The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - General Tips

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action role-playing video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It was released on November 11, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Skyrim's main story revolves around the player character's efforts to defeat the Nordic dragon god Alduin, who is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the land of Skyrim, which is in the midst of a civil war after the assassination of the high king. The open world gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series returns in Skyrim; the player can explore the land at will and ignore or postpone the main quest indefinitely.

General Tips

Don't Always Fast Travel

Fast traveling is an extremely helpful tool. However riding/walking across Skyrim to an objective is beneficial. You will often; find new and interesting quests, gather valuable loot and level up. Using the shout Become Etheral is especially useful when traveling as you can use it before jumping down a mountain to create a seemless shortcut.

The Rumormongers

As is typical in a fantasy setting, innkeepers and bartenders tend to all kinds of worldly patrons and, thus, are often in the know for all things current in the land of Skyrim. Any time you visit a new town, head to the local bar or inn (or both!) to inquire about job leads or rumors. Oftentimes these tiny kernels of knowledge expand out to full-fledged quests!

Use Equipment Shortcuts

Remember to favorite your most-used items, spells, and weapons. You can bring up the quick-access favorites menu (control pad up on consoles) to select and assign your favorites to your hands manually, or press left or right on the pad while in the menu to create two equipment sets. Left is set #1, right is set #2. To select the sets while in combat, simply press left or right on the control pad.

When switching from a two-handed weapon to a one-handed weapon or spell by using equipment shortcuts, the last item or spell equipped in your other hand will also be equipped. Therefore, it may be useful to use one favorite for a two-handed weapon (such as a staff or bow) and the other for a one-handed weapon allowing you to switch quickly between ranged and close combat sets.

Fast Travel Is Your Friend

While you can feasibly journey across Skyrim from one end to the other entirely on foot, such a trek is generally discouraged if you don't have a ton of real life time to kill. That's why fast travel is so great. Once you've discovered a town, you can fast travel to it (provided you are not overencumbered). In-game time will lapse as it would assuming you had travelled on foot. It's important to discover new locations to fast travel to and use them as springboards for stumbling upon other unexplored territories.
Storage

Inventory management can be a drag at times, unless you come up with clever little ways to hide and store your items properly. For one, using your Followers as a mule is totally viable (and necessary at times), but they, too, have a storage limit. Alternatively, barrels are also a great place for storage purposes, but just remember which barrel you hid your stuff in!

Also, once you own property, it is completely okay for you to just dump things in your home and walk away. Be careful, though. Skyrim is buggy, so while your items shouldn't disappear when placed in a random barrel or chest, there's no guarantee unless you purchase a house and store your items there.

(From time to time, it apears a thief may visit. Kill him to retrieve your items and keep anything you really don't want to lose on your person such as the Dragon Priest masks)

Farm Dwemer Materials Quickly

You’ll never lack for Dwemer materials again if you find the Dwarven Storehouse in eastern Skyrim. Difficulty level: It doesn’t actually have a map marker. It’s due east of Witch Mist Swamp, about three-quarters of the way to the mountains that form the eastern edge of the map and more or less directly north of Riften. You’ll know you’re on the right track when you see a series of crumbled stone arches along faded stairways. The storehouse doesn’t contain active threats like dwarven automata, only dozens of Dwemer Metal Ingots. You’ll also find a nice enchanted axe and some Expert-level locks that need to be picked to get at it all. Travel light so you’ll have lots of room to tote your finds home!

Reading Books (Ugh, right?)

Volumes and volumes of books are strewn throughout Skyrim. Most of them provide a lot of exposition on the history and Elder Scrolls lore, but some of them also happen to be Skill Books or give you Quests. It's worth at least thumbing through the pages to discover whether they're of use to you in-game. Or you know...you can actually read them (crazy, right?)

An easy way to determine if a random book your find in Skyrim is a Skill Book at a glace is to take note of the book's value when your crosshairs are pointed at it. Skill Books will generally have values greater than 50 gold.

Look through the inventory of every kill (especially Skeevers)

While it may seem like there's only going to be a pelt or some disgusting looking meat, it seems that skeevers occasionally pick up extremely valuable gems (anecdotal at Bleak Falls Barrow). So, keep on acting like some mideval hobo and carefully rummage through every corpse you create, you never know when you'll find an amythest worth a couple hundred gold!

The More The Merrier The Easier

Still having trouble completing Quests? Grab a follower! And one of the best followers you can have is the Dark Elf Aranea Ienith. And to get her, you must complete The Black Star in the Shrine of Azura. With the right equipment, she can go toe-to-toe with any foe, including dragons.
Saving Arrows

Changed your mind about firing off that nocked arrow? Simply put away your bow to cancel it. Arrows can be precious in dire situations! Arrows can also be recovered off of your slained adversaries to further keep your character in healthy supply.

How to Climb Mountains (aka Backwards Butt Shimmy)

Invariably you get to a point when you're climbing a mountain off set paths where you can't progress forward any longer because the grade is too steep. If you hit that point, simply face backwards and start jumping. Just point your butt toward the peak and continually hit the jump button. It also helps to move slightly from side-to-side as you try this. You can often snag a rock along the way and shimmy up a mountain without having to use a set path. Sometimes facing forward at a 45-degree angle helps, as well.

Add Several Points of Interest to Your Map

You'll pick up points of interest on you overland map through conversations, but there's at least one place in the game where you can add several all at once. In Mistveil Keep (Jarl's court) in Riften, there's a room to the left behind the throne room with a map that displays which towns are controlled by the Imperial forces and which are controlled by the Stormcloaks. There is also a map available in Whiterun (up the staircase to the right past where the Jarl sits).  You can add all of these towns to your own map by clicking on them. It doesn't allow you to fast travel if you haven't found them yet, but at least you'll know where they are.

In fact there are several of these rooms all over Skyrim, in particular every single Jarl's court has one, as well as many of the major military points in the game.

Easy Money

Before you reach Riverwood, be on the look out for a Woodcutter's Axe. Once you're in Riverwood head across the bridge beside Alvor and Sigrid's House (leads across the river). Use the Wood Chopping Block to cure as much firewood as you can handle. Sell at a vendor and wait 24-48 hours once they're out of gold. Repeat until you have that vast wealth you've always wanted...without all the danger. Weight 5, Price to sell 5. Sell price does depend on Speech level.

Easy Dragon Souls

This works best at The College of Winterhold. Complete main quests up to Diplomatic Immunity, then go to The College of Winterhold and sleep more or less 36 hours. When you go outside there will be a dragon. Kill it and obtain its soul, then repeat sleeping process and once again when going outside there will be a dragon. Set game difficulty to novice to kill dragons easily and obtain dragon souls even easier.
Quick Experience and Skill Gain
Illusion Skill

While most spells require you to actively use them in combat situations or on specific objects to progress, there is at least one spell that doesn't: Muffle. Muffle is an Illusion spell that quiets your movements. Continually casting Muffle while you're walking around the land will not only boost your Illusion skill, but will also increase your overall experience.

Restoration Skill

For Restoration magic you need to heal damage, but you don't have to be in combat. Find a forge and stand in the center of it. Now jump 5 or more times, then heal yourself.

This is a safe and easy way to do this because the forge only hurts you when you first touch it. So if you walk up and stand on it, it will hit you once only. By jumping you get hit once for every time you land.

There is a place called Halted Stream Camp located between Loreius Farm, Silent Moons camp, and Whitewatch tower. Clean out the baddies inside and take the path near the dead mammoth which will take you to a pit full of spikes. Walk near the spikes to take significant damage then cast [Healing to restore your health. Rinse and repeat.

Training for Free
NOTE: This tip requires some proficiency in Pickpocketing or alternatively, potions or items that increase pickpocketing success.

Many mage, thief and fighter skills can be trained for free by simply stealing the fee back after each training. Simply pick an area with easy access to trainers who are sleeping in their beds. The Companions building in Whiterun works for fighter skills, the College of Winterhold works for mage skills, and Riften would probably work for thief skills.

Talk to the trainer at night while they are sleeping and train your skill, then wait till they go back to bed and steal the money spent back. Be sure to steal the money back after each single skill up because the success rate will decrease as the trainer gains more gold. Using this trick you will not only gain free levels in your chosen skill, but your pickpocket skill will increase very quickly

You can gain multiple levels if you continue to train the maximum (5/5) skill ups even after you level. Once you level up you are free to retrain the maximum 5/5. If you want to truly see your level skyrocket then mix in the above "Illusion skill" tip mentioned above.

When looking through dungeons for items and enemies, stay on the lookout for traps. Don't trip them unless it is necessary for progressing through the dungeon as you can also use these against enemies. Some groups of enemies can already be found in the immediate effects of the trap, so activate them as soon as you seem them underneath/next to it!

Easy Sneak / Experience Gain

After the long opening cutscene, you will start running away from the Dragon. When the part of the journey reaches the part where your companion offers to cut off your bonds, immediately back off and go to sneak mode. Go behind his back and creep backward away from him until the eye crosshair turns into a slit (means you are completely hidden). Continue until you hit a wall or a column, keep creeping by holding down the controller to a certain direction (use a tape or rubber band if you get tired), continue until Sneak points reaches 100. You can also do this on any NPC esp the sleeping ones.

Easy Enchanting and level up at same time.

This works best at college of winterholm, buy any weapons or armor and any soul gems at destruction trainer at the college, enchant the weapons or armor and sell them again, repeat process, if done correctly you will imporove enchanting and make some profit, when you level up visit the echanter trainer and train 5 levels, after you train 5 levels you only have to enchant a couple of weapons before level up again, again repeat the process.

Easy restoration,  armor and level up at same time.

This is a simple one, there will be several times during your playthrough of Skyrim where you will be challenged to a brawl (hand to hand combat). When that occasion arises, simply have restoration spell ready, let your oppenent damage you and you keep on healing... repeat process for easy skill and level up

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