Carl's Skyrim Guide

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!

This 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 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.

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 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.

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.