Another safe storage location is right in Whiterun- start out the 'join the companions' questline, and they will let you use a bed in their basemant bunkhouse. You can use the endtables (dresser? one or the other) next to the bed to store extra stuff until you can get a house.

Also, if you don't want to bother with torches, just spend a few gold for the Candlelight spell, and you'll always have a light, no matter where you are. Even non magic chars with base magicka can use it. You can buy it from the store in Riverwood, or from Belethor or the court mage in Whiterun.

PS: does anyone know a way to cancel the Candlelight spell? Or do you always have to wait 1 minute for it to burn out?

Off the top of my head I would say it is 50% that I get a gem out of it, and from Garnets to Flawless Diamonds.

1.Pick locks a little easier.

If you equip a torch and hold it in front of the lock for a second it actually heats up the lock and makes it easier to pick. This seems crazy but I have done this on master locks and it really works. I just keep the torch equipped while I'm picking the lock.

Again if you've played fallout 3/new Vegas you won't have any problems picking locks.

2.After meeting with the greybeards you can keep asking them if they found any more words of power to unlock shouts. You can keep going back and they'll keep giving you more places to go.

3. When you first start the game you can use us a carriage to travel to any major city. Once you do that you can fast travel.
I almost didn't put this because of my next tip.

4. Fast travel svcks! Do not use it. You will miss out on so much it's not funny. It will take away from the whole experience. Fast travel should be a last resort. I know this personal experience. I was fast traveling everywhere when I first started and then I stopped and saw all the cool things I have been missing. Stuff like discovering new places, receiving some of my favorite quests and most of all the experience points I got from walking everywhere.

5. A few tips for sneaking.

A. You'll see these hanging bones, don't hit them they are actually there to alert the enemy.

B. taking torches off the wall will help you sneak better. The light gives you away.

C, under the sneak perks there are two great perks. One gives 6 times damage to one handed weapons while sneaking and the other gives 3 for bows.

6. Before you go sell all the Loot you have found go to an arcane enchanter and see what you can disenchant(learn new enchantments). Before you know it you'll have all the enchantments. Also while your there enchant any of the weapons or armor your going to sell. You don't have to worry about using a powerful soul gem because you'll still get very good money by enchanting with lower soul gems like petty and common. Easiest arcane enchanter to use at the start of the game is in Dragonsreach/Whiterun.

7. It your a trophy/achievement hunter like me be careful while doing daedric quest for the oblivion walker trophy/achievement. Sometimes you'll get a reward that is not a daedric artifact which will not count toward oblivion walker. Just go to the UESP before starting a daedric quest and make sure you choose the correct path.

8. Dogs/horses.

If you want a dog go to the entrance of markarth and you can buy one there for 500 gold. I would not reccomend it because they are useless and annoying but if your dog person then have at it. I assure after dealing with a Skyrim dog you will no longer be a dog person.

If you want a horse go to any major city and outside you'll see a stable, get one for 1,000 gold. Again annoying and useless. Use your gold elsewhere. They die way to easily. They are very honorable and will fight for you but that's the problem. They'll be dead in no time. If you really want a horse that can survive a mudcrab attack join the dark brotherhood.


9. Blame it on your follower. . You should avoid followers if your trying to play the stealth route, they will give you away. I find later in the game it gets a little better but still it's a pain to have one while playing a sneak character.

10. Using followers. The are great mules. Just load them up with a ton of stuff and you can stay out and explore much longer before having to sell off your stuff due to weight.

Give them a torch and they will equip it when it's dark so you can free up a hand and still see.

You can make your follower do whatever you want. Pick harder locks, kill people, pick up items etc.

If you don't want to pay for a follower you can usually go to a tavern and fight, after the fight they will be considered friends with you and can now be your follower.

Fighting dragons can be tough when you first enter skyrim this is an obvious tip but some new comers may not realize this right from the start. Fighting a dragon that is flying around is much harder than fighting one that is on the ground. Sometime dragons will not land so the best way to get them in an easy area to grout attack is move to an open area. Its common sense they will not land if they can't fit. Get them to an open area and you'll find fighting a dragon will be much easier.

Another thing you can do if you really just dislike dragons and don't want to even look at them is avoid the MQ. Avoid getting or turning in the dragon stone. If you do this you can go do some side quests and level up a bit and you can do it without any dragons spawning. Personally I wouldn't reccomend this but it is an option. I'd just deal with the dragon attacks and have fun playing the main quest. Plus a challenge is always good which leads me to my next tip.

Take the challenge while you can. Don't worry about power leveling or any of that crap. As I stated above dragons can be a little bit of a pain at first, believe all of us when we say there fire and ice tracks you down. Don't worry soon enough you'll be slaying dragons in a couple swings from a sword. Anyway it may get a little overwhelming at first but instead of power leveling to survive Skyrim just turn down the difficulty setting, you can't unpower level but you can turn the difficulty back up. Soon enough you'll be destroying everthing in your path while playing on master. Enjoy the challenge while is there if you become overpowered you'll miss it.

There are a few ingrediants I would pick up just because they are hard to find and you will need them for quest and alchemy

Dwemer cogs
Unusual stones
Nirnroot
Jazbay graqes
Ice wraith teeth
Fire salts
Deathbell
Troll fat

here are my tips

1) stay the [censored] away from giants

2) stay the [censored] away from giants I mean it

3) If on master and there a bear / saber cat chasing you and your below level 10 run

4) you can never have enough health potions

5) Dont sell rare [censored]

6) Louis Letrush may duplicate into like 7 of them, if you hit one they will all go hostile and they cant die. SO STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT MAN

that is all

Bears can move surprisingly fast.

Alchemy can make you rich quick.

The easiest way to kill enemies and survive at the start of the game is have an axe in one hand and flames spell in the other.

Thanks for the louis spoiler.

Its not a spoiler its a bug that will make you cry everytime you see it

Great post. I hope those guys that run the UESP are listening. They have a great resource, but they could improve it greatly by having a page that lists quest bugs without spoilers (or at least limit spoilers to the minimum necessary to explain the bug). They have a great general bug page, but for some reason those UESP guys refuse to allow a page that lists quest bugs. They make you go to the quest page and read it just to find out if the quest has a known bug. Not very helpful if you are trying to avoid bugged quests and don't want to spoil your whole game.

Ha! I have been playing for 300 hours or more and I never thought to try to equip a pickaxe and swing it at the ore vein. I am going to try this next time! You learn something new every day.

Yeah. It's a spoiled quest, period. (Letrush)

good lists so far guys! i even learned a few new things.... pickaxes who knew?!?

a few things that i learned after my first playthrough that i wish i had known:

1) don't kill chickens... people get really mad at you and will attack on sight and it takes several in game days for them to forget

2) if you don't want random dragons just avoid going to Riverwood after escaping Helgen... personally i prefer the dragonless world (also don't follow the quest for the dragonstone if you don't want dragons I have one character that's been holding it for 110 hours of play taking up 25 of my inventory)

3) named instruments are bugged (broken bard quests) and shouldn't be picked up or you'll be carrying them forever.

4) if you plan to explore every cave you come across, expect to have many broken side quests that would have had you clear those locations. If you do explore a lot save before accepting side quests (companions for example) in case they do send you to a cleared cave. reload and hope they send you somewhere else.

UESP can be your best friend, but as the OP said be careful as you may spoil your experience by learning more than you wanted

The item description says it weighs 25 pounds but since it is a quest item, it is actually weightless.

This is where the Dispel spell effect from prior games would be useful. My Oblivion characters are always cancelling their light and nighteye spells with Minor Dispel on Self. I know of no way to cancel spells in Skyrim.

It is easier to get them to land in the open but then you are exposed. Unless you have high elemental resistances, my hint for new dragon fighters is to look for open places that have some cover, like a big tree or a clump of rocks you can dodge behind to avoid the brunt of the breath.

So very true! I did level up smithing and then went out exploring and got owned by a mudcrab. Really. It was so embarrassing.

The 3x bow damage perk is in Archery. The other great perk in Sneaking is the one that gives 15x damage for dagger attacks from stealth. With a decent dagger and good stealth level, you can 1-hit kill some pretty tough enemies that way, if you enjoy the sneaky-stabby lifestyle.

That is useful. The only thing I would amend is that I have gotten gems through hitting the activate key. It is possible.

-Doing the quest with Louis Letrush is possible without getting the bug, but you have to refuse to give him the horse in order to prevent it. I personally killed him on my second playthrough, just to make sure. I didn't trust the thug to get the job done.

No, it's in sneak, called deadly aim.

Sorry, you are correct. That's what I get for trying to remember all the perk trees from memory with CRS.

Really?

You can set enemies on fire by equpping a torch and shield bashing with it.

Ya I've been inside houses on farms and used a shout and a little later on a courier comes up and delivers a message that says I was using my shouts in said house and here go do this or that.

If it's the letter from "a friend" who tells you where there is a source of power, that happens when you use a shout in dungeons as well. I don't think you're getting an extra quest by shouting in towns or houses.