It's only tedious if you're looking to make a very specific potion like fortify smithing or something. I don't like it in that case. However, seeing as pretty much all the ingredients are super light, I see no reason not to pick up every one I see. Then at the end of the day I just make a bunch of random potions with my hundreds of ingredients and sell them for a huge profit.

I just wish that there was an easier way to level Alchemy. Making even a very strong potion hardly advances the skill at all.

No.

I really like the idea that you uncover effects by experimenting with the ingredients.

I just want even more effects and ingredients.

I disagree, unless you really dislike the exploration aspect of the games. Bethesda have changed the game so that it leans more towards exploration than before. All alchemy effects can now be explored (but you can get perks to make this easier) and locks, too, require proper fiddling to open them.

I enjoy the experimentation thing, where you can enjoy having discovered something really useful through trial and error.

And for people who don't like that, well, just look up some recipes on the internet for the potions you want.

Thanks for the useless post.

I love the variety of ingredients and I love that you have to work to learn the effects.
Im also very fond of the models used for ingredients, each one is unique and detailed.
I wish there were more effects to toy with, but as is Im very happy with alchemy.
Catching fish and butterflies is fun.

If it wasn't as hard to level as it is, then people would cry and complain that it was broken leveling system. Smithing anyone? Alchemy is the single most powerful and versatile skill in Skyrim. So I think it is more than justified to master.

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, the alchemy was a dream to use and I made fantastic potions .... So, how does Skyrim's alchemy compare to Oblivion's? As good, worse or better? I thought Oblivion's was perfection, so anything like that will do for me. I'm just about to start Skyrim.

Ive never had a problem using it, i dont fast travel in game so i run in to all sorts of useful materials for potions, when i get back home i just eat the ingriedients if i dont know what there properties are and then start mixing, i sell the potions i dont need and keep the ones i can use. its actually my greatest money making job in skyrim other than smithing and enchanting.

What I would like to see is the merchants to stop selling the rarer ingredients. Being able to buy Daedra Hearts just doens't make me value them. I would also normalize the rarity to value formula. There are some really pricy potions made from very common materials.

Apart from the landscape, it's my favourite part of the game. I actually set out from town with no purpose other than exploring an area to see which ingredients can be found there. I have made thousands of potions, tried countless combinations, but with only one rank in experimenter still haven't discovered all the properties. Some effects get overpowered, and the prices get too high, but still imho a good system.

Frostbite venom probably has less harmful long-term effects than Diet Coke, now that I think about it.

Most everything in life is a concoction of a load of other things. That`s how it is. Of course we don`t notice because other people do it for us and stick it in a shop. I was actually quite impressed with it ingame and how much ingredient finding there was to do. In previous I just never bothered with it except rarely.

I just wish it would show me doing the mixing in1st person, y`know looking at the ingredients getting mashed up by yourself.

I won't complain about it. I like alchemy and it is a good addition to any type of character. You can't buy potions as good as the ones you can make either so bonus for that. It becomes less and less tedious as you become acquainted with the system. I find that I have more fun only making potions that I want to use now that I have done the full blown try to combine everything in aas many wasy as I possibly can thing a lot. On my latest character I actually purchased quite a bit of training to assist with levelling the skill but only because of the crazy vendor dance you have to do to sell all of the potions if you level it entirely from making potions (which I have done twice).

Alchemy is how I made money the first 30 levels.

I like exploring, I just don't like having to make 100s of potions to gain 1 point in alchemy.

I just wish inventory management was less tedious to enable Alchemy. I'd like to be able to take all my Alch ingredients out of a chest with a single click (which I can, provided said chest contains only Alchemy ingredients) and when I'm done, put them back with a single click (which I can't). Takes a while to put my ingredients back click by click, and having to pay attention to the popup when you try to put away a stack of 6+ so you hit "X" to approve the stack... square, square, square, X, square, X, square, square, X - OOPS I should have hit square there, I just ate a Crimson Nirnroot!


If they added more intuitive "Take all in this equipment category" / "Store all in this equipment category" quick keys Alchemy would be less a chore.

I think the implied but not directly spoken deal on that is that you have to know how to use the alembic and the various properties of a wide variety of things. IOW, people who know how to make potions have to have a good knowledge of chemistry and botany. At least that's how I see it.

There are people you walk by who mention that they could never get the hang of alchemy. It reminds me of people like myself who could never get the hang of algebra.

As for the money angle, I made a bunch of potions yesterday mostly from ingredients I collected and made a little over 9K. And I still have the vast majority of ingredients left. If I wanted to use them all in one shot (and go through the chore of selling them), I could probably make twice that.

Alchemy is hard to level up.You`ve only got to make a few pieces of armor or enchant a couple of rings and you can level those skills but alchemy seems to tale forever.
Alchemy is also a waste of time.If you`ve chosen the best skills,potions only seem to be required on the hardest settings except against the toughest bosses.
Potions do sell well but they can clutter up the inventory.I can only see flame/frost/shock resistance potions being of use against the toughest opponents on the master setting.
Alchemy also breaks up the flow of the game.Heaving to delve into the inventory during a fight is irksome-It`s very RPG but it`s irksome.

The only problem is the absence of a store all button for ingredients.

I know what you are saying... The game makes it too easy to gain skill points with simple, repetitive tasks.

What the game should do is to remember what a player has done and give only smaller skill increases when a repetitive behaviour is detected. For example, the game shall count how many leather bracers a player has forged and with each count give less points to Smithing. This will force players to craft all sorts of things and anyone who still likes to take the easy route will have to craft a whole lot more leather bracers to get Smithing up. It will also be more realistic, because one can only become a good smith by having crafted not just one and the same type but many different types of items.

The same with Alchemy. Here the game shall remember a count for each effect. The more potions are made with a Restore Health effect, the less points you get to your Alchemy skill. You will, again, be forced to try all sorts of potions before you can become a master in Alchemy, or you will have to create many more health potions than are needed now.

In fact, one can design it so that the skill increases converge to zero. This means that after maybe crafting 100 items of the same type will you not get any higher in the skill. You then can only advance to let's say another +25 in Smithing if you only craft leather bracers or only iron daggers. As a result of such a slowly degrading learning effect will you be forced to craft all sorts of things before you can call yourself a master and have no way to cheat your way to 100.

It`s even quite theraqeutic after a hard day`s adventuring...

Alchemy hard to level up? Why do I keep hearing this? It levels not on the # of potions you make, but their strength. I jumped from 99 to 100 with 1 potion.... oh yes, it did so many things you couldn't read the description on a 40 inch flatscreen because the letters were so small. Some of those effects included invisibility and damage magicka regen so the potion was worth 2-3k gold. Make expensive potions and it will level very very quickly. Using enchant to boost your alchemy helps as well.

And for complaints about the going into inventory.... you know you can favorite a potion right? I have restore health, invisibility, and a lingering damage health/paralyze potion favorited.

Collecting ingredients... if you don't like doing this then don't use alchemy. It is one skill, if you don't like it, avoid it. It is not a must have. If you prefer two handed weapons to one handed I bet you use two handed. I prefer alchemy to restoration for healing, play as you like. Don't complain about the most useful skill in the entire game because you can't be bothered to pick flowers as you run along the road. Of course I guess that could be a problem if you fast travel. I walk everywhere, so I have tons of ingredients. I just need more river bettys.

Nope...I think alchemy is great and it adds immensely to the depth and richness of the game.
I collect all the time and do the brewing in spurts. Never found it at all tedious...definitely not.

Initially it is a bit cumbersome, but once you know what potions to make and with what incredients to make it becomes indispensable.

The idea of recipes could be expaned, they should be a part of the alchemy UI, instead of notes, you should see if you have the ingredients on you, and you should be able to save your own.

Looking forward to how the modders will enhance the crafting UIs.