/ Decrease physical damage. <HiddenLore req="chaos,faith">Those truly faithful, whether to Orius or Adyr or any other god, rarely fear death, and that certainly applies to worshippers of the Putrid Mother, who eagerly await her embrace.</>
In a weapon
Increase vigor gain. / Decrease physical damage
- Vigor Absorb Multiplier
- +0.1
- Damage Physical
- -15
In a shield
Increase item discovery rate
- Item Discovery
- +0.1
A shield, not armor. No armor piece in this game has a rune socket; all 35 shields do — and the game's own description for this rune says "Shield function".
What this rune is actually worth
More than the number suggests. A damage rune modifies the weapon's base damage, and your stat scaling is then applied on top of the raised base — so the rune is multiplied by your build rather than simply added to the end.
Nhelaq adds -15 physical to base. On a well-scaled build that is worth roughly double at the end of the calculation.
Measured, not estimated
On a level-173 character with Paladin Isaac's Sword +10 — attack rating 621 (311 base + 310 scaling), hitting for a consistent 541:
| Reading | Attack rating | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| No rune | 621 | 541 |
| Vaus socketed (+10 physical) | 641 | 558 |
Base went 311 → 321, scaling followed to 320, and the +10 rune was worth +20 attack rating. Predicted 558.4 against a measured 558. Verified in game
This rules out both figures in circulation. A flat +10 on the final total would have given 550. The +10% widely published for Vaus would have given 595. Neither matches.
Why nobody could see this
Socketing a rune does not change the attack rating on your stat screen — not by a single digit. The effect is real and the display simply omits it, so the only way to observe a rune working is to hit something and compare damage. That is why this has been guesswork in the community for so long, and it is why the figure above was measured with a weapon, an enemy and a stopwatch rather than read off a menu.
Where to find it
- How
- Enemy drop
- Dropped by Umbral Angler
- 10.0%
- Confidence
- Modelled
- Sells for
- 50 vigor
Other Agility runes
Agility runes carry the A socket letter, so these are the runes that fit anywhere this one does.
Spotted something wrong here? Tell us and we will fix it.