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With the transition from barter to gold economy in Path of Exile 2, many systems that revolved around it have changed. If you’re familiar with the old system, the new changes might seem counterintuitive. For instance, you no longer get currency shards for selling trash gear – except in the case of disenchanting. For the rest, the best bet is to sell it, unless you want to salvage a few specific item types. That’s why we’ll explain what is salvaging in PoE2 and how to do it.
How to salvage gear in PoE2?
Interact with the Salvage Bench when you have gear you want to scrap. Captured by VideoGamer
Click on the hammer icon, then click on any eligible gear in your inventory to salvage it. Captured by VideoGamer
To be able to salvage gear in Path of Exile 2, you first have to unlock the Salvage Bench. After that, click on the bench in the Act hub (or your hideout). You’ll see a hammer icon pop up. Click it and click on the gear you want to salvage. However, not all gear is salvageable. Notably, you can only salvage the following:
- Items with sockets – Artificer’s Shards (collect 10 to make an Artificer’s Orb)
- Armour with quality – Armourer’s Scraps
- Weapons with quality – Blacksmith’s Whetstones
- Wand, Staff, or Sceptre with quality – Arcanist’s Etcher
This way, you can use the gear you don’t need or find as loot drops to get materials to craft better items. Both sockets and item quality play a huge role in crafting perfect items, making salvaging those items very valuable when deciding which loot to pick up.
When you salvage Magic or Rare items with quality or sockets, you won’t get any crafting shards, only the salvageable materials. You should make a decision which one you need more – the salvage items, or those that come from disenchanting those items.
How to unlock the Salvage Bench?
You won’t have the Salvage Bench available when you start the game. Instead, you have to complete the Act 1 quest “Finding the Forge”. Here’s a quick rundown on how to get that done:
- Around the time you finish the “Secrets in the Dark” quest, Renly will ask you to go get his old smithing equipment.
- This will start you on the “Finding the Forge” quest.
- Make your way through the maps of Act 1 until you reach Ogham Village.
- The village is in flames and the map is full of scattered huts. Search through the map until you find a large building with a Checkpoint stone in front. This is Renly’s old forge.
- Enter the building and kill the mobs inside. They will always have one Rare mob leading them, so be careful.
- Loot the smithing tools from the nearby bench – their font will be in green if you’re unsure.
- Bring them back to Renly in Clearfell Encampment and he will make the Salvage Bench available for use.
After that, you will have access to the Salvage Bench in every Act of the game, as well as in your hideout, once you’ve set it up.
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