Trying to get through Dustman's Cairn at level 31 with Farkas was by far,the toughest thing I've experienced in game so far. I had Marcurio as a follower for about ten levels before that and had no trouble, ok,we had a strategy,but farkas was getting dropped by not only the surprisingly more common death lord draugr in one or two hits,but just about every silver hand member as well,what gives? I thought followers stuck to the level you first encountered them at,so i avoided the Companions until a higher level,even went the long way around to avoid that giant battle scenario on my approach to whiterun from Helgen. Are all the Companions gimped in such a fashion? A glitch after the quest for the witches head put pay to my initial play through,if I've messed this up after 90 hours i'll be a little vexed.

Well, it's the level where you enter the CELL.... so if you went anywhere near Whiterun early.... yeah.

Hence doing it early, Farkas is a beast if you do so.

How big is a cell? I got the "discovered" message up for most,if not all of the farms and the brewery a long,long time after I first became Thane of Whiterun,never mind just discovered it,so if that has anything to do with cell size i should have been ok,surely? Are the follower levelling issues dealt with in any of the patches?

I think if you enter the "Hold" at all (which is the entirety of Whiterun Hold, not just the town) you've screwed the pooch. Discovery doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.... It's when you first set foot in the reference cell for the potential follower. Now, I can't say this from experience, because I don't use followers at all, and I haven't done the Companions questline since my third or fourth toon (but they were fairly low level anyway) - but this is what I've gathered from reading stuff here and the wiki.

-save
-dismiss him
-wabajack him until he transforms
-tell him to follow you again once this wears off


This will reset him to your current lvl. Do this when he becomes to weak. Save just incase you mess up, or insta kill him

Oh, can you do that with "quest-set" followers? I thought it was only good for the followers you choose to take....

A "cell" is an area in the game usually seperated by a loading screen, with the exception of some exterior cells. I don't think entering the hold would do anything since if it works anything like oblivion the world itself is made of multiple cells; if not then Whiterun -and certainly Jorvasskr- are definitely different cells and so Farkas wouldn't be loaded unless you entered a cell he was in.

I know that on one of my playthroughs I killed vilkas, I think once the companion quests are over they aren't essential anymore. I never tried this with farkas though maybe he's different

Ah. I don't know much about how all that works. If I could figure out the CK.... well, I'm not "apt" that way. I remember reading things early in the game's "life" that indicated it was the "main" holding cell. It certainly would be better if it was just Jorrvaskr!

Each exterior cell is 192x192 ft or 58.5x58.5 m.

Well that's disappointing to hear,I stopped my first play through because of the glitch after the bloods honour(?) Companions quest,you know the one where you take the hagravens heads,and it took me a few weeks to restart and get back into it,thought if I just avoided that early scene and never entered their abode they'd be levelled. The big issue with early Companion quests is they won't listen to you,you can't make them wait,stealth and guerilla tactics are removed,and you can't fire bomb ahead of you because they're kneeling after one or two hits and i don't want to kill them.Hey,it's a challenge I suppose and if I don't hit the same glitch again I'll be happy enough. Thanks for the info,It's appreciated,I probably should have asked about it before I started the new character.

Good luck, Buck.... I hope it works out for you. Sometimes the things that should be easy and fun turn out NOT that way, and that really svcks.

You could try the wabbajack trick.

I find that Farkas still does great with my level 30ish character, but she has maxed smithing and decent enchanting so he's well buffed.

Finish the companions then try to wabajack him, see if it works

I think it might be hard for him to finish the Companions from what he says.... If Farkas is causing issues when he's trying to get through Dustman's Cairn....

Maybe it's a scripted thing then,because Farkas has to go to that location with you?

The problem is, when you enter a cell, data from all the adjacent cells is "pre-loaded" into memory so the game can quickly fetch it and load the adjacent cell when you enter it. That may be enough to set an NPC's initial level; which would mean that entering Whiterun would set character levels in Jorrvaskr as well (including Farkas'), since it's adjacent to Whiterun. And if he happens to be outside, behind Jorrvaskr when you enter Whiterun, he would certainly be loaded.


I am not certain about this, and if I'm wrong please do correct me.


The other thing with Farkas is that his coding is all messed up. He classified as a blacksmith, and has really low skill levels in Heavy Armor and Two-Handed weapons, even though he's a master trainer in Heavy Armor ( ). So even if you level him up with the Wabbajack or the PC console, he's going to be seriously gimped at higher levels.

Cheers,if what gator County says is true,and I hope it is,maybe i haven't wasted my time and the rest of the companion have levelled,should know if i do the silver hand with Aela and she can take a hit...going to try it now.

Makes sense,everything was destroying him, but on my first attempt,which was about level 5,he kicked ass

Well, post back with how it goes, okay? We all like to find out stuff that works or doesn't!

Damn, I'm at 66 on my chick and thinking about doing the Companion's questline. Is this what's in store for me too? I entered Whiterun at like LVL 6 or 7 probably.

"Stand over there, Farkas, I'm trying to do the Fish Stick - it's a very delicate state of mind. ...and you're gonna' feel a little pinch."

The problem is that you can't direct Farkas to do any damn thing in this particular quest. HE has a set of "imperatives" that can't be finagled. It works great at early levels - not so great at anything over about 15 I would guess.

You definitely need to get his quests out of the way early if you're going to do the Companion quests. I'm pretty sure his first encounter with the Silver Hand (where you're locked up and he transforms) is scripted, so he can't lose there, but everything else he faces afterward is going to own him hard if your level is high.

If you're playing on the PC, you can work around this by clicking him in the console and using the setav or modav commands to boost his relevant skills. On consoles, you're out of luck, though.

As mentioned, Farkas is classed all wrong. He has 15 Heavy Armor and 2-Handed skill. I think this is amplified by the fact that Proving Honor pits you against very difficult enemies, particularly at higher levels. I did this quest at level 50+ and the last room had at least 8 Deathlords and a Death Overlord, which I was left to fight all by myself because Farkas spent more time on his knees than Sasha Grey.