Skyrim Tip #62 Leveling Illusion

   If you want to level up your Illusion skill quickly, it’s pretty effective to just cast muffle or illusion repeatedly while you’re walking around.

Skyrim Tip #61 Leveling Smithing

If you’re leveling up your Smithing skill by crafting Iron Daggers, then you’re wasting your materials. Smithing levels by the value of the item created, so it’s far more effective to craft the most valuable items (with the least amount of materials). This means crafting armor, bows, and jewelry.

People of Skyrim: Astrid

Astrid

Class: Assassin

Race: Nord

Morality: Will become hostile upon being attacked a number of times, Will become hostile if another assassin is attacked

Skills: None

Location: The Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary (Falkreath)

Quests Given: Dark Brotherhood Quest: With Friends Like These…, Sanctuary, Mourning Never Comes, Whispers in the Dark, The Silence Has Been Broken, Bound Until Death, Breaching Security, The Cure For Madness, Recipe for Disaster, To Kill An Empire, Death Incarnate

Quests: Dark Brotherhood Quest: Destroy the Dark Brotherhood!

Info: Astrid leads the Falkreath branch of the Dark Brotherhood. She believes in a new breed of assassin and has rejected the Five Tenets. Her only rule is loyalty, above all. She is married to Arnbjorn, a werewolf and carries the Blade of Woe (which has a health drain enchant). Astrid asks the Dragonborn to kill Cicero (and later, herself). She is voiced by Cindy Robinson (Amy Rose from Sonic the Hedgehog), can be reanimated used Dead Thrall, and is marked an essential character except during specific quests. 

People of Skyrim: Tolfdir

Tolfdir

Class: Spell Vendor, Skill Trainer

Race: Elder

Morality: Will report seen crimes.

Skills: None

Location: The Hall of the Elements (The College of Winterhold), The Hall of Attainment (The College of Winterhold)

Quests Given: See below.

Quests: College of Winterhold Quests: The Eye of Magnus, Under Saarthal, First Lessons, The Staff of Magnus, Aftershock, Finding Tolfdir’s Alembic, Alteration Ritual Spell

Info: Tolfdir is a master of Alteration-level magic and will offer skill training. Upon near-completion of the College of Winterhold quest line, Tolfdir becomes Master Wizard.

Skyrim Tip #60 White Kids

In Skyrim, there are no redguard children. Redguard couples (somehow) have Nord children.

Character Archetype: The Berserker

Race: Orc

Gender: Male

Statistic Focus: Health 50% Stamina 50%

Primary Skills (you’ll want to level these ASAP): Two-Handed, Heavy Armor

Secondary Skills: Smithing, Block

Stone Ability: Lord Stone

Essential Perks: Barbarian (Two-Handed), Champion’s Stance (Two-Handed), Juggernaut (Heavy Armor), Well-Fitted (Heavy Armor), Tower of Strength (Heavy Armor), Power Bash (Block)

Weapons: The strongest Two-Handed weapon you can find.

Armor: Heavy Armor, for the most defense.

Follower: Find a follower who can keep up with you and jump right into the battle with you. Stenvar is aggressive, but Belrand offers more versatility. If you’re in the wilderness (as opposed to a cramped dungeon), don’t hesitate to take a war hound along to distract enemies.

Advice:

·       As an Orc, you have solid skill bonuses and the racial ability: Berserk (which lets you take half damage and output double damage for a minute).

·       A berserker will charge right into combat. Their attacks will be slow, but will deal high damage and have a higher chance of staggering foes.

·       Power Attacks are critical to using Two-Handed weapons effectively, so boost your Stamina and perks that improve power attacks, like Champion’s Stance.

·       You are in most danger when you are surrounded. Keep followers or war hounds around to divide the attention of your enemies and keep their numbers manageable.

·       When you do get surrounded, use Berserk to fight your way free of the fray.

·       Heavy Armor is necessary for a berserker because it replaces the protective spells, shields, or stealth skills that other archetypes have. The right Heavy Armor perks can shrug off direct hits from the most powerful of foes.

·       The Lord Stone improves your defense even further, which lets you focus on beating the living daylights out of enemies instead of on your health.

·       Though you won’t have much use of shields, you still have the ability to parry with your weapon. This lets you take advantage of Block perks like Power Bash or Disarming Bash.

·       Combat relies directly on your weapons and your armor. Leveling up your Smithing skill will allow you to make/improve your gear high above that of your enemies early on in the game.

Skyrim Tip #59 Dungeons and Traps

Delving dungeons? Keep your eyes to the ground for pressure plates and tripwires. Don’t think you can just run around if you’ve got the Sneak perk that makes you invincible to them: your follower will most certainly step on them and hurt you both. Also keep an eye out for long hallways with sudden, wide openings or rooms that are long to the left or right, but thin. The kind of room that you walk past and a battering ram hits you.

Character Archetype: The Archer

Race: Wood Elf

Gender: Male

Statistic Focus: Health 80% Stamina 20% Magicka 20%

Primary Skills (you’ll want to level these ASAP): Archery, Sneak

Secondary Skills: Light Armor, Block

Stone Ability: Thief Stone

Essential Perks: Overdraw (Archery), Eagle Eye (Archery), Power Shot (Archery), Quick Shot (Archery), Stealth (Sneak), Deadly Aim (Sneak)

Weapons: Bows and Arrows (the best you can afford), if you can, find a bow with a fire/shock/frost enchantment. Keep a one-handed weapon for backup.

Armor: Light Armor will give you protection but won’t sacrifice speed or stealth

Follower: If you’re looking for aggression, choose Jenassa or Faendal. If you’re looking for someone sturdy, choose Vorstag or Argis.

Advice:

·       As a Wood Elf, you excel in stealthy archery, with bonuses in all of your critical skills.

·       If you see an enemy, drop into sneak mode and look for a vantage point. If there aren’t any, starting off the battle with a sneak attack will give you a good advantage.

·       If an enemy closes in on you or bum rushes you, bash them with your bow and get some space so that you can keep firing.

·       Use your bow exclusively to level it up as quickly as possible.

·       Every single Archery perk is valuable to a dedicated archer. I recommend getting them all as soon as you can. Don’t neglect the Overdraw perk, it makes a big difference!

·       Eagle Eye and Steady Hand are there to help you line up your shots easier.

·       Deadly Aim and Power Shot are there to increase your damage output.

·       Your Sneak skill will make a huge difference if you want to be a sniper instead of just an archer (low Sneak will make things very, very difficult in comparison). A high sneak will allow you to finish off hordes of draugr in a big room without them ever catching onto your location. To level up Sneak as soon as possible, sneak up on even low-level enemies and always take a stealth shot over a normal one.

·       Light Armor is great for an archer because it doesn’t detract from their Sneak skill or their ability to run, duck, block, or gain some distance.

·       Block is a good backup skill for an archer because perks like Disarming Bash and Power Bash work just as well with a bow and can give you the time to get some distance or get in one last shot.

·       Stat bonuses aren’t going to be a big focus to archers since most enemies won’t make it to melee combat. Just make sure that you have enough stamina to support your playstyle if you’re running, blocking, or bashing a lot.

·       If you’re assaulting an outdoor camp or redoubt, don’t forget that you’ve got access to Command Animal as a wood elf. If you can’t quietly take out the sentries, maybe your new bear/saber cat/mammoth will.

·       The Thief Stone is helpful because it will help your stealth skills (sneak, light armor) to keep up with your archery skill. Skills that fall behind aren’t really effective in combat.

Skyrim Tip #58 Extra Damage

After completing the quest The Heart of Dibella, you get an ability called “Agent of Dibella” which gives you 10% more damage to members of the opposite gender. Since a very large portion of the enemies you’ll face are male, this is very useful for female characters. I also happen to know that in another one of Bethesda’s games, Fallout 3, 90% of the human enemies are male. Just to let you know where the ratio probably is.

Skyrim tip #57 Outside Whiterun Glitch

 Sometimes you’ll get a companions quest to talk to Skjor, but the quest marker will be outside of Whiterun. You can’t leave Whiterun or the quest marker resets (or something). The solution is to use the outside-whiterun glitch. This is the way to get out of whiterun by glitching through a wall. It’s very hard for lower-level characters because they will probably die from fall damage. If possible, use the Become Ethereal shout. Basically, you jump onto Carlotta’s roof, then onto the dragon heads on the right side of the house (the side near the pathway). You stand on those heads and use the height to jump onto the stone, square-but-sloping part of the wall beside you. It’s right in front of you, and should be a pretty easy jump.  Then you sort of step off the platform as if you’re going to walk along the rounded top of the wall, but instead you fall straight through and land on a hill. If you survive, stay to the far left (don’t fall in the ditch!) and walk all the way to Skjor. Ignore the invisible floor, you’ll walk right over it. When you talk to Skjor, you can fast travel back into Whiterun.

Skyrim Tip #56 DLC Dragonborn Quests

 Skyrim add-on: Dragonborn the new expansion pack/add-on. Critics rave that it’s the best yet. Dragonborn gives the dragonborn (heh heh) access to an island called Solsthiem, which is in trouble: some unseen force is hypnotizing people all over the place. Mysterious “black books” bring you to the otherworld realm of Apocrypha, where you fight the original dragonborn, Miraak. There’s also a secondary questline where you are asked to look into a conspiracy against the ruling dark elf family. Oh, and you can ride dragons (but they just fly in circles). 

Dragonborn DLC: Solsthiem Stone Blessings

Stone	Ability	Description
Earth Stone	Bones of the Earth	Ignore 80% of physical damage for 30 seconds
Beast Stone	Conjure Werebear	Summons a werebear for 60 seconds
Sun Stone	Sun Flare	Does 100 points of fire damage centered on the user. Father enemies take less damage
Wind Stone	North Wind	Targets take 20 frost damage to health and stamina for 10 seconds
Water Stone	Waters of Life	Heals everyone around the caster 200 points
Tree Stone	Root of Power	All spells cost 75% less for 60 seconds

Skyrim Tip #55 Equilibrium

 Equilibrium is a spell that converts health to magicka. You can find it in the Labyrinthian Chasm (with the Arcane Enchanter) after/during the quest to find the Staff of Magnus.

Shout Out, 3DS Player

   A shout out to whoever gave me 7 pageviews from their Nintendo 3DS this month! Dude, hilarious.