MacroBioBoi started speedrunning Diablo 2 three years ago with one mission in mind: to crack the top ten runners of all time on the Sorceress. After achieving this goal, he began studying every aspect of Diablo 2’s mechanics and ultimately went on to secure multiple World Records and top 5 placements across all characters. He beat the World Record for Diablo 2’s no-attacking Pacifist run so many times that he went on to literally write the book on how to do it, and he pioneered one of the top speedrunning tactics in the game. To this day, he continues to dig into the mysteries of Diablo 2 to uncover more secrets. The Blacksmith repairs your broken gear, salvages any useless items for valuable crafting materials and upgrades your gear's Item Power to increase their stats! You are going to spend a lot of your down-time at the Blacksmith, clearing out your piles of loot while upgrading any new pieces of gear you come across in your adventures. Your gear also takes a Durability hit whenever you die, so coughing up a bit of Gold gets everything back in working order!
All information in this article is from the Press Preview Access of Diablo 4. The content presented here is subject to change, and will be updated as we learn more.
Unlocking the Blacksmith
When your character reaches level 10, you receive a Priority Quest objective to go and see Zivek the Blacksmith in Kyovashad. You're given the task of upgrading a piece of gear, and in return you're awarded experience.
But the true reward is meeting the NPC you very well may spend the most time with as you progress through the world of Sanctuary. Upgrading your gear and salvaging extra loot for materials are core progression loops.
In addition, with every death you lose 1/10th of your gear's Durability. Once this hits 0, your item's bonuses are partly disabled and you are significantly weaker, so keeping them in good condition is important.
After this intro, Blacksmiths can be found all throughout the world in various outposts, towns and cleared Strongholds so you don't always have to come back to Kyovashad for these tasks.
Salvage
Salvaging a piece of gear gains you an amount of crafting materials that are needed to upgrade that item type. Higher rarities typically award rarer and more of the materials. Salvaging upgraded gear also recoups some of the upgrade materials used on that item. If an item was socketed with a Gem, the Gem is returned to your inventory. Potentially the most important thing of all, salvaging an item unlocks that item's Transmog.
You are able to quickly salvage all items in your Inventory, but it ignores legendary, unique and all items that were altered in any way (enchanted, socketed, transmogged). In addition, you have the option to mark individual items as "Junk" with a hotkey and then salvages all of those with a single click once you visit the Blacksmith, with the same restrictions. Good inventory management can save you a lot of time between adventures.
Materials gained from salvaging
| Item Type | Material Gained |
| Common/Magic Weapon | Iron Chunk x1-2 Silver Ore x1 |
| Rare Weapon | Iron Chunk x1-2 Veiled Crystal x1 |
| Legendary Weapon | Iron Chunk x1-2 Veiled Crystal x1 Baleful Fragment x1 |
| Unique Weapon | Unknown |
| Common/Magic Armor | Rawhide x1-2 Superior Leather x1 |
| Rare Armor | Rawhide x1-2 Veiled Crystal x1 |
| Legendary Armor | Rawhide x1-2 Veiled Crystal x1 Coiling Ward x1 |
| Unique Armor | Unknown |
| Common/Magic Jewelry | Iron Chunk x1-2 |
| Rare Jewelry | Iron Chunk x1-2 Veiled Crystal x1 |
| Legendary Jewelry | Iron Chunk x1-2 Abstruse Sigil x1 |
| Unique Jewelry | Iron Chunk x1-2 Abstruse Sigil x1 |
Repair
Your mighty hero will eventually die. When it happens, your Armor and Weapons lose 10% of their total Durability. Once that value reaches 0, your gear is considered broken and must be repaired. Every 10% Durability increases the Gold cost, which also increases with Item Power.
Upgrading
The items you find on your adventures are only the beginning of your character's gear progression. Every piece of gear can be upgraded a certain amount of times, based on the rarity, with increasing Gold and material costs. This increases the Item Power by 5 every time. While you can upgrade common and magic items, this is only a waste of time and resources. Rare, legendary and unique items are the only bases worth upgrading.
The benefits of upgrading cannot be overstated. Not only do most of the affix stats increase at every Item Power increment, but the base Armor and Weapon Damage increase as well. These are critical for decreasing incoming damage and increasing your Skill damage. See the list below for each upgrade material and what they're used for:
- Iron Chunk Tier 1 - Weapon, Jewelry
- Rawhide Tier 1 - Armor
- Silver Ore Tier 2 - Weapon, Jewelry
- Superior Leather Tier 2 - Armor
- Veiled Crystal Tier 3 - Weapon, Armor, Jewelry
- Baleful Fragment Tier 4 - Weapon
- Coiling Ward Tier 4 - Armor
- Abstruse Sigil Tier 4 - Jewelry
- Forgotten Soul Tier 5 - Weapon, Armor, Jewelry (Sacred, Ancestral)*
* These are listed in the Salvage menu and seen in the final upgrade material cost but we have not seen the material in-game.
Summary
- The Blacksmith is can salvage your unused gear for crafting materials, upgrade your gear to max their stats and repair your broken gear to keep you in the fight!
- Salvaging Weapons, Armor and Jewelry get you crafting materials needed to upgrade the items you find on your adventures.
- Every time you die, your item's Durability drops by 10%. When it hits 0 you need to get it repaired ASAP!
Credits
Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Rob & wudijo
Changelog
Article Created from the Press Release Version of Diablo 4. 
