How to Forge Legendary Weapons in Skyrim: A Comprehensive Guide
Making the best weapons in Skyrim isn’t simply about finding rare loot; it’s about understanding and exploiting the game’s crafting mechanics. The most powerful weapons are born through a combination of skill leveling, strategic potion use, and enchanting expertise. The key is to maximize your Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting skills and then synergistically combine them to create devastating weapons. In short, the formula for crafting the best weapons in Skyrim involves: first, becoming an expert in all relevant crafting skills, and then exploiting that expertise by repeatedly stacking alchemy, enchanting and smithing buffs, and finally crafting the weapon you desire. It’s this combination of planning, skill and crafting that will enable you to create the most potent weapons Skyrim has to offer.
Mastering the Crafting Trio: Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting
Your journey to crafting god-tier weapons begins with mastering three core skills: Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting.
Smithing: Forging the Base Weapon
The Smithing skill allows you to create and improve weapons and armor at forges, foundries, and workbenches across Skyrim. You level it up by creating and improving items. The higher your skill, the more powerful the weapons you can craft and the more effectively you can improve existing ones. Leveling quickly can be achieved by crafting a large number of items like gold rings or iron daggers. These are inexpensive and allow for fast leveling, especially if you are aiming to maximize your skill early on. Don’t set your heart on only making Dragonplate armor however, as there are many great options available. Focus on reaching Smithing level 100 to unlock all the best crafting material options.
Alchemy: Potions for Power
Alchemy is crucial for boosting your crafting potential. By creating Fortify Smithing and Fortify Enchanting potions, you can temporarily enhance your weapon crafting and enchanting capabilities. The key to potent potions lies in your Alchemy level and the specific ingredients you use. Using high-value ingredients will increase the potency of your final product, and the higher your Alchemy skill, the better you’ll be at making quality potions. This skill also directly benefits from certain gear. You can find equipment that fortifies the Alchemy skill, allowing you to create even more powerful potions.
Enchanting: Infusing Magic
Enchanting enables you to imbue weapons and armor with magical effects. Similar to Alchemy, your Enchanting level directly affects the strength of your enchantments. Higher Enchanting skill allows for more potent enchantments, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of your gear. Combine it with Fortify Enchanting potions to create exceptionally powerful magical effects on your gear, and thus more potent weapons. The importance of enchantment for the final weapon cannot be overstated as this is often the place where weapons truly become overpowered in Skyrim.
The Overpowered Weapon Formula: A Step-by-Step Guide
The real trick to creating exceptionally powerful weapons lies in a loop of crafting and potion buffing. This process allows you to push the boundaries of the game’s crafting system and make weapons that exceed the norm. Here’s the recipe:
- Maximize Skills: First, level up your Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting skills to 100. This maximizes your crafting potential.
- Fortify Alchemy Gear: Obtain or create gear with the Fortify Alchemy enchantment. This will boost the potency of your potions.
- Craft Fortify Enchanting Potions: Utilize your Fortify Alchemy gear to create high-level Fortify Enchanting potions.
- Enchant Fortify Alchemy Gear: Drink your Fortify Enchanting potions and enchant more gear with Fortify Alchemy. This should be better than your previous set.
- Repeat the Cycle: Repeat steps 3 and 4 multiple times. Each loop will significantly increase the strength of your potions, creating an exponentially more powerful effect.
- Smithing Buff Potions: Once your potions are as strong as possible, create a batch of Fortify Smithing potions.
- Craft Your Weapon: Drink your Fortify Smithing potion and then craft your weapon. This will greatly increase its base damage.
- Enchant Your Weapon: Finally, use your most potent Fortify Enchanting potion to enchant your weapon with a devastating effect.
Choosing Your Weapon: Base Damage Matters
While the above process makes almost any weapon exceptionally powerful, some weapons have higher base damage or other unique traits making them optimal choices. The Dragonbone Mace has the highest base damage for a craftable one-handed weapon. For swords, consider Dragonbane or Miraak’s Sword. Unique weapons like Windshear, or Nightingale Blade are also powerful choices, but you won’t craft these. Stalhrim weapons also deserve a mention, as they offer good raw power as well as cold damage. While Dragonplate Armor is good, don’t focus on it for the process, as other armor can be improved to similar levels.
The Importance of Compatible Enhancements and Perks
As you level, make sure to select perks that enhance your crafting. Specifically, the “steel smithing” and “dragon armor” perks should be prioritized, as they will help you get the best out of your base smithing, and the “enchanter” and “alchemy” perks will also significantly improve your end-game crafting results. Be aware that not all enchantments work well with every weapon or playstyle. Choose enchantments that enhance your preferred method of combat. Don’t forget to check which enchantments will work best in combination. For example, certain smithing perks may pair better with some materials than others. It’s crucial to understand how to optimally combine every aspect of the game’s crafting to get the desired results.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the best crafting skill in Skyrim?
While Smithing and Enchanting are essential, Alchemy is arguably the best due to its ability to boost the other two through potent potions.
2. What is the fastest way to max Smithing in Skyrim?
Crafting gold rings or iron daggers is the fastest way, focusing on volume over value.
3. What is the best sword you can make in Skyrim?
The best swords are not crafted, they are found. In particular, Dragonbane is considered one of the best. Some other very potent options include: Miraak’s Sword, Windshear, Nightingale Blade or Harkon’s Sword.
4. Do weapons get stronger in Skyrim?
Yes, by improving weapons at workbenches using the Smithing skill and also by finding weapons with higher base damage. Unique items can also increase in power as your character progresses.
5. Is it better to dual wield swords or other weapons?
Hatchets are generally considered the best for dual-wielding in terms of damage-to-speed, however, dual-wielding swords are a very viable option and ultimately it depends on your playstyle.
6. How do you make a million damage weapons in Skyrim?
Through the Fortify Restoration loop, you can create ridiculously powerful potions that dramatically increase your weapon’s base damage. This process involves making increasingly strong Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Enchanting potions as described earlier.
7. What is the best bow in Skyrim?
Technically, the Dragonbone Bow is the best bow in the game. However, a bugged version of Karliah’s bow can sometimes outperform this.
8. What is the hardest skill to level up in Skyrim?
Restoration is often considered one of the hardest to level, as it requires taking damage first. Other more time intensive skills include: Destruction, Conjuration, Heavy and Light Armor, Smithing, Alchemy, Illusion, and Speech.
9. What is the most powerful weapon you can make in Skyrim?
The Dragonbone Mace, due to its high base damage, can become incredibly powerful when combined with advanced enchanting and smithing.
10. What is the rarest creature in Skyrim?
Dremora are considered among the rarest creatures to encounter.
11. What is the most valuable object in Skyrim?
The most expensive items are usually high-end Daedric weapons and armor, but some unique items, such as the Proudspire Manor, are also quite valuable.
12. What is the rarest achievement in Skyrim?
The Legend achievement is the rarest because it requires defeating a Legendary Dragon, which only spawns at higher character levels.
13. Can you max every skill in Skyrim?
Yes, you can eventually reach level 100 in every skill through repeated use.
14. Does difficulty affect leveling in Skyrim?
Yes, higher difficulty makes skills that involve damage, such as Block, Heavy Armor and Light armor, level up faster. However, weapon skills are not affected.
15. Does making a skill legendary make it stronger?
No, making a skill Legendary resets it to 15, but it allows for skill leveling to repeat indefinitely, providing you with additional experience points and perks.
By mastering these techniques and understanding the game’s mechanics, you can forge legendary weapons that will make you a force to be reckoned with in the world of Skyrim. Now go forth and create the most powerful weapons the land has ever seen!