Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[sir stiff_one]

What do you mean? Dragonscale is light armour, Daedric is heavy armour.

Daedric has a better base armour rating across all pieces except the boots.

[Strangelite]

Plus its made out of dragons!

I don't know what anyone else thinks, but by golly you're making me laugh in this thread. Please post more.

[Broker]

Dragon stuff you can't buy in shops or find, unlike all the other stuff.

You start finding Dragonplate on enemies and in chests at level 40, Dragonscale at level 46 and Daedric at level 48.

[Karzee]

What do you mean? Dragonscale is light armour, Daedric is heavy armour.

Dragonscales make light armour, Dragonbones make heavy armour.

[b00dles]

You start finding Dragonplate on enemies and in chests at level 40, Dragonscale at level 46 and Daedric at level 48.

I'm level 40 and just found my first Daedric bow but not seen Dragonplate anywhere yet... I'm just not sure whether I want to make it a soultrap bow or a bow of burny burny death.

[dr_manhattan^]

Any idea what's happened to the iPad map app that Bethesda was supposed to be releasing?

[Distinct muttering]

I am currently about 25 hours in and at level 16, although I havent really done any smithing, Alchemy etc yet. Should I be trying to do it, or will it come more naturally later on by being introduced via a quest?

I tried alchemy a few times but didnt seem to have the correct items, which doesnt tally up with people saying in here that you can mix random ingrediants and hope to hit the jackpot?

[Wroth]

There's an unofficial one called dragon shout or something. requires you to make an account though.

[b00dles]

Don't forget you can eat every ingredient once to get one of it's effects. Otherwise trial and error works well and it greys out a combo you've already done. Sometimes things that are found together go together, if that makes sense.

I've now gone for just storing all of my ingredients in a barrel at home and then I do an alchemy session and just combine stuff I havne't done before.

[dr_manhattan^]

There's an unofficial one called dragon shout or something. requires you to make an account though.

Yeah I just found that. According to the following link though, they were supposed to be releasing an official one which looks pretty cool:

http://www.bethblog.com/2011/11/09/skyrim-official-strategy-guide-blog-2-sanity-sapping-mapping/

[Wroth]

I am currently about 25 hours in and at level 16, although I havent really done any smithing, Alchemy etc yet. Should I be trying to do it, or will it come more naturally later on by being introduced via a quest?

I tried alchemy a few times but didnt seem to have the correct items, which doesnt tally up with people saying in here that you can mix random ingrediants and hope to hit the jackpot?

For a smithing tutorial, speak to Adrianne Avenicci at the Warmaiden's in Whiterun. She'll show you the ropes and give you some free materials to mess about with.

With alchemy, a good start is to eat the first of every ingredient you find in order to learn its first effect. After that you'll know which ingredients can be mixed without making duds. Then while you mix those, you'll discover common effects and your recipe book will expand.

So start by taking one of those giant's toes, and putting it in your mouth.

A few recipes I've discovered:

For when you're doing some smithing

Blisterwort + glowing mushroom

For enchanting

Blue butterfly wing + snowberries

For bartering

butterfly wing + tundra cotton

Use those to make some enchanted jewellery and then sell it at a HIGH PRICE!

[Distinct muttering]

Don't forget you can eat every ingredient once to get one of it's effects. Otherwise trial and error works well and it greys out a combo you've already done. Sometimes things that are found together go together, if that makes sense.

I've now gone for just storing all of my ingredients in a barrel at home and then I do an alchemy session and just combine stuff I havne't done before.

So its basically all trial and error! I thought I had to find or learn combinations somehow! Damn, now I guess I can get round to mixing all those bloody plants I have been collecting for the last 25 hours that have been weighing me down!

[Broker]

For a smithing tutorial, speak to Adrienne Avenicci at the Warmaiden's in Whiterun. She'll show you the ropes and give you some free materials to mess about with.

You can do it at any forge if you've not done it before, just ask them "do you need any help?".

So its basically all trial and error! I thought I had to find or learn combinations somehow! Damn, now I guess I can get round to mixing all those bloody plants I have been collecting for the last 25 hours that have been weighing me down!

You can buy recepies from alchemy shops.

[sir stiff_one]

You can make heavy or light Dragonscale armour.

I don't think you can, unless I'm being thick you can make heavy or light Dragon armour, the heavy is called Dragonplate or Dragonbone Plate or something and the light is called Dragonscale. They both use scales, only the Heavy stuff needs bones.

I still don't understand what this means though:

Dragon(scale) armour has a higher defense rating than Daedric, apart from the shields.

I don't know what defence rating is. If he means armour rating then well, he's wrong. Only the Dragonplate boots have higher base armour than Daedric. But like I said it becomes something of an irrelevance if you up the appropriate perks as you start hitting the armour cap of about 580. Also I think Dragon stuff can be improved a little bit more than Daedric, I can't remember, but when you're hitting those numbers, it seems that it doesn't matter.

Dragonscales make light armour, Dragonbones make heavy armour.

Yeah I know that thanks. You need scales and bones to make the heavy armour as it goes.

I didn't know about finding Dragon/Daedric Armour on enemies as the game goes on, useful tip and obvious really but I didn't think about it. I don't quite get the Dragon Heavy Armour still, it's a whole perk point for not really anything, it doesn't even look very badass. But - I do like people whispering about how you must be the Dragonborn when you wear it, and as HLB says, it's made of fucking Dragons.

[SpagMasterSwift]

I had a magic recipe that requires a Gourd (Vegitable/Food) - how do you use those? Is it a perk thing?

[metallicfrodo]

I'd be interested to know the answer to that too as I found a recipe that required me to use a ruined book, and I can't chose that.

[b00dles]

You can buy recepies from alchemy shops.

Also, although this might be quite obvious, once you've learned what an item does (all four things) and you combine it with another item that you know all of it's effects, it will only work if there are things that match. That's probably more confusing than it sounds but the trial and error stops (a bit) once you're more familiar with the effects of items.

So let's say you have an item that does fortify health, restore health, damage magicka and damage stamina, there's no point in combining it with an item that has all four of it's properties visible if none of them match - even if you've never mixed them before.

Initially, you will get a lot of 'potion creation failed' but just try and always use items that you have loads of to begin with - once you know what that item does, it will unlock similar things in the other item as you go.

That was probably all a lot unclearer than it actually is. Just mix shit up!

[robdood]

I had a magic recipe that requires a Gourd (Vegitable/Food) - how do you use those? Is it a perk thing?

You cook items in cooking pots, there's one in the Whiterun house once you've kitted it out.

[SpagMasterSwift]

SPAGGLEHORN? Cook?

Can you use Fire Salt when cooking then, I thought you could only use Food Ingredients? I'll give it a go next time I'm messing about in an enemies camp.

[Aardvark]

You are looking for one or more of:

boots

shield

necklace

ring

Therefore I suggest you check the inventory of the two blacksmiths in Whiterun, and the blacksmith, clothing shop and odds and sods in Solitude - I would bet you would find something from one of those in your first sweep.

However, bear in mind that until you have maxed out your enchanting skill you will be limited in the strength of enchantments you can apply, so if you find a necklace, say, with 30% or above resistance, I would be tempted to keep it intact in your inventory and slip it on when you need to.

Thank you for the obvious advice to do the things I've already tried. I guess the gods of random number generation just hate me and don't want me to get any fire resistance.

If I found 30% necklace I'd break it down and make a necklace and a ring, my enchanting skills are more than capable of beating that 30% if I combine two items. I mean I could make resistant boots too, but I like my extra sneaky ones too much to give them up.

[robdood]

I presumed you could only use food items too, but salts are technically food...

And a ruined book recipe wtf. frodo post the whole recipe please I want to try it

[SpagMasterSwift]

I bet there is a witches caldron in some cave some place that you can throw all sorts of shit into to make stuff...we'll all be dragging our deceased companions to it and making hats out of them.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Thank you for the obvious advice to do the things I've already tried. I guess the gods of random number generation just hate me and don't want me to get any fire resistance.

If I found 30% necklace I'd break it down and make a necklace and a ring, my enchanting skills are more than capable of beating that 30% if I combine two items. I mean I could make resistant boots too, but I like my extra sneaky ones too much to give them up.

Sorry - I should have posted "Just keep looking" I guess - it's all random after all and I didn't know what level you were in enchanting skill.

As for the dragonplate versus Daedric armour debate, the latter always trumps the former but not by much. It's a bit frustrating for light armour users who have gone up the left hand branch of the smithing tree that the best weapon class they can modify is glass, given the superiority of ebony and Daedric. However, I'm not sure its worth spending the necessary points to unlock both paths when the differentials are small and outweighed by levels of skill and perks anyway.

[Yewone]

I'd be interested to know the answer to that too as I found a recipe that required me to use a ruined book, and I can't chose that.

They are needed for a different type of recipe ... Search around in The Midden underneath Winterhold Mages College and all should become clear(er).

[robdood]

As for the dragonplate versus Daedric armour debate, the latter always trumps the former but not by much. It's a bit frustrating for light armour users who have gone up the left hand branch of the smithing tree that the best weapon class they can modify is glass, given the superiority of ebony and Daedric.

Erm. I've not spent any perks in smithing other than the steel/improve magical items ones, and I can modify all weapons. You don't need perks to modify the weapons, just to create them.

[Mr.Jeff]

They are needed for a different type of recipe ... Search around in The Midden underneath Winterhold Mages College and all should become clear(er).

I've yet to work out what the heck that's all about:

I've tried using the Forge but even with the ingredients it says I'm missing something.

There's also that weird daedrid hand in another room which wiped out a group of students. The book makes mention that it requires rings which are kept in the Arcaneum now but there's no sign of them when I seach around in there.

Hmmm.

Also, a question for those that have finished the main story quest:

If you finish it off, do you stop having random dragons about the place? I kind of want to finish off the story so I can have a bit of closure and dip in and out over the next few months but I think I'd miss not having random dragons.

[BigShimmeryWall]

Erm. I've not spent any perks in smithing other than the steel/improve magical items ones, and I can modify all weapons. You don't need perks to modify the weapons, just to create them.

You can't improve them all the way unless you have the perk in their class. If you go all the way up the left branch you'll be able to improve glass to Legendary but ebony/daedric will only improve to Flawless or something. "...and improve them twice as much" is on the end of all the perks for smithing different types.

[robdood]

Aaaaaah I see

[b00dles]

I noticed that about smithing the other day, unfortunately I'd already started going up the left aiming for dragon as quick a possible but my sneaky stuff I got from the old DB assassin (on the misc side quest) are too cool and my

+35 carrying capacity, improved by the fence

thieves armour I can't really bin either cos I cart loads of 'just in case' tat around....

Then again, once I get two enchantments on everything perk, I should be able to make stuff way better than all of that (I hope).

[robdood]

Checking the wiki, it doesn't seem to be twice as much improvement - flawless is +13 armour / +7 other whereas Legendary is +20 / 10.

It also looks like you might be able to Smith up to epic/legened without the perks if you bolster your smithing state sufficiently with enchants and potions