I've just got a few helpful things I've learned and want to share with you.

1. Hate having to click on the woodcutting block every time? Just move forward after your third swing and your character will cut three more blocks of wood. You can continue this as long as you want.

2. Too lazy to chop wood yourself? Use your follower. Just use the follower commands and order them to chop wood for you. They don't even need an axe. They'll just do it. Collect the firewood from them after you're done. Only problem is you have to keep the follower commands up while they're chopping or they'll stop. You can't go and mess around all over town while they're chopping wood.

3. Ever had that darn torch bug that's out of reach? One time I got angry and I literally shouted at it. The torch bug dropped like a rock out of the sky and fell down at my feet. This works with butterflies too, but they split in half and the pieces are hard to find.

4. You'd be amazed how much you can learn about an area just by talking to people. You can learn anything between the civil war all the way down to finding out there's a way to get on top of Dragonsreach tower and collect Chicken Eggs. Talk to everybody about everything. If you aren't learning, you'll definately be laughing at some of the comments.

5. You can over-welcome your stay in Riverwood at Alvor's or Hod's house. Just keep coming back to spend the night. You'll eventually be asked to leave. This can only be avoided if you walk into the house before the door gets locked.

6. Once you get Become Ethereal, start finding high jumps and jumping off of them. The bridge at the College of Winterhold or the back of the college are fun, as well as High Hrothgar.

These are just a few. I'll add some more later when I think of them.

1. You can mine by using the pickaxe in melee. Depending on how fast you click, you'll save yourself some time and not have to watch that animation.

2. You can reset a merchant's inventory by saving, hitting them, and loading.

You can also hit bugs with swords and arrows. Not spells, though.

Cobwebs (the cosmetic ones) can be cleared using magic.

Once you have level 3 of Whirlwind Sprint, try using it in many places to get to platforms you couldn't get to otherwise. Many treasures are hidden in places accessible only via this shout.

There is a looooong survivable fall at the back of the Sky Haven Temple courtyard. Right by where you fall in the river is a sunken chest with a little loot, and the real treasure is the canoe above, inside of which rests a strongbox with better loot and several unleveled random gemstones. Potentially anything from garnets to flawless diamonds. Not sure if these respawn, I've never checked.

In spite of some sources saying they don't, it seems both varieties of nirnroot respawn. They can be combined to make valuable potions.

While your character has a cap magic resistance of 85%, your followers have no such cap. You can make them immune to magic. You can also make them activate shrines, and they will use potions and soul gems you give them. Dead thralls can only use similar equipment to that they die in, but can use any weapons. Giving both dead thralls and your follower staves from the Atronach Forge can result in suddenly leading a small army of three NPC's and three atronachs, plus potentially a dog and whatever the ritual stone can rustle up, and maybe Odahviing if you're outside- Plenty enough to take on most threats.

Reading the Elder Scroll anywhere but where you are supposed to makes you temporarily blind.

The Necromage perk, apparently in restoration to boost turn undead, also affects you if you are a vampire, meaning your healing spells heal more and enchanted items you wear are 25% more effective. More obviously, it improves the effectiveness of non-restoration spells versus undead, including destruction, illusion and conjuration, meaning it functions as a level booster in Illusion (which undead don't get, kindred mage doesn't affect them) and allows higher-leveled vampires to be resurrected.

Never seen a fur helmet? It's because there's only four of them in the entire game. Two are aboard the Dainty Sload, that corsair ship north of Solitude. IMO they are one of the better-looking headpieces as well, up there with the Forsworn Headdress and the Ancient Nord Helmet.

Wow, I so did not know that. Gonna try it in a minute. I swear I've tried before, guess I just didn't keep at it enough.

Salmon actually swim upstream.

Casting a frenzy spell on an NPC actually slaps a bounty on you, unlike in the older games.

A plaque in Windhelm actually references Wulfharth, and a ghost calls you Hjalti, both of which are important figures in Tiber Septim's history.

Elenwen is actually at your execution.

Throw a gemstone in a crowd of bandits, and they will murder each other over it.

Items throw with telekinesis actually do damage. And I think it scales with weight, but don't quote me on that (dragon bones seem to do a lot, but if could just be me).

Heimskr in Whiterun actually acknowledges obscure lore texts which were thought to be non-canon.


Bran-Shei is about 195 years old.

Arrows actually arc.

Dressing in Thalmor robes as an Altmer (or other elves, but the disguise falls apart up close) can allow you to sneak through the Thalmor embassy. On that note, Thalmor often carry "sweet" foods, leading me to theorize the "Let me guess. Someone stole your sweetroll?" to be an elven slur.

I figure a lot of this stuff is already known, but I'm saying it in case it isn't.

There is an invisible chest in Dawnstar just outside of the quicksilver mine with a RIDICULOUS amount of loot in it.

Really? I was just at Dainty Sload and found one of those fur helmets. I never knew there were only four. Better go back and pick it up, I am one for collecting rare and unique items.

Not a big surprise since they do this in real life too

I think another is in White River Watch, which is also one of the only two places you can get the Transmute spell (and by far the easier) and one of the only two places you can get the Huntsman's Prowess enchantment (which is pretty useless, but it's there if you want to catalogue them all).

Speaking of that... That place is full of poachers, but their leader seems to be well-read and well-connected. He's got one of the only two copies of the transmute mineral ore spell, and has obviously been using it, and the other copy belongs to Additionally, these poachers take down mammoths, not the mere deer the hunters you see brag about poaching.

Wow, really?

Not a HUGE deal, but if you look into Maiq the Liar's pockets, he's got bottles of Skooma on him.

That's why it is surprising. The attention taken in Elder Scrolls games continues to impress me.


I'll have to try this.

Meh, that's fairly common knowledge. For Bethesda to get something like that wrong would say alot about the company. It's like saying the birds fly in the air or bees build hives.

This is probably common knowledge to avid alchemists.

A mixture between the three ingredients: Giants Toe (1), Glowing Mushroom (1), and Wisp Wrappings (1)

This mixture gives a newbie alchemist 584 gold.

If a Master (100) enchanter, with a combination of high alchemy enchants and full alchemy strength with the Benefactor perk, they can make a potion worth up to 7,907 gold.

Halted Stream Camp is where you can get the Transmute tome early in the game, not White River Watch. Dunno about the fur helmet, though.

Whoops, no, that's the place I meant. I get those names confused a lot, plus just pulled an allnighter.

EDIT: Looked it up, the fur helmet IS at White River Watch however, which is probably the source of my confusion.

The last of the four is at North Skybound Watch.

I didn't know the fur helmet is so rare. I had one, but it was so long ago in my game I don't remember where I got it! I don't remember what I did with it, either--it may be gathering dust in a dresser in one of my houses, for all I know!

Anyone have a pic of this elusive helmet??

Yup. While I know it's an "exploit" of sorts, I tend to do it a lot if I have a lot of merchandise I want gone so I can go adventure, or I've found someone who sells books. Sadly, Urag in the Arcaneum doesn't seem to register the reset glitch.

Plus it helps you bleed out some of the annoyance you can get from hearing those god forsaken merchant quotes.

I never knew Riften's gate was so beautiful. I didn't even know it had much of a gate... I don't know why I never looked to see until recently.

You can talk to a dog named Meeko and he will be an addiional follower and fight for you.

Look in the same place you got Jurgens Horn! I do believe it is on a table there.

there is an invisible chest in Dawnstar by a rock that is full of expensive goods, which you can sell to the Khajiit Caravan lady.

If you bump into a certain wall of a certain house in Whiterun, you will fall through the ground. There are 3 chests there, all three are difficult to reach, but each one has about 10,000 gold in it

That chest is actually that Khajiit caravan's merchant chest. When taking things from it, you pretty much just emptied the merchant's inventory. Gold included.

I might fire up my PS3 to see which house does that weird thing. Pretty sure those are also merchant chests.

they are. and I know the chest belongs to the caravan, but you dont need the perk for stealing and selling back to sell the items to her