If you've been playing Skyrim for any length of time you probably already know a few of these tips, but this post is for those of you who may be just now hopping onto the Skyrim bandwagon. Or perhaps you are returning to the land of Skyrim and need a refresher. Either way, these tips will help you craft the absolute best equipment without using any exploits. This is 100% legit.
The three critical skills you are going to want to be maxed out at level 100 are Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchanting. These three skills when used in the correct combination will allow you to craft the finest weapons and armor the game has to offer. Out of these three possibly the easiest and cheapest to level up is Smithing, so let's start there.
Smithing is considered a Warrior skill. In order to increase this skill as quickly as you can you'll want to activate the Warrior Stone which is one of the three Guardian Stones. These stones are southwest of Riverwood, along the river bank. The path from Riverwood takes you straight to them. The Warrior Stone will increase the rate your smithing skill levels up by 20%, along with all other Warrior skills.
I recommend from the beginning of the game to start working on increasing your Smithing, as well as Alchemy and Enchanting. A good starting point is in the first town you come to in the game following the storyline: Riverwood. If you talk to the Blacksmith named Alvor he will give you a smithing tutorial and free materials to begin your smithing career. You'll get to craft a dagger and helmet for free, upgrade them both, and Alvor will even allow you to keep them afterwards. Most likely you already have better equipment from Helgen, so you can always go immediately sell them at the general store.
If you miss out on this tutorial here's a quick breakdown of how smithing works:
The Forge is used to craft the armors and weapons. When you have the right materials in your inventory you will be able to craft these items to either equip or to sell.
When you gather ores from the various locations around Skyrim you can take them to a Smelter to turn them into Ingots. Ingots are one of the many materials you can use to create armors that contain metal in them. A great way obtain ores is to visit mines and use a Pickaxe to mine out the ores. Occasionally you'll also get gemstones which you can either use to make Jewelry at forges or to sell them. Several NPC's ask you to collect Flawless gemstones, so my suggestion is to hang onto those.
Pelts and Hides can be taken to a Tanning Rack to turn them into Leather and Leather Strips.
The Workbench is used to make shields and armors better. The higher your Smithing skill, the better these items can be improved.
The Grindstone is used to make weapons better. The higher your Smithing skill, the better these items can be improved.
The Quality of the items is as follows: Fine, Superior, Exquisite, Flawless, Epic, and finally, Legendary. Legendary is the best quality possible, but the values are still dependent upon many factors including any Smithing bonus equipment you are wearing. That will be covered more in later posts.
Depending on your race you may have a racial bonus to Smithing already. The races that give a +5 to Smithing right off the bat are: Nord, Redguard, and Orc.
Another thing you're going to want to do as soon as you hit level 14 is complete the quest Unfathomable Depths. The reward for this quest is a permanent 25% bonus to all heavy and light armors and smithing skill increases 15% faster. This 15% STACKS with the bonus given by the Warrior Stone.
The fastest way to get this quest is to go to Whiterun early in the game and take a carriage ride to Riften. From that point on you'll be able to warp to Riften. I recommend doing this for all the major cities as soon as you can.
To get the quest started, go to the Riften docks after you hit level 14, and you'll see a female Argonian on the piers. She will give you an item called the Lexicon, and this will officially start the quest. The Riften docks are not actually in the city of Riften, but in the overworld of Skyrim right next to Riften the town.
To increase your Smithing level through crafting I recommend making Leather Bracers. These bracers only require 1 leather and 2 leather strips, meaning this piece of armor is the least resource demanding of anything you can craft. It's also pretty easy to acquire these materials. All you need to do is kill the local wildlife: deer, wolves, etc. If you collect their hides and pelts you can take these items to any tanning rack to convert them into leather and leather strips. I find just west of Whiterun is a great place to hunt. There are many elk and deer here along with a few wolves and sabre cats.
I leveled up all the way to 100 just making bracers. Yep, just bracers. I'm not going to lie, the last 10 levels of this skill are agonizing, but it's well worth it in the end.
Another way to increase your Smithing perk is to buy levels in it by visiting a Trainer. The first trainer you can use right off the bat is Ghorza gra-Bagol in Markarth. She's a female orc that can be found at a forge in the outdoor section of Markarth.
After that there's the Expert trainer, Balimund in Riften. He's located at a forge in the very center of town. If you talk to him he'll give you a quest to get Fire Salts for his forge.
There are two master trainers for Smithing in Skyrim, but neither one of them are necessarily easy to access. Eorland Gray-Mane is located at the Skyforge in Whiterun, but in order to use his training you must first be a member of the Companions of Whiterun.
The second Master trainer, Gunmar, can only be used if you have the Dawnguard DLC.He's located in Fort Dawnguard after completing the quest "A New Order".
There are also Skill books throughout the game that increase the related skill by 1 point. I recommend picking these up AFTER you reach Smithing 90 to make those last levels of the Smithing skill a lot easier to come by. The books for Smithing are as follows:
Cherim's Heart of Anequina: The easiest place to acquire this skill book is in the Dawnstar quicksilver mine. This mine has no enemies, so you can just walk in and walk out. Stay on the bottom floor of the mine and look in the East corner. You'll see some rolled up carpets in a box. The book is in the box.
Heavy Armor Forging: The easiest way to get this book is to go to the Whistling Mine located southeast of Winterhold. Just follow the road, and it'll take you right to it. The book is on top of a barrel in the very first room. No hostiles, unless you steal something.
Light Armor Forging: Easiest way to get this book is to go to Lod's House in Falkreath. You'll find it on a barrel downstairs. There's a quest that will take you to Lod's House to steal a letter. You can get this quest from the NPC named Dengeir of Stuhn. He has his own house in Falkreath as well. Doing his quest will unlock another one to destroy a vampire.
The Armorer's Challenge: You can find this book right out in the open if you visit the Skyforge in Whiterun. You don't even need to be a member of the Companions.
The Last Scabbard of Akrash: This is actually a quest item as well as a skill book. Go speak with the Smithing trainer Ghorza gra-Bagol in Markarth. She will give you the quest to find this book for her, and of course you can read it first to increase your skill. This book is also extremely easy to find, right out in the open. 330 ft SSE of Black-Briar Lodge. From the lodge, head East up a small path between the rocks, to the right at the top of the slope, under a shield.
There are also a couple of other quests that reward you with a Smithing level. Once again, I recommend doing these when you're past the Smithing 90 mark. The quests are as follows:
Retrieve Queen Freydis's Sword, an actual sword and not a book, for Oengul War-Anvil (the Blacksmith) in Windhelm.
Retrieve Night Falls on Sentinel for Rustleif, the Blacksmith, in Dawnstar.
Once you are a member of the Bard's College you can complete a quest for Giraud Gemane to get a +1 to all related Warrior skills including Smithing.
In the Smithing perk tree I recommend going up the left side which is specifically for crafting light armors and improving them. In another post I'll explain my thoughts on Light Armor vs. Heavy Armor, but the decision is up to you. Whether or not you go all the way up to the Dragon Smithing perk is totally up to you, but I did this so I could make the Dragonbone weapons, which are even more powerful than Daedric. Please note, however, that you can only craft Dragonbone weapons if you have the Dawnguard DLC.
Finally, the center perk of the Smithing constellation, Arcane Blacksmith, allows you to improve enchanted items. It's completely optional, but it does have its uses. With this perk you'll be able to improve many named magical items including the Daedric artifacts you find.
That concludes the section on Smithing. Next up: Enchanting.
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