How to get Harlequin Crest Shako in Diablo 4

In Diablo 4, Harlequin Crest is one of the rarest unique items in the entire game. It is so rare that it is classified under “uber uniques” because of its extremely low drop rate.

What is it exactly and why would you want to get your hands on it? Come, join us as we embark on a quest to find one of the rarest items in the game. This is our ultimate guide on how to get the Harlequin Crest in Diablo 4!

Diablo 4 Harlequin Crest - What is It?

The Harlequin Crest was a very popular item in Diablo 2, which was commonly known as the “Shako” because of the item’s base type. It is much easier to say Shako than utter the item’s full name, thus the Diablo 2 and Diablo 4 communities use the said word to refer to the Harlequin Crest.

Having said that, the Harlequin Crest in Diablo 4 is only the same by name and not by stats. Here is a complete rundown:

As you can see, the Harlequin Crest offers an impressive collection of bonuses that can make any Diablo 4 character stronger and more powerful. Besides the increase in maximum life and resource generation, the Shako is incredible at reducing the damage you take. If you are lucky, you can get the full 20%, which enables you to challenge any minion of Hell that is foolish enough to come your way.

But more importantly, the Harlequin Crest raises the rank of all your skills by four points. That is quite huge, especially considering that each skill rank boosts the damage and effectiveness of your abilities.

Diablo 4: Where to find Harlequin Crest (Shako)

Harlequin Crest has an item power of 925, which means that it can only drop from level 85+ monsters on World Tier IV (Torment) difficulty. At least, this was the notion back then when the Shako could only be obtained as a rare drop. Nowadays, thanks to the changes Blizzard made in Season 4: Loot Reborn, there is a way to deterministically get your hands on this uber unique! 

How to Get the Harlequin Crest

There are multiple ways to farm the Shako in Diablo 4. This is ranked from best to worst:

• Crafting via Resplendent Sparks

• Target Farming Helltides - Tortured Gift of Protection Chests

• Salvaging Other Uber Uniques from Uber Andariel and Uber Duriel

• Completing Nightmare Dungeons on T31+ difficulty

• Completing Tree of Whispers assignments

• Farming any area with lvl85+ monsters

In Patch 1.0.4, Helltide Chests can finally drop unique items! Because of that, getting a Shako is now easier if you farm Aberrant Cinders in Helltides and open Tortured Gift of Protection chests. As this is one of the rarest items in the entire game, getting one will still require a lot of patience and persistence, though the drop rate for the Harlequin Crest has increased significantly as part of Season 4.

Farming T31+ Nightmare Dungeons for Shako

If Nightmare Dungeon Farming is your preferred activity to get a Shako, it is important to note that some monster classes drop Helms more frequently than others. These are:

• Conclave

• Cultist Refuge

• Earthen Wound

• Serpent's Lair

• Shadowed Plunge

To have a better chance of finding a "Shako", you should farm Nightmare Dungeons where these types of monsters appear frequently.

Crafting the Shako

Now, farming Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons could get you a Shako if you are persistent enough, but what if you’re tired of the uncertainty? Perhaps you do not want to leave everything to chance and you just want a surefire way to obtain the damn thing!

Well, we at RPGStash know how and that is through crafting uber uniques via Resplendent Sparks!

For the uninitiated, the Resplendent Spark is a new crafting material in Diablo 4 introduced in Season 4: Loot Reborn. This was Blizzard’s way of addressing the public clamor for more accessible uber uniques like Tyrael’s Might and the Harlequin Crest.

At the moment, you can acquire the Resplendent Spark in several ways, including:

• Defeating a Tormented Echo (Uber) for the first time

• Defeating Uber Lilith for the first time on World Tier IV (Torment)

• Salvaging other “Uber Unique” items you may have

• Reaching Reputation Rank 18 with the Iron Wolves

Unless your build is capable of eliminating the uber bosses in Diablo 4 or you have other uber uniques already in your possession, you are better off attaining the highest rank with the Iron Wolves faction.

To increase your honor rank with the Iron Wolves, you have to do a lot of Helltide runs. If you are new to Diablo 4, Helltides are region-wide events that occur at specific times of the day. They only start appearing on the map if you are in World Tier III (Nightmare) difficulty or higher.

While they occur at certain times of the day, there are resources online that are dedicated to tracking the next Helltide event, so you may want to pay those sites a visit if you want to engage with the said activity.

Enemies that you fight here drop currency called Aberrant Cinders. These act as keys that unlock the tortured chests that you can find in a Helltide. You will need a lot of these Aberrant Cinders to open the chests, which is specified when you hover over them.

The reason why engaging in Helltides and opening the Tortured Chests is important is that both of them can increase your Wolf’s Honor or reputation with the Iron Wolves faction in Diablo 4. To reach Rank 18, you have to do an exorbitant number of Helltide runs in order to achieve that.

So, what happens when you finally attain the Highest Honors of the Iron Wolves? Well, you will be rewarded with a reward cache for your efforts! Opening this guarantees one Resplendent Spark along with some crafting materials and an explosion of gold. 

Now, to craft the Harlequin Crest, you will need four Resplendent Sparks to do the job. However, if the reward cache only gives you one, where do you get the other three? Well, the good news is that reward caches are given per character, so all you have to do is create three new characters just to attain the highest rank among the Iron Wolves!

We know that it is a rather time-consuming process, but at least you leave all of the guesswork behind and definitively get your hands on the Shako!

Once you have enough Resplendent Sparks in your possession, visit any Alchemist in the game and interact with them. Select “Transmutation” and then “Transmute Sparks” to see a list of uber unique items that you can craft. 

From there, select the Harlequin Crest and you will be shown a window that tells you the materials needed to craft it, as well as the fee for the service.

So, there you have it! We hope that you have found our guide on how to obtain the ever-elusive Harlequin Crest in Diablo 4 helpful. Don’t forget to bookmark this page for future reference!

Even though you are now able to deterministically obtain the Shako, you will still need to grind Iron Wolves reputation to get enough Resplendent Sparks. If you do not want to go through the arduous grind, then don’t worry! We have you covered!

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