This section is devoted to strategy hints and tips to help the fledgling adventurer through the perils that lie ahead. The first set of bullets relates to general gameplay tips that might be of use to newbies and people converting from classic Diablo. The next group features several points on general character development and specific situations that arise later in the game.

Gameplay Tips:

• You do not need to save your game in single-player. The game is saved automatically every time your character changes, i.e. gets experience or picks something up, etc. Many people are confused by the "save and exit game" option, and think that they need to leave the game to save and then come back in to continue. The option only says "save and exit" as opposed to "exit" so that people won't think their game has not been saved when they quit.

• Reloading a saved game respawns the monsters in previously cleared areas, so it is a good idea to reach that next waypoint before you stop if at all possible. Portals are not saved, so you will always restart in town and have to travel to your last location. A lot of people complain about this, but I see it as a feature. It is a great way to build experience and get more loot. If you have reached a boss that you can't beat, go over some old territory and level up before facing him again.

Don't forget to touch all of the waypoints that you reach. Seeing them does not activate them... you have to stand on them. There is a tab in the waypoint screen for each act so you can return to Act I locations from Act II, etc.

Don't forget to open a portal once in a while when you are a long distance from the last waypoint. You never know when you will die, and a safe portal will make getting back to your corpse a lot quicker and easier. This is particularly important when you are at the entrance to level 4 in the Catacombs. Trust me on this one :-)

It has been my experience (in single-player games) that magical items can be left on the ground in town for an indefinite period of time, but ordinary items, socketed items, gems, and gold will all disappear after a few minutes.

• Don't sell the high-dollar magical items that you find during the course of a session. Throw them on the ground instead and sell them all at the end, so that you won't lose the gold value if you die. You might consider gambling a bit of your excess gold as well (then you can sell those items at the end of the session too :-).

• Always repair items before you sell them. You will get back more than the cost of the repairs in increased "sell value" from the merchant.

• The rejuvenation potions take effect immediately as opposed to the healing potions which fill the life ball slowly. This can be important in an emergency, so you might want to devote at least one row in your belt to pink bottles. You can make rejuv potions in the Horadric Cube (see Act II plot above if you don't know what I am talking about) using 3 heal and 3 mana potions (any size). Add any gem to make a full rejuv potion. UPDATE: Patch 1.03 makes this irrelevant, as you can't figure out what your life orb is doing anymore no matter what potion you use :-).

• Don't be afraid to go into the caves/holes/pits, etc. that you find in the wilderness areas. They are not tied to the plot, so you will not be told to go into them later. There are usually boss monsters and treasure chests in there, so lots of loot and experience points! And what are we here for?? Also, don't miss going into the Mausoleum and the Crypt after killing the boss in the Sister's Burial Grounds quest (early Act I).

• If you find a Gem Shrine, you can take all of your gems off and it will pop out a random chipped one. Don't forget the ones in your socketed items... they count too. If you leave one gem on, it will upgrade that gem by one grade. If you leave multiple gems on/in pack, it will pick one at random (and we wouldn't want that, now would we?) Three of the same grade gems can be combined in the Horadric Cube to yield one of the next higher grade gem.

• The best way to recover your gear after a death is to RUN (use the CTRL key) up to your corpse naked and left-click on it. All of your equipment will be automatically restored. If you can't get to your gear, save and exit and then start a new game. Your corpse will be next to you with all your gear intact. NOTE: If you die during the recovery attempt with backup gear equipped, you will only get the first set of gear back using the re-start method.

Character Development and Situational Tips:

• Do we imbue or not? If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you soon will. I couldn't resist trying it in my first game and, since I knew I was always going to be upgrading my main gear, I tried a pair of Heavy Boots. I got a VERY nice pair of rare boots (called Dread Greaves) with +29% Cold Resist, +28% Fire Resist, +19 Life, and Fast Run/Walk. I think that using the reward early was worth it for me to get such a nice item that I could use well into the game. Your results may vary, so make your own decision.

• You can save your imbue from Normal difficulty and use it after you have already started playing NM just by starting a new normal game. Your NM imbue will still be available in a subsequent NM game.

• At the beginning of Act III, you are greeting at the dock by Hralti, a merchant who sells equipment and does repairs. The next time that you return to town, he is not there. Don't panic... he has just moved back to his shop which is at the far NE corner of the map.

• The shops in Normal Act III sell pretty good gear, so don't worry about saving your gold for Act IV. The Act IV shop inventory is actually pretty sparse, but high quality. Most of the great items are found or won gambling, not bought out of the normal shop inventory.

• After defeating Diablo (oh come on, that's NOT a spoiler), a countdown will start and you have 90 seconds before the game ends. Prepare for this by packing ahead of time, and leave two 2x4 spaces in your inventory for the items that Diablo may drop. Pick up the loot and go talk to Cain and Tyreal, otherwise you will not have time to hear their speeches and you will not get them the second time through Normal. You can identify and gloat over the items Diablo gave you upon starting your next game.

• You should continue to play Normal Act IV until you are at least level 30 and are pretty happy with your gear. Nightmare is hard (no really it is... well ok, see for yourself :-).

• Don't be in a rush to leave NM Act I either, unless you are a power-gamer. You should probably be around level 33 or 34 before taking on Andariel in NM, and you could play Act II until level 38-40 earning optimum experience.