Skyrim Enchanting Guide
with Weapons and Armor Enchantment Lists
Skyrim's Enchanting skill allows you to place magical effects on your weapons and armor. This guide teaches the basics of Enchanting in Skyrim, such as how to enchant an item. I also cover more advanced topics like how you can boost the strength of your enhancements higher, and provides a full list of enchantments by weapon and armor types.
How to Enchant
Here's a quick summary of how to enchant an item. You must have a soul gem and know an enchantment. Disenchanting items goes similarly - you lose the enchanted item to learn the enhancement permanently. Further into the guide, you'll find detailed information filling soul gems, the soul trap spell, and using advanced enchanting in Skyrim.
- 1. Head to an Arcane Enchanter with a soul gem that contains a soul. You can find one in whiterun in the castle, Farengar Secret-Fire's room near the throne.
- 2. Bring up the menu by activating the enchanter and select the item you'd like to enchant OR disenchant (which teaches you how to do that enchantment).
- 3. You can now choose a weapon, armor, or jewelry to enchant. Different item types accept different enchantments.
- 4. Select the enchantment and its strenght, where applicable. If none are available, you first need to disenchant items to learn those enchantments.
- 5. Pick the soul gem you'd like to use. The soul gem's size determines the strength of the enchantments. If you cannot enchant, it means the soul gem is too weak and you need a stronger one.
- 6. You can select 2 enchants if you have the Extra Enchant Perk.
Using Enchanting & Gaining Levels
There are three ways you gain Enchanting skill experience - Disenchanting items to learn to do that enchantment, recharging weapons with soul gems, and performing the enchantments themselves. The more valuable the enchantments, the more experience will be received. Enchanting benefits all characters in Skyrim eventually, so it's a skill you'll definitely want to develop on a high-level character.
Enchanting Trainer: Sergius Turrianus is an Expert Enchanting Trainer, found in The College of Winterhold. You must complete the entrance quest to access him.
Disenchanting: How to Learn Enchantments
To learn an Enchant, simply take a magical item to an Arcane Enchanter and use the Disenchant option. The item will be lost, but you'll gain Enchanting experience and learn the item's enchantment permanently. Disenchanting more valuable items gives more experience, so don't be afraid to break something nice if you need the xp and want to know how to do that enchant. Earlier on, it's harder to replace a good item, but with points invested in Enchanting Perks, your Dragonborn will come to make more powerful enchants than can be found on most items.
Soul Gems
Soul gems are used to enchant items. The bigger the soul, the stronger the enchant. Soul Gems contain the souls of creatures and people in Skyrim. They come in a variety of sizes - Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, and Grand. Each can hold a soul up to its stated size. Black Soul gems are the only type that can hold a person's soul, which is the equivalent of a Grand Soul which you can get from a mammoth. This limitation prevents you from getting powerful souls from every bandit on the countryside.
Every creature in Skyrim has a soul size - that is, if it has a soul. Dwemer machines don't have souls, for example. Casting soul trap will store a creature's soul in the smallest possible soul gem when it's killed. You'll need a soul gem to enchant an item, and the size of the soul used determines the strength of the enchantment.
It's best not to waste larger Soul Gems on enemies with small souls. If you only have greater soul gems, only cast soul trap on powerful enemies to avoid putting a Skeever with a petty soul into a grand soul gem! This is especially important if you're running around with a weapon enchanted with soul trap. Use soul trap weapons as an alternate to avoid wasting them, or better, simply use the soul trap spell.
Soul Gems allow you to recharge weapons that have run out of magical energy. The amount of charge replenished is determined, again, by the size of the soul used. Recharging items with soul gems gives you XP proportionate to how much charge was restored.
Filling Soul Gems & Getting the Soul Trap Spell
To fill a soul gem, have one in your inventory while either killing an enemy with a weapon that contains the soul trap enchantment, or using the soul trap spell itself. You can learn the soul trap spell from Farengar Secret-Fire at Dragonsreach in Whiterun. There is also an Arcane Enchhanter there, along with an Alchemy Table.
Enchanting and Improving Enchant Strength
Once you have a soul gem, along with a non-magical piece of gear, and have learned an enchant from Disenchanting an item, head to an Arcane Enchanter to perform your Enchants. There you can select the gear, which soul strength you'll use, and the enchant(s) you will place on the item. You can place two enchantments on one item with the Extra Effect Perk from level 100 Enchanting.
You can boost your Enchants using potions of Fortify Enchanting. These can be bought in shops or crafted with Alchemy yourself. You cannot enchant gear with Fortify Enchanting, but you can push the strength of your potions by using Fortify Alchemy on gear. The process goes like this:
- Use a Fortify Enchanting Potion
- Enchant gear with Fortify Alchemy
- Wear Fortify Alchemy Gear to make a stronger Enchanting Potion
Repeat this process, on a second set of gear that will have an even stronger Fortify Alchemy boost. By doing so, you can push the strength of your enchants by about 30%. Wearing a Falmer Helmet with a Circlet is a bug exploit, but will allow you to wear two helmets to get double the Fortify Alchemy boost. By the way, if you have the Extra Effect perk, you can make your Alchemy Gear also boost Smithing, so that you have a great set of crafting gear!
Fortify Enchanting Herbs: Blue Butterfly Wing, Hagraven Claw, Snowberries, and Spriggan Sap all provide this Alchemy effect.
Skyrim Enchantments List
Here are all learnable Enchantments of Skyrim, listed by armor type. Below, you'll find a list of weapon enchantments, along with a few rare enchants.
Armor Enchanting List by Type
| Enchantment Type | Body | Helm | Glove | Boot | Neck | Ring |
| Fortify Alchemy | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Alteration | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Alteration & Magicka Regen | X | |||||
| Fortify Archery | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Barter | X | |||||
| Fortify Block | X | X | X | |||
| Fortify Carry Weight | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Conjuration | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Conjuration & Magicka Regen | X | |||||
| Fortify Destruction | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Destruction & Magicka Regen | X | |||||
| Fortify Health Regen | X | X | X | |||
| Fortify Health | X | X | X | |||
| Fortify Heavy Armor | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Illusion | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Illusion & Magicka Regen | X | |||||
| Fortify Light Armor | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Lockpicking | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Magicka | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Magicka-Regen | X | X | X | |||
| Fortify One-Handed | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Pickpocket | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Restoration | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Restoration & Magicka Regen | X | |||||
| Fortify Smithing | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Sneak | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Stamina | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Stamina Regen | X | X | X | |||
| Fortify Two-Handed | X | X | X | X | ||
| Fortify Unarmed | X | X | ||||
| Muffle | X | |||||
| Resist Disease | X | X | X | |||
| Resist Fire | X | X | X | |||
| Resist Frost | X | X | X | |||
| Resist Magic | X | X | ||||
| Resist Poison | X | X | X | |||
| Resist Shock | X | X | X | |||
| Water Breathing | X | X | X |
Shield Enchants
| Fortify Block | Fortify Health | Resist Disease | Resist Fire |
| Resist Frost | Resist Magic | Resist Poison | Resist Shock |
Weapon Enchants
| Absorb Health | Absorb Magicka | Absorb Stamina | Banish |
| Fear | Fire Damage | Frost Damage | Magicka Damage |
| Paralyze | Shock Damage | Soul Trap | Stamina Damage |
| Turn Undead |
There are four rare weapon enchantments in Skyrim...
- Fiery Soul Trap - Found rarely on weapons in shops. One can usually be found in Ironbind Barrow. This is the only rare enchant that is particularly good. It deals fire damage, while also casting soul trap. One way to get "three" enchantments on one weapon.
- Huntsman's Prowess - comes from Poacher's Axe in Halted Stream Camp. This enchant adds to damage against animals.
- Notched Pickaxe - Boosts smithing skill by 5 levels. Not particularly great, the pickaxe is probably best kept as your Pickaxe, rather than being destroyed. You cannot, after all, put this enchant on two pickaxes and dual wield them to get +10. Find it at Throat of the World during the main quest.
- Silent Moons - find Weapons with this enchantment Northwest of Whiterun in Silent Moons Camp. Causes weapons to deal bonus damage at night.
Enchanting Perks
Enchanter (5 Ranks, 20% Each)
(level 0/20/40/60/80 Enchanting Skill required)
You'll want all five points in this Perk, to make your Enchants twice as powerful. Worth every point!
Soul Squeezer
(level 20 Enchanting Skill required)
Soul gems recharge items even more. Totally optional, just like the next.
Soul Siphon
(level 40 Enchanting Skill required)
Killing creatures (but not people) will recharge a weapon by a small degree, which can return some of your charge costs, making magical weapons last longer. Not necessary to be a great Enchanter.
Insightful Enchanter
(level 50 Enchanting Skill required)
Fortify Skill enchantments on armor are 25% stronger. Very important when trying to make the most powerful enchants, as it will boost your Fortify Alchemy enchants on your crafting gear.
Corpus Enchanter
(level 70 Enchanting Skill required)
Health, Magicka, and Stamina Enchantments on armor are 25% stronger.
Fire Enchanter
(level 30 Enchanting Skill required)
Fire Enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. Fire deals the most direct damage. I consider this one important, you may not need the other two damaging types as badly.
Frost Enchanter
(level 40 Enchanting Skill required)
Frost Enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. Frost damage reduces Stamina along with health.
Storm Enchanter
(level 50 Enchanting Skill required)
Shock Enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. Shock damage reduces Magicka along with health.
Extra Effect
(level 100 Enchanting Skill required)
Add a second magical effect when Enchanting a piece of gear. Absolutely essential to make a great Enchanter. It allows you to become incredibly powerful, along with your other skill perks - no matter your build.
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