You don't need any of this stuff.

That said, it's pretty cool.

The rate at which you learn Archery is proportional to the damage you deal with your arrows. If you've been following this guide, you should be doing well, though it's still slow.

If shooting enemies in the wild is too slow for you, you can practice on your followers, the Greybeards (if you sneak,) or your horse. (Shadowmere has particularly high health.) If you increase the game's difficulty to Legendary, your practice targets will have much more health.

Once you reach a skill of 94, talk to Angi at Angi's Camp, due south of Falkreath, way up in the mountains. To get there, go east from Falkreath, past the bandit bridge, then turn right onto the winding mountain trail. She'll give you some lessons for 6 more points.

It's Soul Trap, but Fiery!

Go northeast from Whiterun and follow the road to Nightgate Inn, by the little lake. At the five-way junction, take the northwest trail to Ironbind Barrow. Talk to the people out in front and follow them down the tunnels. Up against the throne is the Steel Battleaxe of Fiery Souls. Let the others take care of the boss fight (or just grab the axe and make a break for it.)

Disenchant the axe to learn Fiery Soul Trap.

When enchanting weapons with (Fiery) Soul Trap, dial back the duration to 1 second (2 if you have a particularly deadly follower.)

Turn Iron Ore into Silver Ore into Gold Ore into Gold Rings to learn Smithing slightly faster. The difference isn't astounding--iron yields one ingot per ore, whereas other minerals only yield one ingot per two ores--but it also lets you add gems to your smithing.

Exit Whiterun and go north across the tundra, following the stream to Halted Stream Camp. Inside the mine, you will find the Transmute Mineral Ore spell. (Shoot the oil lamps to kill some bandits.) Grab a Pick Axe while you're at it.

Use the Pick Axe to mine any Ore Veins you find during your travels. You can hurry this along by manually whacking the vein with the Pick Axe.

Loot or buy all the Iron Ore you can. Don't smelt it! Transmute it into Gold Ore while you travel and explore.

Cast this spell ALL THE TIME! Wear magicka recharging robes while you're not fighting. If you're waiting for stores to open, wait one hour at a time and transmute some more ore.

These masks combine decent armor with a bunch of useful enchantments. While they are not as good as what you'll eventually craft yourself, they have a head start.

The masks are named after the Dragon Priests wearing them. Those are pretty tough. Bring healing potions.

Krosis

Fortify Alchemy 20, Fortify Archery 20, Fortify Lockpicking 20.

Krosis is at Shearpoint, a dragon lair in the middle of the little mountain range halfway between Whiterun and Windhelm. Exit Whiterun and go east. Cross the river at Valtheim Towers and go north, up into the mountains. Take out the dragon, take out Krosis' Frost Atronach, then take out Krosis.

Volsung

Waterbreathing, Fortify Barter 20, Fortify Carry Weight 20.

Talk to Jawanan, the assistant at the Fletcher in Solitude, to have him point out Volskygge on your map. If you wish, you can skip the whole dungeon and just climb up the mountain to the exit, where Volsung is.

Watch your weight! Don't pick up anything you intend to sell unless its value is at least ten times its weight.

A 3 gold apple may not seem like much compared to a 45 gold sword, but the sword weighs as much as 100 apples.

Pick all flowers. Loot all barrels, sacks, urns, and skeletons.

To cast spells for free, enchant some apparel to Fortify your favorite school of magic.

These enchantments go onto the following slots:

• Head

• Necklace

• Torso

• Ring

You can get 100% cost reduction with as few as three pieces of apparel, making spells of that school free. See Enchanting.

Telekinesis

Learn the Telekinesis spell. Either:

• Find the spell tome in Redwater Den, halfway between Riften and Ivarstead. The tome is in a prison cell.

• Find the spell tome in Benkongerike, in the mountains east of White Ridge Barrow on Solstheim. The tome is by the entrance of the Great Hall, underneath a pile of Lusty Argonian Maid books.

Free Alteration

Make Alteration spells free. Either:

• Enchant some apparel with Fortify Alteration for 100% cost reduction. See Free Spells above. 

• Read Black Book: Filament and Filigree--which you find in Kolbjorn Barrow while hunting for Ahzidal's Relics--and choose Secret of Arcana. You can use it once per day.

Grind levels

Once Telekinesis is free:

1. Cast Telekinesis to pick up an item, any item.

2. While levitating the item, open the map.

3. Fast travel across Skyrim. When you arrive, your Alteration should be 100 and you will gain some levels.

4. Make your Alteration skill Legendary. This resets it to 15.

5. Repeat.

You don't need Muffle.

Boots enchanted with Muffle will make it so that your armor no longer makes noise as you sneak. That is made obsolete by the Sneak perk Silence, which you eventually get anyway.

If you insist on adding this enchantment to your repertoire, get it when you are exactly level 11. That is when items with Muffle start showing up in shops, though it will be hard to find. If you level up further, loads more stuff starts showing up in shops, competing with Muffle and making it even harder to find.

The mythical ingredient for the most expensive potions ever. (Only available in the Hearthfire DLC.)

Harvesting

Go to a waterfall where salmon jump (like those near Riverwood.) Only jumping salmon yield Salmon Roe. Don't bother with the swimming ones. Be like the salmon; wade into the rapids, jump after the salmon and mash the Activate button to grab them with your bare hands.

Alternatively, you can shoot the salmon out of the air with the Flames spell, the Ice Storm spell or even the Unrelenting Force shout. This will make the Salmon Roe float downriver. Sometimes it's still on the dead salmon.

Potions

Mix the Salmon Roe with a Waterbreathing ingredient and a Regenerate Magicka ingredient:

Waterbreathing: Chicken's Egg, Emperor Parasol Moss, Hawk's Egg, Histcarp, Nordic Barnacle

Regenerate Magicka: Dwarven Oil, Fire Salts, Garlic, Jazbay Grapes, Moon Sugar, Salt Pile, Taproot

Salmon Roe + Garlic + Nordic Barnacle creates the most expensive potion.

As with most of the super expensive potions, these are only good for selling.

• Down is easy, up is hard. When in doubt, choose the path that goes up.

• Every flower is half a potion.

• Why kill them up close when you can kill them from afar?

• Half of Skyrim is walking.

• An apple is worth more than a sword.

• Crouch for double damage.

• Don't mess with giants. Leave their mammoths alone.

• If you want something done right, craft it yourself.

• If the draugr has armor, it's only sleeping.

• Opening hours are 8 AM to 8 PM.

• Transmute ore while you wait.

• If you don't want to sell it, Favorite it.

• Sheathe weapon to walk faster.

• Turning around and running is faster than backpedaling.

• They can't hit you if they can't reach you. Get on top of rocks.

• Open the lock with a tapping motion.

• Zig-zag to wiggle up the mountain.

• Leveling up is a free heal.

• The real treasure is the mushrooms you find along the way.

• Keep some gold in reserve.

• Look behind you, you missed some flowers.

• Friends let friends take items with a value up to 25 gold.

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages

The Elder Scrolls Wiki

Map Genie - Skyrim Maps

UESP Interactive Skyrim Map

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MajorSlackAttack's Real Walkthroughs - Skyrim Legendary Made Easy!

SKYRIM ULTIMATE Leveling Guide (No Glitch)