Smithing is the very first trade skill that I took up, and aside from Tailoring, is the one that took me the longest to get to where I am now. I originally started Smithing, because I dreamed of making wonderful suits of armour for my characters to wear. There’s almost nothing that will give you more pride than finally donning a shiny new piece of armour that you have crafted at the forge with your own bare hands. Unfortunately, I’m a druid, so that idea kind of went out of the window when I discovered I can’t wear it. Still, you do get a nice tingly feeling when you polish up your first piece of Fine Steel Plate:)

Where to Smith

The tradeskill gods have been generous of late, and especially with the advent of Luclin legions of tradeskill vendors have ventured into the fray, ready to sell us those really awkward things you used to have to trudge through several zones for, encumbered as hell and wishing that the 8 backpacks you had FULL of ore were actually going to be enough to make what you wanted, but knowing in truth you'd have to make the trip another couple of times. You can now buy Medium Quality ore in many more places than you used to, for instance Groflah's Forge in North Freeport now stocks it, as does Shadowhaven and the Bazaar to name a few. High Quality ore is also now available on vendors, although they only carry a limited stock, and need to be periodically replenished via a short quest. Acid, vials for dyes, laquer and such can also be found aplenty.

Since the recent changes and additions my favourite place to smith is now Shadowhaven (used to be the bazaar before the /bazaar commands were implemented, but now too laggy). Offhand I can think of three forges in the zone, with another 3 or so next door in the bazaar. Ore vendors in both zones, molds split between the zones. A smithy's paradise. Also, everyone starts off with ok faction in these two zones, so unless you go and bugger it up by killing npcs, you're set for hassle free smithing for life.


Wait a minute, what's all this "Cultural" business about?.

A good question, and one that confuses a lot of people. Each race (Human, Ogre, Dark Elf etc.) has their own special armour that ONLY THEY CAN MAKE. This means that a Human smith can make Human Cultural armour (Heraldic armour), but a dark elf cannot make it (he may however be able to wear it). Similarly a Dark Elf can make Dark Elf Cultural (Dark Prince I think), but a Human cannot (although he may be able to wear it). The cultural armour can ONLY be made in a special Racial Forge, in the hometown of the race, and can ONLY be used by a person of that race. Simple enough so far yes?

Now the bit that REALLY confuses people, the normal cultural armour that is made by the specific RACE can be imbued, or blessed by a god (using an imbued gem), and once that is done then only the followers of that god can wear that piece of armour (assuming they can wear the armour piece anyway, not gonna see any tunarean wizards walking around in full plate). For example, normal Human Cultural armour (Qeynos version) is called Fine Heraldic, and can be worn by any plate classes (with restricted races, probably due to size and whatnot). However, if this is imbued for Rallos Zek (adding an imbued Jade to the recipe), it becomes Fierce Heraldic and ONLY followers of Rallos Zek can wear it, but now all races can wear, so long as they worship him (classes are however restricted to Warrior and Bard). Armour can be made to represent a number of gods such as Cazic Thule, Erollisi Marr etc.

Now the thing that REALLY REALLY confuses people. The SMITH can make ANY of the imbued versions REGARDLESS of who he worships. I get asked that a LOT and I'm sure many other smiths do too, so it's worth the bold tags.

Ok, I get that and I'm ready to begin smithing, is there anything else I should know?

It is worth mentioning that apparently if your Strength is higher than your Wisdom or Intelligence, then that stat is used to calculate whether or not you will skill up. This is to help out melee classes, who often take up smithing, but suffer from a relatively low Wis/Int, and would otherwise not skill up as fast as casters. So if you've got low Wis/Int, get those Str buffs, and put on your best Str gear!

If you have practise points to spare (from your Guild Master) you may want to put in the full 21. It will save you a bit of time and frustration, and a bit of money too. 21 is the maximum amount of points you can put into any trade skill with your trainer.

Starting Smithing

In this particular guide, I shall be going into a little more detail on each step than I have in the other guides. To begin with there is the regular table showing the route. After the table is an in depth step by step analysis of the route. Seeing as I have pieced together this route from what seems sensible (I did smithing before the changes), then feel free to skip bits if you are not having much luck, or try something different. The route is not perfect, merely my best guess.

As always, NEVER stack items in the combining container, and NEVER use Summoned or Foraged water, it just won’t work.

Item	Recipe	Trivial
Metal Bits	2 Small Pieces of Ore, 1 water	18
Skewers	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 Skewers Mold	38
Dairy Spoon	2 Metal Bits, 1 water, 1 Scaler Mold	74
Banded Bracer	1 Sheet of Metal, 1 water, 1 Bracer Mold	95
Banded Mail	3 Metal Sheets, 1 water, 1 Banded Mail Mold	115
Electrum Ornate Chain Coif	2 High Quality Rings, 1 Chainmail Coif Pattern, Smithy Hammer, 1 water, 1 Electrum Bar	139
Gold Ornate Mail	3 High Quality Rings, 1 Chainmail Tunic pattern, Smithy Hammer, 1 water, 1 Gold Bar	155
Fine Steel Bracer	1 Medium Quality Folded Sheet of Metal, 1 water, Smithy Hammer, Plate Bracer Mold, 1 Leather Padding	168
Fine Steel Plate Helm	2 Medium Quality Folded Sheets of Metal, 1 Plate Helm Mold, 1 water, 1 Smithy Hammer, 1 Leather Padding	179
Fine Steel Plate Breastplate	3 Medium Quality Folded Sheets of Metal, 1 Plate Breastplate Mold, 1 water, 1 Smithy Hammer, 1 Leather Padding	188
Acrylia Chain Sleeves	Combine Smithy Hammer, Chainmail Sleeve Pattern, 2 Acrylia Rings, 1 Combine Acrylia Temper	>201 <210
Acrylia Chain Tunic	Combine Smithy Hammer, Chainmail Tunic Pattern, 3 Acrylia Rings, 1 Combine Acrylia Temper	>209 <219
Acrylia Plate Vambraces	Combine Smithy Hammer, 1 Acrylia Chain Jointing, 1 Leather Padding, Plate Vambrace Mold, 1 Combine Acrylia Temper, 2 Folded Acrylia Sheets	229
Acrylia Plate Breastplate	Combine Smithy Hammer, 1 Acrylia Chain Jointing, 1 Leather Padding, Plate Breastplate Mold, 1 Combine Acrylia Temper, 3 Folded Acrylia Sheets	2242

Item 1

The first thing you will be making will be (drumroll)…..Metal Bits! Over the time it takes you to become a master Smith, and beyond, you will very likely learn to hate Metal Bits with every fibre of your being (yes, even at over 180 skill YOU can still fail to make these litte bastards). They are, however, a necessary evil and must be tolerated. (Thankfully, less necessary than they used to be).

To make a Metal Bit, place 2 Small Pieces of Ore (separate) and 1 water into the forge, and press combine. If you are successful, you will be rewarded with bane of your life. If you are unsuccessful, everything will disappear.
Metal Bits go trivial at 18, so if you maxed out your guild training, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with these. Now, go make lots more of these. You will need them for the next stages.

Item 2

Skewers. I am not going to go into the detail of how much I hate skewers. Fortunately for you, (or unfortunately, they were at least cheap to make), they are no longer a staple of the young smith's diet, as they now trivial MUCH lower than they did. Easy enough to make though, 1 Metal Bit, 1 water, and 1 Skewer Mold in the forge. They trivial at 38.

Item 3

Dairy Spoon. Easy to make, but remember to use TWO metal bits, cos if you only use one you'll end up with Scalers instead.

Item 4

Banded Bracers. Nice and simple, all store bought stuff (Huzzah!) Love your banded bracers, and cherish them while you are still skilling with them, for they are kinder masters than bastard Ornate Chain. I hate Ornate Chain.

Item 5

Banded Mail. Nice and simple (again), all store bought stuff (Huzzah!)(Again)Love your banded mail, and cherish it while you are still skilling with it, for they are kinder masters than bastard Ornate Chain. I hate Ornate Chain.

Items 6 & 7

Hate it, Hate it, Hate it. Evil Ornate Chain. It's fiddly and it's expensive. But mercifully, it's all store bought, although you do have to work the ore into rings before you can use it. Seeing as it's High Quality Ore though, the vendor occasionally runs out and must be replenished by a short quest that he will give you if hailed. There are 4 kinds of Ornate chain, Silver (just called Ornate Chain), Electrum, Gold and Platinum. Guess why they're called that?:) Platinum is just too expensive to bother with for skilling up on, so the ones you'll work with are Electrum and Gold.

Fine Steel Plate

Getting towards better armour now.
There are 5 elements to combine when making Fine Steel Plate:

*Medium Quality Folded Sheets of Metal

*Plate Armour Mold

*Smithy Hammer

*Leather Padding

*Water

As far as I am aware Folded Medium Quality sheets cannot be bought anywhere, and must be made. Once you have your Medium Quality Ore, you will need to fashion it into folded sheets. Combine 1 Block of Medium Quality Ore, 1 Smithy Hammer and 1 water in a forge. If you are successful you will receive a Medium Quality Folded Sheet of Metal. Whether you are successful or not, your hammer will be returned to you.

Plate armour molds can be bought in several cities, and are a lot more expensive than banded molds. I think some of the more complex molds cost in the region of 20 or 30pp each.

Smithy Hammers are generally sold by the ore vendor. You can buy one for around 10pp.

Leather Padding is made by Tailors. If you cannot find a tailor to buy some from, you can try to make your own. The recipe is 1 Low Quality Pelt (wolf, cat or bear) and 1 Silk Thread combined in a Sewing Kit. Leather Padding trivials at 31, so you can quickly become self sufficient.

Fine Steel Plate used to trivial way over 200, but now Breastplates go trivial at only 188. This is the end of the easy road. Now we find out who the real masochists are...

Acrylia Chain

There are three things about Acrylia smithing that make it the pain in the arse that it is. The first is getting the ore. It is not vendor sold, but drops off mobs in various places on Luclin. It is in high demand, because it makes some nice tailored armour, and people selling it sell it at very high prices (100pp and more per brick). Buy it, farm it, knock people over the head and steal it, just get as much of it as you can.

The second thing is the combine acrylia temper. To make this you need Windstones (mob dropped, hopefully you'll get some while farming the ore), Essence of Wind (also mob dropped), and Vials of Clear Mana (made by an Enchanter using 1 Poison Vial, 1 Emerald and a fair amount of mana. Enchanters will learn to become scarce when you are around. They get good practise at hiding anyway, from tailors). Put two Windstones into a Mortar and Pestle to make Crushed Windstone. Using the Brewing skill, combine 1 Crushed Windstone, 1 Vial of Clear Mana, and 1 Essence of Wind in a brew barrel. Make more of these, you will need one for every armour piece you attempt.

The third thing is that you'll need to nip to Katta Castellum to buy yourself a Combine Smithy Hammer. If you are KOS, have a friend go in and buy one, or bribe a passer-by.

Acrylia Plate Breastplates go trivial at 242. To those who have made it, I salute you. Only Cultural Smithing (or Mistletoe Cutting Sickles for the Protection of the Cabbage earring quest) can take you higher. You are very plainly mad. Welcome to the white-jacket-and-special-sleeves club.

Manufactured Items you may need

Item	Recipe	Trivial	Made by
Leather Padding	1 Low Quality Pelt (wolf, cat, bear), 1 Silk Thread, combined in a sewing kit.	31	Tailoring
Ceramic Lining	1 Small Block of Clay, 1 water, 1 Sketch combined in a pottery wheel. Result + Quality Firing Sheet in kiln.	36	Pottery
File	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 File Mold combined in a forge	-	Smithing
Metal Bits	2 Small Pieces of Ore, 1 water	18	Smithing
Velium Bits	2 Small Pieces of Velium, 1 Coldain Velium Temper	-	Smithing
Acrylia Bits	2 Small Pieces of Acrylia, 1 water	-	Smithing
Large Brick of Ore	3 Small Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Block of Ore	3 Large Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Sheet of Metal	2 Small Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Sheet of Black Acrylia	2 Bricks of Black Acrylia, 1 Black Acrylia Temper	-	Smithing
Folded Sheet of Metal	1 Block of Ore, 1 water, 1 Smithy Hammer	-	Smithing
Metal Rings	1 Large Brick of Ore, 1 water, 1 File	-	Smithing
Velium Rings	1 Large Brick of Velium, 1 File, 1 Coldain Velium Temper	-	Smithing
Acrylia Rings	1 Large Brick of Acrylia, 1 File, 1 water	-	Smithing
Chain Jointing	1 Metal Ring, 1 water, 1 File, 1 Smithy Hammer	?	Smithing
Acrylia Chain Jointing	1 Acrylia Ring, 1 water, 1 File, 1 Smithy Hammer	?	Smithing

Temper	Racial Armour Use	Recipe	Trivial
Moonlight	High Elf	1 Morning Dew, 1 Vial of Swirling Mists, 2 Essence of Moonlight	135
Royal	Human Qeynos	1 Rain Water, 1 Griffene Blood, 2 Essence of Sunlight	135
Sea	Human Freeport	1 Saltwater Seaweed, 1 Fish Wine, 2 Mugs of Sea Foam	135
Shadow	Dark Elf	1 Elf Blood, 1 Neriak Nectar, 2 Drops of Essence of Shadows	135
Earthen	Dwarf	1 Dwarven Ale, 1 Lava Rock, 2 Drops of Mercury	135
Scale	Iksar	1 Sarnak Blood, 1 Froglok Blood, 1 Iksar Blood, 1 Bloodwater	135
Frost	Barbarian	1 Brandy, 1 Ice Goblin Blood, 2 Essence of Winter	135
Blood	Ogre	1 Ogre Swill, 1 Elf Blood, 1 Dwarf Blood, 1 Human Blood	135
Combine Acrylia	Acrylia Chain and Plate	1 Crushed Windstone (2 Windstones in a Mortar and Pestle), 1 Vial of Clear Mana, 1 Essence of Wind	-
Black Acrylia Temper	Black Acrylia Weapons	1 Akheva Blood, 1 Vial of Distilled Mana, 1 Essence of Darkness.	-

Useful Items you can make (for other trade skills)

Item	Recipe	Trivial	Used by
File	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 File Mold	-	Smithing
Metal Bits	2 Small Pieces of Ore, 1 water	18	Smithing
Velium Bits	2 Small Pieces of Velium, 1 Coldain Velium Temper	-	Smithing
Acrylia Bits	2 Small Pieces of Acrylia, 1 water	-	Smithing
Large Brick of Ore	3 Small Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Block of Ore	3 Large Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Sheet of Metal	2 Small Bricks of Ore, 1 water	-	Smithing
Folded Sheet of Metal	1 Block of Ore, 1 water, 1 Smithy Hammer	-	Smithing
Metal Rings	1 Large Brick of Ore, 1 water, 1 File	-	Smithing
Velium Rings	1 Large Brick of Velium, 1 File, 1 Coldain Velium Temper	-	Smithing
Chain Jointing	1 Metal Ring, 1 water, 1 File, 1 Smithy Hammer	-	Smithing
Skewers	1 Metal Bits, 1 water, 1 Skewer Mold	-	Baking, Tinkering
Pie Tin	1 Metal Bits, 1 Pie Tin Mold, 1 water, 1 Ceramic Lining	-	Baking, Tinkering
Pot	1 Metal Bits, 1 Pot Mold, 1 Standing Legs Mold, 1 water	-	Baking
Non-stick Frying Pan	1 Metal Bits, 1 Frying Pan Mold, 1 water, 1 Ceramic Lining	-	Baking
Smoker	1 Metal Bits, 1 Skewers, 1 Smoker Base Mold, 1 Smoker Support Mold, 1 water	-	Baking
Cake Round	1 Metal Bit, 1 Cake Round Mold, 1 water, 1 Ceramic Lining	-	Baking
Muffin Tin	1 Metal Bit, 1 Muffin Tin Mold, 1 water, 1 Ceramic Lining	-	Baking
Cookie Cutters	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 Cookie Cutter Mold	-	Baking
Bread Tin	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 Bread Tin Mold, 1 Ceramic Lining	-	Baking
Steel Shafts	2 Large Bricks of Medium Quality Ore, 1 water, 1 File	-	Fletching
Bundled Acrylia Arrow Shafts	1 Arrow Shaft Mold, 1 water, 1 Small Brick of Acrylia	- yields 2	Fletching
Field Points	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 File	-	Fletching
Silvertip Points	1 Silver Bar, 1 File, 1 Block of Medium Quality Ore, 1 water	-	Fletching
Hooked Points	3 Small Bricks of Ore, 1 water, 1 File	-	Fletching
Condensed Shadow/Ice/Flame Arrowheads	1 Chunk of Condensed Shadow/Ice/Flame, 1 water, 1 File	- yields 2	Fletching
Skinning Knife	1 Small Brick of Ore, 1 water, 1 Dagger Blade Mold, 1 Hilt Mold	-	Tailoring
Small Sewing Kit	1 Metal Bit, 1 water, 1 Needle Mold, 1 Thimble Mold	-	Tailoring
Metal Studs	3 Metal Bits, 1 water, 1 File	-	Tailoring
Steel Boning	1 Small Brick of Ore, 1 water, 1 File	-	Tailoring
Velium Studs	3 Velium Bits, 1 Coldain Velium Temper, 1 File	-	Tailoring
Velium Boning	1 Small Brick of Velium, 1 Coldain Velium Temper, 1 File	-	Tailoring
Acrylia Studs	3 Acrylia Bits, 1 water, 1 File	-	Tailoring
Acrylia Boning	1 Small Brick of Acrylia, 1 water, 1 File	-	Tailoring