Best Budget Unique Helms in D2R

Normal Helms

Tarnhelm - If you happen to find it at low levels +1 to all skills and 25-50% magic find +75% goldfind will be pretty much one of the best choices you can wear for that purpose until you can get your hands on upgrades later on.

Duskdeep - At level 17, 45-60 defense from an helm alone is a noticeable amount, +15% all resistances and 7 flat physical damage reduction just adds value to this item which has also an interesting +8 max dmg that makes it a useful choice for melee builds early on until you can wear a Lore runeword or better options.

Undead Crown - Good cheap lv29 helm suited mostly for Necromancers having +3 Skeleton Mastery, but it is also good on a mercenary early on for the life leech and 50% poison resist + half freeze duration, paired with decent defense amounts.

Wormskull - A lv21 "Vanilla" version of the Undead Crown, with 5% life leech and 25% poison resist can be useful for merc but most notably for Necromancers it has +1 all necro skills

Exceptional Helms

Blackhorn's Face - Becomes available at lvl41, providing 20% slow to target, Prevent Monster Heal, +20 Lightning absorb and +15% lightning resist with high defense, it can be a nice budget defensive helm for you or your merc whenever facing a Boss with dangerous lightning damage (Diablo or Mephisto for example)

Crown Of Thieves - Very popular lv49 helm option for goldfind builds but also for mercenaries when in need of life leech having 9-12%, high dexterity with +25 and survivability boost with +33% fire resist, +50 life and +35 mana too.

Peasant Crown - Pretty straight forward budget helm available from level 29 with +1 to all skills, 15% faster run/walk, +6-12 replenish life and +20 to both Vitality and Energy. However is not very popular due to Lore runeword being easy to obtain and giving similar if not better stats for most builds.

Rockstopper - This helm at lvl31 gives us 10% physical damage reduction, 30% fhr, +15 vitality and then it rolls 20 to 40% resistance for cold and lightning + 20 to 50% fire resistance. For these reasons it can be a pretty useful defensive helm which shouldn't be expensive unless you want it close to perfect.

Valkyrie Wing - Extremely useful to Amazons, it can have  +1/2 amazon skills, 20% faster run/walk, 20% fhr and +2/4 mana after each kill which are all very beneficial stats for an Amazon and it shouldn't be too expensive to get it

Vampire Gaze - One of the best budget helms in the game for both players and mercenaries, with 6-8% life and mana stolen per hit, adds 6-22 cold damage for 4 seconds upon hit, 15-20% physical damage reduction and magic damage reduced by a flat 10-15 it has indeed quite some variable stats which makes the trade market price for it pretty wide depending on its rolls, a poorly rolled one will be cheap to get while a perfect one will be expensive with Ethereal mod making it even more expensive.

Elite Helms

Andariel's Visage - Most popular helm choice for endgame mercenaries, suggested in most build guides and for good reasons, high defense, +2 to all skills, 20% increased attack speed, 8/10% life stolen per hit, +25-30 Strength, +70 poison resist and +10% max poison resistance at the cost of -30% fire resistance (usually negated by a Ral rune or a Jewel with fire res and other stats). It is not budget at the very start of the ladder and you will surely do well even without by really wanting it, but with some patience its price falls down later on and you could get your hands on a non-eth one for a reasonable price.

Crown of Ages - Same can be said about this amazing piece of equipment, the more time will pass on ladder the less it should cost, but with low rolls obviously as for a good rolled one prices will raise considerably. It is Indestructible, gives +1 to all skills and reduce physical damage by 10-15%, +20-30% all resistances, +30% faster hit recovery and it can spawn with 1 to 2 sockets to further customize it with runes or jewels.

Harlequin Crest - This item is among the most expensive on the list, but it can be cheaper if you find the right seller, as cheap as Um or Mal. It's probably the most popular unique helm in Diablo 2 commonly referred to as "Shako", generating ever since countless misunderstandings on trading sites and platforms for people willing to buy it just to get offered instead a normal base Shako, or a rare Shako with +2 to a skill tree and other stats. Anyway, it is so popular for good reasons, +2 to all skills, up to +150 life and mana based on level (insanely high), reduces physical damage by 10%, +2 to all attributes (because.. and +50% magic find makes it also ideal for any generic magic find build.

 Circlets

Kira's Guardian - This amazing item can be surprisingly cheap later on in Ladder, since the All Resistances rolls 50 to 70% there is variety with pricing, it also has Cannot Be Frozen and 20% fhr, proving very useful for any build to get such attributes from the Helm slot, gaining more build flexibility (for example on a budget goldfind barb farming Travincal sacrificing head slot with this will help cap resistances with ease while having cannot be frozen and still wear two Dwarf Star rings)

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