A Tribute Chooses the Reward; Your Run Must Meet Its Conditions
Offer a Tribute at the Kurast Undercity's Spirit Brazier before starting a run to target a particular kind of reward. Then meet that offering's conditions and finish the dungeon. A Bargain can refine the rewards further, but targeting a category is different from guaranteeing the named Unique or perfect roll your build needs.
This guide explains that decision process and preserves the four Tribute examples from the October 2024 Vessel of Hatred introduction. They remain useful for understanding the system. They are not a complete 2026 catalog: Blizzard's later 3.0 patch notes also discuss Armaments and Mythic Tributes.
What to Do at the Spirit Brazier
Use the Spirit Brazier in Kurast to prepare the offering before opening the Undercity portal. The cover shows the actual brazier and portal in an October 2024 gameplay screenshot; the current menu can differ.
- Choose the reward you need. Compare the Tribute's reward description with your next goal: experience, Runes or equipment. An offering for the wrong reward category can produce exactly what it promises without advancing your build.
- Read the eligibility and run conditions. Check the allowed difficulty, required Attunement, displayed modifiers and who receives the enhanced rewards. Include the full variant name: Resolute changes an important party expectation in the historical examples below.
- Decide whether a Bargain is worth its displayed cost. If one is offered, read the actual reward restriction and price before selecting it. Pay for a condition you want, rather than assume any extra payment improves the chance of your specific named item.
- Confirm the party's plan, then begin. Agree on the offering player and reward recipient, and choose a run the group can complete under the displayed conditions. Inside, work toward the reward objective as well as keeping enough time to progress.
If the route or difficulty is unfamiliar, learn it with an unmodified run before committing a valuable offering. Blizzard's original Undercity overview explicitly ties higher-quality Tributes to greater challenge as well as better potential rewards.
The Original Four Tributes: What Each One Targeted
Jezartroz's October 5, 2024 report described the following offerings. The reward descriptions below retain that historical scope; use the tooltip on the item you actually possess when preparing a present-day run.
| October 2024 Tribute | Reward described | Important choice |
|---|---|---|
| Tribute of Growth | Additional experience | An experience objective, rather than an equipment or Rune target. |
| Tribute of Harmony | Guaranteed Runes when the run's conditions are met | Targets Rune rewards; the description does not promise the specific Rune you want. |
| Tribute of Radiance (Resolute) | Ancestral Legendaries for the player who offers the Tribute | The Resolute reward belongs to the offering player. Do not budget the same enhanced drops for every party member. |
| Tribute of Ascendance (Resolute) | Uniques, with a possibility of a Mythic Unique, for the player who offers the Tribute | A Mythic is a possible outcome, not a guaranteed one. The Resolute recipient restriction still applies. |
Resolute is part of the rule, not decorative text. Both Resolute entries in the original report specify the offering player. Other players helping complete the run should not assume those particular bonus rewards are shared.
The archived 2024 Harmony and Radiance (Resolute) tooltips also specified Torment difficulty and at least Attunement Rank 1. Those are conditions on those pictured versions. They do not establish one universal minimum for every Tribute, later variant or modified run.
Attunement and Time Measure Different Things
Attunement measures reward progress; time measures how long you have to keep progressing. In Blizzard's Undercity explanation, killing monsters and completing events earns Attunement. Killing powerful Afflicted demons extends your time so you can reach the final boss.
Running quickly past encounters does not, by itself, earn the Attunement your offering requires. Conversely, building reward progress is not useful if the run ends before you can complete it. Read the active objectives rather than treat movement speed as a substitute for either requirement.
- Time is comfortable, but Attunement is short: focus on the monsters and events that advance the reward objective instead of rushing past them.
- Reward progress is ready, but time is tight: prioritize the route and available time-extending targets needed to keep progressing. Extra detours still have a cost.
Meeting a minimum Attunement condition is a requirement for the relevant reward, not the entire completion procedure. Continue through the run, defeat its boss and collect the resulting rewards. Follow any additional objectives shown for the offering or other active modifiers.
Use a Bargain for Its Actual Reward Rule
A Tribute chooses a reward direction; a Bargain adds the particular refinement described in the selection menu. The old menu below illustrates equipment-category choices. Its material prices and quantities are historical examples, so compare the current menu before paying.
A useful example of the distinction appears in Blizzard's October 29, 2024 patch 2.0.4 notes: a fix restored the Primary Resource Bargain's guarantee of an item with the related affix. That is a defined affix condition. It is not a promise of any named Unique, every desired affix or a perfect roll.
Before spending, identify what the selected rule actually controls. A weapon-category option can still produce a weapon your build does not need. A Rune reward can still be the wrong Rune. Ascendance's historical Mythic possibility remains a chance. Judge the offering by its stated reward, then decide whether that outcome is worth the displayed cost to you.
If Tributes Are Missing, Check the Full Undercity Introduction
On the original Vessel of Hatred story route, entering the Undercity for the first time and unlocking Tribute drops were different milestones. Jezartroz's October 2024 quest report specified completing the full Kurast Undercity questline, beginning with The Kurast Undercity, before Tributes would start dropping.
That route begins after Reunion, with the Ormus and Sihek handoffs, and continues through Undercity: Sihek. If you opened the first portal and moved on, check for the remaining introduction objectives. Our VoH quest-unlock guide follows the complete sequence and separates it from later campaign-start and skip rules.
Use the quests and features actually offered to your character. The historical route is useful for diagnosing unfinished introductions; it does not establish that every character using a newer campaign start must replay the VoH story.
Use Later Patch Information When Planning a Farm
The four-entry table describes the introduction, not every later source of loot. Blizzard's live July 1, 2025 patch 2.3.0 notes stated that all Undercity runs would drop at least one Rune, and adjusted Rune Tribute rewards by Attunement and Torment level. The old Harmony row therefore does not prove a Tribute was always required to see any Rune.
The 3.0 patch notes go on to reference Tribute of Armaments, Ancestral Tribute of Armaments and Mythic Tributes, alongside additional Undercity objectives. These changes are why an old four-item list should not dictate a 2026 shopping list, price or expected number of drops.
For the run you are about to start, match the actual offering to a useful reward, check its recipient and completion conditions, and buy a Bargain only when its stated refinement helps. A completed run aimed at a reward you need is more useful than an expensive offering selected for rarity alone.
Gameplay images: Michael James / ProGameTalk, October 13, 2024. They illustrate the Spirit Brazier and historical Bargain selection.
