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Elden Ring is chock-full of weapons. There are more weapon types in Elden Ring than there are weapons in most games. One of the highlights of the game is being able to swap and change your loadout at any time and have a vastly different combat experience. There is a resource cost that hangs over the intricate weapon selection, however.
Smithing Stones and Somber Smith Stones are required to upgrade your arsenal, and you are going to need a bunch of them if you want to fully explore the vast lineup of tools. Early on, this can be an issue since resources are limited. You could stretch them too far, and have too many weak weapons, or limit yourself too much, and get pigeonholed into one playstyle. Neither is ideal.
What Are Smithing Stones
Smithing Stones are required to upgrade your regular weapons from the base, to +25. Each level your weapon goes up, the more powerful it becomes. Base stats increase, Attribute Scalings go up, and yes, so does the cost of the next upgrade.
Somber Smithing Stones are rarer and are required to upgrade special weapons. These are weapons with unique attributes or crafted from Boss Remembrances. These weapons can only go to +10, but each level is more of a power boost than your standard weapons and stones.
How To Get Smithing Stones
Thankfully, Smithing Stones, as of patch 1.03, are much more common than they were at launch. Not only are enemies going to drop them more often in regular combat, but many nomad merchants have a small stockpile of Smithing Stones ready to sell.
Mines
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The easiest way to gather a healthy stockpile of Smithing Stones is to explore the various mines that litter The Lands Between. There’s at least one mine per major area in Elden Ring, and you are bound to find a bountiful supply of level-appropriate stones by going through them.
Limgrave Tunnel, for example, can potentially turn your basic weapon into a +3 right from the get-go. Going out of your way to explore this tunnel early, is very much advised. Beware of the dragon, however.
Not only that but Limgrave Tunnel is also filled with enemies that have a higher-than-normal chance to drop Smithing Stones. These are just your standard level 1 stones, but making repeated journeys through this tunnel can enable a lot of early-game experimentation.
Bell Bearings
As you progress through the game, you will start to stumble across Bell Bearings as a reward for exploration or story progression. These are incredibly valuable items that allow you to buy Smithing Stones, all the way to +24/+9, depending on the level of Bell Bearing you have.
By the time you reach the later sections of the game, you can literally buy your way to a near-maxed-out weapon, and long before that, you can create some level-appropriate kit at will. Hunting these down is highly advised, and we have a walkthrough that can lead you to all of them.
Nomad Merchants
Scattered around The Lands Between are merchants who are happy to sell all manner of goods. These can be Cookbooks, tips, armor sets, and weapons. As of Patch 1.03, however, they can also sell Smithing Stones - although their stock is limited. These are dirt cheap and can be used to rapidly power up a new or existing weapon before Bell Bearings become available.
Do note that these merchants don’t tend to carry a stockpile of Somber Smithing Stones. That being said, they can still be purchased by going to Iji.
Iji
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Iji can be found in Liurnia Of The Lakes, on the western cliffside on the run-up to Caria Manor. Iji is easily one of the most important merchants in the entire game as he allows you to buy incredibly rare Somber Smithing Stones. Once Iji is unlocked, you can upgrade any special weapon to level 4 with ease. He even has a Site Of Grace opposite him, allowing for quick travel.
If you skip Limgrave and Castle Stormveil entirely, you can get to Iji within the first 20 minutes of starting Elden Ring. This can drastically decrease the difficulty of the early game as your weapon strength will skyrocket beyond what Limgrave and neighboring areas are designed to handle.
Where To Find Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones And Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stones
Ancient Dragon stones, of both varieties, are the rarest crafting materials in the game. You won’t find any of them until the later areas of Elden Ring, and there is a limited supply of each to be found in the world.
These stones are used to take a weapon to the max level, and it’s advised you save them for weapons you love to use, and not to waste them. There are ways to purchase Ancient Dragon materials from vendors, but this is locked behind a lengthy side quest.
We have a guide that can walk you through where to find every Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone and Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stones.
