Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide / Walkthrough




Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide / Walkthrough by extremephobia.

Preface - x000x
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Welcome to my Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide. 
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Table of Contents


338 Pages 134,000 Words 600,000 Hits $0.00 I don't expect compensation for my guides but every little bit helps me write my next guide so if you feel like I did a job worthy of repeating, please donate. www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BT5BJTYTEVWN4 Note: You can use CTRL + F on your keyboard to find a specific section or 
something in particular.

Controls......................x200x
  X360........................x210x
  PS3.........................x220x
  PC..........................x230x
Walkthrough...................x300x

  Dovahkiin...................x310x      Dark Brotherhood............x340x
    Unbound...................x311x        Loss of Innocence.........x341x
    Before the Storm..........x312x        With Friends Like These...x342x
    Bleak Falls Barrow........x313x        Sanctuary.................x343x
    Dragon Rising.............x314x        Mourning Never Comes......x344x
    The Way of the Voice......x315x        Whispers in the Dark......x345x
    The Horn of Jurgen........x316x        Silence Has Been Broken...x346x
    A Blade in the Dark.......x317x        Bound Until Death.........x347x
    Diplomatic Immunity.......x318x        Breaching Security........x348x
    A Cornered Rat............x319x        The Cure for Madness......x349x
    Alduin's Wall.............x31Ax        Recipe for Disaster.......x34Ax
    The Throat of the World...x31Bx        To Kill an Emperor........x34Bx
    Elder Knowledge...........x31Cx        Death Incarnate...........x34Cx
    Alduin's Bane.............x31Dx        Hail Sithis!..............x34Dx
    Season Unending...........x31Ex      Thieves Guild...............x350x
    Fallen/Unending Season....x31Fx        A Chance Arrangement......x351x    
    The World-Eater's Eyrie...x31Gx        Taking Care of Business...x352x
    Sovngarde.................x31Hx        Loud and Clear............x353x
    Dragonslayer..............x31Ix        Dampened Spirits..........x354x
  The Companions..............x320x        The Scoundrel's Folly.....x355x
    Joining...................x321x        Speaking with Silence.....x356x
    Taking Up Arms............x322x        Hard Answers..............x357x
    Trouble in Skyrim.........x323x        The Pursuit...............x358x
    Proving Honor.............x324x        Trinity Restored..........x359x
    Hired Muscle..............x325x        Blindsighted..............x35Ax
    The Silver Hand...........x326x        Darkness Returns..........x35Bx
    Retrieval.................x327x      The Stormcloaks.............x360x
    Strike at the Heart.......x328x        Taking up Arms............x361x
    Blood's Honor.............x329x        The Jagged Crown..........x362x
    Purity of Revenge.........x32Ax        Message to Whiterun.......x363x
    Glory of the Dead.........x32Bx        The Battle for Whiterun...x364x
  College of Winterhold.......x330x        A False Front.............x365x
    First Lessons.............x331x        Fort Snowhawk.............x366x
    Under Saarthal............x332x        Fort Greenwall............x367x
    Hitting the Books.........x333x        Fort Hraggstad............x368x
    Good Intentions...........x334x        Battle for Solitude.......x369x
    Revealing the Unseen......x335x      The Imperials...............x370x
    Containment...............x336x        Taking Up Arms............x371x
    Staff of the Magnus.......x337x        The Jagged Crown..........x372x
    Eye of the Magnus.........x338x        Message to Whiterun.......x373x
                                           The Battle for Whiterun...x374x
                                           A False Front.............x375x
                                           Fort Amol.................x376x
                                           Fort Greenwall............x377x
                                           Fort Dunstad..............x378x
                                           Battle for Windhelm.......x379x

Side Qusts....................x400x
Dungeons......................x500x
  Word Wall Dungeons..........x510x
  Non-Word Wall Dungeons......x520x
Character.....................x600x
  Overview....................x610x
    Appearance................x611x
    Race......................x612x
    Level progression.........x613x
    Perks.....................x614x
  Race........................x620x
  Attributes..................x630x
  Skills......................x640x
  Perks.......................x650x
  Werewolf....................x660x
    Becoming a Werewolf.......x661x
    Curing Lycanthropy........x662x
    Benefits..................x663x
    Drawbacks.................x664x
  Vampirism...................x670x
    Becoming a Vampire........x671x
    Stages....................x672x
    Powers....................x673x
    Curing Vampirism..........x674x
Powers, Spells, Inventory.....x700x

Legal.........................x900x
  Copyright...................x910x
  Thanks......................x920x
  Contact.....................x930x





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Controls

_______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________________________________ XBox 360 x210x ________________________________________ LB - Sprint RB - Shout LT - Swing/Smash/Cast Left Hand RT - Swing/Shoot/Cast Right Hand L3 - Sneak R3 - Toggle POV X - Ready/Sheathe B - Wait A - Activate Y - Jump Left Analog - Move feet Right Analog - Look D-Pad up or down - Select favorites D-Pad Left or Right - hotkeys Select - Character Menu Start - Journal ________________________________________ PS3 x220x ________________________________________ NOTE: I don't have PS3, feel free to correct me L1 - Swing/Smash/Cast Left Hand R1 - Swing/Shoot/Cast Right Hand L2 - Spring R2 - Shout L3 - Sneak R3 - Toggle POV Square - Ready/Sheathe O - Wait X - Activate Triangle - Jump Left Analog - Move feet Right Analog - Look D-Pad up or down - Select favorites D-Pad Left or Right - hotkeys Select - Character Menu Start - Journal ________________________________________ PC x230x ________________________________________ NOTE: I don't have the PC version yet so if anybody can tell me in the mean time, it'd be appreciated. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Walkthrough _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________________________________ Dovahkiin (Main Quest) x310x ________________________________________ Unbound - x311x --------------- Enjoy the conversation during your ride. At the end of the ride, disembark and wait until you are asked who you are. You can then decide on your race and physical features. On the XBox (since it doesn't tell you), use LT/RT to switch categories, left and ride to adjust sliders, and the X button to finish your choices. Once you hit X, you'll be asked your name. After that, your body will actually move itself around but you can still look. Eventually it will be your turn and amazingly, something happens. Make the most of it. Turn around (roughly to your 5 o'clock) and head into the stone building behind you. Climb up the stairs inside and then once a hole is broken through the wall, jump down into the roof of the next building. Make your way through the attic and drop down onto the first floor of the building. Run through the door and you'll be back outside. Follow the group of people and watch out for the dragon's flame breath. Make your way through the ruins and past the town gate to the Keep. Once in Helgen keep, search the dead body (once you are told to) and equip the armor and axe. Wait for a moment and some Imperials will enter the room. Kill the two of them and improve your armor. Follow your companion and you'll come to a store room with a couple more enemies. Keep swinging with your axe until they fall, head southward and check the barrels to your left on the way for some potions. Head down the stairs and you will find yourself in a torture chamber. Be careful to only attack the people in red. The people in blue are friendly. After the two soldiers are dead, head over to one of the columns in the room and on the table next to it should be a sack. Check the stack for lockpicks and pick the lock to open the cage. The way lockpicking works is that you most rotate the pick which will allow the lock itself to rotate. If the lock only rotates a little then you need to adjust the position of the pick. If it moves a lot, then you are getting warmer and only need to adjust the pick slightly. You will succeed when the pick is in the right position and you manage to rotate the lock 90 degrees. Open the door and collect the loot inside. Turn around and check the slightly caged in area with the desk. In here is a mace and a shield. Collect them and equip the shield. Follow your companion further into the keep and then through the hole in the wall. Go through the cave a little and you'll hear people talking ahead. Walk into the bigger room and close the distance on the enemy as quickly as possible because they have a range advantage on you with their bows. The upper level of this room makes a U shape around the lower level. Just stay up here and walk through the doorway at the other end. Follow the caves a little ways more until you come to a room with spider webs in it. You'll be attacked by a group of giant Frostbite Spiders. They have a spitting attack so make good use of that shield you just recently got to get closer to them. Bash them and then head through the far end of the cave room. The next large room you enter will have a bear in it. If you unequip everything you MAY be able to sneak past it. Crouch and watch the indicator in the middle. If it lights up then you are visible and the bear will act agitated. You can try and back away so you go back to hidden. You could also just kill the beat which is easier than your friend makes it sound. Either way, you want to make your way slightly to the left, not up the ramp like I tried to do the first time. A little after you get by the bear, you'll make your way outside. Before the Storm - x312x ------------------------ Head towards Riverwood which is north. You'll also be able to find a waypoint for it on your compass at the top of the screen. On the road there, you will find three statues on the edge of a cliff. Each of these three statues will offer you bonuses but you get to choose. These are called blessings and you can change your blessing any time you'd like by visiting the stone from which you wish to choose for a blessing. The trade off is that you can only have one so make sure you choose wisely. Keep headed toward Riverwood. When you get into town, follow the road up the river until you can cross a bridge. Loop back toward the building to find Rafas' sister Gerdur. Talk to her and interact with her as you wish. You will be asked to head to Whiterun which is north of where you are. Feel free to sell some things you might be carrying before you depart so that you don't become to encumbered. Set off north and be sure to watch out for wolves. You can get into Whiterun from the gate on the western side of the town. You will be approached by a guard telling you to turn around but you can try and persuade him if you'd like. Head NE to find Jarl in the big church looking building. After you talk to him, he'll have you talk to his Mage who will want you to collect something for him in Black Falls Barrow. The Barrow is SW of Whiterun, on top of a mountain. The best way to get there is from the eastern side. One of the nice things about Skyrim's map is that it's actually the world map rendered from far above meaning that if it looks flatter on the map, it is flatter in the game. I started from the North side and circled my way up moving around the eastern side of the mountain until I hit a path that lead upwards. You'll know your on the right path because you'll A) See a road, B) Be attacked by bandits, and C) It will get very hard to see because of snow. When you get to the bandits, there is a chest at the top of their tower. After you take everything worth taking, turn around and take the path leading up. When it starts getting hard to see, you'll want to stay left and you will head toward the mountain. From this point, keep following the path but try to stay left any time it gets ambiguous. You should pass a largely destroyed column with a flag on it and eventually you'll come to a rather large building. When you get closer to the building, you will be attacked by three or so more bandits. Kill them or don't but go inside either way. Bleak Falls Temple - x313x -------------------------- Inside, you'll find a few enemies standing around a fire. You have the advantage here but the positions of them and the fire make it almost impossible to actually sneak by. This section is actually designed pretty well for using a bow and arrow. It's possible to get one on the first shot and maybe another before they come close enough for melee combat. Kill them and take their things. Head past the fire and down. You'll follow some twisting caverns until you reach a room with a man inside. Don't kill him, just watch him. After he is dead, walk to where he was standing and look up above the door way. You'll see two giant heads in the wall with statues of a snake and a fish. Unfortunately, the middle statue is covered in rubble so you'll have to guess. Turn left and turn the statues so it reads snake, snake, fish. Then pull the lever and you won't die from the arrows. Go through the gate and collect the items from the area around the chest. Go down the spiral staircase to the left but at the bottom watch out for some giant rats called Skeevers. Go through the next room and around the table. You'll come to a doorway blocked by spider webs. Break through the webs and you'll be attacked by a Wounded Frostbite Spider. Unforunately, this room doesn't leave you a whole lot of room for dancing around the spider but it is doable. Just try to keep strafing around the spider and attacking it when you can. I found the fire spell to be a very useful attack against the spider. After you kill the spider, cut the man loose from the webs at the end of the room. When you do, he'll run away from you. Kill him and take the claw and any other valuables you wish. Go through the burial/mumification room with all the urns and enter the catacombs where you will be attacked by the walking dead. Kill the undead in here and you can inspect any of the corpses that still have flesh for more valuables. Be careful walking forward because there is a trap. If you look on the floor heading out of this room, there is a little raised stone with a glyph on it that somewhat resembles air. Go around that stone to avoid triggering the trap. Move through the next catacombs section to be attacked again. Then try and get through the swinging axe trap. Make sure you have stamina and then sprint through (LB on 360). It is also possible to land in between the axes but that's more complicated than it needs to be. As you move through the tunnels, you'll see a substance on the floor that is clearly liquid but has a coloration like the top of an oil slick. That's because it is oil and so you have to be careful of the torches hanging above and perhaps try and knock them down while you are not in the oil. If you let them fall into the oil while you are crossing it, you can take some massive damage. When you get to the room with small waterfall/stream that runs through a gate with no other way of exiting the room, you will see a small chain to the right of that gate which you can pull to open the gate. Follow the stream and at the end, take a right. Follow the caverns a little bit more and then there will be a waterfall. Instead of taking the waterfall down, turn right and go down the slope. You'll come back outside and have to cross the bridge and go up the far slope. Once you are back inside, you'll be attacked by a Restless Draugr which is essentially the same as the others but with more health. Just backpeddle to stay away from him. Bleak Falls Sanctum ------------------- Go through the doors behind him and a set of caverns will take you to a larger open area. You'll be attacked from the left and when you move towards the stairs at the far side, a couple more enemies will come down at you. Watch out for the oil on the floor again. Go up the stairs and take the bridge over the middle of the room. Go through the doors at the end and then walk strait ahead until you come to another big door with glyphs and an indentation in the middle. You've probably already guessed that the golden claw goes into the indentation in the middle but the glyphs take a little more work. Open your inventory and go to misc. Choose the Golden Claw and then press the right stick in to inspect it. If you flip the claw over, it will have three glyphs in the middle and you want to duplicate that pattern by activating each of the rings in turn until they match. The pattern is bear, butterfly, caccoon from top to bottom. Once that is aligned, just use the keyhole in the middle to open the door. You'll enter an area that looks sort of like a shrine. Walk towards the light at the end and climb the stairs. Inspect the chest in the middle to pick up some good loot then turn around to face the big curved wall with the lines all over it. That's the language of the dragons. Walk up to the wall and you'll learn a new word of power. Head back towards the alter and the Overlord will appear. There is plenty of room to circle so take your time killing him. Be aware that he actually has the ability to use the same Shout you just learned (but can't yet use) so he does have a ranged attack but it seems to do a very minor amount of damage if any at all. Once you are done with him, collect the stone tablet from his body and then walk up the stairs to the left of the wall with the dragon writing on it. Up the stairs you will find a strange handle that you can use to get out of the caves without going all the way back. Drop off the ledge on the other side and head out of the cave. You'll come out of the cave on the SW side. You now need to circle back to the east and north to return to Whiterun. This trip will be pretty similar to before. Head back there and bring the stone to Jarl's Wizard. Or you could just fast travel there by using the map. Dragon Rising - x314x --------------------- At this point you'll have to talk to Jarl up stairs but after you are done with that, head to the waypoint to join the guards. After the rallying speech, follow Irileth to the Western Watch Tower. When you get there, you'll be told to search the ruins for survivors. Go around the right side of the Tower and try to walk up the ramp there. You'll find a survivor. Talk to him and he'll say something about it coming back. Your first dragon isn't terribly difficult but he does have a lot of health. Bow seemed to work really well for me. If you find you aren't taking a whole lot of damage you should definitely feel free to use a spell or two also but the bow did I surprising amount of damage. If you are lucky, the dragon might target Irileth and stand still for you, allowing you to just shoot away at it. Dragons are a mini test of endurance so take your time and avoid taking damage whenever you can. Eventually you will take it down. Once it's dead, you'll automatically absorb its soul. You'll be instructed to use a shout so go to your magic menu and equip the spell. It won't take up one of your hands, it's more like a third weapon. When you have it equiped, hit the RB to Shout. After the soldiers talk about that some, you'll head back into town and talk to the Jarl. He'll give you an axe, a title, and a companion called Lydia. She can follow you wherever you like. From here, you must set out to find the Greybeards. Have her tag along if you like, stock up or drop loot if you need to and then head eastward from Whiterun. The Way of the Voice - x315x ---------------------------- Head east towards the pass in the mountains. You'll want to stay on the south side of the river as you make your way through the pass but be careful of the the giants on this side. To get where you are going, you'll have to head far to the east side of this area, almost to the snowy mountain boundary. Head up the slope by going south and then wrap around to the west to get to your destination. You'll know you've gone far enough when you find a road that goes past a series of arches. Head south for a little while until you start seeing signs of civilization, then you can start heading west. There is no special path at this point. Just don't go in the water because if you follow the stream too far, you'll go off the cliff and end up back where you started. When you finally get close to your way point, you'll have to start climbing the steps. This is an incredibly large staircase that will take you in a spiral to the top of the mountain. The only things of note are the height (try not to fall) and a Frost Troll that will attack you. Even using the fire spell, it's surprising how tough he is but since it's only one, it shouldn't be too difficult to kite him. Eventually you will get to the top and you'll enter the temple. Enter and speak to the Masters there. Soon, a word will be written in the middle of the floor. Walk up and stand over it. Then you will have to shout at a few targets. These will also appear in the middle of the floor but you have to hold the shout button so that you now use two words instead of only one. After that, follow the Masters into the courtyard. In the Courtyard, you will have to learn a new shout the same as you learned the other word. Stand over the word, almost on top of it to learn it. When you have learned it, travel over to the new waypoint and wait. Make sure you've changed your shout to the new shout. Wait for the gates to open and for the Master to Sprint through the gates. They will then close. When they reopen, you will have to do the same thing. After, you will talk to the Masters again and be told to retrieve the horn of their founder. When you are finished talking, fast travel to the West Watch Tower by Whiterun. If you have 1,000 gold, you could also opt to fast travel to Whiterun stables (just SW of the town) and buy a horse. Once you are set to travel though, head to the NW to get around the mountains. The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller - x316x ------------------------------------- To get where you are going, head NW but hug the mountains to the north. Once you reach their western end, start moving NE. Thankfully, you're headed into low lands so you can take pretty much any path you choose, including a strait shot. The dungeon you are looking for is actually in a pit in the ground. Go down into the pit and through the door to enter Ustengrov. As per the usual, the first room has a group of three enemies. Take them out however you choose. If you're playing a mage, one of the enemies may carry a rather nice necromancer robe. Go into the cavern on the left. As you enter the caverns, you may find some undead fighting a mage. Kill both groups but be careful, the Drougr here use frost magic. Using fire magic can make quick work of them if you get the jump on them. Follow the hall into a room and up some stairs. Go over a bridge and down a few more stairs to get to a door to a new area. Go down the stairs and you'll pass an over look. After that, on the right will be a branching path and in front of you is a fire trap so you should sprint shout over it. Take a left and get to a bridge. You can actually drop down from the bridge and kill the undead here. You want to exit this room through the southern door which will bring you around and over a new bridge. Follow this path and you'll come to a larger room. You'll be ambushed by a single drougr in this room. Head through it, don't bother going up the stairs and head down the slope. You'll come to a few bridge like sections and then go down a broken part to an area with a bunch of skeletal archers. Kill them and cross the bridge to the east. Under this bridge is a lower area with a word wall for you later. At the other end of the bridge will be a doorway with three gates and a set of rocks sticking out of the ground. Run strait past these so that they each activate causing all three gates to open. Then, just as you activate the last one, Shout Sprint through the gates and then do a regular sprint the rest of the way. On the otherside, you will come to a room with a huge number of pressure sensative tiles. There are two types of tiles. There are tiles with a dark center that have their holes at diagonals and then there are light tiles which have their holes in cardinal directions. You want to only step on the light tiles. When you get close to the end, all of the tiles seem to be dark so you will just have to sprint over to them. When you do, you will encounter Frostbite Spiders on the other side. Kill them and head through the web on the far side of the room. Then go through the wooden door just after that and pull the chain to the left side of the gate. Cross the bridge in the next room to the chest. There will be a note on top of the chest but you may need to aim higher than you might think to get it. Read the note and head through the door behind the chest. You will pass a bunch of urns and a chest. Take what you like and then continue on. In the next area, head forward until you find a level. Flip the lever, go through the next room and then take two rights to put you on the path out of here or take a left to explore a side room. Once outside, Fast Travel to Riverwood. A Blade in the Dark - x317x --------------------------- In Riverwood, head to the Sleeping Giant Inn, take an attic room and try to sleep. When you are interrupted, speak to Delphine and then follow her. When you enter her room, close the door behind you and then follow her into the secret area. Talk to her for a little bit and find out where you are headed next and why. Any place you passed on the way to visit the Grey Beards will do, fast travel to whichever is closest to the waypoint. I found it best to travel east first and then north. Be careful as there is a dragon hanging out around here. When you get to Kynesgrove you will meet a villager who will tell you where the dragon has gone. Climb the mountain to the east to where the dark energy is coming out of the ground (but don't stand on it because it explodes). You will fight your next dragon now. He can be quite aggressive and hopefully you've brought a companion, otherwise you aren't going to be able to see what you are doing. Just keep hitting him with arrows or melee attacks and using a double fisted heal when you take damage. Try to move around behind the dragon whenever possible. After a little bit of a struggle, the dragon will go down. Talk to Delphine to finish this quest. Head back to the Sleeping Giant Inn. Diplomatic Immunity - x318x --------------------------- Delphine will take you back downstairs and explain her plan. You are off to Solitude which is in the far NW. The easiest point to get there is probably from around Ustengrov when you visited. Again, it's low lands so you can just B-line for it. When you cross the lake, follow the path west to get around and up to the waypoint. Get inside the town and make your way over to the Winking Skeever Inn and talk to Malborn. He will tell you to give him things you need. You will take any normal clothes with you but if there's anything you need to bring with you, give it to him and he will smuggle it in. Head back outside the town and meet up with Delphine. She will take all of your things and provide you with party clothes. Ride the carriage in, talk to the bouncer outside who will ask you for your invitation. Talk to the hostess and then talk to Malborn. Ask him for a drink, then tell him you are ready. Head into the crowd and find the Redgaurd named Razelan. Give him your drink and then ask him to cause a distraction. As soon as he starts the speech, meet up with Malborn. He will lead you into a room to get your things. When you go through the next door, he will lock it behind you. The first room to your left has soldiers in it. Try to sneak by them but more than likely you will have to kill them. You want to enter this room and then take the stairs up on the right. At the top of the stairs, take a left and head for the door that leads outside. There are more soldiers out here in the courtyard. Try to take them out quietly if you can and then enter the door with the waypoint. Kill the guard at the far end and then you'll have to deal with two people and a summoned golem. There are plenty of obstacles to use so take a swing or shot and then duck behind a column or doorway. One of the people will have a key to the dungeon. Take that and head downstairs. In the dungeon will be a single sentry. Kill them, check the chest for a book (it's marked), and free the lone prisoner. After you free him, a couple of soldiers will come down with Malborn. Kill them and take the trap door key. Go through the trap door that's now marked. In this tunnel is a lone Frost Troll. Kill it and follow your companion out of the cave. Head back to Riverwood to talk to Delphine to finish this leg of the quest. A Cornered Rat - x319x ---------------------- You are now travelling to Riften which can be gotten to easily by any point near Fort Greenwall or Shor's Stone which you may have passed on the way to see the Grey Beards. There will be a road that will lead right to it from Fort Greenwall. When you get there, you can try and talk to guard into keeping your coin. Either way, get inside and meet Maul. If you fail to persuade him, he won't talk to you any more. Head to the Bee and Barb to meet Brynjolf. He's going to cause a distraction and he wants you to steal a ring and place it in someone else's pocket. To start this, you have to meet him in town during the day. Meet up with him, let him cause the distraction, go back into the tavern and then come back out to talk to him. Say whatever you like to him and then make your way to the Ratway. To do this, go over to any of the bridges and drop down to the pier area below. Just follow the piers and behind a gate is the door for the Ratway. Inside the Ratway, you'll find a few hostile bandits. Kill them and head to the bigger room. Head out of the room to the west and light the floor on fire because there is oil all over it. Turn left. You will enter a room with a rather large man. Kill him but watch out for the bear traps on the ground. Once he's dead, go past him and eventually up some stairs. Cross through the garden and in the next room you will be able to see the door for the Raggad Flagon. Go talk to the bartender and get the information you need out of him, then exit through the door to the Ratway Warren Vaults. Drop down to the lower levels and make your way to the SE exit. In the next section, head to the SW and up the stairs. Esbern is in the room with the sliding view slat. Talk to him and when he joins you, return the way you came. In the next room you will actually have to find the stairs on the western side to take you up. In the last section before you get outside (Just outside of the Flagon), take the right exit out of the first room and you should immediately see a draw bridge with a lever to the right. Once you get outside, fast travel to Riverwood and talk to Delphine. Alduin's Wall - x31Ax --------------------- After the conversation in the basement, head for Sky Haven Temple. The Temple is actually at sea level so you actually want to follow the river in to it. Follow that all the way back to whatever is the closest Fast Travel point and go from there. When you get close, there will be a dragon around and the village surrounding the temple is not friendly. I'm not even sure you have to kill any of them to get into the temple so if you wish to try and sneak by a dragon and a village, go for it. Kill the group in the first room and then keep going until you come to a room with a really tall ceiling. Take the stairs on the right. At the top will be three spinning pillars. Turn them all so that they show the symbol with the wings around the outside and an arrow pointing down in the middle. Cross the bridge and go through the cob webs. In the next room, there will be pressure plates all over the floors. The symbol you want here is the same as the one you wanted on the pillars. Only walk on those tiles until you make it to the far end and pull the chain to deactivate the trap. Then go to the doorway and go over the newly lowered bridge. Go through the caverns until you come to a large room with a big face on the wall. You have to wait until your party catches up and Esburn explains the solution to this. Then stand on the round platform and activate the floor. Go through this door and the next as well. In the next room, walk up to the ornate wall and wait. And wait. Eventually Esburn will catch up and start talking again. You'll be filled in and then you'll have to leave to talk to the greybeards. The Throat of the World - x31Bx ------------------------------- Fast travel to visit the Arngeir. Talk to him and you will learn the last word of Unrelenting Force. You will go through an inition ritual. Talk to Arngeir after this, then leave and come back to talk to him again. He will appologize and after some talking tell you that he will teach the Shout so that you can meet the leader of the Grey Beards. He will teach you all three parts of this shout. Once you are capable of using it, you will have to use it on the wind and clouds at various points up to the top of the Mountain. Be aware that you will also be attacked on the way up. Use fire and heal while using the shout to move forward. Once you are at the top, you will meet the leader of the Grey Beards. Elder Knowledge - x31Cx ----------------------- Head down the mountain and talk to Arngeir about the Elder Scrolls and he will point you to Winterhold in the north. Fast Travel to Kynesgrove (unless you've been exploring and have something closer). Then it's actually a pretty simple run there. You will be stopped by a gatekeeper on the way to the College (the waypoint). Just mention that you want to see Elder Scrolls and that you are the Dragonborn. Go inside and follow the waypoints to get to the library. Ask the mage there to see Elder Scrolls. Tell him you are the Dragonborn and he will get you two books. Take both of them and then ask him about the one that is illegible. He will tell you about Septimus and that he was out in the ice drift to the north. Head outside but before crossing the bridge, go to the second window on the right. Get in the window and jump out, aiming for the dark spot. Hopefully, you should land in the water because this will save you a lot of time. Head north for where Septimus' cave is. Go in and talk to him until he tells you what he wants from you. Fast travel back to Winterhold and then start heading SW. Try to go higher whenever you get the chance (without going way out of your way) so that way, when you get to the end you don't have to climb. When you get to your destination, you'll want to head a little lower because you actually have to get in by suspended catwalks from the north side. Be careful not to jump off of anything because there are a lot of spots to fall to your death. Once inside, you want to hug the left wall while fighting off mechanical enemies until you reach a room with a big light in the center. Take the north east door out of the room but watch out for a fire trap. In the next big room, you want to take the western exit and then take a left at the intersection. Eventually you will exit out onto a ledge above a previous room. Be careful walking this ledge because there will be pistons that can push you off if you miss your timing. At the end of the ledge is a door. After the door, it's a little strait forward. When you get to a flight of steps, go up it a little ways to trigger a trap then back off the stairs. Let the trap come down and then follow it back up. When it gets to the top and turns off, slip by. Open the gate with the level and head down the twisting ramp. When you get to the bottom, jump off onto the platform below (attached to another ramp). Off the side of this platform is another ramp platform heading down. Follow that ramp downward and you'll eventually come to big golden doors. Walk through the room and down the stairs and you'll find tents. Kill the inhabitants and continue on what is mostly a linear path. You will go counter clockwise until you go through the big room with the winding ramps and a little bit more. This will put you at the Alfland Cathedral. Go through this next room but watch out for pressure plates that will drop a trap on you. Go through the door and you'll end up outside. There will be stairs to the left that lead up to above where you entered the area. Take those stairs up and hit the lever at the top then jump down and go through the gate. In this area is a large mechanical golem. I recommend you use the platform that the giant crossbow is on to block it's breathe attack which does massive damage. Use the stairs around the crossbow to run circles. Head up the stairs and inside, then use the pedestal in the middle. You'll get stairs leading downward. Take them and go through the door. The next room is rather large. I recommend trying to go around the outside as much as possible because some pretty big nasties spawn in the middle of this area. Work your way around the right side. You are trying to get to a lift house on the far side of the map. Go up the ramp here and then climb up to the control pedestal above. To the right side of all the buttons is a spot to put the lexicon. Put that in and then we start hitting buttons. The first two buttons move the sphere forward or back. Hit the left of the two buttons until the lexicon unfolds and reveals a blue center. Move to the right side of the console and hit the third button until you see light shining down from the glass ceiling pieces onto the sphere. When that happens, the fourth button will open. Hit that to reveal the Elder Scroll. Go collect the Elder Scroll and then grab the lexicon. Leave through the doorway just under the control console. Use the elevator to get topside and then the lever by the gate to open it. Fast Travel to Septimus and give him the Lexicon. Travel Back to the Throat of the World. Alduin's Bane - x31Dx --------------------- Have a quick chat, then stand in the stream of light. Open the inventory and look under "books." Use the Elder Scroll. Watch the scene from the past. After your vision, you will have learned Dragonrend and can use it. This will land Alduin, allowing you to strike him freely. Feel free to use a melee weapon during this fight if you don't normally. Wait for him to hover, hit him with dragonrend and beat on him until he takes off. Rinse and repeat until the battle is over. The Fallen and the Unending Season - x31Fx ------------------------------------------ Talk to Paarthunax, he will tell you to talk to the Jarl of Whiterun. Go talk to the Jarl and he will tell you to go talk to the Greybeards so go talk to them. They will send you to go talk to Jarl Ulfric and General Tulius. Just keep talking to them and they will give in and attend. Go back to Hrothgar, go to the back of the temple and take a right just before the doors out the back. Go down the hall and take another right and you'll be at the negotiation table. You can choose however you would like to do this. As far as I have seen, you can't actually fail. After the negotiations, go talk to Paarthunax. You can't kill him but talk to him about it. Now head to Whiterun and talk to the Jarl while he's in his palace. Then head to the balcony. When you are ready, stand on the balcony and use the Call Dragon Shout. When he arrives, use Dragon Rend on him and then back into the palace and draw him inside. When he's far enough in, he'll be trapped. Talk to him and when you've concluded that you will let him free, talk to the guard on the walkway above. Prepare for a raid. When you are ready, talk to the dragon again. The World-Eater's Eyrie - x31Ex ------------------------------- Make your way up to the top of the Eyrie. Be careful because there are small enemies and two dragons just in this first small section. Just go slow because the first one will attack you as soon as you get there but the second will wait until the first bend. Make your way up to the front door. Inside, follow the halls until you get to a big room with three statues to rotate. Make the statues on otherside have the outward face be the same as the picture in the mouth of the skull across from it. Then, the middle one is which door you want to open. Look towards the back of the room and you will see two gates that are closed. Rotate the middle one so that the forward facing emblem is a snake so that the snake door opens. Keep going through the halls until you come to a room with another of those rotating statues (only one this time). Rotate it until it has a snake on the front. Head up stairs and you'll see to bridges connecting to a section in the middle. Beyond each bridge is another rotating statue and above the doorway leading to it from the bridge is the symbol it's supposed to have. Rotate those accordingly and then pull the lever in the middle. Cross the draw bridge and go through the door. In the next room, go up the stairs and take a right. Follow that around and over the bridge. Go on to the next room and climb the spiral stairs quickly because this room will be lit on fire. There is a side door up here that leads to a lever. Hit the lever and go through the gate. Run down the halls quickly here because there are more fire traps. You'll come to another door with rotating discs and requiring a claw shaped key. Kill the guard and take the key. Solve this the same as the last one. The solution is Panther, Bat, Dragon. Head into the next room, all the way to the back and learn a new Shout. Keep going until you leave through the door at the back. When you get outside, go around the left side of the building and climb the stairs up. Run and jump into the portal. Sovngarde - x31Hx ----------------- Once you land, just walk across northward. There is a hill in the middle of the land and from there you can see the large building that is your destination. Before you can enter, you must battle the gate keeper. You do not have to beat him, just take about half of his health but be careful because he hits hard. Meet with your three new companions inside, talk to each and then head back outside. Dragonslayer - x31Ix -------------------- Once outside, meet with your companions at the waypoint. You will have to do three group Shouts of Clear Skies. Once it's been done three time by the group, the mists will clear and Alduin will attack. This battle will play out just like any other Dragon battle except you will do it with three very tough companions. I have no recommendations here except to do as you've been doing. Once you've defeated him, speak to Tsun to return to Skyrim. Congratulations! You win! Have fun exploring! ________________________________________ Companions x320x ________________________________________ Joining - x321x --------------- To join the Companions, you must first head to the building Jorrvoskr in Whiterun. You must talk to Kodlak who is frequently sitting and talking in the living quarters under the building. After you talk to him, he'll tell you to go with Vilkos to see what you can do. Talk to Vilkos and follow him to the yard. When you get to the yard, talk to Vilkos and he'll tell you to hit him. Hit him a few times and he'll welcome you to the Companions. Taking Up Arms - x322x ---------------------- Your first task as a whelp is to take Vilkos' sword upstairs to be sharpened. Don't go inside but instead up the stairs to the right of the building. At the top will be the forge. Talk to Eorlund Gray-Mane. After you talk to Eorlund, he'll ask you to take a shield over to Aela. Take the shield back down to the Jorrvoskr living quarters and give it Aela. She will have Farkas show you to your quarters. Trouble in Skyrim - x323x ------------------------- Farkas will give you this quest. You need to head NW of Whiterun to get to Rannveig's Fast. It's quite easy to get to so if you are trying to climb through rocks, you're going about it the wrong way. When you get there, you'll be greeted by some ghosts. Physical weapons work on them and fire is pretty effective. Work your way up the stairs and through the large door. The dungeon is pretty straight forward with no real side rooms. Just keep heading forward until you see a chest on a pedestal. Instead of going up the middle to open it, go up the side. Learn the word from the wall, open the chest. Then you can walk down the middle aisle and you'll fall into a trap door. While the fool is talking, go over to his dead assistant and search the bag next to the body. Take the key out, open the door, and kill your captor. Remember to search his body before you leave. The exit is to the east. When you see the door on the right, take that to get out or go left to return to the big room (in case you didn't learn the Word of Power first). After that door, you'll have to go through one more on the left side of a hallway and it will require the key you used to get out of the cell. When you get the notification, you're on the right path. There's a room and then a door beyond that which will lead back outside. Fast travel back to Whiterun and report to Farkas. Proving Honor - x324x --------------------- Talk to Farkas to get your next quest. Head downstairs to talk to Skjor. After talking to him, return to Farkas and talk to him. Tell him that you'll meet him there and then travel to Dustman Cairn NW of Whiterun. When you get there go inside. Follow the cave, fighting Drugr as you go, until you come to a rather large room. Go down the stairs and into the only gate that is open and flip the lever. Once you are free again, go through the other gate and follow that path. Now you'll be fighting people too. You'll come across quite a few people but this dungeon is pretty straight forward for the most part. When you come to a locked double door and can't go any further, the key will actually be in the chest on the raised level in this room. Take the key and open the door. After you go through that room, you'll come to a blocked hall and you'll have to use a side room to go around it. Go into the side room and then through the other door in this room. It'll appear that either end of the hall is blocked from here but there's actually a small hallway next to one of the piles of debris. You'll have to go through some spiders but eventually, you'll come to a long room with a word wall at the end. Learn the word and take the shard off of the table. After this, you'll have to fight the Drugr as they come out of their coffins along the walls. Once they are all dead, go up the stairs and one of the coffins should have a hole in the back. Go outside and fast travel back to Whiterun. Follow Vilkes to the back. Hired Muscle - x325x -------------------- Talk to Farkas for this mission, then head to Riften. Go to the waypoint and talk to the man there. If your Brawl skill is high enough, he'll be intimidated and you won't have to fight. If not, unequip your weapons and then beat on him. Once he has no more health left, talk to him again. Return to Farkas. The Silver Hand - x326x ----------------------- Start this quest by talking to Farkas who will direct you to talk to Skjor. He will tell you to meet him at the Underforge which is under the Skyforge. You must wait until night, then head out the back door and head to the Skyforge as you normally would until you see Skjor. Talk to him and he will show you the way in. To continue, you must become a Werewolf. Head back into the Underforge and then out through the back to continue. When you regain consciousness, Aela will tell you about your surprise party. Head towards the waypoint and into the building. Inside the first room, look to the pillar in the middle to lower the gate. In the next room, go south Make your way through the halls until you come to a room with stairs. Go up the stairs and continue on until you find Krev the Skinner. Kill her. After that, Aela will talk then you need to talk to her again to find out there are more Silverhands in Whiterun. Head there now. Retrieval - x327x ----------------- To get to where you are going, you want to approach it from the south and cross a bridge to get there. If you have been to Guldun Rock, fast travel there and head down closer to the river. Go up the tower on this side, cross the bridge and then climb the river on the other side. In a chest towards the top is the shard you are looking for but watch out for all the arrows. Return to Whiterun with the shard. Strike at the Heart - x328x --------------------------- This is a Radiant Quest where you have to kill the Silver Hand Leader. Since it's a Radiant Quest it may not be in the same place that mine was. For mine, I had to go to Broken Helm Hollow which is near Riften a little ways up a nearby mountain on a dirt path. The Leader is right inside. Blood's Honor - x329x --------------------- Speak to Aela to find out Kodlak is looking for you. Go talk to him and he will tell you that you are hunting witches. Make your way over to the cave. When you get into the cave, you'll find your first witch in the first room. You'll notice there are quite a few objective markers showing all of the witches in the cave. Kill this witch and take her head. You can kill the rest of the witches in the caves pretty easily if you like but they are unnecessary and don't seem to reward you with anything for doing so. If you would like to, though, each witch is in a room all to themselves and each room is just a direct off shoot of this main room. When you are done, return to Whiterun and talk to Vilkos. Purity of Revenge - x32Ax ------------------------- Talk to Vilkas and head up north to get revenge. Make your way towards Driftshade Refuge and watch out for the enemies outside. Get inside and go down the stairs. You'll come to a few of the Silver Hand in the first room. Head out of the room to the west and follow the halls through a few small rooms until you come to the balcony of a large room. Go down the stairs to the room below. Exit through the northern doorway. Explore the rooms on either side if you like but otherwise continue forward until you come to a room with a barred door on the other side. Kill the enemies here and then flip the lever just to the right of the doorway. Go down the stairs and through the door to Driftshade Cellar. Make your way through the cellars but watch out for floor traps. At the end you'll go through a door to a brewing room. Kill the guard here and go North into the snowy cave. You'll come to a room. Kill the enemy here and then go out the other side of the room. Don't free the werewolf or it will attack you. Move through the cave, out of the snow, and into a room with a balcony. Kill the enemies here and drop down to the lower level. Leave the room through to the south. Take the double doors. Go up the stairs in the next room and there will be a couple of enemies sitting down to some dinner. Kill them and retrieve the stolen fragments on the table. Go out the back door and return to Whiterun. Glory of the Dead - x32Bx ------------------------- Meet at the Skyforge for the funeral. When asked, get the last fragment from Kodlak's room and return it to the Skyforge. Meet up with the Circle in the Underforge and then head out for the Ysgramor's grave. Fast travel to Winterhold and then go down the cliff just to the left of the bridge to the academy. Cross the water and go around the side of the island to get there. Give the axe back and then head north. Follow this path, killing ghosts as you go. After Farkas leaves you, you will be fighting spiders. When you get to the room with the gate blocking your path, the chain to open it is actually just to the left of the gate. After you go through the gate, you'll be in crypts with more ghosts. Make your way through here and at the next gate, you'll find the switch towards the front of the room on a pedestal. When you enter the big, open hall, talk to Kodlak. He will tell you to put the witch's head on the fire. Do so and you will then have to fight Kodlak's Wolf Spirit. Slay it and talk to Kodlak once more who will finish the quest for you. Go up the stairs in the back of the hall and turn right to see the exit. The chain to open the gate is right next to it. Congrats on being the new head of the Companions. Not sure how that works since there is no leader but whatever. ________________________________________ College of Winterhold x330x ________________________________________ First lessons - x331x --------------------- To join the college, head to Winterhold and talk to Faralda, the women in front of the bridge to the college. Depending on what you say, you will either have to perform a Dragon Shout or cast a certain spell (which you can buy) to be admitted to the college. After you get in, you will have to speak to Mirabelle who will give you a tour. After she gives you a tour and shows you to your quarters, you will be asked to join a lecture. Go to the lecture hall and listen to Tolfdir. You will be asked to perform a spell (you will learn it for free if you don't already) and he will attack you. After this, the quest will complete. Under Saarthal - x332x ---------------------- This quest starts off immediately after the previous quest. Head out to Saarthal. Tolfdir will instruct you to help a mage in his research. Speak to the mage and he will send you to look for some artifacts. Pick up the amulet next to you. You will be trapped, Tolfdir will come to help you and you will have to put on the amulet. After that, the wall will start to glow. Cast a spell at it to destroy it. On the other side of the broken wall is a small room. You will be attacked by a Draugr and then you will move on but without Tolfdir. You will have to solve a couple of puzzles on your own. The first puzzle has you spinning pillars until they match the symbol behind the pillar. Pull a lever once they are in the correct position. The second puzzle is the same except with 8 pillars. Change the second four to be the same as the first four. Continue on and after a little bit, you'll come to large room with a giant orb at the back. Tolfdir will start working on the giant sphere and you will have to attack the Draugr on the throne. After you defeat him, exit through the door behind the Sphere. You will find a Word Wall and a chest. Return to the Arch-Mage of the College to report in. Hitting the Books - x333x ------------------------- Find Urag gro-Shub. He will send you to Fellglow Keep to get some books back for him. When you approach the Keep, watch out for a couple of mages and their Atronachs. Enter the dungeon but watch out for more mages. Eventually, you will come to the torture chamber. The people in the cages can be set free and they will help you kill the mages here. Destroy them and you can choose to set Orthorn free but this is optional. Keep making your way through the Keep and you'll pass through a variety of rooms. Again, watch for all the extra mages hanging out, waiting to kill you. After you pass through a library, you will meet the Caller who can be a tough one. She will have a couple of Atronachs as well as plenty of spells to shoot at you. Kill her and grab the books (or make a deal with her if you like). Return the books to Urag. Good Intentions - x334x ----------------------- Speak with Tolfdir and then Ancano. You'll talk to the Archmage and Quaranir. After the conversation, talk to Aren. Head to Midden, go in and talk to Augur of Dulain. Just watch out for the fre Draugr and Skeletons in there. Revealing the Unseen - x335x ---------------------------- Talk to Aren who will direct you to talk to Mirabelle. Ask her some questions and then travel to Mzulft. Search the researcher for a key when you get inside. Go down the hall and then head north at the intersection. Watch for traps. Follow this path, fighting mechanical foes as you go. After you go through some large double doors, head up the ramp, through another set of doors. Watch out for the Folmer, they may be poisonous. After making your way through the ruins a little more, you'll find another researcher. This one will be alive. Talk to him and then follow him. When you get to the room with the giant globe in the middle, place the crystal above the globe. Use fire and ice to adjust the crystals suspended above the globe so that they line up with the wrings on the ceiling. There are tomes at the top if you need them to learn the spells. A few shots of ice should do the trick. Once you get them into the middle of the rings, go up to the control area above and use the buttons at the top to rotate the rings until the little blue spots are lined up with the light beams. Return to Winterhold and talk to the Savos Aren. Assist in the efforts to get past the ward. When you regain control, listen to Savos who will instruct you to assist in the defense of Winterhold. Containment - x336x ------------------- This quest is actually just a quest to protect the town of Winterhold. Attack and kill the 10 Magic Anomalies you find and then report to Mirabelle to finish the quest. The Staff of the Magnus - x337x ------------------------------- Head to the Labyrinthian ruins. The dungeon isn't particularly complex but you will come to a few interesting fights. Of note is a Frost Skeleton Dragon which is accompanied by a few skeletons. Fire is recommended for all of them but go for the skeletons first because they are weak, then attack the dragon. You will eventually come to a room with a throne and Word Wall. Kill the Draugr on the throne and learn the word from the wall. The final boss is protected by a couple of mages. Kill them and then you will fight the Dragon Priest. Watch out for his Storm Atronach, take that out first to make this a more even fight. It is highly recommended that you don't summon any help because he can take control of them. Once you finish him off, the Arch Mage will seal him in. Make sure you have the Staff of the Magnus from the Dragon Priest and head out. The Eye of Magnus - x338x ------------------------- Return to the College with the Staff and use it to get inside. Head to the Eye of Magnus and a fight will ensue with Ancano and the Eye. The Eye of Magnus will provide a barrier for Arcano which protects him from all damage and it will also generate Magic Anomalies. Use the Staff of Magnus to get rid of the barrier and to cool off the Eye so that it doesn't generate Anomolies. Magic Anomolies will drop soul stones that you can use to recharge the Staff as needed. Strip Ancano of his barrier and then attack him (or let the Anomalies do it for you). When you succeed in killing him, you will be rewarded with the title of Arch-mage. ________________________________________ The Dark Brotherhood x340x ________________________________________ Loss of Innocence - x341x ------------------------- Head to Windhelm in the north and seek out the Aretino residence. Inside will be a boy doing the Dark Sacrament. Talk to him and he'll ask you to kill the care giver at the orphanage in Riften. Head to Riften and find your target. Wait for her to finish yelling and she will go into her room. Close the door behind her and kill her. Then leave and return to Aretino in Windhelm for your payment. With Friends Like These - x342x ------------------------------- Wait for a few days and a messenger will bring you a letter with a Black Hand and the words "We Know." This will be your cue. Go to sleep anywhere. When you wake up, you will be in a room and you will have to kill one of three people. You can talk to them to find out which one you want to kill but it doesn't actually matter which you kill. After killing one, you will be given the password and a key to leave. If you should choose to kill Astrid instead, this will begin the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood quest which will prevent you from ever joining the Brotherhood should you choose to later. Sanctuary - x343x ----------------- This quest simply requires that you speak to Nazir to pick up some contracts. Kill Narfi - This is your first contract. Travel to Ivarstead and travel to the island to kill him in the burnt out house. Since he is alone, you can kill him however you please. Kill Beitild - Travel to her waypoint and you'll find she works in the mine during the day with many others. Depending on your skills, you can sneak up and kill her at night or you can tell her that you're from the Dark Brotherhood and she will attack you, allowing you to kill her in public with no repurcussions. Kill Ennodius Papius - Travel to Anga's Mill and walk to the nearby camp. Since your target is pretty far from any other people, you can simply kill him without being noticed. Mourning Never Comes - x344x ---------------------------- Talk to Astrid to receive this quest. She will direct you to travel to Markarth to speak to Muiri who will in turn direct you to your target. Talk to her again before you leave to get the optional objective to kill Nilsine Shatter-shield. You can kill Nilsine in the Shatter-shield residence (if you so choose) when she is asleep or in the temple. Both are good options. Leave the house and travel to your main target. You will have to get by quite a few guards first but when you do, Dufont makes for an easy target. Kill the few guards outside and make your way inside. Go into the first room and wait for the flames to stop, then run through. Go up to the gate, pick the lock and you'll find three enemies on the far side. Kill the two guards, then your target. Now just turn it in. Whispers in the Dark - x345x ---------------------------- Return to the Sanctuary and talk to Astrid. She will tell you to go to the Night Mother's room and hide in her coffin. Pick the lock on the coffin and get inside. After the Night Mother talks to you, she will send you to Volunruud to speed with Amaund. Talk to Astrid first and then talk to Nazir to get two new contracts. Kill Hern - You will find Hern in Half-Moon Mill with his wife. You can kill his wife as well if you'd like or if it's easier. Kill Lurbuk - YOu can find Lurbuk in the Morthal Inn. Clearly you shouldn't kill him while he's performing but once he's alone, he's an easy target. The Silence Has Been Broken - x346x ----------------------------------- Go to turn in the two contracts and you will be approached by Astrid. Travel to Volunruud and meet with Amaund. He will give you a few things. Return to Astrid with them and she will tell you to take the amulet to Delvin of Thieves Guild fame. You would have had to get there during the story mission "A Cornered Rat." If you need to know how to get there, check the section for that mission and find your way to the Raggad Flagon. After meeting up with Delvin, return to Astrid to get your next target. Bound Until Death - x347x ------------------------- Travel to Solitude and make your way to the Temple of the Divines. If you go up through the door on left, you will find some supplies. You can easily kill her from here with the magical bow at any point. Do so while she's speaking to get a bonus reward. Wait for her to appear on the balcony and start speaking, then kill her. Veezara will cover your escape. Return to Astrid for your reward. Breaching Security - x348x -------------------------- When you return, go talk to Gabriella. She will give you a mission to kill Gaius Maro, the son of Commander Maro who would have helped you with the "Destroy the Brotherhood" quest if you had chosen that. Travel to Dragon's Bridge and steal Gaius' travel schedule. After you've gotten it, you can read it to find out where Gaius is on any given day (check the date by hitting the Wait button). It is preferable to kill him in a city because you will get a bonus however he travels the roads alone so it will likely be easier to kill him while he travels. It is your call. Once you've killed him, plant the note on his body and return to the Sanctuary for your reward. The Cure for Madness - x349x ---------------------------- After speaking to Gabriella, go talk to Astrid. Go into Cicero's room and search it for a book labelled "Final Journal." Take it and give it to Astrid. You will get Shadowmere at this point (best quest reward ever) to take you to the abandoned sanctuary in Dawnstar. When you get there, Arnbjorn will tell you he has wounded Cicero so you just need to follow the blood trail. Open the door and deal with the ghosts in the next room. Cross the bridge and go down the stairs, collect a couple of nice books on the table. Continue forward and kill the Ice Troll and after that, more ghosts. When you finally catch up with Cicero, you can either kill him or not. The choice is up to you but if you leave him alive, he will rejoin the Brotherhood later. If you can live with that, let him live. Recipe for Disaster - x34Ax --------------------------- Talk to Astrid who will pass you along to Festus Krex. He will tell you to kill the Gourmet so you can take his place. Track down Anton Virane to get the Gourmet's real name, then kill him. You will find him in the Temple Kitchen at Markarth. He will give you the Gourmet's name. Now head to the inn and kill Balagog. He will be in the cellar which you can simply walk into. Kill him in his sleep and drag his body to the ladder at the end of the hall to receive your bonus. Turn in the quest. To Kill an Emperor - x34Bx -------------------------- Talk to Astrid, then report to Commander Maro in Solitude. Give him the letter you got from the previous mission and you will be allowed in. Report to the castle's chef, Gianna. Put on a chef's hat and speak to her again. She will start cooking and ask you what to put in. You can choose anything you want and at the end you'll be able to add poison. If you don't add the poison you can still kill the emperor the old fashioned way. Follow the food to the Emperor and he will die from the poison. At this point, you will be attacked by guards so make a quick escape through the door opposite of where you entered the room. Run across the bridge and talk to Commander Maro. You now have a bounty on your head so the guards will be looking for you. Hurry out of town and back to the Sanctuary. Death Incarnate - x34Cx ----------------------- Enter the Sanctuary and try to help the survivors. Make your way upstairs and meet up with Nazir. Help kill his attackers and help him escape. Return to the Night Mother and climb into the coffin with her. When you get out of the coffin, you will be told that Astrid is still alive so return to Astrid's room and find her. Take the Blade of Woe and kill her if you like (you don't have to). Return to the Night Mother to end the quest. Hail Sithis! - x34Dx -------------------- Speak to the Night Mother and then travel to Whiterun to find Amaund. He will tell you to travel to Solitude to find the Emperor's ship. Find Commander Maro walking around in public. Talk to him and he will attack you, allowing you to kill him without penalty. Sneak aboard the ship at night by using the anchor. Sneak through the ship, killing the guards as you go. Find and kill Captain Avidius to get his key and use it to make your way to the Emperor. Before you kill him, he will ask you to kill Amaund. Kill the Emperor and head to Whiterun to talk to Amaund. You can kill him now if you like but it is optional. Head to Volunruud, where you first met Amaund. Return to Nazir and tell him about the gold to finish the quest and the quest line. If you would like, head to the Ragged Flagon and talk to Delvin to buy upgrades for the new Sanctuary. ________________________________________ Thieves Guild x350x ________________________________________ A Chance Arrangement - x351x ---------------------------- Talk to Brynjolf in town who will ask you to help him teach someone a lesson. Brynjolf will create a distraction and you will have to go over to Madesi's stall and steal the ring out of the lock box in it. You will have to pick the lock but watch out for the guards on the wall, they may spot you. Once you have the ring, sneak up behind Brand-Shei and reverse pickpocket the ring into his inventory. Go back and talk to Brynjolf to be invited into the guild. As an alternative, you can fail this quest in any number of ways, simply by waiting for Brynjolf's diversion to run down, by going into a building and returning to Brynjolf, or simply by being caught while stealing the ring or pickpocketing it. If you fail, it's ok because you will still be invited to join. Taking Care of Business - x352x ------------------------------- Make your way to the Ratway. To do this, go over to any of the bridges and drop down to the pier area below. Just follow the piers and behind a gate is the door for the Ratway. Inside the Ratway, you'll find a few hostile bandits. Kill them and head to the bigger room. Head out of the room to the west and light the floor on fire because there is oil all over it. Turn left. You will enter a room with a rather large man. Kill him but watch out for the bear traps on the ground. Once he's dead, go past him and eventually up some stairs. Cross through the garden and in the next room you will be able to see the door for the Raggad Flagon. Brynjolf will instruct you to collect debts from three business owners. Keerava - Speak to the male Argonanian Talen-Jei about talking some sense into Keerava. Then Talk to Keerava to convince her to pay. Haelga - Steal the state around the corner. Be careful because you can still be caught. Once you have it, talk to Haelga to get her to pay up. Bersi Honey-Hand - Attack the urn in front of him until it breaks, then talk to him to get him to pay. Go talk to Brynjolf and he will introduce you to Mercer and you will be welcomed into the guild. Loud and Clear - x353x ---------------------- After talking to Mercer, you'll have to go to Goldenglow Estate. Get onto the Estate however you like. You may kill any mercenaries that attack you and you may kill Aringoth as well but only if he attacks you. When you get to the beehives, burn three of them but no more. Be careful where you burn them because the fire can spread and if it does, you'll lose your reward. Enter the house and make your way upstairs. Get the key from Aringoth through persuasion, violence, or pickpocket and head downstairs to the vault. You will meet more guards on the way. When you get to the safe, take everything, including the bill of sale. Return to Maven for your reward. Make sure you fully explore his dialogue tree to help prevent a glitch from happening the prevents you from finishing this quest or getting the next one. Dampened Spirits - x354x ------------------------ Talk to Maven at the Bee and Barb then head to Whiterun to talk to Mallus Maccius at the Bannered Mare. Go to Honningbrew Meadery and speak to Sabjorn. Poison the nest of vermin in the basement. Head to the brewing-house and poison the brewing vat. After, return to Sabjorn to receive payment for getting rid of the pests then attend the tasting. Talk to Mallus Maccius and then return to Riften to talk to Maven. Scounrel's Folly - x355x ------------------------ Talk to Mercer who will send you to Solitude to talk to Gulum-Ei. You can try and persuade him or you can do a favor for him. He will send you to get some Wine from the Blue Palace. The Wine is actually just sitting in the front room of the Palace so grab it without alerting anybody and head back to Gulum-Ei. After your chat with Gulum-Ei, follow him out of the tavern. Keep a good distance so as not to notice him and he will lead you to the East Empire Company Warehouse. Be careful inside because there are mercenaries patrolling inside. Keep tailing the Argonian down into the caves. Watch out for traps and Bandits. The Bandits can be kill if necessary. At the end of the cave, talk to Gulum-Ei again. This time you will get what you need. Return to talk to Mercer. Speaking with Silence - x356x ----------------------------- Head to Snow Veil Sanctum with Mercer, NE of Windhelm. When you get to the front door, you need to wait for Mercer to open the door for you. Inside you'll find a variety of Drugrs and traps so be careful where you walk. The first gate you come to is an a small alcove just to the left of the gate. Move through a multileveled room and kill the enemies there. After that, you'll come to another ring decoding puzzle but Mercer will open that. When you go through the double doors, you'll find Karliah. You'll have some nasty things happen to you and when you wake up, you'll be sent to Winterhold. Hard Answers - x357x -------------------- Go to Winterhold and speak to Enthir, then talk to Calcelmo the wizard in Markarth. Steal his key off the table and head to the Museum. When you enter the museum, don't kill any of the city guards but sneak through the room to the door on the other side. Once you reach Calcelmo's personal guards, you can kill them if it is necessary. Head through his lab, onto his balcony and up to his tower. You are looking for a room with charcoal and rolls of paper so you can copy the Guide. After this, a few guards and Celcelmo's nephew will come in to try and find you. You can run past them or you can kill them if you like. Make your escape, return to winterhold and report to Karliah and Enthir. Return to Riften and the Ragged Flagon. Speak with Brynjolf and after a series of events, the quest will end. The Pursuit - x358x ------------------- This quest starts with Brynjolf. Head to Mercer's Manor and make your way to the back yard. If you bump into Vald, bribe or kill him, your choice. Look under the balcony and shoot to release a ramp. Enter the Manor and avoid the bandits inside. Make your way downstairs and find the wardrobe. Inside of the wardrobe is a false wall that leads to a secret passage. Take the secret passage to Mercer's office and ransack the place. Take his plans and his sword Chillrend. Jump through the hole into the Ratway and make your way to the Ragged Flagon. Trinity Restored - x359x ------------------------ Leave the Ragged Flagon and follow the waypoint to Karliah. Follow her to the Nightingales' Cave. She will lead you to a room and equip armor, then activate the stone to get a new set. Follow Karliah further and then stand on the circle when she tells you to. Another Guild you are at the head of now. Blindsighted - x35Ax -------------------- Talk to Brynjolf, then head to Irkngthand. Head to the top of the ruins, watch out for bandits (which you can kill if you'd like). Sneak through the dungeon so as to not trigger the Sphere Guardians. Make your way through to a room with flame traps. Just follow through the flame trap as if it were a revolving door and you'll be fine. Take the lift. Now you will have some company. Go through the door and down the hall to find Mercer attacking a Folmer. Hit both switches over looking the camp and then head through the door. Continue along until you get to the sanctuary. You will find Mercer and have to fight him alone. He's tricky so watch out for his invisibility . Try freezing him or hitting him with stream attacks to find out where he is. Once he's dead, take the skeleton key and Eyes from his body and wait for the water to flood the room. You will go out through a hole in the ceiling here and exit through a small passage. Darkness Returns - x35Bx ------------------------ Head to the Twilight Sepulcher and head inside. Talk to the Nightengale Sentinel but after him, all the other sentinels will be hostile. Make your way to the back of the room and through the cave. Take the second right and head down the next hallway until you come to a large room. Go out the back of that room and follow the next hallway. You'll come to a hallway with really bright and really dark spots. You'll have to stay in the dark because the light spots will instantly harm you. Make your way through the room and into the next hallway. When you come to a closed gate, look for the chain to the left to open it. Go down another cave and along another hallway. Watch for the swinging axe trap and head through the door at the end. Head through the double doors at the end of the next hallway and jump down into the hole. After some time, when you try to do any kind of action, the key will appear in your hand and you will fall further into the hole. Replace the Skeleton Key and listen to Nocturnal. Drink to end the quest. ________________________________________ The Stormcloaks x360x ________________________________________ Taking up Arms - x361x ---------------------- After escaping with Rolaf, you can head to Windhelm and talk to Ulfric about joining who will send you Galmar. Galmar will give you this quest and send you to kill an Ice Wraith. Just head north. It's not a particularly difficult journey. Approach the island from the east to get onto it then make your way to the waypoint. That will be your wraith. Kill it and return to Galmar. The Jagged Crown - x362x ------------------------ After taking the Oath, head out for Korvanjund. Meet up with the other Stormcloaks and then head to the ruins. Kill the Imperials outside and then head in. Make your way north, killing a good number of Imperials along the way. Keep going north until you can't, then go up the stairs to the west. Go west through the hall until you hit a blocked section. Use the room to your right to get around the blockage until you come to some double doors that lead to the Hall. Make your way through the halls (pretty straight forward, mostly north). You'll come to another Claw puzzle. The Claw is just by the door. The three dials should be Cat, Bug, Dragon from top to bottom, then insert the claw. Go through and head west until you come to a large room with a gated door at the end. Go up the stairs to the north and the follow that until you cross a bridge over the room. The switch will be on the wall to the left. Head through and into the crypt. Kill the Draugr sitting on the throne in the crypt. Take the Jagged crown from him and then check out the Word Wall behind him. Take the stairs by the Wall to get out. Head back to Ulfric with the crown. Message to Whiterun - x363x --------------------------- Talk to Ulfric and take his Axe to Whiterun. Give the Axe to the Jarl then talk to him again. He will give it back and tell you to give it back to Jarl Ulfric. Battle for Whiterun - x364x --------------------------- Meet up with Galmar and listen to his speach. Charge to the barricades and kill the enemies there and eventually the barricade should go down. Move up the road a little ways and try to get up on the broken wall section to the right. Get up there and then go up to above the draw bridge and release it for the Stormcloaks. Make your way through town, up to the palace and fight the Jarl. Take him down and accept his surrender. Listen for a while and then head back to Urlfric. A False Front - x365x --------------------- Head to the Stormcloak camp and get your orders from Galmar who wants you to find an Imperial Courier. Head to the Dragon Bridge and into the tavern. Bribe the bar keep to find out the location of the courier. Fast travel back to Galmar. Bring the Falsified documents to the Legate Taurinus Duilis in Morthal. The Battle for Fort Snowhawk - x366x ------------------------------------ Meet up with your group at Fort Snowhawk and then attack the Fort. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. When you can, return to Ulfric to report it. The Battle for Fort Greenwall - x367x ------------------------------------- Head for the Stormcloak camp near Riften. Talk to Galmar and he will send you to Fort Greenwall. This operates exactly the same as Snowhawk did. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. When you can, return to Ulfric to report it. The Battle for Fort Hraggstad - x368x ------------------------------------- Head for the Stormcloak camp near Solitude. Talk to Galmar and he will send you to Fort Hraggstad. This operates exactly the same as Snowhawk did. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. This time, report to Galmar when you've cleared the fort, rather than Ulfric. The Battle for Solitude - x369x ------------------------------- Head to Solitude and meet up with Ulfric. When his speach is done, head into the city proper. You want to work your way through the city streets. Go from one barrier to another on the lower level until you make your way up to the double doors that lead into the keep. Go through those doors and fight with the General. From here, the hard part is done. You have some dialog choices to make but that is it. Congrats Hero of Skyrim! Anyone feel like this ending is leading up to a DLC? ________________________________________ The Imperials x370x ________________________________________ Fort Hraggstad - x371x ---------------------- Talk to Legate Rikke for this quest. She will send you to clear out bandits from Hraggstad. Make your way up the mountain to the fort. You will have to clear out all of the Bandits from the courtyard, the Prison and the barracks to finish. When you've cleared out most of them, you will get waypoints to the last few. After you clear the fort, return to Rikke to finish the quest and join the Imperials. The Jagged Crown - x372x ------------------------ After taking the Oath, head out for Korvanjund. Make sure you get your Imperial kit before going to the fort or Rikke might not show up. Meet up with the other Imperials and then head to the ruins. Kill the Stormcloaks outside and then head in. Make your way north, killing a good number of enemies along the way. Keep going north until you can't, then go up the stairs to the west. Go west through the hall until you hit a blocked section. Use the room to your right to get around the blockage until you come to some double doors that lead to the Hall. Make your way through the halls (pretty straight forward, mostly north). You'll come to another Claw puzzle. The Claw is just by the door. The three dials should be Cat, Bug, Dragon from top to bottom, then insert the claw. Go through and head west until you come to a large room with a gated door at the end. Go up the stairs to the north and the follow that until you cross a bridge over the room. The switch will be on the wall to the left. Head through and into the crypt. Kill the Draugr sitting on the throne in the crypt. Take the Jagged crown from him and then check out the Word Wall behind him. Take the stairs by the Wall to get out. Head back to the General with the crown. Message to Whiterun - x373x --------------------------- The General will send you to the Jarl of Whiterun to offer assistance. Talk to the Jarl and he will send you to Windhelm with an axe for Ulfric. Give the axe to him and he will send it back to the Jarl of Whiterun. Head upstairs to talk to the Legate Cilius and then head outside to regroup with Rikke. The Battle for Whiterun - x374x ------------------------------- When the battle starts, the Stormcloaks will attack from below. They will attack the barriers and then the drawbridge. You need to try to keep them from doing this. As you kill Stormcloaks, you will notice a counter at the top of the screen informing you of how much of the attacking force remains. I highly recommend using magic in this encounter. It will allow you to more quickly deal the enemies and they are moderately armored. You also have many allies who will soak up damage. More importantly, they will draw the attention of your enemies so that they will not run directly away from you. When all of the enemies are dead, report to the General to finish the quest. A False Front - x375x --------------------- Head to the Imperial camp and get your orders from Rikke who wants you to find an Imperial Courier. Head to the Nightgate Inn and into the tavern. Bribe the bar keep to find out the location of the courier. You may kill the courier or try and steal the documents (difficult). Once you have them, head back to Rikke who will send you to the commander at Dawnstar. After you deliver the note to the Commander, return to Rikke to finish the quest. The Battle for Fort Amol - x376x --------------------------------- Meet up with your group at Fort Amol and then attack the Fort. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. When you can, return to General to report it. The Battle for Fort Greenwall - x377x ------------------------------------- Head for the Imperial camp near the fort. Talk to Rikke and she will send you to Fort Greenwall. This operates exactly the same as Amol did. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. When you can, return to the General to report it. The Battle for Fort Dunstad - x378x ----------------------------------- Head for the Imperial camp near the fort. Talk to Rikke and she will send you to Fort Dunstad. This operates exactly the same as Amol did. To finish this quest, you must clear out all of the enemies. You will be regularly updated with how many enemies remain. When it hits zero, no more enemies will respawn and the quest will be completed but there may still be enemies remaining. They will likely run away at this point though. When you can, return to the General to report it. The Battle for Windhelm - x379x ------------------------------- Meet up with the General outside of Windhelm, wait for the speech and then go into the town. You will have to fight your way up to the palace of the town the long way. Make your way through the enemies and the barricades until you make it to his castle. Defeat Ulfric and Garmar to finish this quest. Enjoy the aftermath. Anyone feel like this ending is leading up to a DLC? _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Side Quests _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________________________________ Coming Soon! x4 0x ________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Dungeons _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________________________________ Lost Knife Cave x501x ________________________________________ Kill the first group of enemies in the cave and take the Cage Key. Head forward and over a land bridge to a little island. Kill the two enemies here and then take the other land bridge. After you cross the other bridge, try to stay left because there is a trap that will drop rocks on the right side of the cavern. Go up the slopes and walk towards the wooden balcony. Turn right and you'll see a small entrance leading up to the Lost Knife Hideout. Go forward and turn right to see a hole in the wall. Go through it and kill a few bandits there and then head up the stairs on the far side. Keep heading up, killing bandits as you go and you will cross a wooden bridge. After the bridge will be a large room with cages. In the only closed cage is a giant tiger. You can stand on his cage and then jump to the cage on the left. Hop down here and run past the sole enemy on this side because he is very tough. He's fast enough to catch you, can kill you in just a few swings, and can take a lot of punishment. Go past him and just open the gate to the next area. When you land in the next area, enemies will pour through after you but they will all appear in the same spot so use a spell and just keep torching that one spot until nothing else comes out. You can retreat back to the previous area if you don't kill them all to collect more magicka and then do it again. Once they are done and you are safe, head along the stream and jump to the bridge. You can now exit back out the way you came. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Character x600x _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________________________________ Overview x610x ________________________________________ Appearance - x611x ------------------ While not of gameplay importance, it is important to note that you can not change your appearance after you initial selections at the beginning of the game (without the console commands on PC). Have fun with it and find something that you think defines your character. It may be easier to choose othe qualities first before working on these simply because you might not like the idea of scars on your mage. Race - x612x ------------ When creating a character, race is definitely something to consider but it is not a game breaker. Race can provide a slight leaning for the characters skills which will affect the beginning of the game but after you get into the game a little, race doesn't matter much. However, feel free to read my recommendations below if you want advice on which races make slightly better classes. Remember that it's not a game breaker though. If you want to make an Altmer who is very talented at melee combat then do that. Attributes, Skills, and Leveling - x613x ---------------------------------------- Unlike Oblivion, there are only three attributes in this game and they are not effected by, nor do they effect, your level or skill progression. These attributes are Health, Stamina, and Magicka. Destruction, One-hand, and lockpicking are all what we refer to as skills. There are 18 skills in total and they all contribute to your character level. All of these follow a simple order of events. Your skills level up through use. Usually, using the skill must have some kind of effect to increase. For instance, using a restoration spell won't actually raise your restoration skill unless it heals some form of damage. Whenever a skill increases, you move closer to your next level. The number of skill increases required increase as you get higher in level but are not dependent on the rank of the skill. Going from 1 to 2 in Destruction will give you level progression equal to the amount of going from 99 to 100 in Destruction. After the number of skill increases required for level up is reached, you will be notified and can level up through the Level and Perk screen. Your meter will appear to stall if you continue to progress skills but have not yet finished the level up process. Rest assured that your meter is still running in the back ground and it is possible to go to the level up screen and go up in level two or more times consecutively. Just keep in mind that once you level up once, you have to finish the level up process for all stored levels. When you level up, you are allowed to increase one of your three attributes by ten points. When you level up, all three attributes are refilled, allowing you to heal yourself should you choose to level up mid battle. Aside from the increase to the maximum number of points for each attribute, Stamina has the added benefit of increasing your carrying capacity by 5 points for each increase of 10 points to Stamina. After you pick the attribute you wish to increase, you will be given another perk point which can be used to unlock perks like a decrease in the casting cost of spells. In this way, skill increases lead to leveling up which leads to attribute increases and finally a perk point. This order will never be reversed or altered in any way. To get a perk point, you must increase your skills to cause the chain of events required. Perks - x614x ------------- After you add points to your attributes during level up, you are rewarded with a perk point. You can add this to a perk in any skill tree but you don't have to and any unused points are stored for later use. There are a wide variety of perks and which perks to take can be a complex problem to solve. Of primary importance is that there is a soft cap of 50 levels in the game, after which it becomes much harder to level up and there is an absolute maximum level of 81 after which all skills are maxed out at 100 meaning you can't level up further. Keep in mind that this means that you will only have easy access to 50 or so points and no more than 80. Choose well what you would like for perks. You can choose any first perk in a tree, after which there are requirements for successive perks. Most perks will require that you have a preceeding perk before allowing you to get the next perk and this is easily identified by the lines going from one perk to the next. Any perk that has two preceeding perks only requires one of them to be unlocked. Other perks will require a certain skill level to be unlocked, usually in the area of 60 points. This will appear on the screen (but not obviously so) when you highly a perk that you've unlocked on the tree but that you can not yet purchase. Once the skill level is attained and the path reaches that perk, you may but it provided you have enough points. ________________________________________ Race x620x ________________________________________ Altmer - The High Elves make for the best all around mages. They are good at a wide variety of mystical arts and start with a +50 magicka bonus. While they are very good at most magics, they fall behind the Dunmer in terms of offensive capablities. Magically speaking, the Altmer is far more capable than the Dunmer but they require far more skill to benefit fully. Argonian - The Argonians tend to make very capable thieves and assassins. They are probably the most proficient race when it comes to any dungeon or building where combat can be avoided. While still capable of combat, their true gifts are in picking locks and sneaking making them (arguably) better thieves than the Khajiit. Bosmer - Wood Elves are extremely capable hunters, having high resistance to poison and disease as well as great archery skills and the ability to force an animal to fight by your side for 60 seconds every day. If you plan to spend a good amount of time exploring above ground, the Bosmer make a great choice. Breton - The Breton are a branch of humans who are extremely gifted in magic. Unfortunately, almost all of their magical skills are indirect and they have no bonus to destruction, unlike the Altmer and Dunmer. They do make a good first or all around race, though, because almost all of their skills (including their Power: Dragonskin) are geared towards survivability. Dunmer - The Dunmer are aggresive magic users. This is an ideal class for people who love to play powerful magicians. Their skills are perfect for being the attacker but with no bonus to restoration or conjuration, they fall a little behind in the category of survivability. Imperial - The Imperials are by far the best in terms of survivability and an affinity for melee combat. Their bonuses to restoration, block and heavy armor making them very hard to kill and One-handed weapons are very easy to come by and understand. They don't otherwise excel in any other area. Khajiit - These cat like people are possibly the best assassins. Their bonuses to Lockpicking and sneaking coupled with their night vision make them stealthy people and their Alchemy and Archery skills make them extremely lethal when unseen. They are perfect for reverse pickpocketing poison onto someone or taking out a group at range from the shadows. Nord - The Nord are the people native to Skyrim. Aside from the fact that playing as one will make you far more universally likeable than any of the other races, they also make for very good all around melee characters. Not having a Heavy Armor bonus puts them slightly behind the Orcs in terms of all around melee prowess but their bonus to Two-Handed weapons makes them very good, very fast warriors. Orcs - Orcs make for the best pure melee warriors. They lack restoration so it can be a little difficult to heal but they can deal good damage with any melee weapon, they can soak up a lot of damage with their heavy armor and they can craft their own things. What this amounts to is a race that is best used in fast, intense skirmishes. Red Guard - These people are very good damage dealers. They are skilled in the use of any style of damage dealing, whether it be archery, melee, or magic. Unfortunately, they don't have any bonuses to their survivability. They aren't proficient in any armor nor are they skilled with restoration. The Redguard are something of a berserker class. They are equiped to deal with any type of enemy but they have to figure it out quickly and do it before they get killed. ________________________________________ Attributes x630x ________________________________________ Health ------ Health is your standard life pool. If yours is drained to zero, you will die and have to restart from a previous save. If you drain that of your opponents, they will die instead. Health can be regenerated through Restoration magic, potions and some foods. It also naturally restores at .7% of your pool per second. Stamina ------- This is your pool for physical movements beyond just your feet. Whenever you sprint, Jump, nock an arrow or swing a weapon, you will use up some of your Stamina pool. If you hold the button for certain attacks, you will do a larger and stronger attack that will draw a significant amount from your stamina pool. Also keep in mind that making any of these actions (without perks) while wearing armor will deplete more of the pool. The heavier the armor, the more stamina will be used for each action. For comparison, spring with and without armor. Stamina regenerates at 5.0% per second. It is easy to find potions and food that restore stamina but it can be hard to keep supplied because of how quickly you can run through stamina. Restoration can also restore stamina which is particularly useful if you aren't a mage. Magicka ------- Magicka is that pool you use for all of your own magical spells but not for spells on scrolls or weapons. Magicka naturally restores at 3.0% per second and is generally refilled by potions. Magicka can't be restored by casting a spell. The difficulty with Magicka is that it is so versatile but so hard to fill. Where a warrior can wear armor for protection and use magicka to refill both their health and stamina when it runs low with ease, a mage has to be careful that they don't over use any one spell. If they run out of magicka, the will be left with no form of attack and usually with no form of defense since they frequently wear clothing. In this case, they would have to run or try to compensate with a for of physical combat that they might be lacking in. While Magicka can refill stamina and health pools, no other pool can refill it making it a very important resource to manage. ________________________________________ Skills x640x ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Perks x650x ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Werewolf x660x ________________________________________ Becoming a Werewolf - x661x --------------------------- The primary way of becoming a Werewolf is through the Companions faction quest line. During the course of the quest line, you'll be offered a position in The Circle, which is the highest levels of the Companions but to join you must become a Werewolf. At this point they will provide you with the chance to turn and the option will remain until taken. There may be a second way of becoming a Werewolf but I haven't confirmed it. If you are a vampire, you can actually drink the blood of a Werewolf and you will become on. Note that Werewolves are immune to all diseases which will cause you to lose your Vampirism because it is considered a disease. For this reason, you can never be both a Vampire and a Werewolf. Curing Lycanthropy - x662x -------------------------- Later in the Companions quest line, Kodlak will ask that you get the head of a Glenmoril witch. Further on in the quest line, you will use that head to cure Kodlak of his Lycanthropy (Werewolf). If you happen to collect more heads during the quest or later, you can actually cure yourself in the same fashion. Head to Ysgramor's Tomb and throw the witchhead into the fire and instead of fighting Kodlak's Wolf Spirit, you will fight your own. Kill it and you will be cured. Note that it may be impossible to become a werewolf again if you go through with curing yourself. Benefits - x663x ---------------- The primary benefits of being a werewolf are immunity to disease and in Beast Form you will have more health, stamina, likely more attack damage, a faster sprint and a howl attack the frightens enemies. You will also not be attacked by wolves and any bounties acrued while in beast form won't carry over to your regular form. Drawbacks - x664x ----------------- If you are a werewolf, you will not be able to get rested or well rested bonus. When you transform, you can't loot corpses you kill, heal yourself, pick up items, use any of your equipment and most people will be hostile. You also need to be careful when transforming because if someone sees you change, you will be fined 1000 Septims. ________________________________________ Vampirism x660x ________________________________________ Becoming a Vampire - x671x -------------------------- Any time you are attacked by a vampire, you run the chance of being infected with Sanguinare Vampiris which is the disease that leads to full blown Vamparism. When you contract the disease, it can be cured for the first three days just as you would cure any disease. After three days, it will move on to stage 1 Vampirism and can then only be cured by a quest. From there, it will progress all the way to stage 4, granting you new advantages and disadvantages along the way. Stages - x672x -------------- At all stages, you will have a 100% resistance to disease, poison, a 25% bonus to illusion and sneaking as well as improved night vision. If you are outside during the day, you will not regenerate health, stamina, or magicka without some sort of aid. At any stage of Vampirism, if you feed, you will return to stage 1 again. For every 24 hours that you do not feed, your Vampirism will inscrease one stage. Stage 1 - +25% frost resistance, -25% fire resistance, -15 points to all attributes while in daylight Stage 2 - +50% frost resistance, -50% fire resistance, -30 points to all attributes in daylight Stage 3 - +75% frost resistance, -75% fire resistance, -45 points to all attributes in daylight. NPCs may not interact with you. Stage 4 - +100% frost resistance, -100% fire resistance, -60 points to all attributes and NPCs will attack on sight. Powers and Spells - x673x ------------------------- Vampire's Servant - This spell allows you to revive a dead body once a day to fight at your side. This spell grows in power with each additional stage of Vampirism Vampiric Drain - This spell will drain health from a target continuously over time until you run out of magicka or the target dies. This spell drains more health as your Vampirism progresses but this is matched with an increased magicka cost. Vampire Seduction - This power starts at Stage 2 and allows you to calm low level NPCs and creatures for up to 30 seconds. This power does not increase in strength. Embrace of Shadows - This power is granted only at stage four but, once a day, the user is granted invisibilty and improved night vision for 180 seconds. Cure - x674x ------------ There are two ways to cure vampirism. As a vampire, talk to an innkeeper about rumors and they'll point you to a mage named Falion who can heal you if you capture a humanoid soul in a Black Soul Gem. You can buy the gem from him and you must either cast Soul Trap or use a Soul Trap weapon when killing a humanoid to capture their soul. Bring it back to him and he will meet you at sunrise at a summoning circle outside of town to cure you. He may refuse if you have reached stage four so feed first before doing this. The other method of curing yourself is to drink the blood of a werewolf. Since a werewolf has immunity to disease, becoming one will cure you of vampirism. To do this, go through the Companions quest line. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Powers, Spells, and Items x700x _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Legal x900x _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Copyright - x910x ----------------- Copyright ExtremePhobia (Brandon Fusco) 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to host is granted to: GameFAQs SuperCheats gamingreality This guide is mine, all other marks, names and Skyrim logo are trademarked or copywrite Bethesda or their other respective holders. Thanks - x920x -------------- These people provided additional information that I was lacking in my guide. Thanks for the help, it saved me a lot of time. a HUGE thanks goes out to all the contributors of UESP.net, the most comprehensive wiki of Elder Scrolls information. If there's something missing here, check them out. Contact - x930x --------------- Feel free to contact me if you have anything constructive to add and please don't take offense if I don't use your submission. Like most guide writers, this isn't my day job. Please keep that in mind when you write. GuidesbyExtremePhobia AT gmail.com 338 Pages 134,000 Words 600,000 Hits $0.00 I don't expect compensation for my guides but every little bit helps me write my next guide so if you feel like I did a job worthy of repeating, please donate. www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BT5BJTYTEVWN4
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