I'm at a point RP-wise (and player-wise too, I guess ) where my character wants to go solo for a stretch of time. I've been mostly using followers the whole time up until now so it'll be a significant change. However ...

I'm not sure what to do about my filled soul gems since containers are unreliable. I have too many to carry them all myself while adventuring without taking an unacceptable hit to my carry-weight (which will already take a huge hit without a "mule"). My only home is Breezehome and Lydia can already barely carry a fork (thanks to the bug that causes some followers to respawn their hunting bows every dismiss/re-follow cycle), so I can't use her inventory. I can't just drop them in a corner since they'll lose their souls that way too.

It's a bit of a pickle and I'm frustrated that these bugs, in total, are hampering what *should* be an easy choice and freedom of action for my character. Any suggestions and workarounds would be most welcome ...

I have never had a problem with ANY of the contaners in brezzwood...ever... its where i store ALL my stuff.. im on pc and use some mods but none that should effect this.. is it a console only glitch?

Bro, there should be a chest in Breezehome where you can store your stuff. Take the stuff from her and load it in the chest. There should be a few, but i KNOW there is one in the upstairs by the bed. Things inside chests in your house CANT be stolen from

i've got all the containers in breezehome separated with stuff.

one of my containers is just for filled soul gems, necklaces, rings, etc.

just take a couple filled with you, an empty or 2 that can be filled and store the rest. repeat.

I'm pretty sure it impacts all platforms. Apparently there are some mods available for PC users but, alas, I'm on the 360. And *any* container is not safe for filled gems (i.e., without risking them losing their souls). If you've somehow not noticed this bug on your own, see here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Soul_Gem#Bugs

i've had no problems with my containers, so far, to my knowledge.

if they do lose the soul just re-trap, i guess. no sweat.

Interesting. I have never noticed that bug, but the UESP does suggest a workaround of sorts. Have you tried that?

Also, a little off topic, I think the UESP is wrong when it says: "Occasionally, dropping a soul gem you filled yourself onto the ground will cause it to lose its charge without breaking." In my experience that always happens (not just occassionally) and I have yet to have one break as a result of dropping. I also question whether the UESP should be listing this under the heading "Bugs" since it is a useful feature to clear unwanted lower quality souls from your high quality soul gems, and may very well have been intentionally included in the game.

I'm pretty sure it impacts all platforms. Apparently there are some mods available for PC users but, alas, I'm on the 360. And *any* container is not safe for filled gems (i.e., without risking them losing their souls). If you've somehow not noticed this bug on your own, see here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Soul_Gem#Bugs

_{That link says you can avoid the bug by using the take all command, so just make a dedicated soul gem container.}

Earlier today I did a test in various containers in Breezehome. I'll save you from all the data points but here's an example:

If I had ten filled commmons in my inventory and put seven in the container, those seven always lost their souls. If I put the whole stack in the container and then removed the whole stack, they'd remain intact. HOWEVER, somehow this transfer would mark them in a way so that when I transferred them to Eola's (my current follower) inventory afterwards, anything less than the whole stack would empty the souls.

If you've somehow escaped this bug, consider yourself lucky.


Yeah, I guess, but that ain't so easy at my level for greater and grands (short of slaughtering giants and mammoths, which would gravely impact my RP). I may not have a choice, though, I guess with the petty/lesser/common ones though.

Where did you get your info that containers in your own house don't work. They work fine.

Ok I just read your post above mine saying you have a bug that makes you lose the souls. Well I think I'd be more concerned if I lost the actual gem rather than the soul. Its not like its hard to find a soul to full the gem again.

Yeah, I played around with that via my own testing (mentioned above). But even with that, apparently, some gems get "marked" so that later transfers to containers or npc's inventory still screw them up. The only reliable thing I found was if you only transferred whole stacks all of the time back and forth, and that sort of defeats any convenience of storing them ... well, I could maybe get away with that for the grand gems since I only use them for enchanting.

i wonder if the fact that i don't put empty gems with filled ones, matters?

I'd agree ... except for the container bug. If the containers worked appropriately it'd be a welcome feature. As it stands now though, it just removes a workaround.

Yeah, that part is definately a bug. I have not noticed it yet, but I have not tried to store many filled gems either. Good luck with it.

For you, I don't know. In my testing there were no empty ones in either my inventory or the containers so they had no impact.

Just store them in breezehome and don't worry about it. Seriously I have have atleast 100 filled soul gems that I store and take out to use all the time. The only time they empty is when you drop them on the ground.

Umm, no offense, but haven't you read what I've written above? Perhaps you've had no bugs in this regard ... if so, consider yourself lucky. Me, I'm plagued by them and have confirmed them via testing in *my* game. I really wish I could store them safely in my home.

Find the steed stone, increases your carry weight quite a bit (a meaningful amount, no spoils ).

I used a follower for about 1 hour on my first character and NEVER again. It makes the game way too easy. Use the chest next to your bed in Breezehome, I've never had a glitch and never lost anything. I store all my dragon bones / metals there.

Thanks. That's something I'll have to keep in mind, I guess. Right now I'm still using the combat skill bonus from the original guardian stone (I'm mostly a stealth archer so the combat bonus helps prop up the -- needed -- skills that don't get used as often), but it's a bullet I may have to bite ...

pickpocket tree: level 50= xtra pockets

I've never used the skill. My character is assassin orientated -- probably won't even do the thieve's guild with this character (likely only MQ and DB). Thanks for the suggestion though.

I've never seen this bug in my game. I have soul gems, filled and empty, in various containers in every house I own (all except Windhelm). I've not had a single one lose it's soul.

Don't know what to say here. Sorry.

Do you store your filled gems in seperate containers from the empty ones? If not, and you have several houses, it's possible the bug strikes occassionally but you just haven't noticed. Otoh, there's nothing definitive that it effects every player so maybe it just flat doesn't exist in your game. {shrug}

Consider yourself lucky....I have tested this in several different homes and several kinds of containers. It does happen, and you can in fact lose your souls. The only reliable way I have found around this is to place your filled gems in a chest, and hope that they stack. If you have a stack with, lets say 10 lesser gems in it, you can safely remove 4 of them, sometimes even 6, but when you grab that 7'th one it will be empty, about 75% of the time.