Want to become a master alchemist in Skyrim, crafting potions and poisons that can bring mighty dragons to their knees? Then, you need these Alchemy Leveling guide for Skyrim.
In Skyrim, if you want to make poisons and potions, you need to use alchemy to combine various ingredients with solvents. Some examples of effects provided by Alchemy include: Restoration — Restore Health, Magicka, Stamina; Enhancement — Fortify One-Handed, Sneak, Lockpicking; Destruction — Ravage Health, Stamina, Magicka; and Alteration — Invisibility, Waterbreathing, Paralysis.
Mixing ingredients with complementary effects produces the desired potions and poisons. Advancing Alchemy takes a great deal of experimentation to learn ingredient traits, but it is highly rewarding. By selling potent creations, alchemists can make big money. Additionally, you can save money by making potions and poisons.
Whether you want to level up this tricksy skill organically through strategic crafting and perk selection, speed things along by chumming it up with an alchemy trainer, or straight-up cheat using certain sneaky exploits, we’ve got you covered. From where to find rare crafting ingredients like the mythical Giant’s Toe to clever tricks for enhancing your potion-making powers, these tips will have you cackling with witchy glee as you unlock new heights of alchemical prowess.
Alchemy Leveling Guide for Skyrim
Leveling Alchemy through Crafting Potions
The most effective way to increase Alchemy skill is by crafting potions. The more valuable a created potion is, the more Alchemy experience you gain. Here are some tips:
Use Valuable Ingredients
Certain ingredients like Giant’s Toe, River Betty, and Salmon Roe significantly boost potion value. Giant’s Toe increases duration, River Betty boosts damage, and Salmon Roe enhances restoration effects.
Craft Fortify Health Potions
Combining Wheat, Giant’s Toe, and Creep Cluster creates extremely valuable Fortify Health potions, granting substantial XP. You can obtain Wheat and Creep Clusters easily in bulk.
Use Beneficial Effects
Potions with beneficial effects like Fortify, Restore, and Regenerate give more Alchemy XP than damaging poisons. You should prioritize crafting helpful potions.
Obtain Alchemy Gear
Enchanted gear that Fortifies Alchemy allows creating more powerful, valuable potions. You need to obtain the enchantment and boost your equipment.
Maximize Perks
Perks like Benefactor, Physician, and Alchemist increase potion magnitude and value, speeding up leveling.
Alchemy Trainers
Paying trainers to increase Alchemy skill is faster, but expensive. Useful trainers include:
- Lami in Morthal (up to level 75)
- Arcadia in Whiterun (up to level 90)
- Babette in Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary (up to level 100)
You can pickpocket trainers after each session to regain gold spent on training. However, this only works on human trainers, not Babette.
Locating Ingredients and Recipes
Finding ingredients and recipes to expand your arsenal of potions is critical. Some key sources include:
- Merchants: Buy all available recipes and ingredients. Save/reload to reset merchant gold and inventory as needed.
- Loot: Check barrels, sacks, cupboards, and enemy corpses for materials.
- Guild Fences: Unlock fences through the Thieves Guild quests; they have 4000 gold.
- Giant Camps: Giant’s Toe ingredients are abundant at camps.
- Farms: Many farms scattered across Skyrim grow Wheat, an essential ingredient.
- Books: Skill books grant +1 Alchemy skill when read.
Exploiting Glitches
Some exploits can instantly boost your Alchemy level, albeit through cheating. Useful glitches include:
- Restoration Potion Loop: Fortify Restoration potions enhance enchantments. Drinking them while reequipping boosted gear strengthens enchantments infinitely. Each reequip grants massive XP.
- Enchanting Gear Exploit: Equip multiple helmets and circlets at once to break armor slot limitations. Allows wearing several Fortify Alchemy items together for overpowered effects.
Additional Tips
Misc tips that help with Alchemy progression:
- Guardian and Lover Stones: Choose these Standing Stones for boosted skill gain rates.
- Well Rested Bonus: Sleep in owned bed for an extra 10% increase in progression.
- Books Before Level-Ups: Reading skill books grants more XP at lower levels, since leveling up requires less XP. Save books for early levels.
- Hearthfire DLC: Plant a garden with alchemy ingredients at your homestead; harvest every 3 days. Saves gathering time.
As one can see, advancing the Alchemy skill demands immense patience and dedication. But the rewards are unparalleled, granting the ability to boost your power tremendously or debilitate foes with devastating poisons. You should follow this guide to understand all available avenues for rapidly improving Alchemy proficiency. With the right methods and commitment, reaching level 100 is attainable for any player.
