Smithing (Skyrim)





Smithing is a skill introduced in Skyrim. It falls under the Warrior play-style and as such, acts as its crafting skill (similar to the Mage's Enchanting and the Thief's Alchemy.) Derp :)

For the fastest way to improve your smithing skill, refer to this guide - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4l3cEW8Wcw

Smithing differs from the Armorer skills of previous games in that it revolves around improving weapons' functionality and creating new weapons and armor, rather than just repairing old damaged weapons.

Players may find it unbalanced that mage armor spells are considerably more powerful than regular armor. Even at lower levels, adept-level spells such as Stoneflesh and Greater Ward can reach armor values as high as 320. Such armor boosts are temporary, however, and consume exorbitant amounts of magicka. It is important to note that for advanced players, smithing can be extremely powerful when enchantments and potions are synergized well in its favor. Done correctly, it is possible to over-smith an item to over 4X base defense and value which is much more powerful than anything achieved solely using mage armor.

Smithing is one of the easiest professions to level. It does take a while, but there are a couple of ways to make smithing go up faster. One is to make a lot of leather armor because it does not require many materials, and another way is to go into dwarven ruins and collect vast amounts of scrap metal to melt down. One more example is to go to the mines near Markarth because they are full of gold and silver you can use to make jewerly. This usually is the best way because jewelry does not take much inventory and can be sold to accumulate a good amount of money quickly.

Another easy way to level smithing, particularly at the early levels, is to head to the Halted Stream mine just north of Whiterun. This mine contains enough veins to produce around 50 iron ore, and it also contains alot of other valuable materials. Smithing this ore into Iron Daggers provides a decent chunk of xp, while only requiring one ingot and one strip of leather. Note that two quests in Whiterun can also be done here, from Ysolda and Armen.

Governing Guardian Stone: The Warrior

Tools
NOTE: If money is your goal, then (for example) selling your hides from the wild animals that you kill may be more effective than tanning the hides into things and selling them.
 * Forge and Anvil - Used to craft armor, weapons and jewelry
 * Workbench - Used to upgrade armor and shields
 * Grindstone - Used to upgrade weapons
 * Smelter- Used to change ores into ingots - does not increase any skill
 * Tannery Rack - Used to create leather/leather strips from animal hides

Locations
The required in-game objects to perform smithing (i.e. forges, Grindstones, workbenches) can be found in any main city or village and sometimes in forts and dungeons.
 * Smelters appear in most major cities in addition to Kynesgrove, Stonehills Mines (near Mzinchaleft), Bilegulch Mine and Shor's Stone to aid in clearing Dwemer ruins. Riften does not have a smelter.
 * Forges appear in all major cities and most mines, in addition to Riverwood
 * Grindstones appear in all major cities in addition to Fellglow Keep, and Riverwood
 * Tannery Racks appear in all major cities in addition to Riverwood
 * Workbench appear in all major cities in addition to Riverwood
 * Anvils, used like forges, appear in Fellglow Keep
 * All of these tools can be found in Whiterun, near the main gate to the city just off to the right. This is the most useful spot to perform, considering the Skyforge is in the same town, and the house next to it can be purchased, storing extra materials.
 * There are also many spots in the wilderness and various caves that also have crafting stations. You do not need an entire forge to craft; even just an anvil will suffice. (the character will start hammering away on a heated rod regardless, even in an ice cave with no furnace)

Books
The following books level up your Smithing Skill:


 * Cherim's Heart
 * Heavy Armor Forging
 * Light Armor Forging
 * The Armorer's Challenge
 * The Last Scabbard of Akrash

Trainers

 * Ghorza (Adept): Markarth
 * Balimund (Expert): Riften
 * Eorlund Gray-Mane (Master): Skyforge, Whiterun

Smelting
Ores can be smelted to produce ingots for use in smithing. Normally, two pieces of the same ore are required to create an ingot; an exception to this is the Dwarven Metal Ingot, which is smelted from scraps of Dwemer metal. Another exception is the Iron Ingot, which only takes one piece of ore per ingot, and the Steel Ingot, which takes one Corundum Ore and one Iron Ore.

Smithing Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Some of the following armor and weapon pages are going to be split for editorial reasons, but have not yet been.

IMPORTANT NOTE: it is not possible to take all light armor/weapons perks (to the left) up to dragon and then take daedric! All heavy armor/weapons perks ( to the right) have to be taken in order to be capable of getting the daedric smithing perk.

Weapon and Armor Enhancement
Weapons and armor can be improved using either a Grindstone (Weapons) or a Workbench (Armor). The level of improvement is based off whether you have the skill relating to the item (i.e. Steel Smith for improving a Steel Sword). Legendary is the final named upgrade, but you can continue to upgrade the armor/damage of your equipment with smithing levels over 100. You can use smithing armor enchantments and smithing potions to raise your smithing level over 100. Smithing skill can potentially reach 600+ with a perfect setup.

The chart below shows bonus damage for improvements between 14 and 600+ smithing levels with and without perks for upgrading weapons.

The numbers below for One-Hand weapon bonus damage might be incorrect. A steel one-handed sword has a base damage of 9. Upgrading the sword with 45 smithing skill (exquisite level) results in a total damage of 14. this is an increase of 5 and not the 9 the chart shows. Additional testing needs to be conducted as the values listed might have been based with damage perks for the weapon type.

Numbers for One-Hand weapons confirmed incorrect. With zero perks in both One-Handed and Two-Handed, both at level 100 and a Smithing level of 623 achieved through console commands (the maximum amount via the enchanting-alchemy loop), both types of weapons improved by 112 damage. Chart below needs to be reworked for accuracy.

Exploit For Overpowered Weapons And Armour
Using Alchemy, enchanting and smithing, ultimate weapons can be made. To do this, start by using Alchemy to create potions of "Fortify Enchanting", which allows the player to create stronger enchantments of "Fortify Alchemy". The player can now create a stronger potion of "Fortify Enchanting" and so on building on each other. The process is described below.

Usually the player can make a set of four items of +25% alchemy skill for any fortification skill like alchemy and enchanting. There is an exploit in which you can wear a Falmer helmet over a circlet and both have stacked effects [Tested PS3 and PC]; quite useful for this. So now make 25% fortify alchemy enchantments on the Falmer Helmet, any ring, any necklace, and gloves/bracers and a circlet. Note that the falmer helmet and circlet can be worn at once. Wear all of the enchanted equipment and make a fortify enchanting potion. With this potion, you should be able to create fortify 29% alchemy and smithing enchantments. Also while enchanting try to be quick as potion lasts for 30 seconds. Note that there is a cap of 29% fortifying alchemy and smithing enchantments so going over this number is not possible. Using this you should be able to create 147% "Fortify Smithing " potion [Tested PS3]. Also a 37% "Fortify Enchanting " potion can be created but since 29% has been reached its not much useful for this but quite good for other enchantments.

Using this we would get 5 x 29% smithing gear and 147% smithing potions. Using these, staggeringly powerful weapons and armors can be made and improved.

'''Note: For armour there is a cap of 80% damage reduction. This equates to an armor rating of 567. Anything above this combined armour rating is a waste and does not result in any further benefits or damage reduction.'''

For this process to be possible it is required to have 100% in enchanting, alchemy and smithing with the relevant perks.

Note: This process uses the falmer helmet worn over circlet glitch which ultimately allows a potion of 147% fortify smithing potion and 37% enchanting potion to be brewed.

New found addition: If you have the "Extra Effect" Enchanting Perk which allows you to put two perks on a weapon, you can put the first Enchant on a weapon as a weapon skill such as Paralyze, and the second Enchant as Fortify Smithing, this can give you a maximum of 29% Fortify Smithing weapon.

Increasing your Smithing Skill

 * The easiest and least expensive way to level up your smithing skill is to collect as many pelts as you can and use a Tannery Rack to craft the pelts into leather and Leather Strips. Make sure you have twice as many Leather Strips as you do leather. Use a Forge to craft Leather Bracers using the leather and leather Strips. You can also sell the Leather Bracers crafted to a nearby merchant for a small amount of gold. A video tutorial of this fast and cheap leveling method can be seen here.
 * Leather Bracers are recommended for this as it only requires one Leather to craft and the value of each leather outweighs the value of leather Strips. Most other leather items require two leather to craft.
 * ​Another easy (although not the quickest) way to increase your Smithing skill is to go to the Dwemer ruins and clear the enemies but don't pick up any of the metal laying around the ruins. After the enemies are cleared, fast travel back to your house, or somewhere where you can store most of the items in your inventory, but take along any enchanter armor that increases your carrying capacity and any strength potions you may have. Return to the Dwemer ruins and collect as much Dwemer Metal items as possible, fast traveling back to where ever you stored your inventory as many times as necessary. Bring the Dwemer Metal to a Smelter and smelt all the metal into Dwarven Metal Ingots to use on Dwarven daggers or bows. Use the Ingots to refine any Dwarven bows or daggers you have as well. It will take some time, but is probably one of the fastest and cheapest ways to level and skill up smithing. Also, the cost of any extra materials will be offset by gold for selling the crafted items.
 * There is also vast amounts of Dwemer Metal in the Dwemer Museum, where you can also level up your lockpicking by about ten levels.


 * A similar method to increasing your smithing skill is a bit more expensive. At level 20 to 30 it is very easy to find Iron Ingots or Iron Ore from trading and smith shops. Buy all you can from every town and craft and refine iron daggers, as they are the cheapest item to create at 1 ingot. It will not give as much skill, but you can create many more daggers from the same amount of materials as the Dwarven items.
 * Another good sort of fast Smithing experience bonus is to head to the mine East of Markarth and mine all the gold. Smelt it down to gold amulets and you'll have 1,000+ gold if you sell it all. The mine yields somewhere around 40 gold ore.


 * Or, if you so choose, you can convert them into gold rings (2 rings/ingot) to use as enchanting materials provided you have the soul gems. The total will always result in a net gain from the value of the gem and the value of the gold rings.

Profiting from Smithing

 * A good way to mine more ore out of a single vein: when mining, exit out of the mining everytime you produce one ore, then re-mine the vein again, this will produce 3 ore for every vein instead of 2. (Actually, the player always mines 3 ore; there's just a cooldown period between notifications).
 * Most profitable items with smithing (work in progress): Glass Bow 820 - 2 Refined Malachite, 1 Refined Moonstone (upgrade in workbench with 1 Refined Malachite to double its value); Steel Plate Armor 625 - 1 Iron Ingot, 3 Steel Ingots, 3 Leater Strips, 1 Corundum Ingot; Gold Rings 75 (x2) - 1 Gold Ingot (especially profitable with Transmute spell).
 * A very good way to make money and get skills up is to smith iron daggers for very little cost, then enchant them bringing their sell price from 10 to as high as 2635 (depending on the enchant). Then you can sell the daggers back one at a time with ease. This method increases your speech, smithing, enchanting and not to mention the money in your pocket, though keep in mind that with high value enchantment you will easily render merchant broke.
 * The fastest/easiest method I have used with a little profit on the side is to get the transmute spell, start in Whiterun (not necessary just a suggestion) buy all the iron ore, leather, leather strips, alternate between bracers and coifs depending on your strips to leather ratio, and during your wait times and right after you travel to another city to replenish stock in the other towns, transmute the iron ore to gold, make rounds to Whiterun, Dawnstar etc., save up all your gold ore while making the leather and then with all the gold make whatever you can necklaces / add gems if you have them for some extra profit this way you're not wasting money and it's effective fast training. If you have the magicka I recommend duel wielding transmute and adding the best magicka regen equipment you have to speed along the transmute for higher profit rates, and if the exp is too slow for you you can sacrifice a slight bit of profit and also buy up all the iron ingots they're cheap and more things to smith.
 * Also before having sold any weapon or armor you have just forged, buy some piece of armor that has the enchantment of improving items you refine by some certain percentage, so you can create more of a profit than you would with your regular skill, sometimes adding an extra 200 value, and you'll gain experience while doing so.
 * Actually, it's better to buy the ore from the shop keepers, as then you can smelt it and it's cheaper. Then hunt down animals for pelts and use them to make leather, and craft a bunch of iron daggers/leather braces. Additionally, if you have Azura's star (either finished version), you can enchant stuff all the time without wasting soul gems. Then sell and repeat. It might take a bit of hunting, but it's effective.
 * The Jarl of Whiterun has quite a few Silver Ingots in his Personal Quarters which you can steal, forge into Rings/Pendants, also using any gems you may have, and then sell for easy profit and a few skill points in Smithing.

Bugs

 * If you improve a weapon on the Grindstone, and then go in to your inventory and look at the damage difference (the number in brackets in either red or green, depending on whether that weapon has a positive or negative improvement on the weapon's damaged that you're holding) you will notice that the difference is based on the weapon's damage difference before you improved it. To resolve this, either equip another weapon, or unequip your current weapon. (PC)
 * While using the Blacksmith Forge, the animation your character performs whilst you decide on what armour you're going to make glitches rather noticeably. First, the metal strip that has been placed in the furnace is already attached to the player's arm, and it is obviously not meant to be there due to this next point. The player then makes a move to pick out a strip of metal from the furnace, but just grasps at thin air. The player then turns to the Anvil to begin using the hammer on the metal's hot end. But the hot end is up by the player's elbow, and the cold bit is near the Anvil, but not actually on the Anvil, so the hammer is just hitting the Anvil's surface while the cold metal is around the bottom. And to finish, the player then puts the cold end of the metal into the cooling trough, and it hisses as though something hot just got put into cold water, which it obviously didn't. (PC/PS3)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Skills

 * See: Skill (Skyrim)