One great feature introduced into the series of Mount and Blade with the latest installment; Bannerlord, is the ability to create custom weapons from a range of different weapon parts. There are 12 different weapon types that you can craft from throwing knifes to maces. To begin with, only a few different types of weapon parts will be available for you to create your own custom weapon at the smithy, so how do you unlock more weapon parts to use? Read on.
Different Ways to Unlock Weapon Parts
To begin with, there is only one place that you are able to unlock any weapon parts in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord. This is at the smithy. Every action that has to do with creating weapons and unlocking parts is done here. To find a smithy, venture to any town and select the option Enter smithy from the list of available town actions. Now that you have reached this place, you are able to start creating your own weapons, provided you have all of the materials.
There are only two actions you can perform that will result in your unlocking new weapons parts. Those two actions are:
- Smelting down old weapons for materials under the Smelt tab
- Creating new weapons at the smithy using parts you’ve already unlocked.
While these are pretty straightforward directions on how to unlock new parts, there are more things that you can do to improve your chances of unlocking new parts quickly. For example, every time you smelt or forge a weapons you have a % chance to unlock a new part. The item you smelt does not have any bearing on what type of part will be unlocked. At least not in the current version of Bannerlord’s early access development.
Improving Your Chances at Unlocking New Weapons
As aforementioned there are ways that you can improve the chances of finding new weapon parts when indulging in smithing activities. To save you scrolling through a lot of information you may not want to read I will make some brief tips here on how to smith weapons fast and go into more detail about them later. Ways to improve the rate at which you can unlock new parts include:
- Unlocking perks within the Smithing skill which raise your chance of discovering new parts
- Using your companions to smith in order to unlock weapon parts faster
- Using higher value weapons when forging and smelting
Perks That Help Learn New Smithing Parts
Every time that you either smelt down a weapon or forge a completely new one you will have a small percentage chance to unlock a new part. These are based on a variety of factors including your smithing skill and the difficulty of the weapons to name a few but there is a simple way that you can improve your chances of finding new parts and that is by utilizing some of the perks in the game.
The two perks that can be taken to increase the rate at which you learn new smithing parts are Curious Smelter and Curious Smith. Unsurprisingly the names of these perks pertain to the action in which part learning rate is doubled. With Curious Smelter, the chance that you learn a new part through smelting is raised by 100% (doubled). When you take the Curious Smith perk, you will double the chance that you learn a new part when Forging a custom weapon.
You can take Curious Smelter at level 50 in Smithing and Curious Smith at level 75. I wrote a guide on how to raise you smithing level which can be found here if you’re interested. Another thing to point out is that companions can also learn these skills which brings me to the next point…
Using Companions to Smith
One of the most annoying things about trying to unlock parts quickly is the smithing stamina. Bannerlord has a feature where you character will have to rest after they have been smithing a few different weapons. One way that you can keep on creating weapons and learning new parts even which your character is tired is by smithing with your companions. It isn’t explained very well in the game, but you can change characters in the smithy and use any companion heroes in your party to smith as well. To do this, click on your character’s portrait at the bottom left and select a different hero.
The companions will use your items when smithing and anything that is created will go straight into your personal inventory. They can also discover new parts through smithing and smelting weapons. By swapping through your companions when smithing you will be able to make a lot more items each time before you have to rest again. Once their smithing skill is high enough, they can also learn the Curious Smith and Curious Smelter perks.
Creating High-Value Weapons
Are you smelting a bunch of old rakes and rusted swords wondering why you haven’t unlocked that shiny new blade yet? That is because the value of the item also plays a part in your chances of learning a new weapon part. The more valuable the weapon is that you are Forging or smelting, the higher your chances of unlocking a new part.
One of the best ways to create a high value weapon is to create a pole-arm which has a very large slashing damage. To do this, pick a large slashing blade and extend is as long as possible. Experiment with different handles and lengths in order to create the most high damage pole-arm you can, they are bound to be worth good money! If you have the materials, you can constantly create and smelt these weapons to unlock A lot of marts quickly. Again, the parts that are unlocked have nothing to do with the weapons you are creating/smelting. I’ve learnt how to create a bunch of different mace heads by melting down pointy sticks.
I wonder why nobody mentions completing smithing orders for getting new parts.
Take some higher value orders. If you manage to fulfill them with a little better stats than asked, chances are you’re getting a ton of new parts. Look especially for orders with 4 parts, like swords and 2h swords. An 8-10k 2h successfully made sword order can unlock 7-8 parts in one go!
Hey great tip!
I honestly had no idea that smithing orders rewarded parts for completion! Thanks for letting me know.