Skyrim Special Edition

[TrippleOG]

Look at the number of hours played. If it's anything under 100, you have barely touched the surface! There are hundreds of side quests in Skyrim: don't go restarting the main quest when you can explore new ones.

Try difficult quests like Meridia's beacon or Azura's star. If you're really game, try long quests like Stones of Barenziah and Return to your Roots. Come back in a week when you've done them all and I'll swing another handful in your direction!

Thanks. Already done all of those. So i guess I'm about done with all main and dlc. All that's left is a few misc, also building a house i never did. However lots of places i still probably haven't explored..

I'm thinking of just starting another game run, maybe try stealth and bow? I tried learning magic and alchemy and stuff but I'm terrible. I may need to look into that Enchantment thing. Should i bump up the difficulty? I felt like my guy was too strong towards the end.

 

[HereticBD]

Look at the number of hours played. If it's anything under 100, you have barely touched the surface!

That's not true. You could easily beat the meat of this game in 100 hours without fucking around too much, and have nothing but the infinite fetch quests left.

 

[VitorReem]

100 hours is a joke in Skyrim. If you've played less than 100 hours you're still a skyrim noob and have many, many more quests, adventures, skills, styles, loot & places to explore.

Skyrim is an endless pit of glory

 

[HereticBD]

100 hours is a joke in Skyrim. If you've played less than 100 hours you're still a skyrim noob and have many, many more quests, adventures, skills, styles, loot & places to explore.

Skyrim is an endless pit of glory

It's a HUGE game to be sure, but to pretend like the meaty quests don't disappear after a good 100 hours or so(which is still incredible bang for your buck) isn't true. If you're 150+ hours in, don't pretend like you're still discovering a slew of new side quests comparable to faction quests or NPC multi-layered quests. You'll mostly be doing the infinite fetch/kill quests, and maybe stumbling across a decent side quest that you missed if you didn't use a guide to find them all.

There is a limit to the game's significant content. After that, it's hardcore territory.

 

[Metal_Daze]

That's not true. You could easily beat the meat of this game in 100 hours without fucking around too much, and have nothing but the infinite fetch quests left.

It's a HUGE game to be sure, but to pretend like the meaty quests don't disappear after a good 100 hours or so(which is still incredible bang for your buck) isn't true. If you're 150+ hours in, don't pretend like you're still discovering a slew of new side quests comparable to faction quests or NPC multi-layered quests. You'll mostly be doing the infinite fetch/kill quests, and maybe stumbling across a decent side quest that you missed if you didn't use a guide to find them all.

There is a limit to the game's significant content. After that, it's hardcore territory.

That's the thing: Skyrim IS a hardcore game. 100 hours is a small step: I will not tell you how many total hours I have on Skyrim. Let's just say I broke the 250 mark on Special Edition, which I installed on release. If you're just playing casualy, you can't pretent to understand and say "all fetch quests are the same": they are not. The lore in Skyrim is deep, interlaced and all related to older Elder Scroll games. Banal fetch quest are in fact long stories that date back as far as Oblivion and Morrowind.

I still discover new things, new roleplay details and new lore every single run I make. Just reading books: if you're discarding every book as "time wasters", you are not playing Skyrim. I have read every in-game book at least once.

100 hours is a joke in Skyrim. If you've played less than 100 hours you're still a skyrim noob and have many, many more quests, adventures, skills, styles, loot & places to explore.

Skyrim is an endless pit of glory

This guy gets it. Hail Sithis!

 

[HereticBD]

That's the thing: Skyrim IS a hardcore game. 100 hours is a small step: I will not tell you how many total hours I have on Skyrim. Let's just say I broke the 250 mark on Special Edition, which I installed on release. If you're just playing casualy, you can't pretent to understand and say "all fetch quests are the same": they are not. The lore in Skyrim is deep, interlaced and all related to older Elder Scroll games. Banal fetch quest are in fact long stories that date back as far as Oblivion and Morrowind.

I still discover new things, new roleplay details and new lore every single run I make. Just reading books: if you're discarding every book as "time wasters", you are not playing Skyrim. I have read every in-game book at least once.

It's not solely a hardcore game. It appeals to all. What you're doing is hardcore. I'd wager the most who play it, don't care for the finer details.

Whatever though. It's really not worth debating.

 

[Metal_Daze]

It's not solely a hardcore game. It appeals to all. What you're doing is hardcore. I'd wager the most who play it, don't care for the finer details.

Whatever though. It's really not worth debating.

You are right but I feel you're missing a crucial point. You can't ignore all the work that went into the creation and expansion of Skyrim. The work was meant to make the game "yours": you're the master of your destiny. That's why I say it's hardcore.

Let's take another poplular rpg game: Witcher 3. It's way easier to take a game like Witcher 3, put in 100 hours then put it away forever. Not because the game is not on par with Skyrim: it is as deeply created and relies on lore presented on previous games, just like Skyrim.

But it is not as hardcore: you play a determined role, you're not creating the character and the storyline, like in Skyrim. Once you have lead Geralt to his victory, the incentive to replay are very low. I'm hardcore and I sure didn't play again when I defeated that guy:

The game was awesome and memorable but I uninstalled it after. You can do that with Skyrim too. But you're purposely avoiding a lot of things. Skyrim is a role-play game: the goal is to create your own custom character, role-play the build and choose your missions depending on the build. I gave multiple examples of that but this one is easy to get: You can play 100 hours as a Kahjiit merchant who rarely enters town, builds a house in the wild and travels around Skyrim to buy and sell contraband Mood Sugar.

Then, you can start a new character. Let's play an Imperial legionary this time! Son of a Solitude military officer, he rarely goes wandering in the wild like the Kaahjit: he's a city guy. He will want to become thane of each hold, buy a house in every town and make his father proud. He's gonna enter the civil war questline (the Kaahjit never touched it) and follow it to the end. He will then decide if he goes the "Dragonborn" way or if he just goes for glory.

The 100 hours you play with the Imperial will be totally different. If you were to always create characters to complete the main quest with fetch quests around, there would not be incentives to replay the game. But that's not what Skyrim is about, at all. In Skyrim, you can play 100 hours without even touching the main quest. I don't think you can do that on Witcher 3: you have to follow the story line to make the game progress.

Everything is possible in Skyrim, you're the sole master of your destiny. That's not the case with Witcher 3: it's a game with a determined goal. Once reached, the replay factor is very low.

 

[HereticBD]

You are right but I feel you're missing a crucial point. You can't ignore all the work that went into the creation and expansion of Skyrim. The work was meant to make the game "yours": you're the master of your destiny. That's why I say it's hardcore.

Let's take another poplular rpg game: Witcher 3. It's way easier to take a game like Witcher 3, put in 100 hours then put it away forever. Not because the game is not on par with Skyrim: it is as deeply created and relies on lore presented on previous games, just like Skyrim.

But it is not as hardcore: you play a determined role, you're not creating the character and the storyline, like in Skyrim. Once you have lead Geralt to his victory, the incentive to replay are very low. I'm hardcore and I sure didn't play again when I defeated that guy:

The game was awesome and memorable but I uninstalled it after. You can do that with Skyrim too. But you're purposely avoiding a lot of things. Skyrim is a role-play game: the goal is to create your own custom character, role-play the build and choose your missions depending on the build. I gave multiple examples of that but this one is easy to get: You can play 100 hours as a Kahjiit merchant who rarely enters town, builds a house in the wild and travels around Skyrim to buy and sell contraband Mood Sugar.

Then, you can start a new character. Let's play an Imperial legionary this time! Son of a Solitude military officer, he rarely goes wandering in the wild like the Kaahjit: he's a city guy. He will want to become thane of each hold, buy a house in every town and make his father proud. He's gonna enter the civil war questline (the Kaahjit never touched it) and follow it to the end. He will then decide if he goes the "Dragonborn" way or if he just goes for glory.

The 100 hours you play with the Imperial will be totally different. If you were to always create characters to complete the main quest with fetch quests around, there would not be incentives to replay the game. But that's not what Skyrim is about, at all. In Skyrim, you can play 100 hours without even touching the main quest. I don't think you can do that on Witcher 3: you have to follow the story line to make the game progress.

Everything is possible in Skyrim, you're the sole master of your destiny. That's not the case with Witcher 3: it's a game with a determined goal. Once reached, the replay factor is very low.

I agree to an extent. What you're describing though, is just role-playing that many games offer. It's up to the individual how seriously they take it. Some will find it different each time, but it involves a lot of imagination. Others will take it as is, and treat it like nothing more than a video game where you complete the tasks. A replay of the game to those types, will be repetitive to a degree, because unless you get lost in your character's story that you have manufactured, it's just going to be a game with the same missions you already beat, and the only difference will be the alternate paths that some missions offer. Archer, Mage, Warrior, etc, the core experience will be relatively the same each time you play it, and 100 or so hours is enough to complete the tasks put in front of you, if that's all you're playing the game for.

That said, Skyrim(and Bethesda in general) does do a better job than most RPG's, in allowing the player to get lost in the world and let the player craft their own personal story, if the player chooses to do so.

 

[IwishIcould]

I had this for ps3, so obviously I got it again. Been playing since xmas but decided to switch things up. Instead of completing quests at first I just went around and started discovering all locations. I'm at 308 now.

But on New Years day my system crashed it I lost most of my stuff. Game has serious issues but I like it too much.

I had meridias beacon done and other shit before it crashed.

 

[TrippleOG]

So should i bump up the difficulty on the new playthrough or stay at normal? I read it just makes the bad guys spongy absorbing and delivering ridiculous amounts of damage.

 

[HereticBD]

So should i bump up the difficulty on the new playthrough or stay at normal? I read it just makes the bad guys spongy absorbing and delivering ridiculous amounts of damage.

Yeah, that's pretty much what you can expect. If that's your thing, do it. If not, I wouldn't bother. It won't make the game better or anything.

 

[TrippleOG]

Yeah, that's pretty much what you can expect. If that's your thing, do it. If not, I wouldn't bother. It won't make the game better or anything.

thanks, also if I'm going Stealth and Bow and stuff who should i choose? Dark Elf seems kind of cool. That Breton defense really came through for me though, so many dam magic casters.

 

[HereticBD]

thanks, also if I'm going Stealth and Bow and stuff who should i choose? Dark Elf seems kind of cool. That Breton defense really came through for me though, so many dam magic casters.

Dark Elf is your friend with a stealth archer build(as far as I can remember anyways). If you're just playing kind of casually though, you can make a stealth archer out of pretty much anyone. The base skills don't mean too much. You'll get by just fine with any race you choose. Just stick to a certain skill set, and you'll be wrecking fools soon enough.

 

[Metal_Daze]

So should i bump up the difficulty on the new playthrough or stay at normal? I read it just makes the bad guys spongy absorbing and delivering ridiculous amounts of damage.

It is really related to your own level of experience on Skyrim. If you feel like you understand the fighting mechanics and can use tactics and strategy, you'll be fine. The "too spongy" myth is mostly carried by casuals who don't use tactics at all. It's not an insult: if you're not experienced enough to realize that your first perk points should go toward delivering damage, then of course enemies will seem spongy from the start!

I have a long breakthrough of early game strategies, I'll put it under spoiler tags:

Spoiler: Early levels

If you're more experienced, you know that you must raise your damage output from the start. Ex: you decide to play an archer-thief. Your first perk point will go into archery and you'll do everything to make it level up fast. Why? Because it will take a while before your daggers / sword attacks can deliver sufficient damage on Master / Legendary. So what you'll do is go directly to Riverwood from Helgen and immediately recruit Feandal. Now you have 2 routes: the easy cheaty one or the real route. Feadal is a archery trainer that will become your follower when you help him. If you pay him to train your archery, you can ask him to trade things with you and take back your money.

Since the training sessions are more expensive the higher lvl you get, you wont be able to do it 20 times! Besides, as an adept trainer, he wont take you over lvl 50 anyway. But it will be enough to make your bow deadly. Now keep in mind that if you're playing Master / Legendary, the enemies will be very powerful: very little chance to one-shot kill anything. If you don't want to "cheat" Feandal, pay for each training session and don't take your money back. Focus on acquiring money and spend it all on training: damage must be raised as fast as you can.

If you're experienced enough, you know that once your bow damage has been enhanced, it's time to focus on Sneak, Backstab, Deadly Aim and such perks that raise your damage even further when you sneak. It's really all about damage for the first 10-15 levels.

When you start realizing that you can kill everything as long as you don't blindly run screaming into battle, you can start investing in convenience perk. But remember that the higher lvl you reach, the longer it takes to move another level. You never want to have to wait before gaining perks and raising your damage! So in a nutshell, Master and Legendary are not for casual players but they make the game very interesting. Tactics become paramount and you have to develop your own strategies based on your build. For example, again:

My current build is a 2-hand Redgard Rebel that never wears armor. Very restricted build, created to make the game even more challenging. I started on Legendary and had to "adjust" difficulty one or two times in the first 5 levels. No more after that. The build is all based on speed and DPS. I went to get the "Bound Bow" spell and "The Longhammer" weapon before reaching lvl 10.

Then, I go kill my first dragon and immediately go see the Greybeards to unlock Fus. Just after that, I go get the "Elemental Fury" shout and kill the Dragon nearby to unlock the shout. From that point forward, I am beastly: I'm around lvl 12-13 and my damage output is sufficient. My bow can already kill dragons because it is the "Bound Bow" spell and I have raised my archery lvl with Feandal. Remember that I'm a two handed fighter so most of my damage output must go toward Two-handed. But I'm experienced enough to know that without armor, it will be a while before I can melee attack a Dragon without fear!

So my first perks have gone toward Archery and Sneak,. Even if they become less important as my game advances, it is primordial that I raise the archery damage fast if I want to kill the first Dragon around lvl 10. Of course, I could always "drop difficulty to novice" to kill my Dragon but I have no need to do that anymore. I am experienced enough to know how to get to that point with minimum exploit. I do still exploit flaws and I like to play without the "official patch" mod to make the game more similar to Vanilla Skyrim. But even if you play with the "official patch", you will be good. Official patch will "kill" the Restoration Potion exploit. You don't need it anyways!

It is just fun to exploit it: it makes your leveling go faster. Nobody likes having to brew 1000 cheap potions to raise Alchemy. Especially when you realize that the more expensive the potion you brew, the higher your level will progress when you brew it. So with the Restoration glitch, you brew a dozen of Restoration potions and use them to boost your Alchemy items. Then you brew Fortify Health potions and each of them make you level up Alchemy 4-5 levels at once!

It is cheating? Maybe it is. But this is Skyrim: there is no other rule than "have fun". There are no leaderboards, no ladder, no speed run and no hassles. You're not "cheating" anyone: you're making the game more fun for you. And if you're like me, you will minimize your exploits as you rack more experience.

Nowadays, I only brew 20 - 25 Restoration potions and never use the glitch again. It is enough to give me the boost needed to make the game still challenging and fun but not tiresome. I do not have to throw a hundred arrows to kill my first dragon. But I need at least 20-25 arrows, a good follower by my side and a couple of buff spells to enhance my survivability. And I must stick to my strategy, hide behind the tower walls when the Dragon spots me and never, ever rush toward him to finish him: HE's the one who will be doing the finish if I do that!

I know, I am experienced enough: I've been eaten by Dragons a hundred times, I know the feel.

The main point is to boost your damage output for your favorite weapon by any means necessary. Spend your first 5 to 10 perk points on damage only. You can keep convenience perks for later: if you're playing Master / Legendary, convenience is a luxury you cannot afford anymore.

Have fun!
________

Here's Taarna, my Redguard Rebel in her fighting gear apparel. Lvl 25, already mighty and no need for armor or robes anymore! Legendary build for Legendary difficulty:

I have written a complete guide for this build. I will not publish it yet but a video might appear some time, somewhere...

 

[Metal_Daze]

Cheating and roleplay is really a matter of perspective. You must always keep a good balance between what YOU know and what your character should know. Ex: I know full well how to brew Restoration and Fortify Health potions. My character does not. So before brewing them, I will eat every ingredient I gathered so far to reveal the effect. That's how my character will "learn" how to brew expensive potions! I do not have the same scrupule when it comes to locations: I will not make my character wander Skyrim endlessly to find Elemental Fury: it is too important for my build and I know where it is, even if my character does not.

I'm willing to sacrifice a little to the shrine of roleplay vs cheating. I know that for my specific build, I need Elemental Fury. Once I get it, it will be way more fun to wander Skyrim aimlessly on Legendary. So I give myself a restricted list of exploits I'm willing to accept and stick to it. I will adjust difficulty if I restart a battle more than 20 times: enough is enough. But I don't really need it anymore, I have spent enough time developing strategies. No more need to constantly exploit everything: 5-10 exploits, all done before lvl 20 and never again after that.

What a cheater!
_______

My exploit priority list for the Redguard Rebel build:

1- Feandal and Archery training: I take it to lvl 50 and keep Feandal until he dies. He will die for sure on Legendary, most likely in Bleak Falls Barrow.
2- Gather some ingredients from locations "I should not know yet" but are at walking distance from Riverwood.
3- Slowly raise my pickpocket lvl to raise my overall lvl. Pickpocket is really easy to lvl up.
4- Go see Farengar with the Dragon Stone, buy "leveling, convenience" spells like muffle and candlelight.
5- Eat ingredients and lvl up Alchemy while I'm there. Stop before exploiting too much.
6- Go pick up the "Transmute" and "Bound Bow" spells, all at walking distance from Whiterun. Use Fortify Conjuration items to be able to cast Bound Bow. Kill Dragon with Bound Bow. (I invest 0 point in magika for this build)
7- Immediately go see the Greybeards to boost my shout. Now that Dragons roam Skyrim, there is no more time to fool around.
8- Lvl up Sneak by "backstabing" the Greybeards a few dozen times. As long as you remain sneaky, they will not turn hostile and you can raise sneak to lvl 30+ in 5 minutes. Stop when you have gained enough perks.
9- Use perks gained that way to finalize the build and end the exploit spree.
10- Go get Elemental Fury and have fun wandering!

 

[IwishIcould]

Depending on your specific build, I would not recommend The Longhammer. It is specifically meant for a speed freak build and needs a big boost in stamina (like 60% stamina, 40% health, no magika). You must find a way to boost your health or else, you'll have to turn down the difficulty.

There is a cure though:

It much better suited for normal 2-hand builds. You don't have to invest so much in stamina because of the power: you can go all-in with health and have a hammer-wielding tank of a character instead!

Much easier to manage and more fun for the adept player.

I've been using the hell out of this weapon. Love it.

 

[Metal_Daze]

My inspiration for Taarna: a Taarakian:

 

[Metal_Daze]

You've been asking for "best weapons" in Skyrim? Seems somone has been listening...

Let's begin with one hand swords!

 

[Metal_Daze]

A favorite for a lot of people:

Dawnbreaker

 

[Metal_Daze]

Taarna has finally made it to the cistern. She has spoken with the face sculptor and opted for a return to her natural silver hair and lighter skin now that her identity has been revealed.

Spoiler: Taarna

The naked warrior

She can dress up a little but never too much.

When charging into battle, she immediately shouts.

She watches the skies for hostiles. All clear, just two birds to take down.

She's not always angry. She can relax in good company.

She will get naked and comfortable but never let her guard down.

Don't you dare tell her to put some clothes on or question her motives.

There you have it: Taarna the Taarakian, build finished and ready to start venturing.

Quests incoming: All College quests, Elder Scroll, Dawnguard, Thief / Blade / Brotherhood, etc... Pretty much all the meat! I'll be back with updates now and then.