Material

Materials are obtained by salvaging items with the Blacksmith in town. On their own materials have no function, but they are required for crafting items and training Artisans.

Materials also drop directly, from monsters and chests, though this is uncommon, and salvaging items is required to obtain them in quantity.[1]

Salvaging

To obtain materials, players must visit the Blacksmith, click to his salvage tab, click the salvage button, and then use the salvage cursor to recycle their magical, rare, set, and legendary items.

During much of the game's development, salvaging was handled with the Nephalem Cube, and interface object that allowed players to salvage anywhere, without returning to town. The Cube was removed along with the Stone of Recall and the Cauldron of Jordan in a major revamp of game systems late in the beta test.[2] The ability to salvage "white" items was also removed at that time, along with the "white" quality materials.

Material Types

There are three types of materials; blue (magical), yellow (rare), and orange (legendary). Each type is repeated on each of the four difficulty levels, with different names. Lower quality materials of a given type can be upgraded to the next level, at a 10 > 1 ratio, plus gold.

During much of the game's development, white materials made a fourth material type, the most common and low quality. These were removed, along with the ability to salvage white items, late in the beta test.

Material Scarcity

Materials are color-coded to items, and have a similar level of scarcity. As of February 2012 (figures subject to change in later development):

Blue (magical) items are very common in Diablo III, and when salvaged these will create a blue material of the appropriate difficulty level around 94% of the time, a rare material around 5% of the time, and a legendary around 1% of the time. Rare items create a rare material 95% of the time and a legendary material 5% of the time. Legendary items always produce 1 legendary material.

It's not yet known where set items fit into these ratios. There are no set materials, and it's likely that set items will require legendary materials to craft, and will break down into legendary materials, though this has not yet been confirmed.

Nightmare materials can be created by upgrading Normal materials, Hell materials can be created by upgrading Nightmare materials, and Inferno materials can be created by upgrading Hell materials. All of those recipes require 10 of the lower quality material, plus gold, to create 1 of the higher level material.

There is no way to upgrade blue materials into yellow, or yellow into legendary. There are no recipes to enable downgrading, say from Nightmare quality to Normal quality.

Normal

	Name	Source	Description
	Subtle Essence	Magic weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on magic materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Fallen Tooth	Rare weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on rare materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Petrified Bark	Legendary weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on exotic materials to enhance and create the most powerful items.

Nightmare

	Name	Source	Description
	Shimmering Essence	Magic weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on magic materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Lizard Eye	Rare weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on rare materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Corpse Ash	Legendary weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on exotic materials to enhance and create the most powerful items.

Hell

	Name	Source	Description
	Wishful Essence	Magic weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on magic materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Encrusted Hoof	Rare weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on rare materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Volcanic Coal	Legendary weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on exotic materials to enhance and create the most powerful items.

Inferno

	Name	Source	Description
	Exquisite Essence	Magic weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on magic materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Iridescent Tear	Rare weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on rare materials to enhance and create powerful items.
	Fiery Brimstone	Legendary weapons and armor.	Artisans through the ages have relied on exotic materials to enhance and create the most powerful items.

Removed White Materials

These white quality materials were all removed from the game late in the beta test.[3] When active, one white material was always created from any salvage of any item. White items spawned one white material 94% of the time, a blue material 5% of the time, and a rare material 1% of the time.

Blue, yellow, set, and legendary items always created one white material when salvaged, plus a second material of the appropriately varying quality, as seen in the game today. These items never simply spawned two white materials when salvaged.

Normal Difficulty	Nightmare Difficulty	Hell Difficulty	Inferno Difficulty
Common Scrap	Assorted Fragment	Reusable Part	Valuable Component

Other Materials

Obtained from salvaging runestones and used for runestone quality upgrades or runestone rerolls; details are not yet finalized.

	Name	Source	Description
	Gem Dust	Gems
	Alabaster Anima	Alabaster Runestones.	Only the most powerful Mystics can peer into the depths of the Rune Anima and tap its power.
	Crimson Anima	Crimson Runestones.	Only the most powerful Mystics can peer into the depths of the Rune Anima and tap its power.
	Golden Anima	Golden Runestones.	Only the most powerful Mystics can peer into the depths of the Rune Anima and tap its power.
	Indigo Anima	Indigo Runestones.	Only the most powerful Mystics can peer into the depths of the Rune Anima and tap its power.
	Obsidian Anima	Obsidian Runestones.	Only the most powerful Mystics can peer into the depths of the Rune Anima and tap its power.