SMITHING


A smith, be it gunsmith or swordsmith, is a character that is usually dedicated to making weapons for use or sale. They gather materials to try to forge weapons. It is a lot of work and few have the determination to level a smith to a high level. A character who has crafting as a subclass may not be as proficient in smithing as someone who is pure and also may lose out on expertise points for attacking based skills.
Swordsmiths create melee weapons which are useful for weapon making for melee characters.
Gunsmiths create guns, long range weapons and shell casings that can be used in item mixing to create bullets. They are useful for weapon making for long range based characters.
The main stats that effect swordsmithing are vitality and luck. Vitality adds 1% per every 10 points added while luck adds 1% for every 5 points. There are not many alternate builds you can use with this combination so it may be best to go pure swordsmith or a tanking skill based melee. If you go pure swordsmith I suggest you get vitality first because it will give you an advantage in terms of your health. Alternately you could go luck first if you wish, for better monster drops and more critical defense.
The main stats for gunsmithing are Inteligence and Luck. Int adds 1% for every 10 points, similar to swordsmithing, and luck adds 1% for every 5 points. With this builds you could possibly go enhancer as a secondary class to make leveling easier and not have to rely on sponsoring until your character is complete. My suggestion is to go int first if you wish to be an enhancer, if not luck since int doesn't add much to pure gunsmiths.

To start out you'll want to get Weapon knowledge (Gun knowledge) to class 1. Fastest way I've found is is using Synth (30 Soulshards from Kodama in Suginami bronze which is an excellent way to get your new character a few levels and bring those to St. Germain to obtain occultism, the only expertise that unlocks synthesis), and locking every other expertise associated with that chain expertise but weapon knowledge. I find I can get 1 class to 1 class and 5 ranks per 5x expertise incense up until Weapon knowledge reaches Class 6, after that it slows down so you may have problems.

Gun knowledge is a bit different. You can get it up to class 1 through a quest in home 3: Bring a Type 38 infantry rifle Dropped by Trolls in sugi silver, Gyuki in Nakano, ichi gold floor b10 dropped from the boxes and Velata in Shinigawa Catacombs to the weapon shop in home 3 to unlock class 1 Gun Knowledge). Easiest way I've found is getting Rapid to class 1 to get Magnificent 7 and just use that on slimes or the Lost Hua Po, alternatively on Pixies or Leader Pixies if those areas are full. You should have high MP recovery or a lot of MP recovering items.

To get blades and crafting to class 1 you must see the dwarf near the north terminelle in babel. He will give you a quest to bring 10 Opals if you do not have either blades or crafts, he will also ask you to get some materials and make a weapon (this can be store-bought if you do not wish to waste materials). If you already have either blades or crafts and you wish to get the second skill you must give him 10 Rubys and repeat the quest for the expertise you have not yet attained.

As of this moment, only way to raise blades/crafting past class 1 is to actually make items or get textbooks. My suggestion for swordsmithing is to gather a bunch of Iron, Cedar and Steel and make morningstars, with scattering pollen and etude sword/blade. Once you get your swordsmithing up to class 4.7 a good alternative is to learn the Sol Blade recipe and either farm or buy Asada Archives from people to make that.

Courtesy of RedshirtRGM79: Gunsmithing: Scattering pollen (Author note: Blade/sword of etude would be nice too)+Cartridge recipies (Once you get Recipie B or higher). Alternatively, lotus purifier recipe C.

Swordsmith builds

Pure:
Blades: C6.5
Weapon knowledge: C9
Swordsmithing ends up with class 7 and uses 15500 points.
The above build is just for swordsmithing, and only gets you swordsmithing. Nothing else. It's a good point to work from and it's the basis for my other swordsmithing builds.

Pure 2 (The "I'm-really-fond-of-rush-or-spin-or-occult-or-I-can't-afford-lethes-build")
Blades: C6.5
Weapon knowledge: C9
Spin or Rush or Occultism: C1
This build costs 16500 points and is pure swordsmithing. If you don't feel like getting rid of rush, spin or occultism this is a good alternative to the pure build since you don't have to lethe those skills away.

Hybrid melee:
Weapon knowledge: C9
Blades: C6
Attack: C9
Survival: C2
This build gets retaliation to class 6.2, and swordsmithing to class 6.6.

Alternate hybrid build:
Weapon knowledge: C9
Blades: C6.5
Attack: C9
Survival: C1.5
This build gets swordsmithing up to class 7, and retaliation up to exactly class 6.

Gunsmith builds

Pure:
Gun knowledge: C9
Crafts: C7.2
Gunsmithing ends up with class 7 rank 5.
This build is the basis for gunsmithing, it gets you capped gunsmithing and nothing else. It uses 16200 expertise points.

Pure 2 (The "I'm-really-fond-of-rapid-or-I-can't-afford-lethes-build"):
Gun knowledge: C9
Crafts: C7.2
Rapid: C1
This build is for people who don't want to get rid of rapid, or can't afford lethes. It takes 17200 points. If you really don't want to get rid of rapid and you're going pure, it's okay since you don't really get anything else.

Hybrid:
Gun knowledge: C9
Shot: C3
MC: C2
Crafts: C7.2
Curse: C2
Demonlogy: C2
This build ends up with Class 3, rank 8 Sharp Shooting, class 5 rank 1 Magic Bullet, and Class 7 rank 5 gunsmithing. It uses 25200 expertise points.

Enhance/Smith:
Curative: C8
Support: C5
Bless: C2
Crafts: C7.2
Gun Knowledge: C3.8
This build gives you class 5 enhance, allowing you to easily level this type of character without the need to sponsor. It also gives you 6.5 gunsmithing and once you reach level 90 you can take away enhance to cap gunsmith or possibly become a SIer.
[V-III]Hybrid/SI build

You can find common SI builds around on the forums or other resources but the most common SI build I have seen and the one I use is as follows:

Gun Knowledge: C5
Crafts: C5
Weapon Knowledge: C9
Blades: C7

For gunsmithing however you could use which is the inverse of the above build.

Crafts: C7
Gun Knowledge: c9
Blades: c5
Weapon Knowledge :c5