Things Skyrim Doesn't Tell You - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide - IGN (2024)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a very big game, and it stands to reason that there are some things that are not explicitly told to you, things that you might have to learn over the course of your adventures.

Rather than falling into the pitfalls of finding out crucial information after the fact, we've compiled a few things Skyrim doesn't tell you that are worth knowing about.

Have any expert tips for new players? Share them below in the comments!

• See Also: Things to Do First in Skyrim,
• Things Not to Do in Skyrim

Standing Stones Offer Permanent Buffs

This tip is only half true, for as long as you escape Helgen and follow your chosen friend into Riverwood, they will tell you about Standing Stones. However, if you decide to run off on your own, it's easy to miss this crucial piece of information.

The three standing stones near Helgen - as well as other stones located all across Skyrim - offer free buffs that can help you in a variety of ways, depending on which stone you choose to activate. Once activated, that stone will bestow a bonus to you that is effective as long as you do not activate a different stone, whereupon a new bonus will become available to you.

You Can Cure Early Vampirism

When hunting Vampires, it can be easy to accidentally become a vampire yourself - and it can be even easier to ignore the warning signs. If you contract the disease known as Sanguinare Vampiris, your character will turn into a full fledged vampire in three days. However, this disease, like other diseases, can be cured either with a Potion of Cure Disease or by praying at any shrine (or even consuming a Hawk Feather!).

If you should wait too long and attain Vampirism, you will be unable to cure it through conventional means, and must seek out Falion in Morthal to go on a quest to cure it.

Benefits of Friendship

Walk into any store or home in Skyrim, and likely everything you see cannot be taken without resorting to stealing - and not everyone is a master thief. However, since many NPCs in the game have tasks and queststhat require your help, completing these quests will help earn their trust - and you may find that over time, certain items will no longer appear in red, and can be taken for free. This includes merchants shops, allowing you to access a great number of display items (even rare ones) so long as you take the time to help the merchants out with their problems.

Replenishing Stock

You might think there's no point to revisiting places you've already explored - but you'd be wrong. Every dungeon in Skyrim will replenish with enemies and new loot every in-game month (30 days). This means you can never truly run out of places to loot from, so if you have a dungeon you've explored already that's not too far from your location - it will eventually be full of life and loot once more.

The same goes for Merchants: Every 48 hours in-game, merchants will replenish their inventories and have more gold to buy and sell items with.

Useful Horses

Horses can be used for much more than simply riding around at faster speeds, they have other less obvious uses as well:

• For some odd reason, horses have much better traction and mountain-climbing ability than your character, and can be used to navigate otherwise impossibly steep cliffs and mountains with greater ease
• For the over-encumbered, horses are a blessing. Not only will the effects of being over-encumbered be negated while on horseback - but you can also fast-travel from on top of a horseeven when you are over-encumbered,making the trip back to town a lot easier.

Torch Uses

Torches are good for more than just lighting the way - there's a lot more to them if you know these tips:

If you have a torch out and illuminating a locked door or container, you'll get a bonus to Lockpicking - thanks to the added light.

• Give a torch to a Follower, and they'll automatically take them out at night or in dark areas in the right circ*mstance.
• Trying to sneak through a dangerous dungeon? Some places had wall torches that can be looted - thereby darkening the area and concealing your presence.

Level Scaling Exists (Sort Of)

While not as prevalent as Oblivion, Skyrim still features a sort of level-scaling with the enemies you encounter. You may not eventually see bandits wearing daedric armor - but you will see improved versions of bandits the higher your character gets in level. Certain enemy types are set to a minimum level (like giants that seem powerful at low levels but later can be fought toe-to-toe), and others may slowly continue to scale once you have reached that minimum level - like guards that will continue to scale and be difficult for a long time.

This is why you should take care as you assign your skill points, as even if you don't become stronger as you gain more levels, your enemies just might.

You Can Reassign Your Skill Points (Sort of)

If you have access to the Dragonborn DLC, you'll have the chance to re-specialize and reset all of your skill points at the conclusion of the DLC Main Story.

At the conclusion of At the Summit of Apocrypha, you will be granted access to a chamber that lets you reset an entire skill tree of all points in exchange for a Dragon Soul. You can then reallocate those points to any other tree, or reconfigure them how you see fit.