Here is a thread for all the new people that have any questions. I thought it would be nice of us played who have been playing since day one made a place where newbies can go and get some tips. Basically I want anyone who has been playing for a while to give advice to people who are just starting to play Skyrim. Things you wish you would of known from the start, tips that will help other people get a better experience out of Skyrim. Also anything that you didn't realize you could do till 50 hours into the game that made you go "oh that's how you do that" or "I wish I would of known that for day one".

I'll start with a few then just continue with your helpful tips leaving out spoilers.


1. It took me forever to realize I can pop up the favorites menu and hold the left or right directional and hot key a weapon.
1.5 you can hot key a health potion to a directional and easily hit it for quick health without going into the menu for health.

2. Listen to everyone around you. You'd be surprised with what you can learn.

3. A good way to get extra quests and find new locations is to use any shout in towns, houses, stores etc.

4.Although exploring is fun don't go that crazy, you will sometimes end up with broken quests, mainly I am talking about dungeons.

5. Do not sell dragon priest masks

6. Always stop into inn's and ask about rumors

7. Don't put all your perk points into smithing, enchanting and alchemy unless you want to play on master and have it feel like easy.

8 make sure your in love when getting married, you can only do it once

9.picking a race at the very start has very little effect on who you become, no need to spend hours getting it right

10. At the beggining you can choose to go with a stormcloak or imperial, don't spend a long time deciding because it actually has no effect on anything. You can choose later.

11. If your having trouble picking a master lock then have your follower do it. Also if you've played fallout 3/new Vegas you won't have trouble picking locks.

12. If you decide to get into enchanting try to disenchant everthing you can before selling it. Some enchantments are harder to find than others
12.5. When disenchanting an item the number that is on the item has no meaning. The number of the item you disenchanted may be low or high, it makes no difference, the number or percentage you will recieve reflects on enchanting potions you use or the points you put in enchanting.

13. Do not sell your thieves guild clothing, keep it if your wanting all achievements/trophies or wanting to proceed in the guild.

14. Do not worry too much about gold, believe me you'll have more than you'll ever need later on.

15. You don't have to spend you perk points. It will show as if your going nowhere on your level up bar but it actually is and does when you finally decide to choose magic/health/stamina(stamina is also add 5 carryweight.

16. This is more of pain but always check around town after a dragon attack and make sure nobody important to you is left dead on the ground. The last tip I have goes along with this one. If you do find someone dead that you wanted alive then reload a previous save which you should have no problem doing since you save all the time.

17. Save save save. I make sure there is a save for at least every 15 minutes. Usually I make it shorter between saves but 15 should be fine and believe it will save you once or twice. It still shocks me when I see people who say they only had one save and get stuck.

So that is basically what I can think of right now. Please add your own tips.

Final thought. Just have fun. Don't spend the entire game planning and determining every move you make. Skill planning is smart but just don't let it take away from the game. It all works out in the end. Also I know almost everyone knows about UESP but for those of you who don't this is your best friend when not sure about something. Just beware UESP is full of spoilers so only use it if you really need to. It's a great place to check for game breaking bugs when doing quests that are really important to you. I would not check for every bug for every quest because you'll drive yourself insane but it does help when your stuck.

Great post. If there had been something like that when I started! I really don't have much to add, at least not at this point. So true about the gold. For a bit, I was always low, looking to kill some bandits for some quick cash. Now, at level 20, I have way more gold than I know what to do with, so I'm going to buy Hjerim. Also, I found trying to concentrate on finishing a quest would cause me to rush through certain areas just to go the next part of the quest. When I forced myself to slow down and really enjoy each area and town as I was there, it added a whole new level of enjoyment. Now, I take my time and talk to all the NPC's in a given area. Do some side quests, and get back to my main objective when I'm done. Whether that's the Main Quest, or a faction or whatever. I also use fast travel at a bare minimum. Walking, I have really discovered so much I would have missed, plus some really cool random encounters. And I'm not anti-fast travel at all. Just that not using it really opens up a LOT more of the experience of open-world for me. Just let the game unfold on it's own. I have found it to add a depth to the game I hadn't realized was there when I rushed to complete quests. Most important: HAVE FUN. This may sound blasphemous to some, but it IS just a game after all. If it ain't fun, it ain't a game, it's work.

Few people stick with their original character. Don't be afraid to start over if you want to do things different.

You don't need to buy equipment from merchants. You'll find plenty from dungeons (which is free), and you can craft better equipment than merchants will have. You just need to come up with the materials.

If interested in alchemy, just pick up ingredients as you travel. There are plants, butterflies and etc. everywhere. As your alchemy skill improves, the potions will get stronger and sell for more money. It does help if you can get the various speech perks which allow you to sell any item to any merchant, and invest in their shops.

While some might like to do everything with one character, don't be afraid to specialize and role play your character.

Don't be in a hurry to finish the main quest or start the civil war questline. Do things at your own pace.

Some useful sites (use the search function for anything specific):
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Wiki
http://www.uesp.net/
http://skyrimcalculator.com/

But, but... how can you really be sure she's the right one?? Probably doesn't matter, you're still not ever going to get any, anyway

Never underestimate spriggans.

LOL, so true!

I forgot a couple. Don't put your morals in front of doing daedric quests. The reason is because some of the coolest weapons and armor come from being the bad guy on these quests. You may have to kill when you don't want to but it's well worth it for the reward most of the time.

Also I can't believe I left this out, to me it's the biggest rule to live by in Skyrim. Role play. When I say this I mean really get into your character. Try not l load previous saves because you don't like an outcome, deal with what you dealt to yourself. Play is if the decisions you make are final. So for example if you are asked to kill a friend and you do it but realize you have made a mistake deal with the mistake. You may not like it but it really gets your character to come alive. The only time I would load previous save is when something happens that's accidental.

Some people rush through and miss out on role playing. Your character only has as much depth as you give them. If you don't like what the dark brother hood does then make your quest where you go and kill them. It's always fun to do this.

Or Wispmothers. Just because something looks soft and squishy, doesn't mean it can't rip you a new one and send you on a one way ride to Sovngarde.

Don't pay attention to people who say "such and such is over/under-powered". If it's fun, do it. If it's not fun, quit it. Don't play this game like there's some point to gaining levels. The point is to have fun. There's really no reason to gain levels other than as a byproduct of having fun.

True but the only reason I said having smithing, enchanting and alchemy all leveled with full perks is a mistake is because I wish I would of known that it makes the game very very easy. It is very fun to make whatever you like but it's no fun to play on master and feel like your playing on super easy. This tip wasn't intended for everyone just the people who like a challenge. Some people like a game to be easy some don't. I just wish I would of known that this game gets easier with those three skills. I found myself downgrading my gear just to make it a challenge again on master. So to me I wasted more than a few perks. I think everyone has put a few points in perks they wish they didn't. It's all part of doing what you think is best for you and like you said the bottom line is to have fun. If I look back at my 500 hours in Skyrim I'd say the only thing that really mattered was having fun and that is exactly what I did.

I am a slow, clumsy, old mage. So I have a Conjure Flame Atronach spell in my right hand and a Fast Healing spell in my left hand, and I’m in the middle of a battle: I want to cast my Flame Atronach, and the screen shows it’s in my right hand, so I … hit the right mouse button and Heal myself. Fast. And this hasn’t happened just once … And if I stop to think which button to press, I’m dead before I can do anything.

So my tip to any other slow, clumsy, old mages is to buy a gaming mouse which lets you program the keys. Now when I invoke the game, I start a profile which switches my left and right mouse buttons, and when I leave the game, it automatically goes back to normal.

I don’t die nearly as often now.

12.5 Question: Doesn't the type soul gem you use also figure into the final number?

Also, 12 may be easier to understand using an example:
You disenchant an item that has 25% increase archery damage. You then enchant your bow with that enchantment. If you're a low-level enchanter, you will not see 25% increased archery damage on your bow. As you level up in enchanting, that number will increase.

DONT level up your smithing/enchanting the cheap and easy way, it'll cause you're enemies to level up with you, but their battle skills will go up, not their enchanting and smithing lol. Level up as evenly as possible, unless you like having you're enemies always having the upperhand.

I made this mistake my first play through, if you're smithing is at 100, you're one handed should atleast be around 50-60 or you're gunna have a hell of a time in some of the longer radiant quest's.

Yes I forgot that the soul gem has an effect on your enchantments. I'm just so use to having only black gems that I forgot. Anyway black is the most powerful gem but when enchanting grand and black
Gems do the same thing. Always make sure you have one of those gems when you enchant anything. Using great gems or anything less is pretty much useless. Black gems can be filled with any souls but it's most powerful with a human souls. Grand gems can be filled by killing a mammoth. If you have a black gem you don't have to kill a human you can kill a mammoth and fill it with a grand soul and it will work just as good on the enchanting table.

my advice: save at the entrance of every dungeon and after u get out, and don't abuse iron daggers leveling up smithing, it'll cause u to level a lot soley off smithing and your combat skills stay low, meanwhile enemies get tougher as you level, but they'll wreck you because your skills are lower than your levels average.

I agree with 100%. What it comes down to is exploits svcks in every way. You'll end up overpowered and sometimes under. I used little tricks here and there to level up and I really wish I never did. Master feels like easy or me, I miss the challenge
You may want to level a skill a up for something but even though it takes forever in certain skills to get to higher levels it is not worth power leveling. Believe me/us when we I/us say it's no fun when power leveling.

So true about "dealing with mistakes". i have done things that i dont proud in mass effect, specially in first game, and tbh that makes me feel like i'm an experienced commander that got the balls to handle situations. Make me feel sorry, and ambitious for my feature calls. Damn, i regret it, (spoiler from ME1) Well ok i was intendet to write more, but this aint a mass effect forum nor topic right All i gona say that, dont let me down Anderson, i choosed you because i got faith in you.



What O.o??

Ok, i read it again, and What O.O??

What I mean is go to a town and use any shout, then soon a courier will come and deliver a letter saying to go find a word of power or kill a bandit etc. this also works in houses, stores and pretty much any place where people can be disturbed. People tell on you when you shout and the greybeards here about it and give you something to do besides bothering people with your shouts.

Mining.

It's much easier and faster to not hit the activate button when mining. Instead take out your pickaxe and just swing, use two pickaxes for even faster results. Another great benefit from doing it this way is you actually get gems and precious stones, you don't get these by mining with the activate button. If you go to a mine and take out your pickaxe and swing you'll get some really expensive stones. Plus it's much quicker doing it this way.

You can use the smaller soul gems to enchant items you're going to sell and not use yourself. Even a crappy 1% increase in skill enchantment on some gold ring you found will net you considerably more coin for the ring than the unenchanted ring will. Plus it helps you level enchanting so you can make more powerful items for yourself faster.

Nice list. I'll add some of what I have learned:

- If a shop keeper runs out of gold then buy something useful of him/her. I.e. ebony ingots, soul gems, extreme and peerless rings and necklaces, undiscovered alchemy ingredients, and more.

- Sleeping in beds gives a bonus to skill training. Instead of waiting try to sleep in a bed and time it so that it matches your style. I.e. when you need to sneak into a house then sleep during the day to break in at night, and when you need to travel far then get up very early and watch the sun rise on your journey.

- Followers can be remote-controlled. You do not have to walk to then and wait for the action menu to display, but you can just point the cross-hair at them from a distance and hold down the action key for two seconds. You can then command them to do things from a distance. The range seems to be like 10m to 15m.

- Followers will equip a torch at night and shine your way when you put one into their inventory. Their torch will never burn out and it needs only one. It works in some caves, too (i.e. Blackreach).

- When you sneak and an opponent begins to notice your presence (half eye open) then try to stand still. They will often not find you but only get very close and you can take them out with a sneak attack. Why sneak towards them when they come searching for you?! It does not always work, but it is good fun when it does!

Not quite true. You do get gems when mining with the action key, too.

Also, you can give a follower a pickaxe and they will mine for you when you command them!

I have heard and seen with my own eyes people who get gems by activating the ore. The thing is I have never gotten one in the almost 500 hours I have been playing. I know it could but for me it just doesn't happen. Let me ask do you get more gems doing it that way or doing it manual.



Another tip.

This could save hoarders a ton of trouble at the very start of the game. When you first start off buying a house for any amount of gold seems insane so having a place to go to store your items that is safe is crucial.
Here are some safe storage places that are free.

1. Go back to helgen and find the inn. There is an end table and wardrobe that keeps your items safe.

2. In the first town you come to (riverwood, if your following the MQ) you can store item safely at the sleeping giant inn. In the room at the back corner of the inn behind the wardrobe is a secret room, this works fine.

3. Go to markarth and go to the abandoned house, here you can safely store items.

4. In Riften go to the Temple of mara and do the marriage quest once you finish you can get married and use your spouses house as safe keeping, also another tip is you can recieve lovers comfort which allows you to learn all skills faster, just sleep in any bed at the house they own and it will show up in your active affects menu. Also I'm not sure if all or just some spouses do this but after getting married you can buy and sell from your spouse.

5. This is my favorite. Go to winterhold and go to the college and you'll recieve a room to safely store items, everything is safe except for the barrels which I've had reset on me. Also if you decide to go ahead and do the enter quest line you get awesome safe place to live, it even has a garden.


Another tip.

If your a torch person like me you'll soon realize torches are not the easiest thing to come by and they go out pretty quick. Two things can help you with this.

1. When your low on torches or don't like to waste the valuable inventory space on them the easiest thing to do is after equipping the torch for a few minutes unequip it and then equip it again and it will keep resetting the timer on the torch. It a little bit of pain but it let's you keep the same torch forever. It makes it a little easier by hot keying the torch.

2. On your map find the nearest mine to riverwood. Go there and inside run through and grab all the torches of the walls. You can the leave and go back into the mine and grab them again. You can 100's of torches in less than 20 minutes.

We should also start a thread dedicated to people who want to roleplay this game. Really roleplay. Some tips for people who haven't done it before, maybe have some ideas on how to better roleplay that they hadn't thought of.

Great idea.