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"People say I'm making gold off of other people's misery, but what else would I do? Smithing is all I know. Next time one of my shields deflects a killing blow, they'll change their tune."

―Balimund^[src]

Smithing is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. One of six skills falling under the The Warrior play-style, smithing is referred to as the art of refining raw materials and combining them into improved pieces of armor or weaponry. It is one of the three crafting skills in Skyrim, falling under The Warrior, with parallels to Alchemy for thieves and Enchanting for mages. As such it is affected by The Warrior Stone and, as with all skills, is affected by The Lover Stone.

Mechanics

Smithing is a multistage process with the number of stages depending on what items are being crafted and how raw the materials are. The process can be started at any intermediate stage if the right materials are found, but every stage requires input materials, knowledge of the recipe, and its own tool. Input materials can be found in the world or purchased from vendors. Knowledge of new recipes can be acquired only through perks but some are available automatically. The tools list below roughly outlines the end-to-end process from the most raw stages to the most refined stages.

Smithing stations

These stations, required for various stages in the smithing process, can be found in any main city and most villages. They are also frequently found in forts and dungeons or outside mines. See the individual station pages for more specific locations.

• Smelter - Used to change ores or scraps into ingots.
• Tanning Rack - Used to create leather/leather strips from animal hides.
• Forge and Anvil - Used to craft armor, weapons and jewelry from ingots and other materials.
• Workbench - Used to improve armor and shields with ingots or leather.
• Grindstone - Used to improve weapons with ingots or leather strips.

Racial bonuses

Nord, Redguard, and Orc characters gain a +5 boost to Smithing at the start of the game.

Leveling

The following actions raise the Smithing skill:

• Crafting an item at a Forge. Skill gain is dependent on the value of the item being crafted.^[1]
• Improving a weapon at grindstones. Larger skill gains based on the strength of the improvement made.
• Improving an armor or shield at a Workbench. Larger skill gains based on the strength of the improvement made.
• The experience gained from smithing is based on the value of the items smithed or improved.

Books

For the locations of these books, see Skill Book (Skyrim).

The following is a list of books that raise the Smithing Skill, locations can be found on the relevant book's page:

• Cherim's Heart of Anequina
• Heavy Armor Forging
• Light Armor Forging
• The Armorer's Challenge
• The Last Scabbard of Akrash
• Oghma Infinium - choosing the Path of Might increases all Warrior skills, including Smithing, by 5.

Quests

The following Quests increase or help to increase the Smithing Skill:

• Retrieve Queen Freydis's Sword for Oengul War-Anvil in Windhelm
• Retrieve Night Falls on Sentinel for Rustleif in Dawnstar
• Retrieve The Last Scabbard of Akrash for Ghorza gra-Bagol in Markarth
• Unfathomable Depths grants the "Ancient Knowledge" Active Effect, which increases the rate of skill gain for Smithing by 15%

Trainers

Main article: Trainer (Skyrim)

Growth curve

The smithing skill levels according to an exponential curve. This means each level costs more than the previous one.

Perks

The following chart lists the perks that become available to the player as the skill is leveled up. In spite of the shape of the perk constellation implying otherwise, perks explicitly list their prerequisites (e.g. Daedric Smithing requires Ebony Smithing be taken first).

Improvement

The table shows what quality improvement an item will achieve based on smithing level and if the smithing perk for the item is taken or not.

Items can still be improved once they reach Legendary, but the description will not change.

Each additional quality level beyond Legendary improves Armor by 3.6 and other items (weapons, helms, boots, etc) by 1.8.

Alchemy and Enchanting can improve results significantly via the Fortify Smithing effect allowing for greater improvements at a given level than the table shows. Combining both Alchemy and Enchanting to improve one another and then combining both to improve Smithing as much as possible can be very powerful.

The improvement of armor and weapons requires one smithing material per item improved. These items can be obtained by Tanning, Smelting, or other in game means of obtaining items.

Achievements

	Artificer Make a smithed item, an enchanted item, and a potion
Points	10
Trophy

Strategies

Click to show a list of smithing strategies.

Damage reduction from armor is capped at 80% damage reduced or 567 armor. No matter how much armor is shown in the Character Menu, damage reduction never exceeds this point when additional armor is adorned. Completing The Companions questline allows use of the Skyforge to produce "Nord Hero" armor and weapons. The Skyforge is the only locations for crafting these items. To maximize skill gain, allocate a perk to "Ancient Knowledge", activate the Warrior Stone, and sleep in a bed to obtain the Rested Effect or Lover's Comfort effect. If the Dawnguard plug-in is installed, obtain and equip the Aetherial Crown. The Lover Stone can be used as an alternative to the sleeping effects, if, for instance, the Dragonborn is a lycanthrope. The Transmute Mineral Ore can be used to convert Iron Ore to Silver Ore, the Gold Ore. Despite time and Magicka constraints, it significantly improves yields while simultaneously lifting the Alteration skill and Smithing skill. All items created to level Smithing can be improved with enchantments which greatly increases their monetary value, while garnering huge experience point bonuses. When improving an item at a grindstone or workbench, the Fortify Smithing yields additional experience as well as improve the sale value of the item being improved. All mines and Dwemer ruins provide raw materials for Smithing, such as Dwemer artifacts and scrap metal; making Dwarven armor and weapons from this scrap is one way of quickly leveling Smithing, although this tactic is only effective with the "Dwarven Smithing" perk. The ingot yield to weight ratio, from least to most weight, is: Piece Ingot yield Large Dwemer Plate Metal 2 3 Bent Dwemer Scrap Metal 2 3 Solid Dwemer Metal 25 5 Large Decorative Dwemer Strut 15 weight 2 Large Dwemer Strut 20 2

Bugs

See also

• Skills
• Ore
• Ingot
• Crafting

References

1. ↑ Patch v1.5