Alchemy is broken and everyone knows it—so why do people pretend smithing matters more

[WhiterunModder]

I've been thinking about this on my current playthrough and it's driving me nuts. You can literally break the entire economy and your damage output with just alchemy. A few hours of grinding deathbell and imp stool, you're making potions worth 1000+ gold each. Stack those with the right perks and you're funding everything.

But then people write these whole guides about smithing loops like it's the real endgame. Don't get me wrong, smithing is satisfying. But alchemy does the same thing faster and with less setup. You don't need to find iron ore or reset forges. You just... pick plants.

The only reason I think smithing gets hyped more is because it feels more "active" or something. Swinging a hammer feels like you're doing something. Collecting flowers feels tedious even though it's mechanically the same loop. Both turn raw materials into absurd profit margins. Both let you trivialize gear requirements. Both scale exponentially with perks.

Am I missing something about why people treat these differently? Because on paper alchemy is just the better version of the same exploit.

 

[TamrielTactician]

You're not wrong that alchemy is mechanically busted, but I think you're underselling why smithing still matters to a lot of people - and it's not just because swinging a hammer feels cooler.

Smithing gives you gear you actually use. You can craft a set of daedric armor or a legendary greatsword and then go fight things with it. That's a tangible power spike you feel immediately. Alchemy gives you gold, which is... a resource you mostly don't need after the first 20 hours. Once you've got a house and some decent gear, what are you even spending 100k gold on? It's abstract wealth.

Plus smithing loops are way more optional than people make them sound. You can find or loot basically every armor set in the game without ever crafting. But if you want to optimize your gear - match sets, get the perks to actually make your stuff legendary, enchant it properly - smithing is the only way. Alchemy doesn't do any of that.

That said, yeah, alchemy trivializes the economy faster and easier. If your goal is just to break the game and have infinite money, alchemy wins. But I think most guides hype smithing because they're assuming people actually want to use their gear, not just sit on a pile of gold. The exploit being faster doesn't make it more useful if the output is something you don't need.