Skyrim: How to Make Ingots from Ore

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a game that lets players take part in every step of the crafting process. The Dragonborn can slay animals and take their hides, craft those hides into leather, and then convert that leather into armor and enchant it. Players can follow the same process for crafting metal weapons and equipment.

However, players must be able to find the right stations and tools to make use of this process, and they must know what materials it takes to craft each type of ingot. This guide will explain where to get ores, where to find smelters in Skyrim, and what recipes the smelter will accept.

RELATED: Skyrim: Everything You Need To Know About The Atronach Forge

How to Get Ores

Much like with leather, players can get metal ores straight from the source. All across Skyrim, players can find ore veins sticking out of rocks. Ore veins look like regular rocks, but they feature streaks of color that are different from the usual brown and gray. Different colors mark different ores, such as green and red for iron and yellow for gold.

To mine an ore vein, players must have a pickaxe in their inventory. The pickaxe doesn't have to be equipped, it only has to be present. By interacting with the vein, the Dragonborn will automatically pull out the pickaxe, strike the vein for several seconds, and receive three pieces of ore. Players will only see notifications for the first and third ores, but they always get three. Mining also has a chance to give players a gemstone with each piece of ore. After getting the third ore, the vein will become depleted and the colored parts will turn dark. However, just like plants, ore veins will eventually refill after several in-game days.

Ore veins can be anywhere, but the best place to look for them is in mines. The map symbol for a mine is a crossed hammer and pickaxe, and there are around two dozen of them in Skyrim. Iron mines are most common, but players can find mines for every ore type in the game. Players can also buy ores from general merchants, jewelers, and smiths, but they're generally rare.

RELATED: Skyrim Daedric Weapon and Armor Tier List

How to Use a Smelter

To make ingots out of ore, players will need to find a smelter. A smelter is a dome-shaped structure made of stone, and there's always a pile of black charcoal sitting next to it. Smelters are hard to find in towns, but many of the mines have smelters sitting near the entrance. Fortunately, Whiterun has a smelter behind Warmaiden's, and Windhelm has a smelter outside the Blacksmith Quarters.

In general, players can make an ingot by combining two ores of the same type. There are some exceptions, however:

Note that the numbers in parentheses for Dwarven Metal Ingots are how many ingots each item produces, not how many items players need to produce one ingot. A single Solid Dwemer Metal produces 5 ingots. Also, Daedric equipment uses the same ingredients as Ebony equipment, except players need a single Daedric Heart for each item during the forging process.

The only other thing players can do with ores is sell them off, so smelting them into ingots and forging items with them is generally the best way to turn ores into cash and create good custom equipment for adventuring. Just remember to store them somewhere safe between adventures because both ores and ingots can quickly weigh a player down.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Open-World RPGs To Play If You Love Elden Ring