Minecraft Dungeons 2: Blacksmithing Detailed Guide

TL;DR

• Unlock the Blacksmith by completing the “The Missing Note Blocks” quest — the 8th main quest.
• He upgrades Item Power using Emeralds and rerolls affixes using Echo Shards.
• Blacksmith has 3 merchant levels — default, Level 2 (20 Echo Shards), Level 3 (40 Echo Shards).
• Level 1 rerolls Rare items. Level 2 unlocks Special. Level 3 unlocks Unique.
• The first reroll on any item costs 1 Echo Shard. Each reroll on the same item costs more.
• Rerolls are permanent — the game warns you before you confirm.
• Item Power upgrades are capped by your character level — you cannot exceed your current cap.
• Echo Shard cap is 100 — spend them before farming more or you waste drops.

The Blacksmith is one of the most important NPCs in Minecraft Dungeons 2. He sits in Brave Haven alongside the Enchantsmith and together they handle almost every build customisation decision in the game. But while most players understand upgrading Item Power, fewer know the full depth of what the Blacksmith can actually do.

This is the detailed guide. It covers every mechanic — how upgrades work, how rerolls are priced, how to manage your currencies efficiently, what the affix pool means for your items, and how to approach the Blacksmith at every stage of the game from your first run to endgame farming.

How to Unlock the Blacksmith in Minecraft Dungeons 2

The Blacksmith does not start in Brave Haven. You have to bring him there.

He is unlocked by completing the core quest “The Missing Note Blocks” — the 8th main quest in the game. Once you finish it, the Blacksmith joins Brave Haven permanently and his shop becomes available from that point forward.

Until you unlock him, you have no way to upgrade Item Power on your gear. This makes completing the 8th main quest a high priority. Do not skip side content in a way that delays your progress through the main quest chain — getting the Blacksmith online early pays off for the rest of the game.

After unlocking him, there is a short follow-up called “Catch Up with the Blacksmith” which officially marks him as available in your town. Complete it and you are ready to use his services.

The Four Currencies You Need to Understand

The Blacksmith uses two specific currencies. Knowing the difference between all four currencies in the game is essential to managing your progression efficiently.

• Emeralds — Used to upgrade Item Power at the Blacksmith. Earned mainly by salvaging gear, smashing pots, and opening chests. This is the currency you will spend most frequently.
• Echo Shards — Used to level up the Blacksmith (and other merchants), and to reroll item affixes once that feature is unlocked. Echo Shards drop from Soul Corrupted enemies, Rifts, and Dungeons. They also drop from bosses. The cap is 100 Echo Shards — never let yourself hit the cap while farming or you will waste drops.
• Enhancement Points — Earned by leveling up (one per level). Used at the Enchantsmith, not the Blacksmith. Refunded when you salvage gear.
• Souls — Used for specific Sift activities and some vendor interactions. Not directly related to the Blacksmith.

The Blacksmith’s primary transaction is Emeralds for Item Power upgrades. Echo Shards are only spent at the Blacksmith to either level him up or to reroll affixes on your gear.

Blacksmith Merchant Levels — What Each One Unlocks

The Blacksmith has three levels. He starts at Level 1 and can be upgraded twice using Echo Shards. Each level expands what he can do.

Blacksmith Merchant Level 1 Minecraft Dungeons 2

Blacksmith Level 1 — Default

Available immediately after unlocking him. At this level:

• Can upgrade Item Power on all gear rarities (Common, Rare, Special, Unique) using Emeralds.
• Can reroll affixes on Rare items only using Echo Shards.

Blacksmith Level 2 — Costs 20 Echo Shards

Upgrading to Level 2 unlocks a major quality-of-life improvement:

• Retains everything from Level 1.
• Can now reroll affixes on Special items using Echo Shards.

This is when rerolling becomes genuinely useful for your build. Special items are a step above Rare and this is where many solid mid-game builds are centred.

Blacksmith Level 3 — Costs 40 Echo Shards

The final and most powerful upgrade:

• Retains everything from Levels 1 and 2.
• Can now reroll affixes on Unique items using Echo Shards.

This is the endgame tier of the Blacksmith. Rerolling a Unique affix lets you push a powerful item from good to perfect for your specific build. It is also required for certain achievements and trophies.

Save your Echo Shards in the early game for the Level 2 and Level 3 unlocks. Do not burn them on Rare rerolls before you have cleared both upgrades — they are too valuable early to spend on low-rarity items.

How Item Power Upgrades Work — The Full Breakdown

This is the Blacksmith’s most-used function and the one you will interact with every few levels throughout your entire playthrough.

What an Item Power Upgrade Does

When you upgrade an item at the Blacksmith, he raises that item’s Item Power to a fixed value based on your current character level. The upgrade is immediate — no missions required, no waiting. Pay the Emerald cost and it is done.

This means a weapon you found at Item Power 30 can be carried all the way to Item Power 149 (the Blacksmith upgrade cap) as long as you keep upgrading it every few levels. Your favourite Unique item from early in the campaign never has to become dead weight.

The Item Power Cap

Item Power upgrades through the Blacksmith are capped at your current character level. You cannot upgrade an item to a power level that exceeds what your level allows. As you level up, the upgrade ceiling rises, and you can push your gear further.

The overall Item Power cap in the game is 150. The Blacksmith can upgrade gear to a maximum of 149. The final point of Item Power 150 can only come from natural drops — which is intentional and gives you a reason to keep farming even after reaching the Blacksmith cap on your gear.

How Much Does an Upgrade Cost?

Upgrades cost Emeralds and the cost varies based on:

• Item rarity — Common items cost the least. Unique items cost more. Higher rarity means a higher Emerald investment per upgrade.
• The size of the power gap — Upgrading an item that is far behind your current level costs more than upgrading one that is close to the ceiling. Keep gear topped up regularly to avoid large expensive catch-up upgrades.

The Blacksmith always shows you the exact Emerald cost before you confirm, so there are never any surprises. If the cost looks steep, it is usually because the item has drifted far below your current level and needs a big jump.

Keep Gear Within 10 Item Power Levels

The game warns you when equipped gear is noticeably underleveled relative to your current position. As a rule, try to keep all equipped items within about 10 Item Power levels of your current cap. Let gear fall too far behind and two things happen: you take more damage than you should, and the catch-up upgrade cost grows significantly.

What Stays and What Does Not After an Upgrade

When the Blacksmith upgrades Item Power, it only changes the power number. Your affix, your enchantments — everything else on the item — remains exactly as it was. The upgrade is purely additive in terms of power. This is a key difference from the original Minecraft Dungeons, where upgrading could change enchantment availability. In Dungeons 2, what you have is what you keep.

How Affix Rerolling Works — The Full Breakdown

Rerolling is the second major Blacksmith function and the one with the most nuance. Understanding it properly saves you a lot of wasted Echo Shards.

What Is an Affix?

Every item in Minecraft Dungeons 2 has a random affix — a bonus modifier specific to that item copy. Two copies of the same sword can play differently because one rolled “+20% melee speed” and the other rolled “+15% fire damage.” The affix is separate from the item’s signature Unique effect (which is always fixed) and from any enchantments you apply at the Enchantsmith.

Reroll Cost — Escalating Per Item

This is the most important mechanic to understand before you start rerolling. The reroll cost is not flat.

• First reroll on an item: 1 Echo Shard
• Second reroll on the same item: 2 Echo Shards
• Third reroll: 3 Echo Shards
• Fourth reroll: 5 Echo Shards
• Fifth reroll: 7 Echo Shards

The cost escalates with every additional reroll on the same piece of gear. A first reroll is cheap. Chasing a perfect affix by rerolling the same item five or six times becomes very expensive very quickly. Know when to stop and accept a good-enough affix rather than burning through your entire Echo Shard supply chasing perfect.

Rerolls Are Permanent

There is no undo. The game explicitly warns you before you confirm a reroll. Read the warning, check what you are replacing, and only proceed when you are confident. A reroll does not roll the affix that is currently selected — it will always give you something different, but that something different could be worse.

The Affix Pool — What Can Roll on Your Item

The affix that can appear on a given item is determined by that item’s tags. Every item in Minecraft Dungeons 2 has internal tags — categories like “melee,” “ranged,” “support,” “movement,” and so on — and the affix pool is built from those tags. An item with more tags has a wider possible affix pool, meaning more variation in what can roll. An item with fewer tags has a narrower pool and will roll fewer possible outcomes.

For example, a support-only item might only have four possible affixes. In that case, rerolling it is predictable and relatively low-risk. A weapon with multiple tags can roll a much wider range of outcomes, making repeat rerolling more of a gamble.

Before rerolling, think about what affixes your item’s tags can actually produce and whether any of those outcomes would genuinely improve your build.

Individual Affix Rerolling

In Minecraft Dungeons 2, you can reroll each affix on an item individually. If an item has multiple modifier slots, you target only the one you want to change. You do not have to reroll the entire item at once. This gives you surgical control — change the one affix that does not fit your build while leaving the others untouched.

How the Blacksmith Fits Into Your Progression Loop

The Blacksmith is not something you visit once. He is part of your core loop throughout the entire game. Here is how to approach him at each stage:

Early Game — Levels 1 to 15

As soon as the Blacksmith is unlocked, start using him for Item Power upgrades. Salvage every piece of gear you replace. The Emeralds you collect go straight back into upgrades. At this stage, do not spend Echo Shards on rerolls — save every single one for the Level 2 and Level 3 merchant upgrades. A bad affix on a Common item does not matter enough to spend Echo Shards on it.

Focus on keeping all four armor slots and your weapon slots topped up. An empty slot or a severely underleveled piece of gear drags your entire average Item Power down, which affects what power gear drops for you in the world.

Mid Game — Levels 15 to 60

Unlock Blacksmith Level 2 as soon as you have 20 Echo Shards. This opens up rerolling on Special items, which is where mid-game builds take shape. You will also hit the Level 15 milestone where the first vendor upgrade becomes available — it costs 300 Emeralds, 50 Echo Shards, and 4 Enchantment Books, so budget for that too.

Keep upgrading your best items every few levels. If you find a Unique you like, upgrade it consistently rather than chasing raw power through drops. A well-upgraded Unique with the right affix outperforms a higher-power Common item in almost every mid-game situation.

Echo Shards should now be split between rerolling your best Special items and building toward the Level 3 Blacksmith unlock at 40 Echo Shards total.

Endgame — Levels 60 to 100

Unlock Blacksmith Level 3 and start rerolling your Unique items. This is where fine-tuning your build matters most. You know what build you are running, you know what affixes you want, and you can invest Echo Shards intentionally rather than speculatively.

Watch the Echo Shard cap. The cap is 100 and you will earn shards consistently through Rifts and Dungeons in the endgame. Spend down before farming heavily — reroll a Unique affix, refresh the Town Merchant, or put shards into the Enchantsmith — so you never hit the cap and waste drops.

For details on the best endgame farming activities that generate both Emeralds and Echo Shards efficiently, see our Minecraft Dungeons 2 Rifts Guide.

The Blacksmith and Unique Items — A Special Relationship

Unique items in Minecraft Dungeons 2 deserve special mention in the context of the Blacksmith because they change how you approach the upgrade system entirely.

In most ARPGs, finding a better drop replaces your current gear. In Dungeons 2, the Blacksmith breaks that assumption. A Unique item you found at Level 20 can become your endgame weapon if you keep upgrading it. The signature effect on a Unique is fixed — a Stormcaller will always give +25% lightning attack damage, a Soul Reaper will always give +60% souls gained — and that fixed effect can define your entire build. The Blacksmith lets you keep that effect relevant all the way to Item Power 149.

Upgrade your Uniques regularly. Never salvage a Unique you enjoy just because its Item Power is behind. The Blacksmith fixes that. For the full list of all Unique items and their effects, see our Minecraft Dungeons 2 All Unique Items guide.

How to Get More Emeralds for Blacksmith Upgrades

Running low on Emeralds slows your progression considerably. Here are the best ways to keep your supply healthy:

• Salvage everything you replace — This is your primary Emerald source. Use the Salvage All button at the Blacksmith to clear junk inventory in one click. Every Common and Rare item you no longer need is Emeralds waiting to happen.
• Smash pots and open chests — The Overworld and Sift are full of breakable pots and hidden chests that drop Emeralds. Do not rush past them.
• Defeat enemies — Enemies have a chance to drop Emeralds on death. Higher-level enemies and Soul Corrupted mobs tend to drop more.
• Emerald-boosting affixes — Certain item affixes increase Emerald drops from enemies. If you see one of these on a piece of gear, it is worth keeping during farming sessions even if it is not your main build item.
• Run Dungeons and Rifts — Both consistently drop gear to salvage. A single Rift clear generates far more salvage material than open-world exploration alone.

How to Get More Echo Shards for Blacksmith Upgrades and Rerolls

Echo Shards are the rarer of the two Blacksmith currencies, especially early on. Here is where they come from:

• Soul Corrupted enemies — This is the primary source. These specific enemy types always have a chance to drop Echo Shards. Fight them whenever you encounter them rather than avoiding them.
• Rifts and Dungeons — Both activity types reward Echo Shards on completion and from enemies inside them. Farming Rifts in the endgame is the most efficient Echo Shard generation method available.
• Boss kills — Bosses reliably drop Echo Shards alongside their loot rewards.
• Random world drops — Echo Shards can occasionally appear in chests and from standard enemies throughout the Overworld and Sift.

Early game Echo Shards feel extremely scarce. By mid-game you will have a steady flow. By endgame you will need to actively spend them to avoid capping out. Treat the 100 cap as a ceiling you should never comfortably sit against.

Blacksmith vs Enchantsmith — Do Not Confuse Them

Because the Blacksmith and Enchantsmith sit next to each other in Brave Haven, players sometimes mix up what each one does. Here is the clean summary:

Function	Blacksmith	Enchantsmith
Upgrade Item Power	Yes — uses Emeralds	No
Reroll random affix	Yes — uses Echo Shards	No
Apply enchantments	No	Yes — uses Enhancement Points + Echo Shards
Upgrade enchantment level	No	Yes — uses Echo Shards + Enhancement Points
Currency used	Emeralds + Echo Shards	Enhancement Points + Echo Shards

Both use Echo Shards, which is the main point of confusion. But for Item Power and affixes, go to the Blacksmith. For enchantments, go to the Enchantsmith.

Blacksmith Quick Tips

• Teleport freely — Use the menu wheel to go to Brave Haven from anywhere in the world. Use the Town Portal to return exactly where you left off. There is no penalty. Use this before boss fights.
• Upgrade before entering a boss room — Even a small Item Power increase can make a hard boss noticeably easier. If you are close to your current level cap, top up before committing.
• Never let the Echo Shard cap sit at 100 — You are actively wasting drops every second you are capped. Set a habit of spending before any major farming session.
• First reroll on a bad Unique is cheap — At 1 Echo Shard for the first reroll, it costs almost nothing to try once. Stop after one or two rolls unless you get something significantly better.
• Do not reroll Rares heavily — The escalating cost curve is brutal after three or four rerolls. Rares are replaceable. Only chase affixes obsessively on Uniques where the item itself is irreplaceable.
• Keep all four armor slots current — Your average Item Power is dragged down by the lowest slot. A single very underleveled helmet tanks your overall rating more than you might expect. Check all slots each time you visit the Blacksmith.

More Minecraft Dungeons 2 Guides

• Minecraft Dungeons 2 All Unique Items — every Unique and where to find them
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 Rifts Guide — best endgame farming for Emeralds and Echo Shards
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 Max Level Cap — how character level controls your Blacksmith ceiling
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 Talisman Guide — passive bonuses that support your build
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 All Enchantments — what the Enchantsmith can apply to your gear
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 Beginner Guide — core tips before your first run
• Minecraft Dungeons 2 Review — is the game worth it?

Where to Play Minecraft Dungeons 2

• Official Minecraft Dungeons II Page
• PlayStation Store
• Xbox Store
• Nintendo Switch Store
• Steam (PC)

Frequently Asked Questions