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Diablo 4 salvage is an important way of getting essential Materials by breaking down any unwanted gear that you've picked up on your adventures. Salvage is mentioned very early in Diablo 4 when you first start filling your inventory with loot, but you won't be able to actually salvage anything until you've progressed to the first city and met the Blacksmith. With your best gear equipped and an inventory full of useless weapons and armor, here's what you need to know about salvage in Diablo 4, as well as how to unlock new transmog options, and whether it's better to sell or salvage.
How to salvage gear in Diablo 4
To salvage gear in Diablo 4 you need to find a Blacksmith. Open the Blacksmith menu and you'll find lots of options for salvaging your loot, including 'Directly in Inventory' to choose individual items in your inventory slots, 'All Junk' to instantly salvage items that you've marked as junk, or you can salvage items based on their rarity ('Rare' salvages all Rare items, for example).
Salvaging a Diablo 4 item permanently destroys it, converting it into useful Materials based on the type of item and its rarity. You can get things like Rawhide, Superior Leather, Iron Chunks, Veiled Crystals, or even Baleful Fragments and Abstruse Sigils. which can then be used for upgrades and crafting. Unfortunatley, you can't see what Materials you'll receive from salvaging an item in advance but obviously the better the item, the better the salvage.
Furthermore, any items with a little pickaxe icon can be salvaged to unlock them as a new appearance, allowing them to be used in your character's outfits through Diablo 4 transmog at wardrobes. If you've died at least once, you should also visit a Blacksmith as they're the only way to repair gear in Diablo 4.
Be aware that you won't have access to a Blacksmith until you've completed the Diablo 4 Rite of Passage quest and have got into Kyovashad. You can head over to the Blacksmith in the city, but you should find Blacksmiths in most settlements around Sanctuary.
Should you salvage or sell Diablo 4 loot?
When you venture out into the wilderness of Sanctuary, you'll quickly fill up your inventory with all sorts of unwanted loot which can be dealt with in two ways:
- Sell to Weapons and Armor Vendors in exchange for Gold
- Salvage using Blacksmiths in exchange for Materials
When first starting out, we recommend salvaging pretty much everything you get that isn't an improvement on your currently-equipped gear. This'll help you start building up your basic Materials and getting transmog options for the wardrobe. You'll still get a good amount of Gold from playing through the story, and there's not much worth spending your Gold on early on so best to save it all for now.
However, once you've levelled up quite a bit and you start getting Rare (yellow) and Legendary (orange) gear, you should strike a balance between selling and salvaging - adapt to what you need in the moment, be it Gold or Materials. Since you should have built up a good amount of basic Materials relatively early, a good approach is to sell all the Common (white) and Magic (blue) gear you pick up to fill your Gold pouch while salvaging most higher-rarity loot for superior Materials.
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