Smithing perks are way more important than people think early game

[WhiterunModder]

I've been running a bunch of early playthroughs on my Switch copy and I keep seeing the same thing: people skip straight to Enchanting and Alchemy loops without touching Smithing, and then they're stuck with garbage gear until they're level 30+.

But if you actually grab Steel Smithing and just... make iron daggers for like an hour, you can hit Smithing 50 before you leave Whiterun, craft some actual decent armor, and suddenly the early bandits don't oneshot you. Then you're not forced into stealth archer or pure magic just to survive.

The real thing nobody talks about is that Smithing actually gates your survivability in the first 10 levels way harder than people realize. You can have all the Enchanting perks in the world but if you're wearing iron armor at level 12 you're still getting deleted. Smithing fixes that without needing to farm ingredients for three hours.

Am I overvaluing this or does early game Smithing actually deserve more respect than it gets?

 

[TamrielTactician]

You're not overvaluing it. The thing is, most "optimal" guides get written by people doing their 50th playthrough on Adept or lower, where gear barely matters - they're used to just... winning anyway. On higher difficulties or a fresh character, yeah, Smithing early is a huge quality of life spike that people sleep on.

That said, there's a reason the stealth archer / pure magic thing happens: it's not that Smithing doesn't help, it's that those playstyles let you skip the problem entirely. If you're not getting hit, you don't need better armor. But that's a trap - you lock yourself into one playstyle to avoid investing in Smithing, when investing in Smithing would let you play literally anything.

The dagger spam to 50 is the key thing you're hitting on. People don't realize how fast you can level it if you're not trying to be "efficient" about it - just make stuff, sell it, repeat. By the time you're done, you've got enough gold for a house or better gear, AND you can actually craft the armor you want instead of praying for drops. On Switch especially where you're not modding in better early loot, that's genuinely game-changing.

Where I'd maybe push back slightly: you don't need to hit 50 before leaving Whiterun. Getting to like 30-40 and grabbing Steel Smithing is plenty to craft a full set of steel armor that'll carry you to Daedric or Elven range. But yeah, the core point stands - early Smithing is way more impactful than people give it credit for.