The Diablo 3 stash system is similar to an Artisan because you share it on all of your account’s characters. You throw items in there and they are accessible when you load up the auction house and in game from other players.  You also upgrade the stash through various levels to expand its capacity. This isn’t news to beta players, but the rest might help new players get an idea of what role the stash will play when they load up on May 15th.

The shared stash has 3 tabs, each have 70 squares for a total of 210 squares. The first tab is free, but only starts with 14 squares. You can upgrade each tab 4 times for 10,000 gold. Once you have fully upgraded your tab you can unlock the second two tabs for 50,000 gold each. This works like this:

As you can see, the total cost of upgrading your stash to the full 210 slots is right in line with what it costs to level your artisans to Exalted. While 220,000 gold may seem like a lot it actually isn’t. However, I definitely don’t think you should throw your first 220,000 gold at your stash just so you can store more items.

Character Storage

Each character also has it’s own inventory of 60 slots. This will fill up pretty fast as you’re leveling but most of it will be junk or items that you can salvage into trade goods. You can create 10 characters on your account giving you a total character storage of 600 slots, add to that the 210 slot shared stash and you can now store 810 slots worth of items and equipment. Not to bad.

Using Mules

A mule is a cross between a male donkey and a female horse. These are typically bred for their strength, obedience and ability to carry heavy loads. In Diablo 3 and other video games, we use the term mule to refer to a character created for the sole purpose of storing stuff. No horses needed. Use your extra character slots to create a level 1 and run it into New Tristam to the shared stash. This will give it easy access to empty out the shared stash and load those items into their inventory.

You can use the Auction House to rapidly view the inventory of all your characters and shared stash. This should save you 220,000 gold, since it gives you the ability to store 540 slots worth of items across 9 mule characters while you level your first primary character. Once you’re done with your first primary character and want to start an alt you can replace their 60 slots with 4 stash upgrades for 40,000 gold.

Hardcore

When you decide to create your first hardcore player remember that when you die their inventory and everything in it is lost forever. However, anything you managed to stow away in the Hardcore stash will be preserved. You can not exchange items between Hardcore players and Normal players. Their stash, and Artisans, are completely separate.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.