To learn Skinning in World of Warcraft: Forever, talk to a Skinning trainer and learn Apprentice Skinning. Night Elves have a second way: take the book Pelt Collecting for Beginners as the reward from Tarindrella’s quest The Woodland Protector in Shadowglen, then use it. Either way, you still need a Skinning Knife in your bags before you can skin anything.
We took the book on our Night Elf Hunter at level 1, bought the knife a little later, and had Skinning at 28 by level 6 just by skinning what we killed while questing. Here is each route, the knife, and how skinning works once you have it.
We recorded ourselves learning Skinning on PC for the video at the end of this guide. The screenshots in this guide come from the same recording.
Route 1: The Woodland Protector (Night Elves)
- Pick up The Woodland Protector. The druid Melithar sends you to find Tarindrella; the objective reads “Seek out the dryad known as Tarindrella.” We turned it in at about 57.7, 45.1 on the Shadowglen map.
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Choose your reward. Tarindrella offers three books: Mining for Dummies, Wild Harvest and Pelt Collecting for Beginners. Take Pelt Collecting for Beginners.
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Use the book from your bags. Our chat filled with “You have learned a new ability: [Tanning],” “You have learned a new spell: [Skinning],” “You have learned a new ability: [Skinning]” and “You have gained the Skinning skill.”
The book’s tooltip says it only works if you have not trained Skinning yet and do not already know two other professions. It also starts you a little ahead: our Professions window showed Skinning at 3 out of 75 before we had skinned a single beast.
Route 2: A Skinning Trainer (Every Race)
- Find a Skinning trainer. Blizzard’s new player’s starter guide says profession trainers are in starting areas and major cities, and a city guard will point you to one. In Teldrassil, Terunne Bearshaper, the Junior Skinning Trainer, stands inside Aldrassil at about 59.4, 38.7.
- Learn Apprentice Skinning. Skinning is a primary profession, so it takes one of your two primary profession slots.
Apprentice Skinning tops out at 75 skill. After that you need a trainer again for the next rank, which our Skinning Knife guide lays out along with the skill each beast needs.
Buy a Skinning Knife Before You Try
Learning Skinning does not give you the tool. Right after reading the book we tried to skin a Young Thistle Boar and got the red message “Requires Skinning Knife.”
The knife costs 10 copper. In Shadowglen, Lyrai, the General Supplies vendor inside Aldrassil, sells it, and in Dolanaar, Narret Shadowgrove’s Trade Supplies stock it at the same price. You do not equip it; it works from your bags. Lyrai also sells the Apprentice’s Skinning Satchel for 25 copper if you want a bag for your leather.
How to Skin Your First Beast
- Kill a beast and loot it. Boars and nightsabers both worked for us. Take the normal loot first.
- Check the tooltip. Hover over the corpse: ours read “Mangy Nightsaber, Level 2, Corpse, Skinnable.”
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Right-click the corpse again. A cast bar labeled Skinning fills while your character works.
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Collect the leather. Our first two Mangy Nightsabers raised Skinning from 3 to 4 and then 5, and one gave us Ruined Leather Scraps.
Keep skinning everything you kill while you quest. By level 6 our skill was climbing through 26, 27 and 28.
What Comes With Skinning
Skinning also teaches Tanning, which the Professions window describes as letting a skinner “add features to a wilderness camp.” It ties into camping: at her camp just outside Dolanaar, Lyreena Duskblade offered us a quest called Camping 101: Skinning, and turning it in to Radnaal Maneweaver, a Skinner, taught us the Camp Chair, made from 3 Light Leather and 2 Simple Wood. Our camping guide explains how camps work.
Skinning pairs well with Leatherworking, which turns your leather into gear, or with a second gathering profession for gold. Our best professions for each class covers the pairings, our professions guide explains how to drop one, and our Merchant’s Favor guide shows how profession materials earn recipes. Class spells come from somewhere else entirely, as our new abilities guide explains. Every Forever guide we have is on our World of Warcraft hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you learn Skinning in WoW Forever? From a Skinning trainer, or, on a Night Elf, by using the book Pelt Collecting for Beginners from the quest The Woodland Protector.
Where is the Skinning trainer in Teldrassil? Terunne Bearshaper, the Junior Skinning Trainer, is inside Aldrassil in Shadowglen, at about 59.4, 38.7.
Why can’t I skin a beast? If you see “Requires Skinning Knife,” buy a Skinning Knife from a supplies vendor and keep it in your bags. Also loot the corpse first and check that its tooltip says Skinnable.
What does Pelt Collecting for Beginners do? It teaches Skinning, and Tanning with it, without a trainer visit. It only works if you have not trained Skinning and know fewer than two other professions.
What level can you learn Skinning? We learned it at level 1 from the book.