There’s a whole lot of stuff to wrap your head around as you begin your hellraising journey in Diablo IV. Thankfully, the game is very good about introducing new mechanics to you over time. One that you won’t start using right away are collectibles known as Aspects. Once you do have access to them, however, you’re going to want more and more because Aspects are a powerful way to boost your character.
Before you go collecting them, it’s important to know what Aspects are. Essentially, they function as Legendary passives for your character’s abilities that are slotted into your weapons, armor, rings, or amulets. To equip or “Imprint” these Aspects, you’ll need to visit an Occultist. These folks are easy to locate thanks to the three-pointed fidget-spinner-looking rune that marks them on your map, and there’s one located in the beginning city of Kyovoshad as well.
To view your personal collection of Aspects, you need only open your map and tabbing over to your “Collections.” Here you can view every possible Aspect in the game, what character class it’s meant for (some can be used by all classes), and even the conditions for unlocking said Aspect. How do you start adding to this collection? The vast majority of Aspects are unlocked by completing dungeons, and from your collections menu you can even pin the location of the dungeon you need to clear for a specific Aspect. Of course, it may not be wise to beeline toward far-off dungeons as those ones will likely be a higher level than your beginning character.
If you complete a dungeon and find that the Aspect at its end is for a class you’re not playing as, don’t worry. Once an Aspect is unlocked, you can use that Aspect with any of your other characters. Starting a new game as a different class sounds even more enticing if you can begin with a bunch of class aspects already unlocked!
All of that is what Aspects are and where they’re found, but to actually use them you’ve got to visit that aforementioned Occultist. It’s here that you can choose any compatible item and combine it with your preferred Aspect. Some Aspects can only attach to certain types of equipment, but you can have more than one piece of Aspect-imbued equipment on your character. You’ll be able to preview your upgraded gear before finalizing your decision, but after you’ve paid the required amount of gold and handed over the necessary materials, your Aspect gear is locked in.
Aspects are entirely reusable, but your equipment is not. If you imprint an Aspect onto the wrong thing, there’s unfortunately nothing you can do to fix it. The option to “Extract Aspect” at an Occultist will remove an Aspect from a piece of loot, but that loot will be destroyed in the process. However! If that Aspect you extract is one that you hadn’t previously unlocked, it will be added to your character’s inventory for a one-time use in boosting a different piece of equipment. Nifty!