No blasting where they are - there's a door or at least a "jog" in the tunnel (not sure, haven't been in there for a couple of months).... but they ARE hard to see.

Level 32 and only 1 (one) pearl...and it was a small one too...

Is this true of all plants? It would explain the issue with the NIghtshade in Solitude.

I believe so. Sorry, I need the merchants in places more than I need the plants to respawn. Especially since I don't do alchemy.

Daedra Hearts hands down.

Painted Troll Fat, according to Riften's apothecary. (jk) In all seriousness, pearls, spriggan sap, human flesh and hearts, ectoplasm, and hawk beaks are the hardest ingredients for me.

At least 2 hunks of human flesh, and one heart, in Alftand. Ectoplasm anywhere there are spirits (not skeletons/draugr) - Halldir's Cairn for one, there's probably 8 ghosts to kill there; and Rannveig's Fast has a bunch too.

Usually, when I kill ghosts, they don't have ectoplasm on them... But I know the ghost dogs do, and that's the only way I've been able to get them.

I got 4 ectoplasm the other day in the Cairn, and about 6 off the ghost mobs in the Fast. I'm pretty sure it's random luck....

I pretty much only make Fortify Smithing potions (may try a few Fortify Enchanting) at this point and have plenty of Nightshade for whatever it's for. I just thought it was odd that it didn't seem to grow back after the 2nd time I picked it.

There's SO much gold in this game, it's just easier to buy pots. Alchemy is nitnoidy - I don't have any use for it in this game or any other.... And as far as the fortify stuff.... I'm just not into it. I'm not much into anything that runs my levels up while I'm crafting any more than happens already with basic smithing (leather) and enchanting. I need to find a mod that lets you spend all day smithing/enchanting and does NOT run up levels.

Pearls and wisp wrappings

Well, I wanted to get the Forsworn Armor past the Armor cap so I have to be able to make higher Fortify Smithing potions than I can buy/find.

I don't mind being over powered a little as long I earned it...or earned it on at least one character first. I'll admit I used the Oghma Infinium on my assassin chick (2nd character), but only from like 24 to 42 I got her to 24 and 67 the 'hard' way. I really have no desire to get to 81, but I wish I could get more Perks so I could mess around with some other things.

I don't have a toon at 50 yet. I can't actually imagine messing about to 81. I'd rather just start new toons.

You'd think so, however they're not in any Death Item lists so don't spawn on corpses*. I may end up adding them manually, as that's a pretty glaring omission.


*EDIT: they are on a list of possessions for some NPCs, but as a rare item; it so happens they're all auto-hostile, so you only get it when they're dead. Death List items, on the other hand, always appear on the bearer's corpse unless the list itself says otherwise (and some do).

Nirnroot grows back all the time for me

How about Frost Mirriam? You can pick dried bunches of it in houses sometimes, but I have never seen it in the wild.

You do not aim for a high level. What you rather do is you explore all of Skyrim, do all quests and go into every cave and ruin with one character. Whenever a skill reaches 100 do you start using a different skill instead. If you have been using one-handed weapons for a long time and they are now at 100 do you switch to two-handed weapons. When your light armor has gone to 100 do you start using heavy armor. And so on. You keep the game fresh and continue with only one character. You will get to level 60-70 easily.

Only to get to 81 does one need to get all skills to 100. That is something I will probably not do or I will end using lots of illusion and alteration spells on my warrior. I rather fancy starting a new character instead of aiming for the maximum level, too.

My favorite poison to make is Paralysis + Lingering Damage Health, once you get some good Fortify Alchemy gear, you can get the magnitudes pretty high. So making that potion requires Imp Stool + something else with Paralysis (Canis Root, Swamp Fungal Pod, Briar Heart, or Human Flesh) + something else with Lingering Damage Health (Mora Tapinella, Slaughterfish Egg or Scales, or Orange Dartwing). Mora Tapinella is pretty easy to find in the wilderness, and if you're Argonian or have something enchanted with Waterbreathing, Slaughterfish Eggs are also very easy to find.

I agree about what someone said earlier that Human Flesh and Human Heart should be in the Death Item list for the four human races, of course with some probability of being able to be harvested. I am going to mod that as soon as I can figure out a way that doesn't involve altering every single human Actor record (the ones like BanditRedguardFemale4 etc).

The Hall of Countenance at the College respawns much faster than 30 days, it's more like 2! Upstairs the alchemy lab has your more rare ingredients (including spriggan sap), as well as a few healing and magicka potions. Also, the 2 barrels in the Alchemy Lab respawn with different alchy ingredients if you clean them out regularly when you do your sweep.
Two doors down is your Enchanting Room, with the respawning gems (also about 2 days).

Downstairs in the Hall of Count is a room that has a few things on the right side that are marked "take" instead of the red "steal": a gem on the dresser between the wardrobe and shelf, and a few rare ingredients on the middle shelf.


And don't forget to re-check your old room in the Hall of Attainment, as every couple of days you have respawns: the gems on the dresser, and the ingredients on the small tables on each side of the doorway.

The bad guys (inside and out) and their daedra hearts at the shrine for Mehrune's Razor respawn for me regularly. I'm swimming in those squishy things.

And it seems the briarheart guy at Red Eagle Redoubt keeps respawning. It absolutely creeps me out to see hagraven handiwork of that big patched area on his chest, and then the big gaping hole after you take his briarheart. YUK.

I believe when you add a River Betty as third ingredient to your poison can you increase the poison damage. A few ingredients work as poison amplifiers and this fish is the strongest.

River Betty has Damage Health which would combine with the same effect in Imp Stool, but then you'd lose either Paralysis or Lingering Damage Health. The best combination would be Imp Stool + Human Flesh + anything else with Lingering Damage Health, since Human Flesh has both Damage Health and Paralysis. But of course Human Flesh is so rare.

I am not sure how exactly it works.

A River Betty not only has the effect Damage Health on it, but it multiplies the damage of poisons. It works like a hidden 5th effect.

Not all poisons do the same amount of damage and adding a River Betty in the process will increase it.

Edit:
I have just tested it, and a River Betty does not amplify Lingering Health Damage. There may however be some other ingredient that could work as amplifier. I have not found them all yet.

Here is a picture of the effect of a River Betty: [img]http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7854/riverbetty.jpg[/img]

sdack is right about river betty. It makes a more potent poison, and slow can be combined with deathbells or salt. A good starter vs a melee opponent.

Don't know if this was answered already as I haven't read the whole thread, but canis root grows in the solitude swamp area - I do envy this ingredient. Can pick up swamp fungal pods while there as well.

Its not that the River Betty has a hidden "increase power" effect or anything. Its just that the River Betty has a higher strength Damage Health effect.

Technically, the devs have it set up so that each ingredient can have its own magnitude / duration for each effect in Skyrim, as opposed to Oblivion where every effect was simply "gives this effect with stats based on a universal value". In theory, they could have made every ingredient unique, with ingredients that give more powerful alchemy effects, some that are weaker but longer duration, ect.

But very few items actually have different magnitudes / durations attached to them. River Betty has stronger Damage Health, Giant's Toe has much longer duration fortify health... I think there are a couple more with higher / lower effects (Nightshade might have a lower Fortify Destruction than others) that I don't know off the top of my head. But for the most part every ingredient has a standard magnitude and duration. I guess they decided it would be too much work assigning unique values to every ingredient and balancing them accordingly.