To craft your own legendary item, you need to have cleared the dungeon which houses the Aspect you want, which then adds it to your Codex of Power. Alternatively, you can extract the Aspect from a legendary item you already own, though the latter is a far less reliable way of getting your hands on the exact Aspect you want. Unless you’re happy to leave gearing to RNG, using the Codex is the better option. With that in mind, this guide lists every Diablo 4 Legendary Aspect that can be found in a dungeon and which gear slot they can be added to, so let’s get started.

General Legendary Aspect locations

General Offensive Legendary Aspects 

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Aspect of Inner Calm
Location: Raethwind Wilds, Scosglen
Aspect: Deal 5% increased damage for each second you stand still, up to 30%.

Aspect of the Expectant
Location: Underroot, Scosglen
Aspect: Attacking enemies with a Basic skill increases the damage of your next Core skill cast by 5%, up to 30%.

Aspect of Retribution
Location: Abandoned Mineworks, Kehjistan
Aspect: Distant enemies have an 8% chance to be Stunned for two seconds when they hit you. You deal 20% increased damage to Stunned enemies.

Rapid Aspect
Location: Buried Halls, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Basic skills gain 15% attack speed.

Needleflare Aspect
Location: Yshari Sanctum, Kehjistan
Aspect: Thorns damage dealt has a 20% chance to deal damage to all enemies around you.

Edgemaster’s Aspect
Location: Oldstones, Scosglen
Aspect: Skills deal up to 10% increased damage based on your available primary resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full primary resource. 

General Defensive Legendary Aspects 

Defensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, chests, legs, or amulets.

Aspect of Deflecting Barrier
Location: Lost Keep, Hawezar
Aspect: While you have a barrier active, there is a 7% chance to ignore incoming direct damage from distant enemies.

Aspect of Might
Location: Dark Ravine, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Basic skills grant 20% damage reduction for two seconds.

Aspect of Disobedience
Location: Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan
Aspect: You gain 0.25% increased Armor for four seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to 25%.

Aspect of the Protector
Location: Lost Archives, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a barrier absorbing up to 840 damage for 10 seconds. This effect can only happen once every 30 seconds.

General Utility Legendary Aspects 

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Eluding Aspect
Location: Caldera Gate, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Becoming injured while crowd-controlled grants you Unstoppable for four seconds. This effect has a 40-second cooldown.

Aspect of Shared Misery
Location: Oblivion, Hawezar
Aspect: Lucky Hit: When you hit a crowd-controlled enemy, there is up to a 30% chance for that crowd-control effect to spread to another unaffected enemy.

General Resource Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Aspect of the Umbral
Location: Champion’s Demise, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Restore one primary resource when you crowd-control an enemy.

General Mobility Legendary Aspects 

Mobility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto boots or amulets.

Wind Striker Aspect
Location: Shivta Ruins, Kehjistan
Aspect: Critical strikes grant 8% movement speed for one second, up to six seconds.

Ghostwalker Aspect
Location: Broken Bulwark, Scosglen
Aspect: While Unstoppable and for four seconds after, you gain 10% increased movement speed and can move freely through enemies. 

Necromancer Legendary Aspect locations

Offensive Necromancer Legendary Aspects 

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Aspect of Empowering Reaper
Location: Flooded Depths, Scosglen
Aspect: Critical strikes from Sever have a 10% chance to spawn a pool of Blight under the target that deals 20% bonus damage. This effect can only happen once every three seconds.

Blood-bathed Aspect
Location: Hoarfrost Demise, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Blood Surge’s nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing 70% less damage.

Aspect of Plunging Darkness
Location: Rimescar Cavern, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Bone Prison spawns a pool of Blight that deals 50% bonus damage over six seconds.

Unyielding Commander’s Aspect
Location: Faceless Shrine, Hawezar
Aspect: While Army of the Dead is active, your minions gain 70% attack speed and take 90% reduced damage.

Aspect of the Damned
Location: Uldur’s Cave, Kehjistan
Aspect: You deal 30% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by both Decrepify and Iron Maiden.

Aspect of Swelling Curse
Location: Hive, Scosglen
Aspect: Bone Spirit deals increased damage based on distance traveled, up to 15%.

Aspect of Reanimation
Location: Aldurwood, Scosglen
Aspect: Your Skeletons gain increased damage while alive, up to 20% after 10 seconds.

Aspect of Grasping Veins
Location: Corrupted Grotto, Kehjistan
Aspect: Gain 10% increased critical strike chance for six seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 30% bonus critical strike damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils.

Sacrificial Aspect
Location: Ruins of Eridu, Hawezar
Aspect: Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 15%.

Blood Seeker’s Aspect
Location: Mercy’s Reach, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Blood Lance deals 15% increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy.

Blighted Aspect
Location: Akkhan’s Grasp, Hawezar
Aspect: You deal 50% increased damage for six seconds after the Shadowblight Key Passive damages enemies 10 times.

Splintering Aspect
Location: Guulrahn Slums, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Bone Spear’s primary attack makes enemies hit beyond the first vulnerable for 1.5 seconds. Bone Shards from Bone Spear deal 50% bonus damage to vulnerable enemies and pierce them.

Aspect of Bursting Bones
Location: Path of the Blind, Dry Steppes
Aspect: When a segment of Bone Prison is destroyed or expires, it deals 25 damage in the area around itself.

Utility Necromancer Legendary Aspects 

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Torturous Aspect
Location: Deserted Underpass, Kehjistan
Aspect: Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a 15% chance to be stunned for one second when they deal direct damage.

Resource Necromancer Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Aspect of Torment
Location: Black Asylum, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Critical strikes with Bone skills increase your Essence regeneration by 20% for four seconds.

Aspect of Potent Blood
Location: Betrayer’s Row, Dry Steppes
Aspect: While at full life, Blood Orbs grant 10 Essence.

Flesh Rending Aspect
Location: Nostrava, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: After Decompose spawns a Corpse, gain 10 Essence.

Requiem Aspect
Location: Vault of the Forsaken, Scosglen
Aspect: You gain three maximum Essence per active Minion.

Hulking Aspect
Location: Sepulcher of the Forsworn, Kehjistan
Aspect: Your Golem has a 1% chance to reduce its active cooldown by two seconds and a 1% chance to spawn a Corpse each time it damages an enemy with its normal attack.

Fastblood Aspect
Location: Iron Hold, Hawezar
Aspect: Blood Orbs reduce your Ultimate cooldown by 0.5 seconds. 

Sorcerer Legendary Aspect locations

Offensive Sorcerer Legendary Aspects 

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Elementalist’s Aspect
Location: Pallid Delve, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Core or Mastery skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain a 20% increased critical strike Chance.

Aspect of Conflagration
Location: Light’s Watch, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: While channeling Incinerate, your Burning damage is increased by 20%.

Aspect of the Three Curses
Location: Serpent’s Lair, Hawezar
Aspect: Meteor deals 35% increased critical strike damage against healthy targets.

Aspect of Control
Location: Sunken Library, Kehjistan
Aspect: You deal 30% more damage to Immobailzed, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.

Aspect of Static Cling
Location: Wretched Delve, Scosglen
Aspect: Your casts of Charged Bolts have a 15% chance to be attracted to enemies and last 300% longer.

Aspect of Piercing Cold
Location: Dead Man’s Dredge, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Ice Shard pierce three times, dealing 25% less damage per subsequent enemy hit.

Aspect of the Biting Cold
Location: Forgotten Depths, Dry Steppes
Aspect: When you freeze and enemy there is a 25% chance they become vulnerable for three seconds.

Aspect of Splintering Energy
Location: Crumbling Hekma, Kehjistan
Aspect: Lightning Spear has an 11% chance to spawn an additional Lightning Spear when you cast it.

Storm Swell Aspect
Location: Onyx Hold, Dry Steppes
Aspect: You deal 11% increased damage to vulnerable enemies while you have a barrier. 

Defensive Sorcerer Legendary Aspects 

Defensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, chests, legs, or amulets.

Snowguard’s Aspect
Location: Fetid Mausoleum, Hawezar
Aspect: While within your own Blizzard, you take 10% less damage.

Aspect of the Unwavering
Location: Putrid Aquifer, Kehjistan
Aspect: Taking direct damage has a 2% chance to reset the cooldown of one of your Defensive skills.

Snowveiled Aspect
Location: Sarat’s Lair, Scosglen
Aspect: Casting Ice Armor makes you unstoppable for 2 seconds.

Utility Sorcerer Legendary Aspects

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Aspect of Singed Extremities
Location: Earthen Wound, Hawezar
Aspect: After Immobilize wears off, enemies are slowed by 35% for four seconds.

Resource Sorcerer Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Recharging Aspect
Location: Zenith, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Each time Chain Lightning bounces off you, gain four Mana.

Incendiary Aspect
Location: Tomb of the Saints, Kehjistan
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Burning damage has up to a 5% chance to restore 10 Mana.

Prodigy’s Aspect
Location: Witchwater, Hawezar
Aspect: Using a cooldown restores 15 Mana.

Aspect of Efficiency
Location: Domhainne Tunnels, Scosglen
Aspect: Casting a Basic skill reduces the Mana cost of your next Core skill by 10%.

Mobility Sorcerer Legendary Aspects 

Mobility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto boots or amulets.

Aspect of the Bounding Conduit
Location: Komdor Temple, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Gain 20% movement speed for three seconds after Teleporting.

Charged Aspect
Location: Maddux Watch, Scosglen
Aspect: Collecting Crackling Energy increases your movement speed by 10% for four seconds.

Flamewalker’s Aspect
Location: Cultist Refuge, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Coming into contact with your Firewall grants you 15% movement speed for four seconds.

Rogue Legendary Aspect locations

Offensive Rogue Legendary Aspects 

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Opportunist’s Aspect
Location: Prison of Caldeum, Kehjistan
Aspect: When you break Stealth with an attack, you drop a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades around your location that deal 806 total physical damage and stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.

Aspect of Arrow Storms
Location: Howling Warren, Scosglen
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Your Marksman skills have up to a 10% chance to create an arrow storm at the enemy’s location, dealing 1210 physical damage over three seconds. You can have up to five active arrow storms.

Aspect of Encircling Blades
Location: Forsaken Quarry, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Flurry damages enemies in a circle around you and deals 8% increased damage.

Trickshot Aspect
Location: Bastion of Faith, Hawezar
Aspect: Whenever Penetrating Shot damages an enemy, two additional arrows split off to either side. These side arrows deal 10% of Penetrating Shot’s base damage and do not split.

Aspect of Corruption
Location: Renegade’s Retreat, Kehjistan
Aspect: Your Imbuement skill effects have 20% increased potency against vulnerable enemies.

Aspect of Branching Volleys
Location: Shadowed Plunge, Hawezar
Aspect: Barrage’s arrows have a 15% chance to split into two arrows whenever they ricochet.

Vengeful Aspect
Location: Inferno, Kehjistan
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Making an enemy vulnerable has up to a 30% chance to grant 3% increased critical strike chance for three seconds, up to 9%.

Blast-Trapper’s Aspect
Location: Kor Valar Ramparts, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Dealing direct damage to enemies affected by your Trap skills has up to a 30% chance to make them vulnerable for three seconds.

Aspect of Volatile Shadows
Location: Ancient’s Lament, Dry Steppes
Aspect: When a Dark Shroud shadow would be removed, you trigger an explosion around yourself that deals 120 Shadow damage.

Aspect of Unstable Imbuements
Location: Whispering Vault, Dry Steppes
Aspect: When casting an Imbuement skill you trigger an Imbued explosion around yourself, applying the Imbuement effects and dealing 314 damage of the same type.

Bladedancer’s Aspect
Location: Jalal’s Vigil, Scosglen
Aspect: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 10% of Twisting Blades’ return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returned, the orbit damage increases up to 20% of the return damage.

Trickster’s Aspect
Location: Guulrahn Canals, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Caltrops also throw a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades that deal 224 total physical damage and stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.

Shadowslicer Aspect
Location: Twisted Hollow, Scosglen
Aspect: When you cast Dash, a Shadow Clone is spawned at your location that also casts Dash, dealing 25% of the base damage. 

Defensive Rogue Legendary Aspects

Defensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, chests, legs, or amulets.

Enshrouding Aspect
Location: Ghoa Ruins, Hawezar
Aspect: Gain a free Dark Shroud shadow every three seconds when standing still. Each Dark Shroud shadow grants 2% increased damage reduction.

Aspect of Siphoned Victuals
Location: Leviathan’s Maw, Hawezar
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Damaging a vulnerable enemy with a Core skill has up to a 10% chance to drop a Healing Potion.

Aspect of Uncanny Treachery
Location: Demon’s Wake, Scosglen
Aspect: Dealing direct damage to a dazed enemy with an Agility skill grants Stealth for four seconds. Breaking Stealth with an attack grants you 15% control-impaired damage reduction for four seconds.

Cheats Aspect
Location: Luban’s Rest, Scosglen
Aspect: You take 15% less damage from crowd-controlled enemies. Whenever a crowd-controlled enemy deals direct damage to you, gain 15% movement speed for two seconds.

Utility Rogue Legendary Aspects 

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Aspect of Explosive Verve
Location: Derelict Lodge, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Your Grenade skills count as Trap skills. Whenever you arm a Trap or drop Grenades, you gain 10% increased movement speed for three seconds.

Resource Rogue Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Ravenous Aspect
Location: Shifting City, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Killing a vulnerable enemy grants you 50% increased Energy regeneration for four seconds.

Energizing Aspect
Location: Sanguine Chapel, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Damaging an Elite enemy with a Basic skill generates three Energy.

Druid Legendary Aspect locations

Offensive Druid Legendary Aspects

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Aspect of Retaliation
Location: Seaside Descent, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Your Core skills deal up to 20% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.

Aspect of the Ursine Horror
Location: Belfry Zakara, Hawezar
Aspect: Pulverize is now also an Earth skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal 392 damage over two seconds.

Nighthowler’s Aspect
Location: Forbidden City, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Blood Howl increases critical strike chance by 5%. In addition, Blood Howl also affects nearby companions and players for three seconds.

Aspect of Changeling’s Debt
Location: Conclave, Kehjistan
Aspect: Damaging a poisoned enemy with a Werebear skill will instantly deal 120% of the poisoning damage and consume the poisoning.

Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
Location: Endless Gates, Hawezar
Aspect: The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by one second. In addition, critical strikes, while Grizzly Rage is active, increase your critical strike damage by 10% for the duration.

Aspect of the Tempest
Location: Blind Burrows, Hawezar
Aspect: Hurricane damage is increased by 7% each second while active.

Stormclaw’s Aspect
Location: Anica’s Claim, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Critical strikes with Shred deal 20% of the damage dealt as Lightning damage to the target and surrounding enemies.

Overcharged Aspect
Location: Mariner’s Refuge, Scosglen
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance when dealing Lightning damage to overload the target for three seconds, causing any direct damage you deal to them to pulse 784 additional damage to surrounding enemies.

Shepherd’s Aspect
Location: Bloodsoaked Crag, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Core skills deal an additional 6% damage for each active companion.

Crashstone Aspect
Location: Stockades, Scosglen
Aspect: Earth skills deal 40% more critical strike damage to crowd-controlled enemies. 

Defensive Druid Legendary Aspects

Defensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, chests, legs, or amulets.

Vigorous Aspect
Location: Steadfast Barracks, Hawezar
Aspect: Gain 10% damage reduction while shapeshifted into a Werewolf.

Skinwalker’s Aspect
Location: Fading Echo, Kehjistan
Aspect: When you use a Shapeshifting skill that changes your form, gain 56 Life. If you are at full Life, gain the same amount as Fortify.

Aspect of Cyclonic Force
Location: Collapsed Vault, Kehjistan
Aspect: Cyclone Armor also provides physical damage reduction. In addition, Cyclone Armor will also be applied directly to all nearby allies.

Aspect of Mending Stone
Location: Sealed Archives, Dry Steppes
Aspect: The duration of Earthen Bulwark is increased by six seconds. In addition, killing an enemy with Earth skills replenishes 56 of your active Earthen Bulwark’s barrier. 

Utility Druid Legendary Aspects 

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Ballistic Aspect
Location: Whispering Pines, Scosglen
Aspect: When you have Fortify, your Earth skills gain two ranks.

Stormshifter’s Aspect
Location: Crusaders’ Cathedral, Kehjistan
Aspect: While Hurricane is active, gain two ranks to your Shapeshifting skills.

Aspect of Quicksand
Location: Ferals’ Den, Scosglen
Aspect: Damage from Earth skills slow enemies hit by 25% for five seconds.

Resource Druid Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Aspect of the Unsatiated
Location: Tormented Ruins, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: After killing an enemy with Shred, your next Werewolf skill generates 20% more Spirit and deals 20% increased damage.

Aspect of the Calm Breeze
Location: Grinning Labyrinth, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Wind Shear has up to a 5% chance to fully restore your Spirit.

Mangled Aspect
Location: Immortal Emanation, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: When you are struck as a Werebear you have a 20% chance to gain one Spirit.

Barbarian Legendary Aspect locations

Offensive Barbarian Legendary Aspects 

Offensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto weapons, gloves, amulets, or rings.

Earthstriker’s Aspect
Location: Maugan’s Works, Hawezar
Aspect: After swapping weapons 10 times, your next attack will Overpower and deal 30% increased Overpower damage.

Aspect of Ancestral Echoes
Location: Ancient Reservoir, Hawezar
Aspect: Lucky Hit: While Call of the Ancients is on your action bar, damaging enemies with Leap, Upheaval, or Whirlwind have up to a 40% chance to summon an Ancient to perform the same skill. 

Aspect of Ancestral Force
Location: Sunken Ruins, Scosglen
Aspect: Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, dealing 32% of its damage to enemies.

Aspect of Berserk Ripping
Location: Mournfield, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking, inflict 20% of the Base damage dealt as additional Bleeding damage over five seconds.

Death Wish Aspect
Location: Penitent Cairns, Scosglen
Aspect: Gain 560 Thorns while Berserking.

Veteran Brawler’s Aspect
Location: Heretics Asylum, Kehjistan
Aspect: Each time a Core skill deals direct damage to an enemy, your next Charge or Leap deals 15% increased damage, up to 225%.

Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind
Location: Garan Hold, Scosglen
Aspect: Whirlwind’s critical strike chance is increased by 5% for each second it is channeled, up to 20%.

Brawler’s Aspect
Location: Haunted Refuge, Hawezar
Aspect: Enemies damaged by Kick or Charge will explode if they are killed within the next two seconds, dealing 1,120 damage to surrounding enemies. 

Defensive Barbarian Legendary Aspects

Defensive Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, chests, legs, or amulets.

Aspect of Bul-Kathos
Location: Light’s Refuge, Hawezar
Aspect: Leap creates and Earthquake that deals 437 physical damage over four seconds. While standing in Earthquakes, you gain 5% increased damage reduction.

Aspect of Numbing Wrath
Location: Heathen’s Keep, Hawezar
Aspect: Each point of Fury generated while at maximum Fury grants three Fortify.

Aspect of Tempering Blows
Location: Defiled Catacomb, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: After swapping weapons six times, gain 123 Fortify.

Aspect of the Iron Warrior
Location: Carrion Fields, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Iron Skin grants unstoppable and 10% damage reduction.

Iron Blood Aspect
Location: Forgotten Ruins, Kehjistan
Aspect: Gain 2% damage reduction for each nearby Bleeding enemy up to 10% maximum.

Utility Barbarian Legendary Aspects 

Utility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto shields, helms, gloves, chests, boots, or amulets.

Aspect of Anemia
Location: Kor Dragan Barracks, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Direct Damage against Bleeding enemies has up to a 20% chance to stun them for two seconds.

Relentless Berserker’s Aspect
Location: Hakan’s Refuge, Kehjistan
Aspect: Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core skill has up to a 22% chance to extend the duration of Berserking by one second. Double this duration if it was a critical strike.

Resource Barbarian Legendary Aspects 

Resource Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto rings.

Slaking Aspect
Location: Maulwood, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Lucky Hit: You have up to a 30% chance to gain 20 Fury when Rend deals direct damage to at least one Bleeding enemy.

Aspect of Unrelenting Fury
Location: Hallowed Ossuary, Fractured Peaks
Aspect: Killing an enemy with a Core skill refunds 10% of its base Fury cost. Can only happen once per skill cast.

Aspect of the Relentless Armsmaster
Location: Calibel’s Mine, Scosglen
Aspect: Gain 20% increased Fury generation while all damage bonuses from the Walking Arsenal Key Passive are active.

Aspect of Echoing Fury
Location: Sirocco Caverns, Kehjistan
Aspect: Your Shout skills generate two Fury per second while active.

Mobility Barbarian Legendary Aspects 

Mobility Legendary Aspects are found or can be imprinted onto boots or amulets.

Aspect of Perpetual Stomping
Location: Charnel House, Dry Steppes
Aspect: Damaging an enemy with Kick or Ground Stomp resets Leap’s cooldown. 

CEO Jensen Huang explained that ACE for Games integrates text-to-speech, natural language understanding—or in Huang’s words, “basically a large language model”—and facial animation. All under the ACE umbrella.

Essentially, an AI created NPC will listen to a player’s input, for example asking the NPC a question, and then generate an in-character response, say that dialogue out loud, and animate the NPC’s face as they say it.

Huang also showed off the technology in a real-time demo crafted in Unreal Engine 5. It’s set in a cyberpunk setting, because of course it is (sorry, Katie), and shows a player walk into a ramen shop and talk to the owner. The owner has no scripted dialogue but responds to the player’s questions in real-time and sends them off on a makeshift mission.

It’s pretty impressive, and undoubtedly a look into how games may utilise this technology in the future. As Huang said, “AI will be a very big part of the future of videogames.”

Of course, he would say that. Nvidia is the company most set to gain by the sudden surge of AI demand with sales of its AI accelerators. And we have seen some basic integrations of ChatGPT into games already, like when Chris added it to his Skyrim companion and it failed to solve a simple puzzle. But this new ACE platform does appear a lot more polished and properly real-time.

What we don’t know is what it took to run the ACE for Games demo. It could require more than your average GeForce GPU to run right now, or require a cloud-based component. Huang was a bit light on the details, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about this tool as some games actually make moves to use it. So far, no word on any that will, but I’d be keen to see this in action outside of a demo.

I know people do make friends through the games they play or their attending online communities though, with no real-world connections otherwise tying them together. My brother got so close to his Counter-Strike: Source clan mates that he drove out to meet one at a Ruby Tuesday in rural Michigan back in the aughts. Friendship can bloom, even on the battlefield!

Have you ever made a friend through a videogame? Here’s our answers, as well as a few from our forum.

Tim Clark, Brand Director: Absolutely. I’ve been playing Destiny 2 with mostly the same rotating cast of clan mates for about six years. We don’t swap pics, other than of pets and bbq food, so I’ve mostly never seen their faces, but we’ve spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours together, complaining about the game, trying to keep our tempers during day one raids, shooting the shit about perks, and new weapons, and plenty of real-life stuff too. I know there’s a lot made about how it gets harder to make and keep friends as you get older, but for me—particularly as someone who’s moved state multiple times—the stability of having a regular group of gaming pals has been a great blessing. 

Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: I’ve lost count of how many friends I’ve been blessed with thanks to Final Fantasy 14. They’ll always hold a special place in my heart, even as I’ve stepped away from the MMO to focus on other games and hobbies. Not only was I lucky enough to join a lovely guild, but I was also able to make friends just by hanging out in the same spot in Limsa Lominsa every day. When I had Covid during New Year’s Eve in 2021, my guildmates were the people to hang out with me, celebrating the arrival of 2022 in Discord while video chatting, drinking and mucking about in-game. It’s a memory I’ll never forget.

Even if we haven’t played together for a few months, I still regularly keep in touch with a handful of them. Being able to take that friendship and still maintain it away from the thing that brought us close has been something I’ve really appreciated, and I’d consider them all as much a friend as anyone else in my life. I even bumped into one of my Limsa friends in real life after a concert last year. Talk about a small world!

Joshua Wolens, News Writer: I literally grew up on top of a mountain, which made seeing my IRL friends a bit of an endeavour back when I was 13-15 years old, so I spent a lot of time messing about on the family laptop. It wasn’t quite up to the task of rendering anything so resplendent as graphics, though, which meant all I could really play was Achaea, a text-based MUD, on the mighty 256 KB/s (on a good day) we had up there. I made plenty of friends and the occasional enemy, and spent a lot of sleepless nights chattering away with American guildmates, all of whom were the kind of amiable weirdos that still chose to play MUDs in the year of our Lord 2006. I’ve lost touch with most of them, save one, but the experience left its mark: My speech is still peppered with Americanisms I picked up from my Achaean pals, all of which sound absolutely ridiculous in my plummy, posh-boy British accent.

I don’t play any MMOs now, though. They all have graphics. Gross.

Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: I’ve made tons of friends online over the years, through and around games. Some were really fun, transient relationships — shout out to GatoPescad0, who I met on a random Halo PC capture the flag server in like 2004, added on Xbox Live and reunited with for about two weeks with every new Halo release up through Halo 5. But I’ve also established some lifelong friendships through gaming forums—as I’m writing this I’m actually spending the weekend with a friend who I met through a Final Fantasy forum in the year 2005. Another of my closest friends, who I see a couple times a year, I met playing Halo 3 in college. Meeting people through videogames: highly recommended! 

It also makes me a bit sad that I don’t think our current social media platforms are nearly as effective as fostering these kinds of friendships as the game forums and nascent online voice chat programs of the early 2000s were. Part of that is just the societal shift as a whole—being online was once an escape that it isn’t anymore, and when you were escaping you tended to gravitate towards other people who felt out of place in their day-to-day lives. The centralized scale of social media and the follower-following structure is just not great at facilitating close friendships. That’s one reason I’m glad to see Twitter dying and everyone rethinking how social media works in general right now. There’s definitely a better way… and arguably we already had it figured out 20 years ago.

From our forum

McStabStab: In the year leading up to my first son’s birth I went HARD into gaming. I knew my free time would soon be limited so I went all in. It started with PUBG and I joined a couple of discord servers that grew into communities of people that I would talk to and game with daily. We even got to the point that we were gifting each other games and helping out with other life projects (gofundme’s and such). Some of the group was meeting in person but I always stayed away because I knew that it would all come to an end for me eventually (and you never know if someone could be HH Holmes).

I tried to keep gaming online after my kids were born but couldn’t justify the use of time versus actual dad responsibilities, so I pretty much ghosted my group. Turned off notifications from the discord, went invisible on all communities, and that’s all she wrote.

A few folks have reached out since then just to see if I’m alive, and I just tell them that life is crazy busy with kids… and it’s the truth. I do much more single player gaming now, and if I am playing online I don’t want people to see I’m on and expect me to commit to a match. I’m sure others have had the same experience.

DXCHASE: I’ve made friends but nothin like actual friendship-y. I played with a group of guys in HS semi-professionally in Ghost Recon and GR:Island Thunder but when those games faded, so did us playing together.

Currently I “run” a clan in Destiny 2 with a good majority of active players, but I havent really formed a “friendship” with any of them (even though I have tried on some occasions!) outside of my wife and son who are also in the clan. A lot of my play is either with them or solo outside of the occasional person asking for help, but it’s not like we are friends and all.

Pifanjr: I have never made a friend through a videogame, but I have made friends through online games. Sort of, none of them lasted after I stopped playing.

I played in a West Marches style D&D campaign for about 2 years, until it slowly fizzled out when the main GM stopped being as engaged. I didn’t keep in contact with any of the other players, though one of them did wish me a happy birthday last week out of nowhere.

I also played Mafia for quite a while on the forum where I met my wife. I actually met up with a couple of people I had gotten to know when I went on a trip to the USA. I stopped playing when life got busier, but I was still in a Discord server with people I used to play with. However, at some point I muted it and now I never check it anymore.

ZedClampet: I’ve made friends in games before, and we still chat occasionally over Steam. I stopped playing multiplayer games, so that doesn’t happen to me anymore, but I may fire one up when my son goes away to college this fall, as I don’t have any real world friends who game.

Colif: Yes, though it was on PlayStation.

I made a few playing Journey but I could never understand them, as in that game, the language options are limited to noises, and everyone had to use same “words”. So I made friends with Japanese people and a bunch of others in that game. One feature of game made that sad… you can never play with people on your friends list… so it’s a one off.

I have made friends with people via forums associated with games. I was in a PlayStation clan, I still sometimes talk to one of them. It splintered once PS4 came out.

mainer: Only indirectly. I only play single player games, or the single player campaign in some games that have multiple modes of play. Maybe it’s because I’m an older gamer (69 years old in April this year), as there was no internet, no cell phones, no PCs, no consoles, and no games; outside of board games and whatever your imagination could produce back when I was in grade school through college. There are some, like “Skyrim Shirley“, who overcame that barrier. That “barrier” isn’t an excuse, but it has definitely been an influence on the types of games I play.

But I have made friends because I was a gamer and we connected because of that. As an example, I have 2 friends, both younger than me by 20+ years, and both married (and one of them with 4 children), while I’m just a single “old-guy”. Yet we connected because we were all avid gamers of single player games, especially RPGs. We were able to form a bond through that experience that is still ongoing with frequent emails and sometimes meeting for lunch. Those relationships also have expanded into talking & caring about real life issues in our lives.

To recap, Tim Cain is a veteran RPG developer, having worked at Interplay, Troika, and Obsidian on games like Fallout, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Pillars of Eternity, and the more recent Outer Worlds. From a state of semi-retirement, he’s been vlogging about various untold stories from his career like the original lore purpose of Fallout’s vaults or an AI-focused retrofit of his underappreciated D&D game, The Temple of Elemental Evil, for use by the United States Department of Defense.

The departure of Cain, Boyarsky, and Anderson from Interplay to form their own RPG studio is one of those mythical bits of RPG lore at this point, a historical hinge point mused on by weirdos like me. In a lot of ways, Troika’s first game Arcanum feels like an alternate Fallout 2, a divergent evolutionary path for a lot of the same ideas.

According to Cain, Fallout 1 being a low priority for Interplay initially was a blessing in disguise for him and the team—it led to a lack of oversight and an amount of creative freedom the developers would come to long for later. Cain describes taking on a lot of first-time developers, as well as so-called “problem employees” that hadn’t thrived at Interplay.

Things began to change toward the end of development as Interplay’s QA employees began playing Fallout to the exclusion of their other assignments, which landed Cain in a spot of trouble, and the project came to the attention of Interplay founder (now inXile CEO) Brian Fargo. As Cain describes it, Fallout built greater momentum and drew more attention in the months leading to its release, and after its critical success, Fallout 2 became a priority for Interplay.

But Cain describes not wanting to make a sequel at the time, feeling burnt out after a long crunch on Fallout 1 and wanting to move on to something different. Cain’s pick to head up Fallout 2, the first game’s assistant producer, Fred Hatch, was not promoted to the role—Interplay management told Hatch it never received Cain’s written recommendation on the matter, while Cain asserts it was delivered and either missed or ignored. When the team initially put on Fallout 2 began to flounder, Cain says Fargo requested a new pitch from him, Boyarsky, and Anderson, one that would form the basis of the Fallout 2 that was eventually released.

Cain characterizes the project as having increased interference from management, citing Fallout 2’s infamous tutorial, The Temple of Trials, as an example. “We were mandated to put that in,” Cain explained in the video. “We were told there had to be a tutorial. I said, ‘Can people skip it?’ ‘No.’ ‘What about on subsequent playthroughs?’ ‘No.'”

While Fallout 1’s iconic box art was created in-house by Boyarsky and an assistant, Cain says the team were forbidden from repeating this by a representative of the marketing department, with a frustrating meeting presenting the decision as a done deal without any input from Cain. When Cain complained of other departments interfering with the development team’s vision and process, CEO Fargo offered to fire the offending employee to Cain’s consternation, wanting creative latitude but not for anyone to lose their job over it. “I just want[ed] it to go back to what Fallout [1] was like.”

The developer characterized the newfound attention and interference as especially galling given how little faith the company had seemed to have in his team on the original project. He sums up the response as, “People I had never talked to before in my life were coming up and saying, ‘That was a great job we did on Fallout.'”

With Interplay wanting an October 1998 release for Fallout 2 (something the remaining team ultimately did accomplish), its developers were staring down another long crunch period to deliver it, but Cain says the final straw related to Fallout 1, and the bonus payouts for employees who worked on it. 

Cain states that his bonus for shipping the original Fallout was significantly docked, and at the personal discretion of CEO Brian Fargo. According to Cain,  Fargo reappropriated a portion of his bonus for an employee Cain argues had grossly underperformed and whose original bonus reflected that assessment. The bonus was also allegedly further docked over a delay relating to a save-corrupting bug: Cain states that he refused to single out the team member responsible for it even at Fargo’s request, with the CEO then assigning responsibility to Cain and cutting his bonus accordingly. We’ve reached out to Brian Fargo for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.

“I had made an IP from scratch that nobody believed in, except the team,” Cain concludes, “And then my reward for that was more crunch, more responsibility that I didn’t want, tons of interference from people who had ignored us for the last three years, and a reduced bonus to ‘get me motivated.’ I was done.”

Cain left the company with Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson shortly thereafter, and the trio would found Troika Games, the ill-fated but supremely productive RPG house, before moving on to other areas of the industry. Cain and Boyarsky would reunite for 2019’s The Outer Worlds, whose sequel Cain has stated he is still working on in a consulting capacity. On Fallout 2, Cain concluded by saying, “I don’t want any of you to change your opinion on Fallout 2 because of this.

“If you like Fallout 2, play it, enjoy it! A really good group of people worked on it. I just couldn’t do it. That’s sometimes how development goes.”