Skyrim

[DR SHRUBBERY! 1095]

I AM SO TIRED RIGHT NOW YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE.

I'M STARTING TO HALLUCINATE. ALL I CAN SEE IS LIKE FIFTY DRAUGR DEATHLORDS. WHY, SLEEPY BRAIN, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?

THEY'RE ALL JUST STANDING THERE, TRYING TO MAKE SMALL TALK WITH ME ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY LIKE THE BIG BANG THEORY. THE ONE CLOSEST TO ME JUST SAID BAZINGA. I'M SCARED.

[Chimetals 344]

funny thing about sleeping and hallucinations.

[Skridovaste 11]

OK, so I got Skyrim, but I'm really bad at it. All my friends are always using the fact that I'm really bad at it too take the mickey out of me. I'm a Level 18 Imperial and everyone else is at least over Level 35. I even started before most of them. One of my friends even finished it in a weekend! I need to level up quick, as this is also stopping me from proceeding within the story, as I have to do the quest 'Alduin's Bane' which is almost impossible unless you are, like, Level 20, at the very least. So does anyone have any tips to help me level up quickly? The speech exploit in Riften doesn't seem to work either, the guy isn't there, there is no one ever at the counter . Also, which factions should I join; I'm already a part of College of Winterhold, the Companions and Thieves Guild. I'm still undecided about joining the Imperials or the Stormcloaks. When I played it on PC before I got it on PS3, I was an Imperial. And they kept calling me 'Imperial scum!'. I want to join Dark Brotherhood too. So yeah, factions. Also, I need lots of gold, so tips there please?

[Teto 2609]

I suck at Skyrim too. I usually just go into the gameplay options menu and turn down the difficulty if things get a little bit too much to handle.

And when I'm in a jam, I just retreat and run away from them for a while until my health gets back up. For me, it's a game of patience more or less.

When it comes to combat it's probably best to decide what kind of a player you're going to be. Mostly I focus on destruction, restoration, one-handed, and light armour when it comes to combat. So that I can strike them fast when in close-combat and so that I can move quickly in light armour when escaping, using restoration spells to heal myself, and destruction magic to harm them while running away. So yeah, I end up having pretty lengthy battles. Works for me. You can take down any foe as long as you can run away, heal yourself, deal damage, and have plenty of time to dedicate to battling enemies.

Money-wise, I just raid every dungeon I go to. When deciding what to take and what to leave, it's best to see how much something is worth relative to it's weight. For example, potatoes weigh 1 and are worth 1. So they're pointless to collect. At the start I usually don't take something unless it's worth at least 5 times it's weight value.

And then when it comes to selling things, I just go and sell everything I don't want to whoever will buy it, for however much they buy it from you for. If you collect everything to the point where you're almost over encumbered, you'll probably have so much that a single trader wont have enough money to buy it all from you. So you'll end up having to go to different towns to find people to sell everything to. I usually go between Whiterun and Solitude. The traders there are usually able to take everything off your hands and you get your money's worth out of it.

On the trader subject, go around the specialist traders first. Sell weapons to smiths, flowers food and potions to alchemists, etc before you go to general stores. General stores will take anything, and so if you take all their money by selling them swords and potions, they wont have any left to buy all your miscellaneous items.

These are the sort of tips you can get from playing the game enough and selling enough junk.

To join the dark brotherhood, you have to follow rumours in Winterhold about a boy trying to summon them. So that quest and eventually you'll get roped into the Dark Brotherhood quests.

Never joined the Thieves Guild in Skyrim yet. And haven't beat any quest line except the main quest and civil war quests.

The thing with the civil war quests is that there's not really a good side. Both have their pros and cons. They all have relatable motivations, but they also have questionable ideas. Neither outcome is all good in the end. Choose a side based outside the good or bad reasons.

The game takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. A lot of things have changed. Necromancy is now totally legal and a respected practice for example. Talos is no longer considered a god. Wars between the Empire and the recent Aldmeri Dominion have torn the Empire apart. The Aldmeri Dominion aren't some shady group in the game, they're the leading force in Tamriel. They are the big bad of the game, playing Skyrim as some kind of puppetmaster, forcing the country into civil war. I decided to side with the Stormcloaks on the grounds that I feel like the Empire is more or less at the will of the Aldmeri Dominion now. And the Stormcloaks will at least make it harder for the Aldmeri Dominion to overrun Skyrim and wreck everything.

For example, the Empire wouldn't have banned the worship of Talos if it hadn't been for the Aldmeri Dominion. I just wanted to take the course of action that I felt would annoy them the most.

I just have a lot of feelings about the civil war quests in Skyrim ok.

So yeah I don't know how things turn out if you fight on the side of the Empire, but one of the most irritating drawbacks of fighting on the side of the Stormcloaks is that Whiterun gets wrecked in a battle. Not like, dead or anything. But a lot of the houses and stuff are damaged, and it just looks a little worse afterwards. Not sure if the same happens in the Empire quests though.

Yeah I just said a lot.

[pheonix561 2080]

All i know is that I played skyrim untiI got to level four, then put down the controller and picked up dark souls. In the amount of time I played, I was a nordic heavy armour wearing two handed hammer using dude. No Bows, sparse healing magic. Dark Souls is really fun though.

[Chase 390]

I've 100% Skyrim on Xbox and I'm about half of the way done on PS3.

First and foremost, I'd recommend Smithing above all else. This way, you can eventually smith yourself a full Daedric set and almost nothing in the game can hurt you.

Which I also recommend Heavy Armor, because eventually you can unlock a skill which makes it weightless.

As far as magic goes, if you're going to do any magic AT ALL, you need to max out Enchanting. It can get a little confusing when you first start, but I promise if you stick with it, you'll be amazed at what comes out. You can eventually Enchant your full daedric set with 100% off Destruction and Restoration, which means that they cost ZERO magic to use and you can use them indefinitely without ever worrying about recharging. Kind of game-breaking, but that's the point. It's tough to be a full mage in Skyrim without Enchanting, especially if you try to use mage robes.

If you aren't going to use magic, focus on what weapons you are going to use and don't use anything else. One-handed and Shield are what I go for, but Two-Handed is great too. If your into bows, definitely put points into Archery, but also max Stealth if you're going the thief route.

I wouldn't recommend putting any skill points into Speech, Light Armor, the opposite weapon use (one handed or two handed), Conjuration (unless full mage), Illusion (full mage), or any magic besides Destruction and Restoration.

If you want the best All-around character, the true Dovahkiin in my opinion, go for these:

One-Handed

Shield

Smithing

Enchanting

Destruction

Restoration

Heavy Armor

Sneak

with optional skill points in:

Archery

Max Smithing and Enchanting to 100 ASAP and pour skill points into the Heavy Armor skill side of Smithing and Enchanter (x5), Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, and Extra Effect of Enchanting. You'll be able to make full daedric and put those magic % costs on your armor. Heavy Armor, One-handed, Shield, and Destruction should raise fairly naturally on their own, but Destruction and Restoration will definitely take the longest to raise. Raise Sneak to 100, but refrain from pouring any stats into it unless you really want to. With Heavy Armor, pretty much max out everything. With One-handed, pick your favorite kind of weapon (Sword, Axe, or Mace) and only upgrade that path and the damage. As far as everything else, be really picky about skill point allocation. If you think you'll never use it, don't pick it. That said, it's still a good idea to raise every stat to 100, because it'll give you more skill points for the ones you do use.

If you guys have any other questions, I can for sure answer them. But this is a pretty good overview of how to make an awesome character that can survive at any difficulty you throw at him.

[DR SHRUBBERY! 1095]

Killing every animal in my path. Taking all of their pelts.

Turning it into leather and leather strips.

Smithing countless leather bracers.

This is my quest to upgrade my highly neglected smithing skill.

DAEDRIC ARMOR HERE I COME.

also I love having the PC version. STEAM WORKSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

[Skridovaste 11]

The skills which I tend to use at the moment are:

Magic

Destruction

Restoration

(I want to do enchanting, but I don't get it but I'll read into it)

Combat

One Handed

Heavy Armor

(Sometimes Archery)

(Smithing to level up quicker)

Stealth (I don't tend to use this much, these are the ones I want to do, but haven't really done yet)

Alchemy

Sneak

Speech

Pickpocketing

(Then obviously lockpicking)

When I fight, I usually have a sword/mace/war-axe (hoping to find a decent sword and just use that), then have either a destruction spell (Fire) or Restoration Spell (Healing). I can't remember what armor I wear, but it is definitely Heavy Armor. It might be Steel or Steel Plate.

Could someone also explain enchanting to me, and explain how to do it? Same with Alchemy please Also, if it makes a difference, I play on PS3.

[Chimetals 344]

also I love having the PC version. STEAM WORKSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

modsmodsmodsmods

really, though, ive got some. i dont want anything game-breaking (ok, being able to smelt junk items and thus craft them could be argued as bogus....especially since i can then decompose them again) but yeah, more pretty spells and swords is always nice......and two-handed swords you can wield one-handed (though it raises the question of "oh crap, which stat is that?")

anyway, it may be the easiest (beginner?) build, but ive got a sword/lightning thing going. havent gotten too far, but its worked pretty well. other than that, i grab anything thats not nailed down, and pick every lock i find. and sneaking everywhere. in heavy armor.

When I fight, I usually have a sword/mace/war-axe (hoping to find a decent sword and just use that), then have either a destruction spell (Fire) or Restoration Spell (Healing). I can't remember what armor I wear, but it is definitely Heavy Armor. It might be Steel or Steel Plate.

Could someone also explain enchanting to me, and explain how to do it? Same with Alchemy please Also, if it makes a difference, I play on PS3.

from what ive seen so far (ok, not too much) the swords seem to be weaker than the other weapon choices. dunno if it stays that way, but the sword seems to be more of a choice than a best-pick atm.

the enchanting, from how i understand it, is that youll need several things:

--an enchantment, which you get from decomposing another enchanted item--eg, youve got one of those flimsy robes, but it has a nice enchantment. but that enchantment would look muuuuuuuch better on, say, your tanky armor. you decompose the robe, and enchant the armor, and get the best of everything. but you need the robe to start with.

--a soulstone, basically to power the enchantment. youll need a couple things for this, if you dont have a filled soulstone--an empty soulstone and a weapon/spell to drain souls when you make a kill with the weapon/spell. dont bother buying the soulstone, just steal one from one of the million people that seem to use them as paperweights. a good one is the mage at whiterun, hell turn your back to you easy, unlike a shopkeep.

alchemy, on the other hand.....basically, get ingredients, taste the first one of whatever you get, then from there on out, mix haphazardly. itll expose different effects of items, whichll let you make potions/poisons predictably later. at least, thats what ive been doing. you could look it up online, though, and make your success rate skyrocket.

[DR SHRUBBERY! 1095]

I tend to keep my collection of mods just on the edge between serious and silly. For instance, I can ride my more menacing-looking shadowmere as I continue my search for the stones of barenziah (of which I now have quest markers for. Then I can sell all the useless crap I have to the merchants who now actually have enough money to properly buy my stuff.

And then I whimsically decide to go on a rampage, beating people to death with two figurines of Twilight Sparkle.

Not to mention Space Core.

[Skridovaste 11]

Is it possible to 'grind' in Skyrim? And can you 'grind' for gold in Skyrim, just as you can 'grind' for rupees in Zelda?

[Chimetals 344]

the only grinding ive done was via blacksmithing/sneaking, i mean, there are only so many people you can kill, and enemies running rampant. though ive heard you can grind both your heavy armor and healing magic skills by letting something weak attack you and constantly healing. probably faster to just do the companions quest and get the heavy armor trainer to be your buddy....train, talk to transfer items, get money back. repeat.

id say to find some thief hideouts, do quests, etc. and take as much as you can carry, and sell what you dont need (eg, the million cheap swords and armor from the band of thieves you killed). make trips if you have to--fast travel and all that.

[DR SHRUBBERY! 1095]

Strolling through Solitude, decked out in Ebony Armor, Boots, and Gauntlets. The dragon priest mask Konahrik (the final mask) adorns my face. In one hand I hold an Ebony Shield while the other grips the fearsome Mace of Molag Bal. My spectral assassin stands by my side. A few children run past me. One of them stops to say something.

"I thought adventurers were supposed to look tough"

...

I'm... not allowed in Solitude anymore...

[Chase 390]

Yeah, you can definitely grind. It gets harder the higher you level, though. As far as grinding for gold goes, enchanting stuff makes it worth quite a bit and you can sell that off. You can also smith Dwarven bows from all the crap you find in the dwemer ruins scattered around Skyrim. Those sell for a lot.

Grinding for levels, you can smith iron daggers and leather over and over till you reach 100. Illusion you can cast Courage over and over on a guard till you're 100. Sneak you can go up to the greybeards and just stab them in the back until you get to 100. Speech there's a guy in Riften that you can do a speech check over and over on to get to 100. Pickpocketing there's a guy in the Riften jail that, after you're taken to prison, you can steal from over and over.

I wouldn't recommend doing those early on, though. Save them until you've leveled heavy armor and an attack stat (one-handed, destruction, etc.) You'll just end up making the game waaaay too hard otherwise, because the enemies will all have really high levels but you'll be really weak, due to leveling up non-combat stats.

[pheonix561 2080]

EDA I don't know if you know if your posts make me laugh or not

They make me laugh, just saying