There are some games that just never get old. Nearly 10 years after it's original release, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still massively popular. The game still boasts overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews and user feedback, as well as keeping its seat in popular culture. There are few games that keep their memes circulating nine years after release.
Having powerful armor and weapons is a very important aspect of the game. To make the most out of every Skyrim playthrough and the massively inspiring game world, players need to know the special tips and tricks to make their Dragonborn the best they can be!
Updated on December 4, 2022 by Talha Bin Rizwan: Skyrim is a beloved game that, despite being more than a decade old, enjoys a dedicated player base that continues to play it thanks to the various updated versions and mods. The game allows its players, in some cases, to push the limits of reality and become figurative gods as they acquire powerful gear and spells.
With the smithing skill, players can learn and craft legendary pieces of weapons and armor to use on their journey through Skyrim and slay all manner of dragons, vampires, undead, and various other foes. Due to a few bugs, players can create and improve gear that can make them nigh invincible and kill all manner of foe in one hit! Doing so requires players to follow an elaborate process of crafting potions and enchanting gear to acquire the bonus to their smithing skill, that allows them to do so.
10 Get The Dragonborn DLC
While the Dragonborn DLC is not essential for the game, some of the quest items, armor, and ingredients you come across, make crafting weapons and armor a lot easier. Such as specialized alchemy ingredients.
The additional dungeons and powers are a great addition to the game. But will also help you level up quicker, helping you to improve your gear. The new areas, such as the Solstheim island, will make it easier to stay stocked up on necessary crafting equipment. Besides, you can't go wrong with more of a great game!
9 Start By Getting To A High Level
This sounds obvious, but in a game like Skyrim, when focusing on improving your crafting, it's better to put in the grind early on. With an infinite number of generated quests, it's much easier in Skyrim to get your character to your desired level than in other games. Albeit rather time-consuming.
Focus on getting your smithing level to around 80 or 100. Then work on getting your alchemy and restoration to similarly high levels. This will open up the perks and extras when crafting your armor.
8 Make Many Iron Daggers
A tip for getting your smithing level up to 100 is to start off by making as many iron daggers as possible. While this can be time-consuming, and they aren't worth much, it's the easiest way to grind through some extra experience at the forge.
To smith one iron dagger you need four iron ingots and two leather strips. They can also be crafted without smithing perks. Because of this, it's easy to make a ton of them one after the other. If your not sure how to get up those few extra levels, focus on this for a while and see where that leaves you.
7 Work On Your Enchantment
What's refreshing about Skyrim is the way skills overlap each other, rather than forcing the player to focus on one area of expertise. With most fantasy games, your enchantment level won't affect your smithing ability. But with Skyrim, the perks of having a high enchantment level include crafting very powerful weapons.
When you're satisfied with the other mentioned skills, work on maxing out your enchantment tree, focusing mainly on skill-based enchantments. Try to get to level 100 to take advantage of the Extra Effect perk.
6 Stay Well Stocked On Materials And Soul Gems
While this again seems obvious, it's good advice for crafting in any game. There are times when it feels as if your pockets are bursting with materials, so looting doesn't seem worth it anymore. But that's just more frustrating when you're a few items short of your dream weapon! Although this is good to keep in mind for any game.
Focus on gathering black and grand soul gems. For materials, look out for saber cat teeth, blisterwort, glowing mushroom, and spriggan sap, which all carry fortify smithing. Also, be sure to gather plenty of cheap craftable armor such as helms and gauntlets.
Gear And Potions To Give A Bonus
In addition to stocking up on various crafting materials and soul gems, there are a number of enchanted items and certain potions that players can use to get a bonus for their smithing ability. However, acquiring them may take a while as they are often found as random loot. Players will need gear with the "Fortify Smithing" enchantment. These can provide up to a 25% bonus maximum, per piece equipped, often on enchanted gear that ends in "Of Peerless Smithing". Players can find gauntlets, necklaces and rings with this enchantment.
Alternatively, players can acquire some quest rewards which grant a similar but weaker enchantment. The Silver-Blood Family Ring provides a 15% bonus to smithing and is rewarded if players kill Madanach during the Forsworn quest line. Similarly, players can get The Forgemaster's Fingers as a quest reward for a radiant quest of the same name, and provides a bonus of 12% to smithing. Moreover, there are a number of potions that players can get for an added bonus. For maximum, players will need the Blacksmith's Elixir which provides a 25% bonus to smithing for 30 seconds. Putting on all gear of "Peerless Smithing" and drinking the Blacksmith's Elixir will grant a total bonus of 100% bonus to smithing.
5 Don't Set Your Heart On Dragonplate Amour
This armor set is one of the most well known in Skyrim. The Dragonplate armor can be crafted at level 100 smithing and can be viewed as the ultimate smithing goal. While the armor looks amazing and is objectively powerful, don't make it your end goal for smithing or crafting.
Other armor sets, such as Daedric armor, can be crafted before level 100 and can also be very powerful. (Daedric armor can be crafted at smithing level 90.) Be sure to give yourself other projects to work on along the way, even if you're dreaming of Dragonbone armor.
4 Craft Stalhrim Weapons
Once you've had enough of crafting iron daggers, or if you want to start crafting something more useful, consider making yourself some Stalhrim weapons. Stalhrim weapons are introduced to the game in the Dragonborn DLC - which is another good reason to get it!
You can start making Stalhrim armor and weapons at smithing level 80 after completing the quest: A New Source of Stalhrim in Skaal Village. This is a fairly short quest and should take around ten minutes to complete. Once you complete the quest, you can craft the weapons with the Stalhrim and leather strips.
3 Check Compatible Enhancements And Perks
Stalhrim weapons have many advantages, such as them having the same power as Ebony weapons, but being lighter. However, the real advantage comes frost damage and chaos enhancements.
When crafting your Stalhrim weapons, be sure to add these enhancements on. Both of these enhancements are twenty-five percent stronger when used on a Stalhrim weapon, which is the same as the frost enhancer perk on the enchanting skill tree. To maximize the potential of your weapons, but sure to compare these elements as it could open up an extra perk you could be using!
2 Use Fortify Smithing Potions
Such as keeping stock of your artifacts and craftable materials, it's the small things such as this that will improve your crafting experience in Skyrim.
There are various Fortify Smithing potions you can use. While they won't improve your initial crafting ability at the forge, they are very useful for improving your weapons and armor, such as at a grindstone or a workbench. Each potion lasts thirty seconds and improves your skill from twenty to fifty percent. The timer will only start when you're at the grindstone or workbench.
1 Fortify Your Enchantment
Alongside your Fortify Smithing potions, be sure to keep your enhancement ability at its peak when improving weapons and armor. This will make sure you keep up the enhancements on your armor, to make them as powerful as possible.
Before using your Smithing potion, equip gear with enhanced enchantments and consume a Fortify Enchantment potion. Then hit the forge and start the timer on Fortify Smithing! The higher your enchanting ability, the more you'll get out of your Fortify Smithing enchantment. You'll then end up with incredibly powerful gear.
How To Get One Million Armor And Damage Rating
Players can exploit the game's mechanics using a cycle of fortify alchemy and fortify enchantment potions to end up with gear that has an armor and damage rating in millions. To do this, players will first need to enchant some gear with the Fortify Alchemy enchantment. They will need a helmet, a pair of gauntlets, a necklace, and a ring with the enchantment. With the gear equipped, the Dragonborn needs to make a fortify alchemy potion, drink it, then take the gear off and put it on again. Players will need a Yellow Mountain Flower and a Salt Pile to make this potion. Due to a glitch in the game, the enchantment percentage will be higher. Players will then need to repeat these step until the total enchantment bonus from the gear and potion is in millions. Using this super-enchanted gear and the potion, players will now need to make a Fortify Enchanting Potion using an Ancestor Moth Wing and some Spriggan Sap. Players can also use this opportunity to make a Fortify Smithing Potion using some Blisterwort and Spriggan Sap.
Once all the potions are made, the Dragonborn first needs to first drink the Fortify Enchanting potion and enchant a helmet, a pair of gauntlets, a ring, and a necklace with the Fortify Smithing Enchantment. They can also make a ring with a Fortify Alchemy Enchantment, so it is easier to repeat the whole process next time. Once the Fortify Smithing gear is done, players need to put it on, go to a forge, drink the Fortify Smithing Potion and craft the gear of their choice. Then take the freshly made gear to a grindstone and workbench to improve the weapons and armor respectively. They will see that the total damage and armor rating they can get would be in millions.
Skyrim is available on PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, and PC.