How do i level up alchemy and smithing fast, early in the game?

[devinwifi]

Im gonna start playing Skyrim tomorrow and i want to level up smithing (lvl 60) and alchemy (lvl 25) as soon as possible so i can start crafting magical arrows(mod) how can i do that ?

[DoctorKaizeld]

for smithing just by all the metal ingots from the shops in Whiterun and just smith it all into weapons and armor then sell that back to the merchants, then go over to another town and do the same. just keep repeating this going in a circle either clockwise or counter clockwise shifting through the different keeps until you hit one hundred.

 

for alchemy do the same thing, go into the alchemist shop in whiterun by everything they have. then go through it and consume anything you havent checked already. then go to the table and make all the potions you can. then follow the steps listed above and rotate cities.

[ironbender800]

alchemy is super easy.

 

There are 2 ingredient combos i use and both are easy to find and will level you up very very fast and also make you a ton of gold.

 

first combo is blue mountain flower, blue butterfly wing, and wheat

 

these can be found on the roads all over. just run around and you will find them. Outside of whiterun has plenty. Check the farms for wheat or buy it at the alchemy shop.

 

I can get my alchemy from 15 to 70 or 80 within 2 hours or so. (real life time). and have around 50,000 gold.

[ElioraArin]

Some time ago I read somewhere (I don't remember where now) that if you want to quickly increase your smithing skill the most efficient way to do it is to make iron daggers as they are the most economical when it comes to the materials required. I tried this & it was great - just be wary of quickly levelling up your character as well or you will find yourself up against really difficult enemies you don't have the combat skills to defeat, this was my mistake :D

[LeddBate]

Some time ago I read somewhere (I don't remember where now) that if you want to quickly increase your smithing skill the most efficient way to do it is to make iron daggers as they are the most economical when it comes to the materials required. I tried this & it was great - just be wary of quickly levelling up your character as well or you will find yourself up against really difficult enemies you don't have the combat skills to defeat, this was my mistake :D

 

About smithing iron daggers: Yes, that'll work, but it won't be that quick. I use SkyUI and a few other UI mods. These allow me to see the actual incremental increase in my smithing skill as I create/improve items. When you make/improve an iron item, the skill level increase is tiny. If you smith a steel item, the increase is a bit bigger. And so on and so on as you smith items made of more exotic material. So smithing a lot of iron daggers will work, but it will require you to smith a small mountain of them.

 

ElioraArins advice about leveling up your character strictly by increasing your smithing skill is very wise. For every level your character gains via increasing the smithing skill, you should then work up some combat skills until you gain another character level. Otherwise, While you're training in smithing and alchemy -The Draugr are Training.

[ironbender800]

yeah you can easily find yourself around level 18 with crap gear and no combat perks so will get destroyed.

[ElioraArin]

A little off topic, but good for general help with alchemy - the mod Alchemist Compendium by RGMage2 adds a book to the game that lists all alchemical ingredients with their effects, very useful! :smile:

Oh & another thing, I once added a clothing mod that allowed me to make clothes with just a bit of leather, & this allowed me to increase my smithing skill very cheaply - as Leddbate mentioned it will take longer, but was great for a beginning character with little money & no smithing perks for making advanced weapons & armors that allow you to increase your skill faster.

Sorry one more thing! If you're also interested in enchanting you could then enchant all those iron daggers or clothes with cheap & easily filled petty soul gems to also improve your enchanting - again it will take a bit longer but will still increase your skill relatively quickly as a beginning character. Then sell them all off to make a bit of much needed coin to buy more crafting equipment or just line your pockets!

Oh, um, yet another thing, Disparity Player Character Class - Race & Gender Diversity by kryptopyr allows you to give your character a class & assign extra points to skills of your choice when you are beginning - you can choose when you do it, but I usually do right after designing my character in the intro sequence. This will give you a head start in getting where you want to be without having to spend so much time crafting later on. Maybe you could even use it to bump up your combat skills so your character will be more balanced once you have upped your smithing & alchemy, making levelling up a bit easier.

Great tips everyone, I will be using some of these myself, especially for alchemy :D

Edited October 9, 2015 by ElioraArin

[Legedur]

For Alchemy, use mod "Alchemists have Ingredients". As long as you have money, they have plenty of ingredients to sell. Combine it with a mod that makes merchants restock in 1 day and every day they will have plenty of ingredients.

 

For smithing, use mod "Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade". It has option to gain experience in Smelter and Tanning rack. This way you gain more experience. Also, the best way to increase smithing for me, is jewlery.

[Faelrin]

For smithing, Dwarven Bows are great for experience and simple to make. Dwarven Ingots are really easy to make by just grabbing Dwemer clutter and smelting it down. To get to 30, there's always Leather Bracer's that you can make from just tanning Wolf Pelt's and other pelts, and jewelry. There's a gold and silver mine packed with ore near Markarth that can help. For alchemy, I like the Creep Cluster, Mora Tapinella, and Scaly Pholiota combo. There's also Garlic, Nordic Barnacles, and Salmon Roe if you have Hearthfire, which are all around Whiterun. Barnacles are under the bridge near Dragonsreach, and I think Carlotta sells Garlic, and Salmon Roe are from jumping salmon, near the bridges by the Meadery. There's also a ton of garlic in Boulderfall Cave in a basket.

[fraquar]

The easy way, just use the console to change those skills to those levels at the game start.

player.setav smithing 60

player.setav alchemy 25

 

Note: I do something similar when I start characters since what I do is zero out all of their skills except for 1 Primary and 1 Secondary skill - skills that I'd have expected the character to have developed prior to his abduction. Ex. an Orc I'd set Smithing to 40 and Two Handed to 30, everything else to 0 - given that the extent of his experience in say an Orc Stronghold is likely going to be to either Mining or as a Smithing apprentice or defending the compound. If he was more of a Ranger type, then I'd change Two Handed to Archery - since he'd probably be a primary food gatherer and sentry for his tribe instead of a brute. In this way it's not cheating, it's making a more sensible starting point for your character.

 

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The gameplay way. Use these two mods to augment either your XP rate, your return rates for mining/harvesting, or both:

 

For Smithing

Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade - this allows you to do two things: 1) get experience for mining, smithing, smelting down items to raw materials and working the tanning rack all in one convenient interface. 2) change the return rate for mining, so that you get a larger haul from each ore vein.

 

For Alchemy

Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul or the older Harvest Overhaul - this will change the rate of return from harvesting plants to more sensible numbers - ex. you can get 2 or 3 Wheat from 1 stalk, or 3 petals from one Blue Mountain Flower. The vanilla game limits you to 1 ingredient per harvest no matter what you harvest.

 

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I tend to settle in the Eastmarch/Hot Springs area in a lot of playthroughs, and there is one ridiculously easy to find combination of ingredients that would level your Alchemy fast - and they are all in the Hot Springs area. If you used say CACO above, you are probably talking the ability to make say 40-50 of these potions in little more than 10 minutes of play time tops.

 

Dragon's Tongue - Hot Springs area is littered with them.

Mora Tapinella - it's located in 3 main places and also scattered in the Hot Springs area as well. one of the Giant Camps, Witchmist Grove and where the Word Wall is.

Fly Amanita - Steamscorch Mine at Kynesgrove is littered with them.

 

It's actually a fairly useful potion to use too, given there are no side effects.

 

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Added. Another useful "poison" if you are into that sort of thing - just head to The Rift area. Shor's Stone and the Autumshade Clearing area are littered with Canis Root (though they can be a bear to find especially at night), and right down the way is the Lost Prospect Mine (which also has some Canis Root around there), where you can find a nice chunk of Imp Stool. Canis Root + Imp Stool = Paralysis Poison - not bad to put on arrows you plan to craft/fire.

Edited October 9, 2015 by fraquar