Skinning

Skinning is the Gathering Trade Skill used to collect materials from eligible defeated creatures. Unlike Mining, Logging, and Harvesting, Skinning usually requires a creature to be killed before it becomes a gathering source. Players then use a Skinning Knife to obtain hides, meat, and other animal-derived materials.

Quick Facts

What Skinning Provides

Hides are refined through Leatherworking into leather used by Armoring, Engineering, Weaponsmithing, Furnishing, and other recipes. Meat and specialized creature drops also connect Skinning closely to Cooking and several consumable or crafting systems.

Because the gathering source is a defeated creature, Skinning naturally overlaps with combat and open-world farming routes in a way that other gathering skills do not.

Progression

Increasing Skinning allows players to gather from increasingly demanding creatures and improves tracking functionality for eligible wildlife. At level 205, high-level hostile creatures can provide Dark Hide, the expansion-era hide tier used to make Dark Leather.

Rare creature materials can also appear during Skinning and may be valuable for profession recipes, food, trophies, or the Trading Post.

Improving Skinning

Skinning can be improved through the quality and perks of the Skinning Knife, profession equipment, food, trophies, Music buffs, and other effects. As with the other gathering professions, Speed, Yield, and Luck affect different parts of the process.

Connected Trade Skills

Skinning feeds directly into Leatherworking and also supplies ingredients to Cooking. Refined leather is then consumed by several equipment and utility crafting professions.