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Skill Leveling Guide


girl poison
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Introduction

 

This pseudo-guide is for anyone who wants to max their skill levels and increase their overall level, whether you're new to the game and want to be prepared for the long grind ahead, or if you're just looking for some tips and tricks on a particular skill, this is here for your convenience. Leveling can be important if you're trying to find a Legendary Dragon for the Dawnguard DLC achievement.

 

The information here is gathered from various sources including xbox360achievement.org threads, other forums or FAQs, YouTube videos, the Skyrim wikia, and my own personal experiences from playing Skyrim. It was written so that even new players to the game can find helpful information and plan leveling up their skills, but I hope everyone finds something useful from this. :)

 

Depending on what's available to you, if you're just looking for some quick levels, some of the faster skills to level (from my experience) have been Sneak, Block (if idling), Speech (if idling with a turbo controller), Alteration and Conjuration.

 

 

 

Skill Bonuses

 

Standing Stones

The Guardian Stones are located southwest of Riverwood and give you a 20% bonus depending on which you choose. The Warrior Stone grants 20% increase to combat skills, the Mage Stone grants 20% increase to magic skills, and the Thief Stone grants 20% increase to stealth skills.

 

The Lover's Stone is east of Markath and grants 15% increase to all skills, but cannot be stacked with any other bonuses (such as sleeping bonuses).

 

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Combat skills: Smithing, Archery, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Heavy Armour, Block

Magic skills: Enchanting, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Illusion

Stealth skills: Alchemy, Light Armour, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Speech

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Sleeping Bonuses

Rested: Sleep in any bed, 5% increase to skills

Well rested: Sleep in a bed you own (your house, an inn), 10% increase to skills

Lover's Comfort: Sleep in a building where your spouse resides, 15% increase to skills

* You cannot earn sleeping bonuses if you have lycanthropy

 

 

 

Utilize Trainers and Pickpocket Exploit

 

You can train with any trainer a total of five times per level. This means a trainer will increase your skill level by 1 per training session in exchange for gold.

 

There are two ways to abuse this system: the first method is to pickpocket the gold back. This will work on any trainer (except child trainers like Babette) and the nice thing about it is, the higher the gold amount, the more xp you gain for your pickpocketing skill. Make a save before each attempt of pickpocketing, that way if you're caught you can reload and try again.

 

The second way is to have a trainer become your follower. Similarly you can have them train you, then request to trade and take the gold back. This can be an advantage/disadvantage depending on if you need to level pickpocketing or not, and at higher levels where the gold count is too high to pickpocket back. Use this to your advantage during later levels.

 

Note that if you haven't trained for a level and you hit a level up, you can go to a trainer and train five times before accessing your skills menu to level up. The xp will carry over to the next level.

 

List of trainers:

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Trainer_%28Skyrim%29

 

Trainers that can be followers:

Aela the Huntress - Archery, up to level 75

Njada Stonearm - Block, up to level 75

Farkas - Heavy Armor, up to level 90

Vilkas - Two-Handed, up to level 90

Athis - One-Handed, up to level 75

Faendal - Archery, up to level 50

* From the Elder Scrolls wikia

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Leveling Skills

 

Crafting skills (enchanting, smithing, alchemy) are essential to general Skyrim gameplay and progress should be made toward improving upon them, especially because there's no painless boosting method if you're playing the game fairly and don't have limitless amounts of gold. They will take time to max, but provide benefits and rewards to grinding out other skills as well.

 

NOTE for grinding any skill using a horse, if you don't care to level Restoration by this method you can choose to use Shadowmere (the horse from The Dark Brotherhood). Shadowmere has incredibly fast health regeneration so you won't need to worry about healing when grinding.

 

COMBAT SKILLS

Smithing, Archery, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Heavy Armour, Block

 

Smithing

Since the iron dagger method is no longer effective, clear Dwemer dungeons, collect Dwemer metals to create ingots and smith Dwarven armour. Sell anything you don't need for extra coin.

 

Archery

Buy a horse for 1000G at any stable. Set the difficulty to Master so that you do less damage to the horse. Use a low tier weapon such as the hunting bow with low damage arrows. Can also quickly level Sneak at the same time (read below). Restore the horses' health by dual casting Heal Other if necessary.

 

One-Handed

Buy a horse for 1000G at any stable. Set the difficulty to Master so that you do less damage to the horse. Use a low tier weapon such as an iron dagger. Can also quickly level Sneak at the same time (read below). Restore the horses' health by dual casting Heal Other if necessary.

 

Two-Handed

Buy a horse for 1000G at any stable. Set the difficulty to Master so that you do less damage to the horse. Use a low tier weapon such as an iron greatsword. Can also quickly level Sneak at the same time (read below). Restore the horses' health by dual casting Heal Other if necessary.

 

Heavy Armour

Equip yourself in a set of heavy armour and find an area with a few melee enemies. A good spot is the Black-Briar Lodge (east of Riften) where there are two mercenaries. Let them wail on you while you heal yourself. If you want to pay less attention or idle boost this skill, find a lonely mudcrab instead.

 

Block

Find a melee enemy, preferably in a dungeon to avoid random dragon attacks, but not completely necessary. Crouch in a corner, tape down or rubberband LT to hold your shield.

 

MAGIC SKILLS

Enchanting, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Illusion

 

Enchanting

 

Maximizing enchanting is rewarding when you go to grind on the magic schools, but it's also very taxing on your resources of gold and time. You gain xp for enchanting when you enchanting a new item, disenchanting an item to learn the effect, or recharing an enchanted weapon with a filled soul gem.

 

Buy or scavenge for cheap clothing or armour, such as spoils from bandits. Stock up on soul gems; you can find soul gems commonly on shelves and for sale at the College of Winterhold, in Dwemer cities, the Soul Cairn, etc. They are also random spoils in chests for normal dungeons.

 

You'll want to buy the Soul Trap ability early on, and/or have an enchanted weapon with the Soul Trap ability in order to fill the soul gems. Enchant the cheap clothing or armour with weak enchantments and sell them, recharge any enchanted items you have in your inventory.

 

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Enchanting comes in handy when grinding for the magic schools because you can create armour and accessories that will allow you to cast spells endlessly without using any magicka. At 100 Enchanting you can do this, normally (without the "God armour" method), using four items (e.g. body armour, helmet, ring, necklace) with a filled Grand Soul Gem for -25% magicka cost to that magic school. Dual enchanting will allow you to cast spells from two magic schools completely magicka-free, which can be really great depending on what method you use for grinding (i.e. destruction and restoration).

 

So make sure you create some armour that will allow you to endlessly cast spells for a really easy grinding experience. Think about how you want to dual enchant your items, for example; you can dual enchant a set of items to freely cast destruction and restoration magic. Attack your horse on master difficulty with a strong destruction spell like Ice Storm, then heal it with Heal Others to raise both skills nearly simultaneously.

 

A method I used personally was dual enchanting heavy armour for alteration and restoration. I went to the Black-Briar Lodge (east of Riften) where there are two mercenaries and allowed them to attack me while I cast Oakflesh to boost alteration. When I got low on health, I dual cast Fast Healing. This helped level Heavy Armour, Alteration and Restoration all at the same time.

 

Conjuration

Dual cast Soul Trap on a dead body.

 

Destruction

Dual cast any destruction spell on your horse on Master difficulty for less damage.

 

Restoration

Dual cast Heal Others on your horse when grinding offensive skills, or dual-cast Fast Heal on yourself when leveling Light and Heavy Armour.

 

Alteration

Dual cast Oakflesh while in battle for super fast leveling.

 

Illusion

Cast Invisibility on yourself - you do not have to engage an enemy to gain xp for the skill.

 

 

STEALTH SKILLS

Alchemy, Light Armour, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Speech

 

Alchemy

Buy, scavenge for and collect ingredients. Create as many potions as often as you can, try to maximize skill increase per product by creating potions that are worth more. If you have multiple ingredients for a single potion, precombine two and see what the outcome and value of the potion is before you mix it. Always make the most valuable potion first when possible because the more it's worth, the more xp you get toward your skill. Sell the potions that you don't want for a little gold.

 

Light Armour

Equip yourself in a set of light armour and find an area with a few melee enemies. A good spot is the Black-Briar Lodge (east of Riften) where there are two mercenaries. Let them wail on you while you heal yourself. If you want to pay less attention or idle boost this skill, find a lonely mudcrab instead.

 

Sneak

Buy a horse for 1000G at any stable. Set the difficulty to Master so that you do less damage to the horse. Use low tier weapon(s) such as iron dagger, iron greatsword, hunting bow & low damage arrows. Crouch behind the horse until you're hidden, then attack. Easiest done with the iron dagger (one-handed) or bow. Restore the horses' health by dual casting Heal Other if necessary.

 

Lockpicking

You will probably level this skill naturally from playing the game, especially if you enjoy exploring dungeons. As long as the skeleton key isn't in your possession, both breaking a pick and picking a lock will award you xp in the category. Collect picks throughout the game by buying them from merchants under MISC when available, or buy a ton from Tonilia in the Ragged Flagon of the Thieves Guild (25+ at a time, use back to wait two days to restock her inventory). Find an expert or master level lock and break the picks repeatedly to level the skill.

 

Picking the lock also awards experience and quite a bit of it - Dwemer ruins tend to have lots of locked gates and chests for you to pick. (Check out the Dawnguard DLC quest "Lost to the Ages") The Dwemer Museum in Markarth has tons of locked cases you can crack, and the Thieves Guild has a locked chest of every level to practice on. You can also pick locked front doors of homes and shoppes at night time.

 

Pickpocketing

The best time to level this is when you visit a trainer each level. The more gold you spend for a course, the more xp you will earn when you pickpocket it back - but it also lowers your chance of success. Make a save before each attempt of pickpocketing, that way if you're caught you can reload and try again.

 

Speech

Talk to Ungrien in the Black-Briar Meadery (located in Riften). Ask him about Maven Black-Briar, then select the Persuade option. Rinse and repeat.

Edited by girl poison
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A few things you should note...

 

Smithing : Building tons of Iron Daggers has been made practically useless because of an update that made Smithing level based on the value of the item. One would have more luck transmuting a bunch of Iron Ore to Gold, smelting it, and making a bunch of jewelery. Or, as I have been doing in my latest playthrough, just creating armor as I unlock the perks for it. Currently creating loads of Dwarven armor.

 

Heavy Armor: Another viable option is to find somebody willing to brawl with you. A lot of them can be found in taverns, or you could brawl with the Chieftain of any Orc camp. Just stand there and let them wail on you.

 

Conjuration: It's far quicker to level this during combat. It was the first skill I had that hit 100 on my Mage character. Going to bandit camps and raising your fallen enemies as zombies while summoning bound weapons (all while in combat) will make this skill level extremely fast. Soul trapping enemies is also effective, and far less of a grind than trying to soul trap corpses all day.

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This is gonna be really helpful, thanks for creating it! Think it will get sticky status?

 

No idea, I went through a 12 hour and then a 13 hour grinding session in two days so I wrote things down about leveling as I looked them up or discovered them, and figured if someone else could make use of it - that's really all I wanted.

 

A few things you should note...

 

Smithing : Building tons of Iron Daggers has been made practically useless because of an update that made Smithing level based on the value of the item. One would have more luck transmuting a bunch of Iron Ore to Gold, smelting it, and making a bunch of jewelery. Or, as I have been doing in my latest playthrough, just creating armor as I unlock the perks for it. Currently creating loads of Dwarven armor.

 

Heavy Armor: Another viable option is to find somebody willing to brawl with you. A lot of them can be found in taverns, or you could brawl with the Chieftain of any Orc camp. Just stand there and let them wail on you.

 

Conjuration: It's far quicker to level this during combat. It was the first skill I had that hit 100 on my Mage character. Going to bandit camps and raising your fallen enemies as zombies while summoning bound weapons (all while in combat) will make this skill level extremely fast. Soul trapping enemies is also effective, and far less of a grind than trying to soul trap corpses all day.

 

Those first two are good points, I'll have to tinker around with smithing on another account because smithing is probably one of the first I maxed back when the game came out. However for Conjuration I did the dual soul trap method and went from 59 to 100 in like 10 minutes casting on a dead giant, it was one of the fastest skills to max next to Alteration, which I did in battle.

 

I'll update a couple of things when I get home from work though, thanks for the tips. :)

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Loved your Combat area for how you did leveling up. Nice to see someone who did things just how I did because regular play while leveling up was taking too long so had to find my own ways to do it quicker. Especially letting enemies attack you and healing yourself. I prefer letting the archer outside Bleak Falls Barrow shoot arrows at me while wearing heavy/light armor keeping that distance while I heal myself.

 

Great guide!

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Nice! Good guide, helpful for sure. Anyone know a quick way for smithing now that apparently the iron dagger method does not work?

 

Skillet said Dwarven armour, probably because of the abundance of Dwemer metals you can scavenge and can create ingots from, you just need a high carrying capacity or go into a Dwemer ruin with an empty inventory.

 

Loved your Combat area for how you did leveling up. Nice to see someone who did things just how I did because regular play while leveling up was taking too long so had to find my own ways to do it quicker. Especially letting enemies attack you and healing yourself. I prefer letting the archer outside Bleak Falls Barrow shoot arrows at me while wearing heavy/light armor keeping that distance while I heal myself.

 

Great guide!

 

I think I finished up armours by letting two mudcrabs hit me on Novice and just healing occasionally, it didn't take long and didn't require much attention. Glad it could be of some use to you. :)

 

EDIT: Updated second post to include a note about Shadowmere. Smithing section & Lockpicking section updated.

Edited by girl poison
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Ebony is what I used to get me to 100 armor skill. But prior to that I made shit loads of orc and plate armor, since those two metals are easy to find. Also I leveled up my conjuration casting soul trap for 45 mins on a dead body. With enchanting I took every piece of loot I had in my sell box and gave them the following enchantments: head- archery, chest- boost health rate, hands- extra one/two handed weapons, feet- muffle, weapons- paralyze. Took me about 40,000 gold worth of master and black soul gems plus black star to hit 100 enchant. With destruction I used that vampire chick from dawnguard dlc and used her to blast spells at.

Edited by Biohazardbinkie
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  • 2 weeks later...

I got from 52 to 78 (for the Legend acheivement) in around a week, playing a couple of hours at most every day. I used the OP's excellent guide but have added / edited my own take on it below in the hopes that perhaps it will help someone out - with thanks and full credit to OP, here's my take on how to level quickly and easily :

 

COMBAT SKILLS

Smithing, Archery, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Heavy Armour, Block

 

Smithing

I levelled this to 100 when you could still just create Iron Daggers. I can offer no further comment or advice.

 

Archery

Ugh. I left this sitting at around 65 or so.

 

One-Handed

Levelled up naturally as part of my play style (Battlemage / Spellsword) so I can offer no further comment or advice.

 

Two-Handed

Left this at the mid 60s too so I can offer no further comment or advice. I went round a few dungeons with Wuuthrad to get a few points and bought all the skill points I could from the trainer (Vilkas?) in Whiterun.

 

Heavy Armour

Levelled up naturally as part of my play style (Battlemage / Spellsword) so I can offer no further comment or advice.

 

Block

I grabbed a shield I had laying around, put on Light Armour and equipped a healing spell in the other hand (I think I used the low-level constant healing one). I went to a Giant camp and blocked the Giant (he does a lot of damage so the skill levels more easily). When I got bored, I would lower my shield and let the Giant hit me, healing when needed. I used this method primarily for Block and Light Armour.

 

MAGIC SKILLS

Enchanting, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Illusion

 

Enchanting

Levelled up naturally as part of my play style (Battlemage / Spellsword) so I can offer no further comment or advice.

 

Conjuration

Dual cast Soul Trap on a dead body. This was really good advice and for me the best method. I used the Giant after I'd finished with him as a plaything for Block.

 

Destruction

Levelled up naturally as part of my play style (Battlemage / Spellsword) so I can offer no further comment or advice.

 

Restoration

Having already gained some points in it from levelling Block and Light Armour, the next stage was to go to High Hrothgar and use Heal Others whilst levelling up Sneak and Illusion (see below for those). Once I had it up to 50 I went to the College of Winterhold and spammed Circle of Protection, using Equilibirum to give me the necessary magicka. When health was low I switched to Close Wounds. I would strongly recommend using a higher-levelled spell if you are at that level to make the process go more quickly.

 

Alteration

I used Equilibrium in conjunction with the Restoration spells to get to 50. Once I hit 50, I wandered around Whiterun and Riften (to mix things up a bit) using Equilibrium and Detect Life. Detect Life was for me the quickest method by far.

 

Illusion

For this I used Muffle, Over and over again. When I was doing quests and also when doing Sneak at High Hrothgar.

 

 

STEALTH SKILLS

Alchemy, Light Armour, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Speech

 

Alchemy

Giants Toe, Wheat and Creep Cluster. Buy them, scavenge them, make potions with them. They are (as far as I know) the highest value potions you can make. There is of course the good suggestion of making yourself a crafting set to fortify alchemy before making potions - this is a good idea as it will increase the value of anything you create.

 

Light Armour

As above under Block, I let Giants hit me when I got cheesed off with Blocking, and used in conjunction with Restoration.

 

Sneak

Equip an Iron Dagger and go to High Hrothgar. Sneak around one of the Greybeards whilst they are praying / sleeping and have at him with your iron dagger. Don't get seen attacking, or they will aggro on you. If his health gets low, use Heal Others - I used a combination of Muffle and Heal Others here. I found I was able to get a good 5-6 hits in before he stood up and got fed up, moving on to a different prayer mat. Sneak levelled up very quickly this way and I was able to level other skills at the same time.

 

Lockpicking

Levelled up naturally as part of my play style (Battlemage / Spellsword) so I can offer no further comment or advice. However the locations given by the OP are spot-on. I used the 'break pick' advice to get my last few levels after natural progression to hit 100.

 

Pickpocketing

My favourite method of doing this was to sneak behind the Alchemy vendor in Whiterun (I was lurking there levelling Alchemy anyway) and plant a small amount of gold (50 at lower levels is fine, working up to 100, 150 then up to 400) on the vendor, then pickpocket it back. You can gradually increase this as you level up, planting and pickpocketing your gold back. You could possibly also plant and pickpocket from the Greybeards at High Hrothgar. I found using the 'plant and pickpocket' levelled the skill very quickly.

 

Speech

Talk to Ungrien in the Black-Briar Meadery (located in Riften). Ask him about Maven Black-Briar, then select the Persuade option. Rinse and repeat. This is solid gold advice.

Edited by ndf9876
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  • 3 weeks later...

good guide, i have had a go with dual casting soul trap on a dead giant.

for leveling block i just let a giant attack me, and had fast heal equipped for when health was low.

need a quick way to level smithing for dragon armour, i have gone the light armour rout and don't want to waste a perk on dwemer.

 

Regarding lockpicking, using the Skeleton unbreakable pick still provides xp, and it is also relevent to the lock, so a master lock will give a higher reward then novice, and the great thing is you can now work through all the dungeons, leveling the skill (slightly slower as you never receive the bonus from breaking a pick) but when you hit 100, complete the thieves guild quest, and then use your massive stash of picks to carry on opening chests for loot.

:)

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Speech

Talk to Ungrien in the Black-Briar Meadery (located in Riften). Ask him about Maven Black-Briar, then select the Persuade option. Rinse and repeat. This is solid gold advice.

 

Has this option been pached?? I can't rinse and repeat this step :(

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A few things you should note...

 

Smithing : Building tons of Iron Daggers has been made practically useless because of an update that made Smithing level based on the value of the item. One would have more luck transmuting a bunch of Iron Ore to Gold, smelting it, and making a bunch of jewelery.

 

I can't remember where to find the transmute tome, I know it's in some cave that's full of mammoth tusks I just don't remember where the hell the cave is... Any help?:confused:

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  • 5 months later...
I can't remember where to find the transmute tome, I know it's in some cave that's full of mammoth tusks I just don't remember where the hell the cave is... Any help?:confused:

 

Halted stream camp I believe. Loads of iron ore veins too!

 

I think so. It didnt work for me either.

 

Patched as of 1.9

Edited by Alec216
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Any advice on speech lvling now that 1.9 patch fixed the NPC in Riften ?

 

Start making the god armor then sell one of the really expensive items you make during the process and it shoukd lvl up speech almost instantly.

 

I havent tried this yet but everywhere I see, it has worked.

 

This process will also get you lvl 100 in alchemy, enchanting, and smithing.

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Start making the god armor then sell one of the really expensive items you make during the process and it shoukd lvl up speech almost instantly.

 

I havent tried this yet but everywhere I see, it has worked.

 

This process will also get you lvl 100 in alchemy, enchanting, and smithing.

 

Anything else, beside that ? Kinda don't want to do that long process and cheap method of glitching the game and making everything so powerful.

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  • 1 month later...

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