Hi,

I'm currently thinking about the following thing: I'm a hunter with my new character and one of my main activities is of course gathering ingredients and making potions. Now I've found a combination of ingredients that makes a really expensive potion and these ingredients are really easy and often to find (put it in spoilers)


This potion is worth a ridiculous amount of money (over 300 with Alchemy at 27 and just one perk in alchemy) and I usually find around 30 ingredients of both per hunt. I can sell them for around 100 gold, that means around 3000 gold just from this type of potion.

Now I have to ask the question what you would do. I am a hardcoe roleplayer and I wanted my character to be a hunter and thief, but after this easy find I don't have the need to be a thief anymore because I'm getting rich just from alchemy. Do you think this is exploiting the game or cheating? I mean, Im not specifically searching for these ingredients but they are literally everywhere in Skyrim, and as my type of character I'm finding them constantly.

Why did Bethesda give us such an easy source of money?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on that.

Sounds like your role playing a hunter/alchemist,nothing wrong with that.
You can still thief if you want to,more for the thrill of it though than the money.
The good thing about this awesome game is that you can role play any way you want.

I think being a thief is great, when a fugitive comes pasts and hands me something I kill him and loot him, then the hunter comes along and he gets an arrow in the knee aswell and looted. Or wealthy people walking past get the same. Alchemy is just a cool thing to have at your side, sleeping tree sap is great. It makes me feel like my character has just been given supervision and immense power.

Well, thanks for the money making tip
And i don't think its an exploit; you arent cheating or anything. And its the joy of stealing that makes it worthwhile i suppose just like the joy of assassination.

Well, if you're that into the RP of your character, you could choose not to sell the potions. (Or, you can sell just enough of them to finance some extra Alchemy training at the shop in Whiterun). Or (if they're useful potions) you could stick them in a box under the rationale of stockpiling them for when you need them.


No. But, then, I've never been bothered by having money in Beth games. Haven't ever tried to "RP" a poor guy, or cared that I don't have anything I want to purchase.



They're probably not looking at it from the same direction/viewpoint you are. They might not consider it a lot of money. Or they don't think that giving people ways to earn money semi-easily is bad. Or they designed the "potion value" formulas to just calculate value off what the potion does, not how common the ingredients are.

To make that potion even more valuable add butterfly wing to it. The monarchs and blues fly together anyway so you are not going out of your way to collect them.

No it isn't a cheat. It is just a way to make money if you want to put the time into it. Besides, unless you have the merchant perk you are limited on who you can sell the potions to. Alchemist shops generally don't have much money to buy things with, and the general stores force you to choose what you will sell because of their money limit.

You want a really incredibly expensive potion for no reason? Mix a giant's toe with blue butterfly wing. I used that exploit to rocket me to 100 alchemy.

Roleplay as a kleptomaniac.

The potions/poisons that can be made when you have the perks are ridiculously expensive.. and im pretty sure that selling more expensive things increases you speech skill faster than other things..so you quickly become HUGELY wealthy.. like having 100k+ after buying and upgrading houses

100 septims each? That's chickenfeed. There are potions you can craft that are worth 40 times that.

I like how you can make a "living" in different ways in this game, so if you found a profitable way to use your alchemy skill then I say go for it!

Also, I think the Thieves Guild has one of the most interesting quest lines so if you want to RP a Thief you should definitely give it a try.

Some other good ones are

I know Giants Toe and Wheat give a good return for your money, wheat is found most places and giants toes are on giants -of course- or can be bought when you have the merchants perk -i think- .. but i'm sure everyone already knows that one

Exactly. Every potion combination has been listed. Well, the most expensive (and beneficial) ones have on the UESP.

I ran across bear claw + blue mountain flower the other day. Gave a nice boost and a decent price return.

I almost responded with a post about how I'd discovered that enemies die when you swing weapons at them but instead I'll be helpful. For those who are new to the game here are a combo of ingredients that are worth the most when combined and level you up the fastest