Blacksmith

Haedrig Eamon is an Artisan Blacksmith in Diablo 3. He is encountered in New Tristram, then joins the Caravan and serves as the game's Blacksmith, making weapons, armor and anything that is required for the hero during his or her travels throughout Sanctuary.

Haedrig is one of two Artisans in Diablo III, and is the NPC in charge of all item crafting. To salvage items players must speak to Haedrig and use the interface he provides. He is also the hub for all crafting of new weapons and armor.

During development, many of his talents were redistributed.

• Haedrig initially socketed items. This is now handled by the jeweler, who also removes gems from sockets.
• Haedrig initially made all repairs. These are now available from several NPC merchants in town.
• Haedrig was formerly the source of the Nephalem Cube as a quest reward. That object was removed from the game in the big interface revisions of Beta Patch 10.

Contents

Lore/Backstory

Haedrig's quest.

Haedrig was a young husband and father in New Tristram, when the fiery Meteor crashed down through the Monastery. In the chaos and demonic uprising that followed, his wife and child were slain, then returned to half-life as hideous zombies. Brokenhearted over their undead fate, Haedrig beseeches the hero to find them and destroy them, putting their souls to rest.

Once the deed is done, Haedrig agrees to use his blacksmithing skills to assist your hero in the battle against evil. Like the other important NPCs, Haedrig travels with the caravan throughout the entire game, and is present in town in each act.

Features

The Blacksmith's interface, Training.

Haedrig handles all salvaging, and also crafting. He makes numerous types of armor and weapons, and learns new recipes as he levels up, as well as from crafting plans found by players. He does not buy or sell items.

• Crafting

When the Artisan system was announced, all three Artisans had some crafting abilities. The Jeweler crafted rings and amulets, the Mystic crafted spell-caster items like wands and orbs, and the Blacksmith crafted other weapons and armor. This system evolved during development, with jewelry crafting removed (likely to return in an expansion), and spell-caster item crafting moved to Haedrig, even before the Mystic was removed from the game during the beta test.

• Salvaging

Salvaging was originally accomplished with the Nephalem Cube. After that item was removed from the interface, a salvaging tab was added to Haedrig's interface.

• Training

Haedrig must be trained in order to learn higher level recipes that keep him useful to your character as you level up. The costs and requirements for training have changed repeatedly during development. As of March 2012, training Haedrig up to about level 3.5, which grants him recipes with character level requirements into the high 20s, costs only gold. Higher levels of training, accomplished during Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno, require gold, as well as materials and Pages of Training.

Haedrig formerly handled socketing but that talent was given to the Jeweler. He also lost his repair monopoly, and now various NPC merchants provide that, along with selling and buying weapons and armor.

Appearance and Upgrades

Haedrig's wagon and general shop appearance will change, growing more shiny and impressive, as he is leveled up. Each of the Artisans in Diablo III has 10 levels to upgrade through.

This happens for all of the Artisans, but Haedrig's are the best documented as he's been trainable up to level 5 during the beta test, and other higher level wagon images have been released by Blizzard.

Comparisons of the smithy at the first, second, and highest level of upgrades. (At the time of this image, there were only 5 Artisan levels. There are now 10, so the looks of each level now differ slightly.)

A video of his upgrade animation:

References

• Artisan Presentation Video
• Interview with Jay Wilson

Gallery

• 

  Four levels of the 10 potential upgrades.

• 

  Haedrig's Wagon in-game.

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  Wagon upgrade concept art.