chance | Level 70 Farming Ethereal Chance |
| Barbarian | 9.0% | ~1% |
| Crusader | 10.1% | ~1% |
| Demon Hunter | 15.9% | ~1% |
| Monk | 8.6% | ~1% |
| Necromancer | 11.5% | ~1% |
| Witch Doctor | 9.7% | ~1% |
| Wizard | 10.5% | ~1% |
Here is an example of a character you can make to farm Ethereals. The first step is to level a Gem of Ease to 25. At this point it can be inserted into any level 70 weapon to be used at lower levels. With a weapon this powerful in a level 12 game, you will one shot everything even on Torment 6 difficulty. Throw in 3 powers into your cube, like Messerschmidt's Reaver, Warzechian Armguards, and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. You shouldn't need any other items to farm all the Ethereals your heart desires. Don't forget to spend all of your Paragon points too!
One final warning: These Ethereals will be level 12, making them unusable for level 70 content. This method is simply a way to gather them all on every character so you can have the beautiful transmogs on your account forever.
Now simply blast Torment 6 Rifts, Cow Sticks, and even Ancient Puzzle Rings if you've been lucky enough to find them. Remember that if you make a new game that you have to re-snapshot the level to get the boosted Ethereal chance.
Level 70 Farming Method
If instead you're looking to find powerful Ethereals for end-game pushing, you'll need to farm them in a level 70 game. The goal here is to assemble the best speedfarming builds for Visions of Enmity, Torment 16 Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts to maximize your Legendaries/Ethereals per hour. Do the highest Greater Rifts you can clear reliably in under 2.5 minutes every time.
Note that Greater Rift 90 drops the maximum amount of items, so you should not turn the difficulty higher than that if it's costing you time. See the best builds for each class in the accordions below (and remember in each full written guide there is the lovely Assembling the Build section toward the top on how to put it together as fast as possible).
To find out the best builds to farm Ethereals, check out our Key Farming Tier List!
Video Guide
Summary
Blizzard brought of the most exciting themes we've ever seen to Season 24. Now is the time to enjoy them as they return in Season 32! The combination of loot hunting, insanely powerful items, amazing transmogs, and preparing us for Diablo 2 Resurrected has fans of the franchise begging for the season to start. We hope this guide will carry you to victory as you show off all 21 of the glorious Ethereals you found. Stay tuned for our continued coverage of all things Diablo and remember the most important rule of all - Town is Lava!
Credits
Written by Raxxanterax with special help from Chewingnom & Northwar.
Updated by Chewingnom.