Never done smithing before. What is required to do smithing? Do I really need to go and mine ores? Or can I just go the fast route and use my gold to buy the materials needed?

you can mine or buy, it's completely up to you. Ingots and ores can also be found/stolen.

Need leather? grab a bow, go kill some game.

my advice...don't smith. makes the game boring imo

You can buy whatever you need. The Smith is used to forge weapons and armor, the grindstone is used to upgrade weapons, the table is used to upgrade armor, the leather rack is used to turn hides into leather and leather into leather strips, and the smelter is used to turn ore into ingots.

What are your suggestions then?

When I first started out smithing it was fun making weapons and armors for selling, then the game started spitting out gems..I turned into a jeweler. It afforded me many many nice things.

Dungeon dive

And when you do dungeon crawl without proper quests, be very wary of what you pick up. I have all sorts of broken quests and items stuck in my inventory...

I'm more for the loot anyways. Gold, Weapons and Armors. That's what I'm all about!

Get the transmute ore spell from ___ (someone will remember the name of the mine as I sure don't)

Buy all leather, strips, ingots.

Buy all iron ore, transmute iron to gold, make iron daggers and gold amulets. Also make leather vambraces.

^^ Enchant all items made for enchanting too.

My only complaint with cave diving is that it makes it nearly impossible to get an actual set of armor beyond steel. That is the only reason I went to smithing in the first place. It isn't that bad as long as you don't do the crazy exploits.

I personally have no problem with smithing and rather enjoy it, though, I haven't exploited it either.

Giants? What do they have? I killed a few already and haven't received anything worth while bro. LOL

i like smithing just don't buy your way to max smithing IMO

since whiterun is the best and easiest place to smith i'l explain it from there.
assuming you just walked into the city or fast traveled look to the right.
there is the girl working
there are a few things here that are used in smithing
smelter, this turns Ore into ingots ( or bars), its the giant dome with a coal pile near it.
the forge, you use this to make the actual items if you can't find it its the anvil or the firepit thing.
tanning rack, use this to turn hide into leather, and leather into leather strips. almost everything uses some form of leather to make, its by the forge and is basically a goat hide or something.
grind stone- this is used to upgrade WEAPONS. -its the rock wheel with a chair.
workbench- this upgrades ARMOR- its the bench by the doorway to the store.

smithing is simple, decide what you want to make ( example iron dagger)
in the forge it says to make this you need 1 iron ingot, 1 leather strip
find iron to mine, or steal an ingot ( avoid buying for the challenge if you can)
kill a dear, go to tanning rack, make leather from the hide, then strips from the leather.
go to forge with your ingot and make your iron dagger.
you can use another iron ingot to upgrade your dagger, or just sell it, or use it, or enchant it. its your new dagger!!

every other item works the same way. but needs different material. i farmed my way to 100 smithing and it feels like i did something amazing. actually looking for metal, hunting dear and fox for pelts to make leather is very gratifying.

good luck

I've 100 smith.


Fastest way to leveling up smithing is to:

Make sure you have warrior guardian stone for more exp. Fast travel to each major city and buy iron ore and leather from smith. Make a lot of leather strips. Make iron daggers or leather light armor gloves. By the time you go to each town the other one should restock already. Make sure to sell all the stuff you make. You'll probably need around 5-10k coin.

are you looking in their camps as well (some have chests)? It may just be because i'm pretty high in level, but I get fantastic loot from them.
300+ hours in game sitting at lv. 67.

No Ancient Knowledge? booooo