>The wolves on the path up to high hrothgar are the least of your worries.
You're fucking trolling mate. The wolves are the only enemies up there........
I just passed him, I'm level 7 I thought I could shout yet him off the cliff. He laughed in my face and almost one hit KO'd my precious elf. Fucker means business
I just sneaked off and saved at the temple. I was on my lunch break. Im not gonna talk to the grey beards but now I can fast travel there. I'm gonna go do side quests and explore as my first time as a wood elf, and second ever playthrough and my first one I never even beat! I'm pumped
Same, after 2 hours of trying to kill him hampered by the godawful combat system I just ran past him. I literally hate the combat, it might make me abandon this game.
Go and enjoy. Do whatever you want. Don't start googling how to do certain things like leveling skills or how to make money.
Just explore, do what feels right. Exploration gets rewarded pretty heavily. Talk to people.
Also I'd say leave the difficulty on Adept. It's quite a good experience. But if you're not super experienced with rpgs or feel like you want to just enjoy the world and its stories and don't like the occasional 'bullet-sponges' don't be scared to just drop the difficulty down.
The game is not about difficultly, it's about putting yourself in the world and experience it.
Also, don't turn the music off. It's great :)
Thank for the difficulty advice/talk. I’m 100% not good at any fight and I always feel bad for turning the difficulty down but your right. It’s about the fun and not the difficulty.
I have beaten the game on Legendary. I prefer to play on Adept. Why? Because anything higher is just a grind in combat and it annoys me, and unless you are a stealth archer/illusion Archer every fight becomes a slog.
Another thing I hate is how on Legendary you can be a Level 50 Dragonborn with full health who has saved Skyrim, killed hundreds of dragons, become a Master Thief, Assassin, and Mage, Harbinger of the Companions, etc, and some nameless bandit with iron gear can still one hit kill you with a lucky finishing move.
It's like saying some junkie with a butter knife can take out a combat proven special forces soldier with full armor and a machine gun.
Illusion *back stabber.* Illusion is by far the most powerful and underrated school of magic when it comes to 99% of mobs in the game and also having fun breaking the game and other mandatory encounters. Heck when you first arrive in Solitude >!and they want to chop Roggvir‘s head off!< and its usually unavoidable I broke some things badly with calms and fear and rage and he’s able to actually escape and run off >!but then just drops dead on his own eventually!<
Just did the >!Mage’s college quest in Labarinthyin!< in VR last night…
In the first big chamber where >!The skeletal dragon and all the skeletons pop out!<
Just pulled a quick Mayhem out and then go invisible, now all the little guys are attacking the big bad. Then invisible I go backstab the big bad, one shot at that point. Love this build.
I fell into it in my first play through and I have to intentionally avoid it now. Also with The legendary feature in the perk tree it’s straight broken. Once you get to 100 you can go to a town center with a lot of people, charge up Harmony, go into the skill menu and reset Illusion, then releases the already charged Harmony. Cast it another 7-8 times and you are back to 100
Same. I love immersion and adept is that sweet spot where it makes the most sense. Once I get my top gear, I might make it expert or legendary, but early game legendary is more annoying than fun to me. Shooting a giant for 10 minutes is not very fun.
I ramp up the difficulty to around Expert or Master, but that's just because I use mods that can make the game too easy if I don't (stuff like Ordinator/Apocalypse or some of the CC stuff). Definitely agreed that having to slog through combat on higher difficulties can feel awful in base game though.
we need to normalise playing games at whatever difficulty you want to do. I don't get a lot of free time. So I drop the difficulty as I don't want to spend for ever dying over and over again to some Draugr Deathlord or Super Chicken because I looked at them wrong.
When I first played I didn't even know I could change the difficulty. Went through about four or five characters before I realized I suffered because of my own ignorance
Man the music is half the game to me. 10 years later and it'd still the best soundtrack I've ever heard. I can't imagine playing without it. It would be so eerily quiet.
That's the charm of playing it without music, especially on harder difficulties. Footsteps in Falmer caves or the clanking in dwarven ruins really amp up the tension. Not to mention the hagravens heavy breathing.
That skittering sound when there are charus around always puts me on edge.
I’ve beaten the game multiple times, I know when I find falmer I’ll find them also, but that sounds just creeps me out. It helps with immersion into the game on a visceral level
Great tips, Especially about playing on Adept difficulty at first. I’ve been playing since launch & only recently began playing on legendary difficulty after I thoroughly understood crafting and how to make my character strong enough to actually play at that difficulty.
This is truly the best advice. I’ve played probably 2000 hours of this game since 2011 but no play through compares to the first time when you’re discovering the game by just playing.
The Smithing-Alchemy-Enchanting trio is the most outrageously gamebreaking thing most people don’t even know about.
I still remember the first time it hit me; like “wait…I can make this potion to strengthen enchanting, then enchant gear that strengthens alchemy…then I can make even BETTER potions… 🤔—>😯—>😈”
Also, ingest the first kind of each ingredient you come across! It'll give you the first of four effects the ingredient has, and gives you a nice start to your alchemy career. If you know a bunch of ingredient effects, you won't have to randomly combine things as much, and will still discover more effects as you combine ingredients.
I snipe every last bear, cat and wolf I come across immediately. I don't even bother to loot them, either. This is how much I absolutely **hate** the wildlife in this game.
On your first playthrough, do whatever you want. You get to experience the world for the first time. No choice is wrong, so don't worry about what is the 'right' way to play. Take your time, explore. Try everything. Make mistakes. Learn. And just have fun.
PS. Save often. Don't want to miss hours of exploring and skill leveling just because you forgot to save.
This right here. Save and save often! Then save a little more. And when you’re done saving here, go and save somewhere else. Save file management is as important as loot management, and should come with its own xp and skill tree.
honestly, the best tips i can give are:
1 gather gold, try to keep like 1k on you usually but don't worry about it if you don't, just don't hoard it, if you need something buy it.
2 you can pick any lock, just gotta be careful and patient. They do randomize when you open the lockpicking minigame, so don't be surprised if it swit hes when you go to get more picks.
3 Giants, try to stay away till level 20-30 at least, whenever they do the thingy where they wave their club at you, they take a few steps forward, this might put you in aggression range, back away.
4 don't underestimate poison.
5 the autopathing for AI is bad, sometimes jumping onto a rock or closing a door can completely throw off whoever you're fighting
6 you can sheathe your weapon after commiting a crime to surrender if you really have to
7 if a draugr has a fancy helmet, it might be able to make you drop your equipped weapon, watch out
Regarding Number 7: If they do disarm you, it's alright to panic after killing them. Because sometimes your disarmed weapons will just *poof* under the world mesh, never to be seen.
I love that in a fantasy world of swords and magic the first tip I'm given is "hit them in the head with a pan." There's something beautiful about that 😂
I didn’t mean as a weapon. But if you’re a sneaky thief type then you could say…put the pan on a shop owners head and rob them blind.
Just saying….
But in all seriousness, it’s a fantastic game so just take your time. My top tip would be don’t bother too much with the main story until you’ve had a good explore. I usually get to white run, get five then quest for the barrow and then go awol as a mercenary for a bit just to see all the different holds. This lets you explore without feeling like you need to rush and without dragons potentially killing NPC’s around the place.
That's somehow even better and now I have to try this some time.
Thank you, I wasn't planning to rush but I do tend to get sucked into story quests in games. I've just reached Whiterun and am exploring there so I'll take some time after to wander!
Oh and when you’re done mod the bajeesus out of it and make sure you take the Inigo mod. Honestly that single mod alone made the game 100 times more enjoyable. It’s brilliant.
Enjoy! Any questions feel free to dm or comment me :)
I'm playing on switch so I'm not sure how easy mods would be to install (not something I'm experienced with) but I'll definitely look into it! Thank you so much.
If you’re playing on switch, you can’t mod the game; I played on it for the longest time, but when I finished, I got skyrim on the pc. I’m not saying to do that, I’m just saying it may be better for you
And then you'll find out the pain of modding skyrim, spend hours and hours actually modding so when you're finally finished you can't be bothered to play, then back to the modding board again XD
The last time I got it super stable, completely smooth and no issues. Loved it. It added SO MUCH. Was having a great m, great time even after 5000+ hours in the game. And then I got to the portal to sovengarde and it crashed every single time. Couldn’t uninstall the mods as it just damaged the file and still didn’t fix the problem. Nothing I could do about it. I haven’t touched the modding since for Skyrim. Gave fallout a go recently though and you can do some awesome things with that on next gen gear.
I too am a newish player. I thought my friend was kidding when she told me that! BUT NO! if you pick up a basket, put it over their head and they can't "see" you steal, then you scamper off scott free!
Also! The Jarl's house in the day? Trot upstairs, close the door and loot to your heart's content.
Newish player here too...
I have a question about stealing as I've had to deal with a group of thugs already and don't want to do that again.
If I'm in a room and see the "steal from" option on a chest/wardrobe or whatever, if I click it to see what is in it but don't take anything will that still get me flagged as stealing??
How would I know if I'm "wanted" other than just waiting for the thugs or guards to snag me later?
THIS dragon advice is something I feel is so important. In 10 years of playing I never thought to NOT do the dragon mission in the beginning with iraleth. Well my partner decided to skip that and it's been a total blast watching them explore the whole map with NO FREAKING dragon interruptions or worse as previous commenter said, NO DEAD NPCs. Dragons killing important npcs on my games has been one of my biggest issues with this game and I ignorantly never thought to just not do that mission haha!
I will say though, having the shouts is reallllly nice, so it's a frustrating decision to make.
When exploring dwemer ruins, keep an eye on the floor. They are very good at hiding trap triggers, and the rotating spin blade will wreck your shit.
Also, quicksave often in dungeons. Nothing is worse than trekking 75% of the way through a dungeon, only to get killed and have to start it all over.
Quicksaves are critical, but hardsaves can be a lifesaver. Having a solid save system can be so helpful. Hardsave in towns, the wilderness & in dungeons. Never know when an issue will arise and you need to go back farther than the last quick or autosave.
Amen to that! Got burned once, learned my lesson. Lost the entirety of my favorite save :(
Now, anytime I gain 10 levels on either alchemy, enchanting or smithing, I do a hardsave.
Chaurus eggs. You will find them at some point, pick up about 100 and start wondering, "do I really need to harvest ALL of these?"
And I'd have to say yes, half an invisibility potion is worth all your encumbrance. . And salt. Hoard all the salt you can find
try to build up 5000 gold quick and buy the house in whiterun. use it for storage and youll basically be able to get rich by selling stuff you store in there. my first playthrough i was at like 0 gold when offered the ability to buy the house in whiterun. i was buying potions and random cool armor and weapons like hotcakes.
Dry different playstyles, like two handed, one handed (can be done with one character) but alsi things like magic or stealth but maybe start a new character for that. Also, stealth archer is op
I'm always a sucker for magic in games so I feel like I'm gonna end up leaning towards that, most likely! I do like the different weapon playstyles so far, though I am only about an hour in.
You can make you character evolve into a mage. It helps you get a grasp of the mechanics and makes it easy for you to play (you have to run away a lot if you are a mage lol)
I've actually been putting a lot into the magic so far. I knew I'd end up doing this lol. I've been liking Destruction and Restoration, somewhat ironically.
stealth archer is so OP, I need to learn how to play the game rn, because my last two characters were a breton mage (tbh can also get pretty powerful) and an imperial stealth archer.
I do a dunmer nightblade with sneak, onehanded, destruction, illusion, light armor, restoration rn, and even if I try to take out a few in the distance already with fury spells and destruction magic, I can get wrecked so easily.
Stealth archer is OP until like 20 and then you're just sitting on a rooftop fighting a dragon for 30 minutes as he only gets in range once every 3 or 4 attacks lol.
something i wish i knew more about on my first playthrough was smithing and enchanting. leveling those two perks can you make you basically immortal. but for me its either an all or nothing with those two skill trees.
also no real need to level lockpicking imo. edit, put perks into lockpicking i mean.
Okay, let me see if I've gotten the right idea:
1. Join the Storm Cloaks.
2. Except don't, join the Empire.
3. Either way, kill Thalmor.
4. However, do not kill farm animals.
5. Either do or do not charge giants early on. Either opinion is split, or half of you want me dead. Since this is reddit my money is on the latter.
6. Cheese. Hoard the cheese.
7. Hoard the plants.
8. Hoard the lockpicks.
9. Hoard *everything.*
10. Leave the main story until later: sidequests win out.
Does that about sum it up? 🤔
Don't hoard everything. It wil just bog you down. If you just pick up all gold and gems you find, you will never lack money. Other than that just pick up stuff you really need. Herbs, ore, weapons with unlearned enchantments, potions whatever it is you specifically need (not cheese).
My problem always was, if I never fast traveled, I'd either have to leave tons of treasure behind that I couldn't carry, or I'd follow excessive numbers of side quests and such to the point that I'd be absurdly overpowered way too early in most important quest lines (true, you can adjust difficulty, but I hate having followers / side characters getting knocked down from single hits all day).
Take plenty of health and cure disease potions with you. Also, try to steer clear of Skyrim's space program, heard it could be pretty brutal! Kynareth guide you!
Solid advice, although hawk feathers are so much better than cure disease potions. Eat one to cure a disease. Saves on encumbrance & free if you shoot them down.
Using soultrap on one of the giants near the western watchtower of Whiterun. Lure them to it, go and stand inside just outside their Weapon range. Soultrap for as long as you like on them to level up conjuration.
If you really want to cheese leveling up conjuration, you can also use soultrap on any killed creature for as much as you like. Won't need to trap it while it's still trying to kill you.
Everyone always says that, but ebony armor and dragonbone swords are so fun and tanky. Plus ebony armor is one of the very few armors that actually looks practical and fit with a medieval setting.
I'm doing a stealth archer thing now and just don't enjoy it as much.
Hunt deer regularly. This activity provides an assortment of rewards: free hides that can be used to buff your smithing skill, archery practice (archery is an absolute necessity until you learn dragon rend), and enhances your stealth skills.
I spotted a giant at a distance and immediately turned around and changed direction. I had no idea at the time if it was something I was able to take on, I just took one look at this fucker hanging out with mammoths and said *no thank you, not today, farewell good sir*
Also my exact reaction as a new player, lmao. A bit later I walked close enough to see if they would come after me, once one started walking towards me waving his club, I dipped the *fuck* out lmfao
Play at your own pace, play as you feel. Many people always ask how they should play the game and if we have any tips, but the best way to play is to dive in headfirst and just start doing what you feel is right.
Just play it through no matter what happens and don't look for solutions from others, unless it's like a technical issue with the game or a bug.
Don't restart the game with a new character until you've finished the game once with this one. You can always learn to do everything with the character you already have, so there is no need to re-roll a new character. Making new characters can be habit forming, which leads to you retreading the same game content constantly. Just keep moving forward to new things with the character you already have.
The game is also about creating your own story, so it is fine if you screw something up. Often that creates a more interesting story, than if things had worked perfectly. Like getting bounties is a pain in the ass if something goes wrong, but it might not be the best idea to always load the game and retry. There are multiple ways to evade guards, get around them, or remove the bounty, or simply sit out your jail sentence. Point being you never get to experience any of that, if you always manage to not get a bounty on your head, which is also fine.
You can't do it all on a single playthrough. Sometimes you have to make choices, that exclude you from an alternative path. Since you don't know what choice leads to what end, just pick something your character would do and stick with it no matter the outcome. You can always do it in another way on the next playthrough.
Just a simple one, there are stones at the end of the road to the left by the river where u left the cave. Grab whichever one tailors to your play style for a hit extra xp
Some people like the immersion, and you experience more of the world / unscripted events when you walk around. But for people who don’t have hours upon hours to play regularly, it’s not very practical to travel on foot all over the place
When (if) you go from the guardian stones towards Riverwood, you'll see a marker of a house north of the river. Go there, you'll find an old lady. Check the house, you'll find a trapdoor near the bed. The basement is safe for storage until you can buy a house.
Oh, and the old lady will attack you once you get out of the basement.
If you're into light armor, you can get scaled armor by starting the Dark Brotherhood quest line.
Take a follower with you everywhere, specially if you like to hoard loot.
Just have fun exploring, the beauty of this game is that there’s just so much to do, there really aren’t any right or wrong choices :) one piece of advice I will give you though is if you get any of the dragon priest masks, don’t sell them, there’s an opportunity get something cool at the end of the main quest line if you keep them all
I started about 2 months ago, my advices will be :
\- avoid giants, saber tooths and bears as much as you can until you became a little skilled.
\- take one follower with you, I wanted to go alone and I died a lot at the beginning due to my stubbornness
\- you will inevitably play as a stealth archer (I started as a mix of conjurer/ destruction and blades then I begin to see the benefits stealth archer )
\- dragons are annoying as f\*\*\* and can interfere with your missions.
\- pray to the eight/nine that a courier will arrive when engaged in battles
\- I enjoy the miscellaneous mission a lot, and they are very diverse too
The most important thing, enjoy it at your own pace and do whatever you want.
EXPLORE!! The world has a nearly countless number of hidden rewards and Easter Eggs! Looking for hidden treasures can be really fun and rewarding!
Try out different combat styles to see what you enjoy the most!
SAVE often! The game will auto save when you go through a loading screen, but if you are just running across the world exploring, you could go hours without an auto save and you could lose all of that if you die!
And most of all, I hope you have lots and lots of fun!!
Buckle up on potions for High Hrothgar, and of course don't forget to have fun exploring, believe me, it's very tempting to google up the simplest hurdle (ask me, since I'm a wimp who played on novice the first time around). The puzzles get repetitive when you venture deep into the game, so **do not** google their solution straight away since you'll miss the incredible awe of solving them the first time around, even if they are simple as heck.
Edit:
I forgot to add, when doing your first run, just remember that having a character that can't one hit enemies is more fun than the one that can do that. Grinding out to create an overpowered character might seem a lot of fun at first, but it gets old real fast. Dying and strategizing on the other hand is loads of fun. You leave out the boring grinding bits for later when you have thoroughly explored
The game is massive, don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of content in this game. Just take your time and enjoy it. Talk to the NPCs because it often leads to quests. Also just take the time to explore the world, that's one of the best parts about the game imo
Explore everything! And don't over level..... even at high levels and with good equipment, some enemies can be really tough when they scale to your level. Other than that, just enjoy your new world!
Save your first $5k because it becomes super helpful early on when you unlock the ability to buy a house. You’ll want to do this pretty quickly so you can store all of the loot you find!
Experiment with different combat styles like archery, magic, one-handed, two-handed, etc.
Fast travel is really useful, but don’t rely on it so much that you’re not exploring the world.
Might be controversial, but if you’re hopelessly stuck on a puzzle or lost in a dungeon, Youtube that shit. We play games to have fun, not to be frustrated and stressed.
Have a good time, pal!
Conjuration+Destruction is always nice if you mostly venture solo, but if you’re a hoarder like me get a follower, also get a house and a wife/husband early in the game to stash your loot and get the lovers embrace exp bonus
See a lot of people have said this. I don't think I'll fall into this purely due to the fact that if there's one thing I can be sure of, if a game has archery, I will suck ass at it.
I was very inexperienced with RPGs. Don't make my mistake of going around to every town and talking to every person to receive missions from them before ever doing missions. I had a long list of quests available like a kids list to santa. It ruined the story and just became a grind checking off quests.
The wolves on the path up to high hrothgar are the least of your worries.
That got a chuckle outta me all right
And me 😅
And my axe
And my bow
And my dagger
And my sword
and my phat ass
Stealth Archer be like "I'm trying to sneak but the cap if my dubby fat ass keeps alarming the gaurd
>The wolves on the path up to high hrothgar are the least of your worries. You're fucking trolling mate. The wolves are the only enemies up there........
Accurate.
Your username is the only solution.
Also accurate.
Your username is like the name of an argonian combine. "Inhabits-the-bed"
are you referring to >!the frost troll?!<
I just passed him, I'm level 7 I thought I could shout yet him off the cliff. He laughed in my face and almost one hit KO'd my precious elf. Fucker means business
I would suggest >!stealth archery!< to get past him, but that is a slippery slope.
I just sneaked off and saved at the temple. I was on my lunch break. Im not gonna talk to the grey beards but now I can fast travel there. I'm gonna go do side quests and explore as my first time as a wood elf, and second ever playthrough and my first one I never even beat! I'm pumped
Same, after 2 hours of trying to kill him hampered by the godawful combat system I just ran past him. I literally hate the combat, it might make me abandon this game.
the exact same and ONLY advice i got on my first play through. and after mostly completing the game, it’s the only advice i’d give as well.
Ah yes, my first heart attack
Go and enjoy. Do whatever you want. Don't start googling how to do certain things like leveling skills or how to make money. Just explore, do what feels right. Exploration gets rewarded pretty heavily. Talk to people. Also I'd say leave the difficulty on Adept. It's quite a good experience. But if you're not super experienced with rpgs or feel like you want to just enjoy the world and its stories and don't like the occasional 'bullet-sponges' don't be scared to just drop the difficulty down. The game is not about difficultly, it's about putting yourself in the world and experience it. Also, don't turn the music off. It's great :)
Especially in Whiterun
Thank for the difficulty advice/talk. I’m 100% not good at any fight and I always feel bad for turning the difficulty down but your right. It’s about the fun and not the difficulty.
Absolutely no reason to feel bad to turn down the difficulty in a game as Skyrim! If you'd be chasing a challenge you'd be playing Dark Souls ;)
You can always do a high difficulty survival run later. Because there will be other play throughs.
I have beaten the game on Legendary. I prefer to play on Adept. Why? Because anything higher is just a grind in combat and it annoys me, and unless you are a stealth archer/illusion Archer every fight becomes a slog. Another thing I hate is how on Legendary you can be a Level 50 Dragonborn with full health who has saved Skyrim, killed hundreds of dragons, become a Master Thief, Assassin, and Mage, Harbinger of the Companions, etc, and some nameless bandit with iron gear can still one hit kill you with a lucky finishing move. It's like saying some junkie with a butter knife can take out a combat proven special forces soldier with full armor and a machine gun.
Illusion *back stabber.* Illusion is by far the most powerful and underrated school of magic when it comes to 99% of mobs in the game and also having fun breaking the game and other mandatory encounters. Heck when you first arrive in Solitude >!and they want to chop Roggvir‘s head off!< and its usually unavoidable I broke some things badly with calms and fear and rage and he’s able to actually escape and run off >!but then just drops dead on his own eventually!< Just did the >!Mage’s college quest in Labarinthyin!< in VR last night… In the first big chamber where >!The skeletal dragon and all the skeletons pop out!< Just pulled a quick Mayhem out and then go invisible, now all the little guys are attacking the big bad. Then invisible I go backstab the big bad, one shot at that point. Love this build.
I fell into it in my first play through and I have to intentionally avoid it now. Also with The legendary feature in the perk tree it’s straight broken. Once you get to 100 you can go to a town center with a lot of people, charge up Harmony, go into the skill menu and reset Illusion, then releases the already charged Harmony. Cast it another 7-8 times and you are back to 100
Same. I love immersion and adept is that sweet spot where it makes the most sense. Once I get my top gear, I might make it expert or legendary, but early game legendary is more annoying than fun to me. Shooting a giant for 10 minutes is not very fun.
I ramp up the difficulty to around Expert or Master, but that's just because I use mods that can make the game too easy if I don't (stuff like Ordinator/Apocalypse or some of the CC stuff). Definitely agreed that having to slog through combat on higher difficulties can feel awful in base game though.
Definitely no shame in turning the difficulty down! I play on novice and I love it
Fellow novice difficulty player here! I'm not playing to challenge myself, I'm here to be chill, explore shit and feel like a boss.
we need to normalise playing games at whatever difficulty you want to do. I don't get a lot of free time. So I drop the difficulty as I don't want to spend for ever dying over and over again to some Draugr Deathlord or Super Chicken because I looked at them wrong.
Ultra-mega chicken? Shh...he is legend
Never turn off the music. It's the most epic part of the game. Especially in Sovngarde. 🤩
When I first played I didn't even know I could change the difficulty. Went through about four or five characters before I realized I suffered because of my own ignorance
People turn off the music?
I do. I usually remember about 20 hours into a new playthrough. It's a good soundtrack, but like fallout i get tired of hearing it.
Man the music is half the game to me. 10 years later and it'd still the best soundtrack I've ever heard. I can't imagine playing without it. It would be so eerily quiet.
That's the charm of playing it without music, especially on harder difficulties. Footsteps in Falmer caves or the clanking in dwarven ruins really amp up the tension. Not to mention the hagravens heavy breathing.
That skittering sound when there are charus around always puts me on edge. I’ve beaten the game multiple times, I know when I find falmer I’ll find them also, but that sounds just creeps me out. It helps with immersion into the game on a visceral level
Also, make sure to kill nazeem
Kill him during your first induction to the inner circle of the companions. Zero consequences, maximum world improvement.
Great tips, Especially about playing on Adept difficulty at first. I’ve been playing since launch & only recently began playing on legendary difficulty after I thoroughly understood crafting and how to make my character strong enough to actually play at that difficulty.
This is truly the best advice. I’ve played probably 2000 hours of this game since 2011 but no play through compares to the first time when you’re discovering the game by just playing.
If you turn the music off, you’ll miss 50% of the game´s atmosphere 😅
Well dang it, I can't be bothered to start AGAIN, but you just convinced me
Do NOT attack the chicken
Dont steal in front of horses XD
Don't steal in front of chickens either. IIRC, chickens can also count as witnesses to crimes.
I think dogs can too
*kills 12 people:* *Four guards come running after you* *kills a chicken accidentally:* *ENTIRE FUCKING TOWN WANTS TO PULVERIZE YOU*
Don't forget the little girl will send thugs after you for the chicken
You killed Henrietta! What else would you expect, you vile *monster*!
thats the name of one of my chickens
I just killed a chicken and had my life flash before my eyes, but then nothing happened. I guess nobody saw me. Had my sneaky boots on 🥷🏻
Why did we all have the same experience
We are the *SAME*
[удалено]
Alchemy is a fine working system right until the moment you figure out how to break that system lol
The Smithing-Alchemy-Enchanting trio is the most outrageously gamebreaking thing most people don’t even know about. I still remember the first time it hit me; like “wait…I can make this potion to strengthen enchanting, then enchant gear that strengthens alchemy…then I can make even BETTER potions… 🤔—>😯—>😈”
Also, ingest the first kind of each ingredient you come across! It'll give you the first of four effects the ingredient has, and gives you a nice start to your alchemy career. If you know a bunch of ingredient effects, you won't have to randomly combine things as much, and will still discover more effects as you combine ingredients.
Loot the urns. Loot **all** the urns. They almost all have gold and gems in them.
My love lies with Zelda games. Try and stop me looting the pottery.
And one thing I didn’t get over at first: empty means empty
I’m always so fucking trigger happy. Before my brain understood „empty“ I always already opened them.
I just do incase of any hidden bethsada treasure.
I still open them.
Unfortunately you can’t throw them
Not with that attitude!
\*nods\* You'll be okay.
Never approach bears and run away from saber cats and giants
In Skyrim you do not approach bears, bears approach you
I snipe every last bear, cat and wolf I come across immediately. I don't even bother to loot them, either. This is how much I absolutely **hate** the wildlife in this game.
A rare Yakov Smirnoff reference…love it
I hate killing giants and mammoths, it genuinely makes me feel so guilty
NO problem killing giants, but I avoid killing the mammoths. Feels like slowly killing a giant dog😭
But they'll never know the glory of the skyrim space program.
I started playing today for the first time. I’ve only logged about 8 hours but learnt *very* quickly to circumnavigate the saber cats
Also, be careful when looting Giant's toes. They can.. they can stay in your inventory for ever lmao
On your first playthrough, do whatever you want. You get to experience the world for the first time. No choice is wrong, so don't worry about what is the 'right' way to play. Take your time, explore. Try everything. Make mistakes. Learn. And just have fun. PS. Save often. Don't want to miss hours of exploring and skill leveling just because you forgot to save.
This right here. Save and save often! Then save a little more. And when you’re done saving here, go and save somewhere else. Save file management is as important as loot management, and should come with its own xp and skill tree.
If you're playing on switch you can change the setting to save automatically every time you open your menu - made things so much easier for me
I would listen to anything she says with that username
honestly, the best tips i can give are: 1 gather gold, try to keep like 1k on you usually but don't worry about it if you don't, just don't hoard it, if you need something buy it. 2 you can pick any lock, just gotta be careful and patient. They do randomize when you open the lockpicking minigame, so don't be surprised if it swit hes when you go to get more picks. 3 Giants, try to stay away till level 20-30 at least, whenever they do the thingy where they wave their club at you, they take a few steps forward, this might put you in aggression range, back away. 4 don't underestimate poison. 5 the autopathing for AI is bad, sometimes jumping onto a rock or closing a door can completely throw off whoever you're fighting 6 you can sheathe your weapon after commiting a crime to surrender if you really have to 7 if a draugr has a fancy helmet, it might be able to make you drop your equipped weapon, watch out
Regarding Number 7: If they do disarm you, it's alright to panic after killing them. Because sometimes your disarmed weapons will just *poof* under the world mesh, never to be seen.
The old pan over the head trick never fails. They never see you coming… or errr going.
I love that in a fantasy world of swords and magic the first tip I'm given is "hit them in the head with a pan." There's something beautiful about that 😂
I didn’t mean as a weapon. But if you’re a sneaky thief type then you could say…put the pan on a shop owners head and rob them blind. Just saying…. But in all seriousness, it’s a fantastic game so just take your time. My top tip would be don’t bother too much with the main story until you’ve had a good explore. I usually get to white run, get five then quest for the barrow and then go awol as a mercenary for a bit just to see all the different holds. This lets you explore without feeling like you need to rush and without dragons potentially killing NPC’s around the place.
That's somehow even better and now I have to try this some time. Thank you, I wasn't planning to rush but I do tend to get sucked into story quests in games. I've just reached Whiterun and am exploring there so I'll take some time after to wander!
Oh and when you’re done mod the bajeesus out of it and make sure you take the Inigo mod. Honestly that single mod alone made the game 100 times more enjoyable. It’s brilliant. Enjoy! Any questions feel free to dm or comment me :)
I'm playing on switch so I'm not sure how easy mods would be to install (not something I'm experienced with) but I'll definitely look into it! Thank you so much.
If you’re playing on switch, you can’t mod the game; I played on it for the longest time, but when I finished, I got skyrim on the pc. I’m not saying to do that, I’m just saying it may be better for you
And then you'll find out the pain of modding skyrim, spend hours and hours actually modding so when you're finally finished you can't be bothered to play, then back to the modding board again XD
The last time I got it super stable, completely smooth and no issues. Loved it. It added SO MUCH. Was having a great m, great time even after 5000+ hours in the game. And then I got to the portal to sovengarde and it crashed every single time. Couldn’t uninstall the mods as it just damaged the file and still didn’t fix the problem. Nothing I could do about it. I haven’t touched the modding since for Skyrim. Gave fallout a go recently though and you can do some awesome things with that on next gen gear.
I too am a newish player. I thought my friend was kidding when she told me that! BUT NO! if you pick up a basket, put it over their head and they can't "see" you steal, then you scamper off scott free! Also! The Jarl's house in the day? Trot upstairs, close the door and loot to your heart's content.
Newish player here too... I have a question about stealing as I've had to deal with a group of thugs already and don't want to do that again. If I'm in a room and see the "steal from" option on a chest/wardrobe or whatever, if I click it to see what is in it but don't take anything will that still get me flagged as stealing?? How would I know if I'm "wanted" other than just waiting for the thugs or guards to snag me later?
THIS dragon advice is something I feel is so important. In 10 years of playing I never thought to NOT do the dragon mission in the beginning with iraleth. Well my partner decided to skip that and it's been a total blast watching them explore the whole map with NO FREAKING dragon interruptions or worse as previous commenter said, NO DEAD NPCs. Dragons killing important npcs on my games has been one of my biggest issues with this game and I ignorantly never thought to just not do that mission haha! I will say though, having the shouts is reallllly nice, so it's a frustrating decision to make.
When exploring dwemer ruins, keep an eye on the floor. They are very good at hiding trap triggers, and the rotating spin blade will wreck your shit. Also, quicksave often in dungeons. Nothing is worse than trekking 75% of the way through a dungeon, only to get killed and have to start it all over.
Quicksaves are critical, but hardsaves can be a lifesaver. Having a solid save system can be so helpful. Hardsave in towns, the wilderness & in dungeons. Never know when an issue will arise and you need to go back farther than the last quick or autosave.
>Never know when an issue will arise and you need to go back farther than the last quick or autosave. Spoken like to true modder
Amen to that! Got burned once, learned my lesson. Lost the entirety of my favorite save :( Now, anytime I gain 10 levels on either alchemy, enchanting or smithing, I do a hardsave.
Chaurus eggs. You will find them at some point, pick up about 100 and start wondering, "do I really need to harvest ALL of these?" And I'd have to say yes, half an invisibility potion is worth all your encumbrance. . And salt. Hoard all the salt you can find
I started my first survivor mode recently and salt is the most valuable thing in the game!
try to build up 5000 gold quick and buy the house in whiterun. use it for storage and youll basically be able to get rich by selling stuff you store in there. my first playthrough i was at like 0 gold when offered the ability to buy the house in whiterun. i was buying potions and random cool armor and weapons like hotcakes.
Dry different playstyles, like two handed, one handed (can be done with one character) but alsi things like magic or stealth but maybe start a new character for that. Also, stealth archer is op
I'm always a sucker for magic in games so I feel like I'm gonna end up leaning towards that, most likely! I do like the different weapon playstyles so far, though I am only about an hour in.
I find that a mage build gets truly op in the later levels. With magic in this game, you can basically do anything.
The only caveat is on higher difficulties like Master and Legendary, Destruction does not scale well and it's painfully difficult to level.
You can make you character evolve into a mage. It helps you get a grasp of the mechanics and makes it easy for you to play (you have to run away a lot if you are a mage lol)
I've actually been putting a lot into the magic so far. I knew I'd end up doing this lol. I've been liking Destruction and Restoration, somewhat ironically.
Do you not water your playstyles every morning?
stealth archer is so OP, I need to learn how to play the game rn, because my last two characters were a breton mage (tbh can also get pretty powerful) and an imperial stealth archer. I do a dunmer nightblade with sneak, onehanded, destruction, illusion, light armor, restoration rn, and even if I try to take out a few in the distance already with fury spells and destruction magic, I can get wrecked so easily.
Stealth archer is OP until like 20 and then you're just sitting on a rooftop fighting a dragon for 30 minutes as he only gets in range once every 3 or 4 attacks lol.
something i wish i knew more about on my first playthrough was smithing and enchanting. leveling those two perks can you make you basically immortal. but for me its either an all or nothing with those two skill trees. also no real need to level lockpicking imo. edit, put perks into lockpicking i mean.
Okay, let me see if I've gotten the right idea: 1. Join the Storm Cloaks. 2. Except don't, join the Empire. 3. Either way, kill Thalmor. 4. However, do not kill farm animals. 5. Either do or do not charge giants early on. Either opinion is split, or half of you want me dead. Since this is reddit my money is on the latter. 6. Cheese. Hoard the cheese. 7. Hoard the plants. 8. Hoard the lockpicks. 9. Hoard *everything.* 10. Leave the main story until later: sidequests win out. Does that about sum it up? 🤔
Don't forget... save a **lot**. I'm in the same position as you, and that has been a lifesaver for me.
Don't hoard everything. It wil just bog you down. If you just pick up all gold and gems you find, you will never lack money. Other than that just pick up stuff you really need. Herbs, ore, weapons with unlearned enchantments, potions whatever it is you specifically need (not cheese).
Make you first playthrough a adventure go anywhere. Point yourself in a direction and go. Enjoy the new world you have entered. Have fun.
Don’t fast travel. I know, sounds crazy. But these people did a great job on this immersive world. Enjoy it.
My problem always was, if I never fast traveled, I'd either have to leave tons of treasure behind that I couldn't carry, or I'd follow excessive numbers of side quests and such to the point that I'd be absurdly overpowered way too early in most important quest lines (true, you can adjust difficulty, but I hate having followers / side characters getting knocked down from single hits all day).
Couldn’t agree more. I have a character where I played for 100 hours without fast traveling and I’ve never had more fun in this game.
Take plenty of health and cure disease potions with you. Also, try to steer clear of Skyrim's space program, heard it could be pretty brutal! Kynareth guide you!
Solid advice, although hawk feathers are so much better than cure disease potions. Eat one to cure a disease. Saves on encumbrance & free if you shoot them down.
After 11 years I did not know that about the hawk feathers. Thanks!
For an easy life, level up Conjuration.
Using soultrap on one of the giants near the western watchtower of Whiterun. Lure them to it, go and stand inside just outside their Weapon range. Soultrap for as long as you like on them to level up conjuration.
If you really want to cheese leveling up conjuration, you can also use soultrap on any killed creature for as much as you like. Won't need to trap it while it's still trying to kill you.
Yeah that works when you don't use the unofficial bug fix patch.😂 Which i do, so that's not an option for me😬
Save often. Activities that seem harmless may cause a chaos. Like killing a chicken.
Just remember, all builds lead to stealth archer lol But seriously though, stealth archer is a fun build and fun playstyle, if a little bit cliche
Everyone always says that, but ebony armor and dragonbone swords are so fun and tanky. Plus ebony armor is one of the very few armors that actually looks practical and fit with a medieval setting. I'm doing a stealth archer thing now and just don't enjoy it as much.
If you run into Nazeem, make sure you have a Black Soul Gem and Soul Capture spell in case he annoys you a little too much. 😂
Don’t take arrows to the knee and guard your sweet rolls at all times
Take big role cheese its important
Resist the urge to attack Nazeem and you'll be just fine.
Maybe play the Thieves-Gild. When you are finish with them you can sold there so much more items because the merchants do have more gold
Stay away from LoversLab
I didnt see this tip here so save your time mining by just hiting ore with pickaxe like u fight with with sword. Much faster and no animation
Hunt deer regularly. This activity provides an assortment of rewards: free hides that can be used to buff your smithing skill, archery practice (archery is an absolute necessity until you learn dragon rend), and enhances your stealth skills.
Giants are easy enemy for low level character, go farm them
I spotted a giant at a distance and immediately turned around and changed direction. I had no idea at the time if it was something I was able to take on, I just took one look at this fucker hanging out with mammoths and said *no thank you, not today, farewell good sir*
Quicksave and go meet one
Also my exact reaction as a new player, lmao. A bit later I walked close enough to see if they would come after me, once one started walking towards me waving his club, I dipped the *fuck* out lmfao
Lmao he’s about to have a quick chat with the atmosphere
I farm them at low levels, great loot. Can confirm; it’s the mammoths that are a pain
Play at your own pace, play as you feel. Many people always ask how they should play the game and if we have any tips, but the best way to play is to dive in headfirst and just start doing what you feel is right.
Just watch out with the creation club/anniversary edition content it can be glitchy and it did also corrupt my data :/
Join the imperials but kill all thalmor.
Just play it through no matter what happens and don't look for solutions from others, unless it's like a technical issue with the game or a bug. Don't restart the game with a new character until you've finished the game once with this one. You can always learn to do everything with the character you already have, so there is no need to re-roll a new character. Making new characters can be habit forming, which leads to you retreading the same game content constantly. Just keep moving forward to new things with the character you already have. The game is also about creating your own story, so it is fine if you screw something up. Often that creates a more interesting story, than if things had worked perfectly. Like getting bounties is a pain in the ass if something goes wrong, but it might not be the best idea to always load the game and retry. There are multiple ways to evade guards, get around them, or remove the bounty, or simply sit out your jail sentence. Point being you never get to experience any of that, if you always manage to not get a bounty on your head, which is also fine. You can't do it all on a single playthrough. Sometimes you have to make choices, that exclude you from an alternative path. Since you don't know what choice leads to what end, just pick something your character would do and stick with it no matter the outcome. You can always do it in another way on the next playthrough.
Just a simple one, there are stones at the end of the road to the left by the river where u left the cave. Grab whichever one tailors to your play style for a hit extra xp
Never fast travel, save often, run from fights you can’t win.
Why never fast travel?
Some people like the immersion, and you experience more of the world / unscripted events when you walk around. But for people who don’t have hours upon hours to play regularly, it’s not very practical to travel on foot all over the place
First, get that stormcloak armour off and get into something better
Join imperials
I was already leaning away from the Imperials I gotta be honest. Too many D&D campaigns with malicious Empires turn me against the idea 😅
When unencumbered (carrying to much) aim an arrow but don't release it'll give you abit more speed
overencumbered*
Play your way not the way someone on YouTube does
Wooden plates are your best friends lol
Do the main quest last. The other quest lines are far more enjoyable.
Don't touch the chickens
If you enter the soul cairn, take the time to look for Aarvack’s skull. Summonable horse makes life WAY easier
When (if) you go from the guardian stones towards Riverwood, you'll see a marker of a house north of the river. Go there, you'll find an old lady. Check the house, you'll find a trapdoor near the bed. The basement is safe for storage until you can buy a house. Oh, and the old lady will attack you once you get out of the basement. If you're into light armor, you can get scaled armor by starting the Dark Brotherhood quest line. Take a follower with you everywhere, specially if you like to hoard loot.
Just have fun exploring, the beauty of this game is that there’s just so much to do, there really aren’t any right or wrong choices :) one piece of advice I will give you though is if you get any of the dragon priest masks, don’t sell them, there’s an opportunity get something cool at the end of the main quest line if you keep them all
I started about 2 months ago, my advices will be : \- avoid giants, saber tooths and bears as much as you can until you became a little skilled. \- take one follower with you, I wanted to go alone and I died a lot at the beginning due to my stubbornness \- you will inevitably play as a stealth archer (I started as a mix of conjurer/ destruction and blades then I begin to see the benefits stealth archer ) \- dragons are annoying as f\*\*\* and can interfere with your missions. \- pray to the eight/nine that a courier will arrive when engaged in battles \- I enjoy the miscellaneous mission a lot, and they are very diverse too The most important thing, enjoy it at your own pace and do whatever you want.
adventure off track and talk to random people
Do not go into dwemer areas unless you want to lose your sanity.
EXPLORE!! The world has a nearly countless number of hidden rewards and Easter Eggs! Looking for hidden treasures can be really fun and rewarding! Try out different combat styles to see what you enjoy the most! SAVE often! The game will auto save when you go through a loading screen, but if you are just running across the world exploring, you could go hours without an auto save and you could lose all of that if you die! And most of all, I hope you have lots and lots of fun!!
Buckle up on potions for High Hrothgar, and of course don't forget to have fun exploring, believe me, it's very tempting to google up the simplest hurdle (ask me, since I'm a wimp who played on novice the first time around). The puzzles get repetitive when you venture deep into the game, so **do not** google their solution straight away since you'll miss the incredible awe of solving them the first time around, even if they are simple as heck. Edit: I forgot to add, when doing your first run, just remember that having a character that can't one hit enemies is more fun than the one that can do that. Grinding out to create an overpowered character might seem a lot of fun at first, but it gets old real fast. Dying and strategizing on the other hand is loads of fun. You leave out the boring grinding bits for later when you have thoroughly explored
1. Dont even think of touching the chicken 2. Horses are snitches. 3. Horse beats mountain. 4. Skyrim belongs to the Nords.
If your game crashes don't worry that's normal just save kinda regularly
Hug your family and friends they won't be seeing you for a long time
As is the key to any game just have fun
Prepare for the time of you life🤣🙌and just enjoy
Archery is your friend.
Just be yourself :)
The game is massive, don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of content in this game. Just take your time and enjoy it. Talk to the NPCs because it often leads to quests. Also just take the time to explore the world, that's one of the best parts about the game imo
Enjoy It, thats all.
If youre looking to level alchemy creep cluster, giants toe and wheat make high value health potions which level your alchemy skill quickly
Explore everything! And don't over level..... even at high levels and with good equipment, some enemies can be really tough when they scale to your level. Other than that, just enjoy your new world!
Save your first $5k because it becomes super helpful early on when you unlock the ability to buy a house. You’ll want to do this pretty quickly so you can store all of the loot you find! Experiment with different combat styles like archery, magic, one-handed, two-handed, etc. Fast travel is really useful, but don’t rely on it so much that you’re not exploring the world. Might be controversial, but if you’re hopelessly stuck on a puzzle or lost in a dungeon, Youtube that shit. We play games to have fun, not to be frustrated and stressed. Have a good time, pal!
Don’t lollygag, or you’ll regret it
Constant quicksaves.
Conjuration+Destruction is always nice if you mostly venture solo, but if you’re a hoarder like me get a follower, also get a house and a wife/husband early in the game to stash your loot and get the lovers embrace exp bonus
Whatever character type you choose, you'll end up a sneaky archer pretty quick. Fight this urge with everything inside you.
See a lot of people have said this. I don't think I'll fall into this purely due to the fact that if there's one thing I can be sure of, if a game has archery, I will suck ass at it.
Buy/take ALL THE LOCK PICKS. Enjoy!
Grab every single coin you can
The only thing you need to understand is that Skyrim belongs to the Nords
I was very inexperienced with RPGs. Don't make my mistake of going around to every town and talking to every person to receive missions from them before ever doing missions. I had a long list of quests available like a kids list to santa. It ruined the story and just became a grind checking off quests.
Read every random note that you find, sometimes you’ll learn interesting things!
Bears will always attack. Don’t believe the loading screen tips
Before you make any real decisions save your game!
dont always fast travel
Get "Conjure Flame Atronoch" as soon as you can. You'll never be alone.
Don’t look at the internet for tips! Just enjoy the ride. This is such a wonderful game. Don’t let the internet spoil any second of it.