In single-player, open and ladder games only, the Horadric Cube can transmute two Cham Runes and one Flawless Emerald into one Zod Rune. This rune can drop from any lvl 81+ regular enemy in the game and all containers in Act 5 hell. The chance of a rune dropped by a lvl 81+ monster being a Zod is 1:5171.

A Zod rune can make most socketed ethereal items more useful than their non-ethereal equivalents. Since an item does not lose durability with a Zod rune socketed, a hero can make permanent use of an ethereal item's boosted stats, lack of repair costs, and lower Strength and Dexterity requirements. This results in higher damage or defense, more gold saved, and up to 20 stat points freed for other stats.