Haedrig Eamon is an NPC/Artisan in Diablo III. He is first encountered early in Act I when the nephalem asks about the Shattered Crown. However, if one pays attention to a very subtle line during the intro cinematic, a quote can be very faintly heard. The quote reads "My name is Haedrig Eamon. And I killed my wife!" It is very perculiar as in the quote Haedrig seems to have a very harsh Scottish accent however Blizzard are yet to confirm this. After completing a short quest, Haedrig's smithing services will become available to the player. He can salvage magical items into crafting parts, craft new weapons/armor from those parts, and be leveled up to improve his skills.
Life Before Diablo III
Haedrig lived with his father for most of his life in Caldeum. They were a very wealthy family, as his father was a diplomat. That all fell apart when his grandfather Chancellor Eamon was blamed for what happened to King Leoric and Tristram. When the Skeleton King was destroyed, his grandfather helped many villagers out of the city. He died of a sword wound, and was buried with the Shattered Crown to keep it safe. Shortly after, a mob of crazed villagers from Tristram killed his father with two knives to his back and one in the throat. Eamon escaped, and a few years later he met Mira, his future wife, trapped in a cage, accused of being a witch. Haedrig broke the cage and met up with a Vecin caravan, and the two wed sometime after. They then moved to New Tristram, at Mira's request.
Diablo III
Haedrig was responsible for being the blacksmith of New Tristram. Shortly after the return of the Skeleton King, his wife, Mira, became infected with the disease that made the dead rise again. He asked for the aid of the nephalem, and the two killed many of Haedrig's friends and his own wife. Eamon then assists the player in creating weapons and salvaging armor along his/her journey.
Haedrig, as with all artisans, only needs to be recruited once per account. He will be present and provide services from the beginning in New Tristram in all subsequent playthroughs on all difficulty levels. While Haedrig will briefly disappear from his normal spot when the player reaches his recruitment quest, his services will still be available through their respective enviromental objects. Haedrig himself will return to his usual location after the recruitment quest is completed.
In-game interaction
Blacksmith's services include the following:
- Repair: ability to restore durability of all items for a price. Gold cost is exactly the same as when done by vendors, but Haedrig is generally closer to the Town Portals and Waypoints than most merchants.
- Salvage: destroys the targeted item and returns a respective number of Crafting Materials fit for its quality and level:
- Common / Poor: Common Debris (1-60) or Reusable Parts (61+), 1 to 10 per item
- Magic: Exquisite Essence (1-60) or Arcane Dust (61+), 1 to 5 per item
- Rare: Iridescent Tear (1-60) or Veiled Crystal (61+), 1 per item
- Legendary / Set: Fiery Brimstone (1-60) or Forgotten Soul (61+), 1 per item
Salvaging is fool-proof: for every item players try to salvage, if it is of rare quality and above, they need to click a confirmation button. This can be set in Options to affect Legendary items only. Unidentified items can be salvaged without wasting time to identify them first. Any socketed gems will be returned for free.
In Patch 2.1, three more buttons were added: "Salvage all Normal / Magic / Rare items in inventory". This option is unlocked at artisan level 12.
- Craft Weapons / Armor: allows crafting items of Magic quality and above, provided the player has (in inventory or stash) required materials and has found the required recipe.
Crafting is not performed instantly (so one has time to cancel it without losing the materials if misclicked). Item types are sorted in alphabetical order, and player may choose to display only the items they can equip, the items they have materials for, or items that are of highest level they can currenly use (discarding any lower), one for each level of quality.
To learn a recipe, player must find it, then open Blacksmith's interface and right-click the recipe. Once learned, recipes that are Account-Bound will no longer drop for that account and type (as Seasonal and normal, as well as Hardcore and softcore characters, have separate artisans).