Smithing a full set of gear before level 10 actually trivializes the whole early game

[WhiterunModder]

I just realized how broken early smithing is and I'm not sure why I never leaned into it harder before. Like, if you grab iron ore from Halted Stream Camp (or literally anywhere), smelt it, and just spam-craft iron daggers for like twenty minutes, you can get smithing to 30-40 before you even leave Whiterun. Then you're crafting steel gear that makes Bleak Falls Barrow trivial.

The thing is, once you hit steel smithing you can outfit yourself with a full matched set before the game expects you to have anything better than hide armor. I did this on my current playthrough and I just walked through the first dungeon like I was level 30. No struggle at all. It feels almost like cheating but it's technically just... using the systems the game gives you.

Has anyone else noticed how this completely flattens the difficulty curve? Or am I just late to the party on this. I feel like most people either grind alchemy or enchanting early but nobody talks about just smithing your way through the first twenty levels.

 

[RiftenWanderer]

Yeah you're definitely not late to the party on this - it's been known forever that smithing is absurdly good early on. The iron dagger spam is basically the classic exploit at this point. That said, I think it depends on what you're going for. Like, if you're just trying to progress the story efficiently, sure, it trivializes things. But if you're playing for the actual challenge or the roleplay of it, you probably don't do it.

I've done the iron dagger grind exactly once and honestly found it kind of boring? Just standing there crafting for twenty minutes felt tedious even though I knew it was making me stronger. Now when I start a new playthrough I usually just grab whatever gear I find in dungeons and live with it until I can actually loot decent stuff. Makes the early game feel more like an adventure than an optimization puzzle.

That said, there's nothing wrong with using it if that's how you want to play. Skyrim's not exactly designed around preventing you from breaking the difficulty curve - the game's pretty open about letting you sequence-break if you know how. Some people find that fun, some people don't. Just depends on what you're after.