Skyrim Hints!

[RichardWhitely]

Here are the 23 Things I Wish I'd Known the First Time I Played Skyrim:

1). Set it at novice from the beginning for at least your first game ... it will be less frustrating

2). It doesn't matter what kind of character you play, use enchanting! Even if you don't enchant your own armor and weapons, it's a great way to make money. So, as soon as you find the following enchantments (which are the most expensive both buying and selling) get them, disenchant them on an enchanting table, and enchant things with them: sneak, carry weight, one and two handed

3). When looting people, armor (especially light armor) gives you more bang for the weight than weapons. It's better to have 25 1 lb. hide boots than one 25 lb. steel warhammer when you're selling them. Usually, I just get boots and bracers (and jewelry, of course) because they can all be enchanted with the things I mentioned above.

4). Get married. You have to speak to the Redguard priest at the temple of Mara in Riften, then wear an Amulet of Mara when talking to someone you have "helped."

5). Save often. Like, every five minutes.

6). Do the "Book of Love" quest right away. It gives you 15% resistance to magic attacks when you're done. Go to Riften and talk to the dark elf priestess at the Temple of Mara. She'll give you the quest.

7). This might be the most important. There aren't a lot of safe storage options in the game until you purchase a house. Most places will respawn after about 10 game days.
There are a couple of places where you can store stuff indefinitely, but one place is the best. When you first leave Helgen at the beginning of the game, watch the markers on the map at the top of your screen. When you get near the Guardian Stones, there's a house outlined on the map thing. Go to the house (Anise's Cabin), look in the back beside the bed and there's a cellar door. Open it and read the letter you find there. Then, deal with what happens next. You can store stuff at the house and it won't go away. There's two drawers, three bags and a barrel all upstairs (with no transition, so it's very convenient). Downstairs you have an enchanting table and an alchemy table. Also, there's a bed you can sleep in for a resting bonus. It's the next best thing to owning a house.

8. The two most useful Guardian stones I've found in the game:
The Lord Stone: Near Dawnstar ... it gives you 50 points extra armor and 25% resistance to magic
The Steed Stone: Near Solitude ... it makes whatever armor your wear weightless and gives you an extra 100 points of carry weight

9.) Dawnstar chest. Find a video about where to find it online. Every time you buy from the Khajiit caravan outside of Dawnstar, it will refill. It's AWESOME.

10). Get some perks in Restoration. At least casting novice spells for 1/2 magic and healing spells working twice as well.

11). The MOST useful enchantment in the game is "Fiery Souls." You get it in Ironbind Barrow near Winterhold. If you bring a follower, it should be no problem because there will be two other people there to help you ... for the most part. The enchantment is on a two-handed axe on the throne of the last room of Ironbind.

12). Keep at least one bottle of Black Briar Mead and two bottles of Honningbrew Mead with you. You'll find out why. It always helps to have other ale and mead to give to town drunks as well.

13). The most useful recipe is Elsewyr Fondue. You need 1 moon sugar, 1 ale and 1 eidar cheese wheel. It increases your magic and magic regeneration for 300 seconds.

14). Go to Ansilvund (it's South of Riften and Shor's Stone). It's not an easy ruin, but it has the coolest reward of the entire game.

15). Both Ansilvund and a mine outside of Whiterun called "Halted Stream Camp" have a spellbook called "Transmute Mineral Ore." It lets you turn iron ORE (not ingots) to silver and silver to gold. Want to make a lot of money and level your enchanting, smithing and alteration? Get the spellbook, get lots of iron ore from mines, transmute it to gold ore, turn it into gold ingots at a smelter (there's one in Whiterun), turn all the ingots into gold jewelry, and enchant them all with sneak. Then, sell them. Or just carry them for when you need money. It's somewhat time consuming, but worth it.

16). There's a website you should bookmark. It will help tremendously:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim (also covers the other elder scrolls games)

17). If you use alteration (which I recommend for any mage), don't wear any armor. Instead, use the "Mage Armor" perk from the Alteration tree.

18). Get a follower.
I suggest Marcurio in Riften. He's 500 septim (dollars), but totally worth it! He's also kind of a jerk, but again, completely worth it.
My favorite follower is Mjoll (also in Riften). You have to get her sword, Grimsever, back first and she doesn't tell you about it until you reach level 12. Actually, let me mention something about her and the main quest.

19). Dwemer ruins suck. You'll have to go through a Dwemer ruin to complete the main quest. The one you are sent to is Alftand which sucks the worst. The good news is you can go through any Dwemer ruin to get to Blackreach, where you need to go for the main quest. All Dwemer ruins are connected underground (so cool!!!).

20). In the main quest, you will be sent to Septimus Signus. He will send you to Alftand. Don't go there. Instead, use Mjoll's quest to go to Mzinchaleft (no, I don't know how it is really pronounced.) At the last room of Mzinchaleft, where you find Mjoll's sword, there is an entrance to Blackreach. It's very close to where you need to be for the main quest. Easy peasy. When you leave, give Mjoll her sword back and she'll follow (or marry) you. Yes, even if you're a woman. I like Mjoll even better than Marcurio. If you give her two enchanted staves (like Fireball and Lightning, or whatever), she'll rain down destruction from a distance, then hack them to death when they lose their charge. Badass.

21). Go to Markarth. A guy called a "Vigilant" will ask you to help him investigate a house. Do it. I won't tell you what happens, but you'll quickly get Apprentice robes of Restoration and an Apprentice hood (both better than your current robes) for free. And, if you follow the quest all the way through, you'll get one of the most powerful weapons in the game, although it is a distasteful quest.

22). The best weapons in the game:

RAHD'S LONGHAMMER: There's a cave in Markarth, kind of near Dragonbridge, called "Liar's Retreat." At the very end is a Breton named Rahd with an Orcish warhammer called "Rahd's Longhammer." Warhammers do the highest damage of any weapon in the game, but swing the slowest. This one either swings at the same speed as, or faster than, a two-handed sword. It is potentially the most powerful two-handed weapon in the game, even more than a daedric warhammer.

LABRYNTHIAN WEAPONS: These aren't the best as far as damage and they can't be improved by smithing. However, they look awesome and absorb either health, magic or stamina. Also, they don't weigh much.

NORD HERO WEAPONS: Can only be smithed after finishing the Companions Quest, but are very useful. All the ancient Nord weapons look cool anyway. These look cool, weigh less than elven weapons and do more base damage. With only the steel smithing perk, they can deal significant damage if sufficiently smithed. No maces or warhammers, but you have swords, waraxes, greatswords, battleaxes and bows. Bows can't be improved, though.

VALDR'S LUCKY DAGGER: A simple steel dagger that has a 1 in 4 chance of doing critical damage. It can't be enchanted, but does benefit from the Elemental Fury shout. I prefer it to Mehrune's Razor because it takes too long for the latter to do it's thang. Also, all you need for this is the Steel Smithing perk.

BLADE OF WOE: You have to either kill [NOPE NOT SAYING WHO] or finish the Dark Brotherhood questline to get it and you need the arcane smithing perk to smith it, but it can be THE most powerful weapon in the game. Smithed to legendary, combined with shrouded gloves or handwraps and the sneak perk "Assassin's Blade" it can kill a dragon in one hit. Not too shabby.

BOUND WEAPONS: They're weightless, they look awesome, they do Daedric damage (although they can't be improved ... for the most part), and they're just cool

WINDSHEAR: I normally don't like Redguard scimitars and I definitely don't like the Dark Brotherhood. But it's the only way to get this sword, which stuns with every hit.

GHOSTBLADE: Your reward for Ansilvund. It looks like an ghost version of an ancient Nord sword, does 3 extra points of damage that ignores armor, and can be smithed (with "Arcane Smithing" and 3 ectoplasm) to legendary levels ... it is, bar none, my favorite weapon in Skyrim.

STAFF OF STORM ATRONACH: Find a broom (you can steal it almost anywhere), void salts (check apothecaries), an orichalcum ingot (check with smiths) and a greater or grand soul gem (wizards and general stores have them). Pay whatever you have to pay to get them. Then, go to the Winterhold to the college. There's a hidden door under the stairs in the Hall of Countenance that will take you to "The Midden." You'll have to wander around down there (and there's some spiders and ice wraiths and such, so be careful), but there's a big firepit looking thing called the "Atronach Forge." Find it. Put all those things in the box and pull the handle.

23). Everytime you up your stamina it increases your carrying capacity by 5. Also get the perks in the light or heavy armor trees (depending on your armor of choice) which will make the armor become weightless - again leaving more room for you to carry crap. Also try to find the Steed Guardian stone, it will also increase your carrying capacity. There are also pieces of armor (somewhere in the game, they spawn at random) with the fortify carry weight enchantment, these can be disenchanted and re-enchanted onto your current armor!

Phew! Feel free to add more (although probably no-one will bother their backsides )