Carl's Skyrim Guide

Skills and Gameplay Strategy for PC, Xbox, and PS4

Carl's Skyrim Guide

A landscape in Skyrim, with numerous graphical mods installed
Skyrim is beautiful as-is, but with mods from the talented people contributing to Steam's Skyrim Workshop it can look even better than this. A big thank you to them for making the images on this site even prettier!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Strategy GuideThis Guide to Skyrim was developed over the course of a year by myself with help from a friend, Leto Kersten. We have guides to all eighteen of Skyrim's skills, which feature lists of spells, perks, master/expert trainer locations, crafting recipes, alchemy ingredients and all sorts of helpful information for a player adventuring in Skyrim.

While the guide was originally intended to cover Skyrim's skills alone, it has since grown to include a number of other gameplay articles that may be helpful to new players. Skyrim is a vast game, and with skills covered I'm glad to say that I finished what I set out to do. Now the guide's production is open-ended. While I will never cover everything, I hope to provide more guides on miscellaneous topics as time goes on.

Throughout the guide, I link to The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, a long-standing Skyrim Wiki with deep, encyclopedic info on the game. I am grateful for their existence, as there are many little details about the game, lists and npc pages, that I'd never want to cover. A wiki is a different format than one of my strategy guides, and some prefer to figure out the details for themselves. But, UESP has all the facts when you need it. I'll only cover what you should know to be successful. Particularly helpful, linking players to the UESP wiki gives the maps and pictures of trainer locations on our Skill articles.

Gameplay Guide List

Arch Mage's Quarters, College of Winterhold in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Arch Mage's Quarters in College of Winterhold

Skyrim Cheats for PC: The Most Useful Console Commands
The most common Console Commands, meant to be a handy reference for simple cheats that can direct you to more detailed information, as opposed to an exhaustive list.

Dragon Fighting Strategies
Learn all about the Dragons of Skyrim, encountering them, and combat strategies.

Leveling Up
Learn how Skyrim's Leveling system works, along with a full list of what affects skill xp gains.

Guilds
A list of Guilds and factions in Skyrim with how and where to join each of them.

Skill Perks
A full list of perks collected from all the skill guides on the site. Meant to be a helpful reference as a way to see them all at once.

Races of Skyrim
A list of all Races you can play in Skyrim. Provides starting skill levels, racial special powers, and all their passive abilities.

Reset Perk Points (PC)
One of the most commonly requested cheats is not so straightforward - here's how it's done.

One of Skyrim's Dragons dying violently in flame
Skyrim's dragons leave behind dragon bones and dragon scales
Two looks at the death of a Dragon in Skyrim. First consumed by flame, then nothing but bones and loot

Magic Skill Guides

Alteration Magic
From granting your Dovahkiin magic armor to allowing underwater breathing, Alteration Magic can help any type of hero in Skyrim.

Conjuration Magic
Summon powerful creatures and weapons to aid you in combat. This guide extensively covers the Dead Thrall spell, the ultimate Conjuration ritual.

Destruction Magic
Direct damaging spells are the speciality of this school of magic. Learn how to effectively increase your destructive potential and kill all but the mightiest Dragons with ease.

Enchanting Skill Guide
Learn all about Enchanting in Skyrim: how to learn new enchantments, a full list of enchants for weapons and armor, and how you can push this skill to its limits and make your Dragonborn Godlike.

Illusion Magic
Teaches you about the various applications of Illusion magic and how it can benefit many playstyles.

Restoration Magic
Restoration focuses on healing your hero and others, but also features Ward magic. Learn about powerleveling restoration, trainers, and best uses of this magic school.

A Dwarven Centurion being shocked in Skyrim
A Dwarven Centurion is blasted by a Mage's Shock spell. All Dwarven enemies in Skyrim are weak to electricity.

Thief Skill Guides

Alchemy
Learn all about making Potions in Skyrim with this guide to Alchemy. Features a full list of ingredients and their magical effects.

Light Armor
Covers Armor types, benefits to training the skill and the Perks available to Light Armor users.

Lockpicking
Advance in Dungeons without keys, unlock treasure-filled chests and break into houses with this useful skill.

Pickpocket
Pickpocketing lets you swipe what you need off one of Skyrim's denizens without a fight, used in combination with Sneak.

Sneak
Lets you hide from enemies, pickpocket, and perform powerful sneak attacks that can devastate enemies from melee distance or even at range with a bow or crossbow.

Speech
Speech aids in making money by helping interactions with Merchants, and allows you to advance quests using bribery, intimidation, and persuasion.

Skyrim's Shadowmere
The moons of Skyrim
More beautiful shots. Shadowmere, and the moons of Skyrim

Warrior Skill Guides

Archery
Archery allows you to kill foes at range, and while paired with Sneak, will enable you to do massive damage without ever being seen.

Block
Block lets you absorb incoming melee, ranged, and magical damage with a shield and gives you Perks to improve maneuverability and enable Shield Bashing.

Heavy Armor
Covers Armor types, benefits to training the skill and the Perks available to Heavy Armor users.

One-Handed Weapons
One Handed weapons, which can be dual wielded or paired with a shield or spell. The basic swordplay skill.

Smithing
Smithing lets your Dragonborn craft armor and weapons. You can make powerful gear to outclass your foes and improve armor and weapons' stats at the workbench and grindstone.

Two-Handed Weapons
Two Handed Weapons, their perks, and weapon types available to the Dragonborn.

Beautiful Pictures of Skyrim

Click to Enlarge!

Skyrim is the type of game you can wander around in and just be amazed by what you see. Some people could enjoy it for the exploration alone. Thankfully, it also has great gameplay to back it up. Here are some shots I captured. Note that I do use mods from the Steam Workshop for Skyrim. I'd like to thank the creators for their work and want to say that I will get around to posting a full list of mods in use to share their work.

Skyrim's up north, so there are Auroras which are very pleasing to the eye
A simple cave can make your jaw drop at times
A city landscape shot in Skyrim
Farms on the outskirts of a town in Skyrim
A Dragonborn well trained in Destruction Magic casts the Firestorm Spell
Skyrim's water can look beautiful with mods. I'll never look back.
A caster preparing a powerful blast of lightning
Riding off into the night on a horse. A beautiful shot.

Share Tips and FAQs (16)

Our Sims Forum is the place to go for faster answers to questions and discussions about the game. Use the form below to share your own experiences and provide helpful tips to other readers.

moisesnake says...
marriage guide would be helpful along with all marry able characters.
27th January 2014 12:05pm
moisesnake says...
I also know that there is a command to reset the marriage quest and change brides if you will
31st January 2014 12:16pm
kevin says...
Suddenly everybody hate's me bec im a vamp... wtf is this??
Admin:
It's one of the drawbacks - you're an undead and not like others anymore. I regret not covering those special forms you can get, but it's far too late for me to come back to this. I suppose you need to seek out some groups that can befriend you, like the Dark Brotherhood. Else, you need the cure to play the game normally :( Seek Falion in Morthal if you want to do that..
21st September 2014 6:55pm
KiM says...
I find puzzles more difficult to deal with. Do you have any articles about the matter, especially the pillar puzzle in Saarthal(?) in Winterhold.
Admin:
Sorry, never got around to a guide of that sort!
16th March 2014 9:09pm
moisesnake says...
i like adding miniguides you see i solved the marriage removal thing ill go back through and check up on those puzzles it'll prolly take a bit ...i have all the dlc content so that's fun
20th March 2014 8:38am
AlvyRoo says...
cool
24th December 2013 11:00am
KiM says...
I'm glad that you also have this guide for skyrim V,Carl.I'll be reading this when I start playing this game on summer.I'm holding this game for months now,because I'm still playing Civ 5.I'm sure this guide will really be helpful just like the other guides you made.
Admin:
It should be helpful in the skills department, although I have not made a page on Legendary skills. I'd need more time to go back and work on this guide to do so, and you know how stuck on Civ I am right now, myself! :)
27th February 2014 10:47pm
moisesnake says...
I found the marriage removal thing for the first 2 you have 2 have your spouse selected
removefac 51596
player.removefac c6472
resetquest 74793
resetquest 21382
setstage 74793 10

completequest 0007431b
resetquest 0007431b
resetquest 00021382
by moisesnake

add me on skype ...I mostly play minecraft (skype:moisesnake_dragonslayer )
11th March 2014 1:20pm
moisesnake says...
how do I take screenshots?
Admin:
Print Screen
31st January 2014 12:32pm
thehalomaster says...
how do you do that?
14th February 2014 1:43pm
daMax says...
In your skyrim.ini, search for the line [Display] and add this:
bAllowScreenshot=1
or set the 0 to a 1.

From now on you can take screenshots by hitting PrntScrn.
1st November 2014 2:59am
Sabastian says...
How long can you be a werewolf?
22nd November 2013 5:50pm
OUST says...
everytime you maul a a character in skyrim and eat its heart you gain more time as a werewolf and if you have the werewolf per that allows you to feed off of animals the same thing happens but eating the hearts of animals only lengthens it have as much as eatingthe heart of humans orcs or others
Admin:
Thanks for sharing the tip! I regret having not written a Guide to Werewolves in Skyrim, but may get back to it one day :)
5th January 2014 8:04pm
someone who has all dlcs of it says...
if you have dawnguard you can also eat the hearts of other animals and gain half that time
4th June 2014 1:03pm
Carl says...
Coral
27th September 2016 8:58pm
dewdrp says...
I have killed all three guys in "reforging the amulet", but the gate will not go up and I can not find any levers so I am stuck in there. How do I get out?
15th September 2014 10:36am
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Popular Skyrim Guides


Cheats
Dragons
Alchemy Guide
Enchanting Guide
Magic Spell List
Guilds (how to join)
Conjuration
Smithing Guide
Destruction (Mage)
Lockpicking Tutorial Archery Guide

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In order to better serve mobile users, I've redesigned the site so that it will work better on small screens. I hope this is helpful to some of you. Send feedback on this change to [email protected]!