With Bannerlord’s entry into the Mount and Blade: Bannerlord series came the great feature of smithing. With this new mechanic you are able to customize and create new weapons using materials gathered in the game. One of the most lucrative materials for creating weapons is Thamaskene Steel. This is the highest grade crafting material available in the game.
This guide will show you some of the ways that you can get Thamaskene Steel in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord. After this, you will be smithing some of the best weapons in the game.
How to Get Thamaskene Steel
There are a few different ways that you can go about getting some thamaskene steel for yourself in Bannerlord. As you’ve probably noticed in the smithy there is an option to smelt weapons. Through this method, you can get yourself some easy thamaskene steel if you know which weapons you want to smelt.
The three main ways you can get Thamaskene Steel in Bannerlord are:
Even though some of these may seem simple at first, there are obvious certain ways you can go about getting the steel which will help you out. Read on to find out more.
Smelting Weapons to Get Thamaskene Steel
One of the quickest ways that you can get your hands on some Thamaskene Steel is through smelting. Smelting is the act of melting down existing weapons in Bannerlord to get some of the materials used to create the weapon back. You can only melt down the weapon types that can be crafted. (This means no shields or armors). As some weapons are made from Thamaskene Steel, you can melt these down to reclaim some steel for yourself.
3 units of Thamaskene Steel
The only problem with melting down these weapons is that you will have to actually purchase or get them first. Weapons that can be melted down for Thamaskene Steel are often some of the most expensive in the game. You will find a lot of the swords named ‘fullered’ have some good materials in them but my ‘goto’ weapon for getting my hands on Thamaskene is the one in the image above. This will get us 3 units of Thamaskene Steel for every sword we smelt. Not a bad amount if you have the money to pay for the swords.
Refine 2 Units of Fine Steel into 1 Thamaskene Steel
One often overlooked element of the smithy in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord is the refining section. Here, you can take your raw materials and either combine them or break them down to create new materials. With the hardwood, you can turn it into charcoal. You can also take most of the metals and turn them into the better tier version of themselves. In order to craft your own Thamaskene Steel, you will have to unlock the perk Steel Maker 3.
That this perk does is allow you to refine 2 units of Fine Steel into 1 unit of Thamaskene Steel. That way as long as you have a large supply of charcoal and fine steel you are able to make as much thamaskene as you wish. With this you can start to craft some really high level stuff.
To be able to unlock the Steel Maker 3 perk, you will have to reach level 100 in the Smithing skill. Not too hard if you’re smithing a lot of high value products. If you want to know how to raise the smithing skill quickly, check out this guide.
Getting Thamaskene as Battle Loot
This one if going to be the hardest way to get your hands on Thamaskene Steel but it has to be listed here. As with any lootable item in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord it can be won as loot after a battle. If the party that you have defeated is carrying any of this, there is a chance you can get it as loot. Some of the best places that you can get this material as loot is by doing takeover gang quests in towns. To do this, you will have to take the option Walk around the town when you come to a town and navigate to a gang area. These will be called something simple like Backstreet or Waterfront.
Once you make it to one of these locations you can speak with one of the thugs guarding it. Goad them into a fight by telling them that you do whatever you want and you will have to defeat all of them. Make sure you have a decent weapon on your civilian inventory for this one! If you defeat the thugs you are given the option to wait around in the area for the gang leader to come back. You will then have a small fight with the gang leaders party and if successful, gain some loot.
Caravan Fights
It is fairly common that Thamaskene Steel is a loot item from these engagements. There are generally high-value items won this way anyway so it’s not a bad process to repeat if you wanted to make a little money. As long as you have some decent armor and a good weapon equipped to your civilian set you should be fine. Another great way to get Thamaskene Steel is by fighting trade caravans. These will have random trade goods once they are defeated and there is a chance that Thamaskene Steel will drop as loot once they are defeated.