Winds of Valen — Guides

🔨 Smithing Guide

A comprehensive, new-player-friendly guide for smithing in Winds of Valen.

⚒️ Step 1 — Get Equipped

• Pickaxes and hammers must be equipped to mine/smith — having them in your bag isn't enough.
• Players start with a Copper Pickaxe but no hammer (buy one for 10g).
• Smelting (ore → bars) does not require a hammer, only Smithing (bars → items) does.
• Pickaxes and hammers cannot be crafted — buy them.
• Inventory is 28 slots and nothing here stacks — ore, bars, and finished items all take one slot each.

⛏️ Step 2 — Mine Ore

Full mining spots, routes, and mining-only rates are in the Mining Guide — this is just what you need to know for Smithing.

🔥 Step 3 — Smelt Ore into Bars

🔨 Step 4 — Smith Bars into Gear

Every item below is crafted at an Anvil. "Def/Atk Level Req" is the level needed to wear or wield the finished item — "Smithing Level" is the level needed to craft it.

🪖 Helmets

🧥 Platebodies

🩳 Platelegs

🧤 Hands

🗡️ Weapons

🧮 Why You Gain EXP Twice

Smithing has two steps: Smelting (ore → bars) and Smithing (bars → gear). You get EXP for both — once per bar smelted, once per bar used in crafting.

📊 EXP / Hour & Profit / Hour

Bronze Tier (8g buy / 4g sell per bar — Valen Gate)

Iron Tier (24g/20g buy, 14g sell per bar)

Grave Town sells Iron Bars for 4g cheaper, so it's more profitable per hour for Helmets even though its Anvil↔Stall trip is slower.

Steel Tier (40g buy / 28g sell per bar — Valen Gate)

Mithril Tier (Mithril Ore can't be bought — must be mined, then smelted with bought Coal)

Selling raw Mithril Bars barely profits (2,254g/hr) — the real money is in crafting them into gear. Mithril Sword is both the best EXP/hr and the best profit/hr item in the entire skill, worth roughly 68× more per hour than just selling the bars raw. Craft it whenever you have Mithril Bars banked and Smithing 34+.

Gold Tier (Gold Ore/Dust can't be bought — must be mined)

Gold Plate, Volcanic Ring, and Volcanic Ward don't have published crafting stats (ingredients/duration/EXP/sell price) yet, so item EXP/hr and profit/hr for those specific pieces can't be calculated. Share those numbers and this section can be filled in.

🏆 Best Choice by Tier — Quick Reference

💰 Best Early Money-Making Method

Buying bars, smithing helmets, and selling to vendors is one of the best early-game money methods. Helmets use fewer bars, have high vendor value, require no mining, and work from very low levels. Every other craftable (Platebody, Platelegs, Swords) actually loses money at Bronze/Iron/Steel tier once bar cost is factored in — the bars cost more than the finished item sells for, so Helmets are the only reliable profit item until Mithril.

• Buy bars from stalls or players → Smith Helmets → Sell to vendor → Repeat.
• Best tiers: Bronze Helmet (~1,758g/hr, early starter gold), Iron Helmet (~8,514g/hr buying bars at Grave Town), Steel Helmet (~12,727g/hr, excellent early money).
• Everything else (Platebody, Platelegs, Swords) is EXP-positive but gold-negative at these tiers — only smith them for training if you can afford the loss, or if you're self-smelting bars instead of buying them.
• Once you hit Smithing 30+, switch to Mithril — every Mithril item is highly profitable, and Mithril Sword beats everything else in the guide for both EXP/hr and gold/hr.

⛏️ For Reference: Mining EXP/Hr & Profit/Hr

These numbers come from the Mining Guide, not this pass of Smithing math — travel times for individual mine-to-bank routes weren't part of this review, so treat them as approximate until re-checked.

*Gold Dust assumes uninterrupted mining and bar conversion.
†Essence Geode's mining action speed hasn't been confirmed yet, so EXP/hr and Profit/hr are extrapolated estimates using the 70g stall sell price. Share real timing data and this row can be firmed up.