Share something obvious about Skyrim gameplay you didn't know.

[Kendo 2]

I never knew you can back out of the conversation Balgruuf has with Avenicci after you first enter Dragon's Reach.  Pick the option 'A dragon destroyed Helgen and its headed this way.'  When he says "By Ysmir, Irileth was right!" you'll no longer be locked in dialogue and you can back away.  Irileth will send guards to Riverwood, fulfilling your promise to Alvor/Gerdur, solving the ludonarrative fuckery.  You're free to do whatever you want.

After you leave the cell Balgruuf will remain on his thrown and as long as you don't approach him he'll stay there.  The other NPCs will revert to their pre-main quest AI packages.  You can buy/sell with Farengar douche, collect the pitiful bounties from Avenicci, etc.

[Kendo 2]

Taking care of the Civil War first (on the Stormcloak side) opened up a mission I never had before and new dialogue with Ralof.  In previous playthroughs I did the main quest and the Civil War simultaneously and it was basically the same experience with different coats of paint.  THIS TIME I ignored the main quest and received a mission to attack a supply wagon in The Reach and Ralof had some passive-aggressive lines about how he's not getting the recognition he deserves because the Dragonborn is hogging all the glory.

[Doublezero]

I don't know if this counts or not, but for years I used the Nettlebane to acquire the sap from the Gildergreen (which causes all the npcs in the Eldergleam Sanctuary to die). I always told Maurice to shove it and go my way. I didn't realize I was choosing the bad ending until I read about the quest on UESPWiki... maybe after a decade of playing Skyrim. 

[Kendo 2]

  On 6/28/2024 at 1:14 AM, Doublezero said:

I don't know if this counts or not, but for years I used the Nettlebane to acquire the sap from the Gildergreen (which causes all the npcs in the Eldergleam Sanctuary to die). I always told Maurice to shove it and go my way. I didn't realize I was choosing the bad ending until I read about the quest on UESPWiki... maybe after a decade of playing Skyrim. 

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I've done that quest a few times and only recently took the sapling route.

[vancleef]

You can finish the first half of the Potema Awakening quest in, like, a minute. In "The Man Who Cried Wolf" you enter the cave where the Necromancers have summoned Potema. Walk out on the ledge, go into sneak mode and fire arrows up at the silhouette of the Ritual Master until she's dead. Potema's spirit escapes and you can sit and watch the fun as the Undead attack their former masters.

Alternately, fire a couple of Frenzy spells (or their stronger versions) up at the top of the tower and watch the Necromancers beat the shit out of each other. Great fun 

[vancleef]

In the Mage's College quest "Hitting the Books" you have a really fun way of completing the quest.  If you rescue Orthorn (the dumbass who stole the books because he wanted to get in with the Cool Kidz gang of Necromancers), you can trade him for the books!
I only recently learned this option because I gave up rescuing Orthorn because he would always get killed halfway through the dungeon. Instead, I waited until I had cleared the place out but recruited him before entering The Caller's lair, figuring he'd act as a distraction. Instead, there's a line of dialogue where the Caller says she needs a new experimental subject since you killed all of hers. Betray Orthorn (i.e. laugh in the dickhead's face!) and be on your way, mission accomplished!

[Kendo 2]

[vancleef]

The Aetherial Crown: You can choose this item to craft when you complete the Lost to the Ages quest. The crown allows you to possess two standing stone powers at the same time. The second power is stored in the crown. If you put a once-a-day power into the crown, you can activate the power, unequip the crown, re-equip the crown and can cast the power again, as many times a day as you like, 


For maximum game breaking fun, store the Ritual Stone power in the crown. This allows you to reanimate all corpses within a 75 foot radius for 200 seconds. When the power expires, the corpses DON'T turn to ash. This means you can animate all the corpses around you, over and over again, slowly building up an undead army.  So, say, clear out the first room of a dungeon and animate the dead enemies.  Turn them loose on the enemies in the next room, reanimate your original zombies and the new ones, go on to the next room, rinse and repeat. By the time you reach the boss chamber, you won't have to lift a finger to eliminate him. It will even animate giants and mammoths. Imagine leading that army across Skyrim!

You can become the Necromancer King of Skyrim. Mannimarco himself will look like a little bitch in comparison. 

I discovered this by accident running a 40+ level Destruction Mage. I entered a Falmer cave and cast a Master level destruction spell that killed all the enemies in the first room. I used the ritual power and much to my surprise, other dead Falmer started coming up to me from other rooms and levels that were affected by the (unknown to me at the time) huge radius of the spell.  By the time I reached the next cell, however, the Ritual effect had expired. I wondered if the Ritual Power could be recast by the equipping/unequipping trick. Much to my surprise, it did. So I repeated the Master Destruction spell trick, more or less reanimated my original "army" and added a whole batch of new critters to it from this cell. Cleaned the cave out in no time at all and collected my bullshit 100 gold piece reward.

Go into any royal castle, make a save and have fun with this. 

Edited July 8, 2024 by vancleef

[Kendo 2]

The ritual stone has a bug to where some reanimated corpses won't turn into ash piles.  You can reuse them until the game catches up and they start resisting.

[ritualclarity]

  On 7/8/2024 at 2:16 AM, vancleef said:

The Aetherial Crown: You can choose this item to craft when you complete the Lost to the Ages quest. The crown allows you to possess two standing stone powers at the same time. The second power is stored in the crown. If you put a once-a-day power into the crown, you can activate the power, unequip the crown, re-equip the crown and can cast the power again, as many times a day as you like, 


For maximum game breaking fun, store the Ritual Stone power in the crown. This allows you to reanimate all corpses within a 75 foot radius for 200 seconds. When the power expires, the corpses DON'T turn to ash. This means you can animate all the corpses around you, over and over again, slowly building up an undead army.  So, say, clear out the first room of a dungeon and animate the dead enemies.  Turn them loose on the enemies in the next room, reanimate your original zombies and the new ones, go on to the next room, rinse and repeat. By the time you reach the boss chamber, you won't have to lift a finger to eliminate him. It will even animate giants and mammoths. Imagine leading that army across Skyrim!

You can become the Necromancer King of Skyrim. Mannimarco himself will look like a little bitch in comparison. 

I discovered this by accident running a 40+ level Destruction Mage. I entered a Falmer cave and cast a Master level destruction spell that killed all the enemies in the first room. I used the ritual power and much to my surprise, other dead Falmer started coming up to me from other rooms and levels that were affected by the (unknown to me at the time) huge radius of the spell.  By the time I reached the next cell, however, the Ritual effect had expired. I wondered if the Ritual Power could be recast by the equipping/unequipping trick. Much to my surprise, it did. So I repeated the Master Destruction spell trick, more or less reanimated my original "army" and added a whole batch of new critters to it from this cell. Cleaned the cave out in no time at all and collected my bullshit 100 gold piece reward.

Go into any royal castle, make a save and have fun with this. 

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you can become this guy
https://vampirediaries.fandom.com/wiki/The_Necromancer

lol

[Doublezero]

Here's a few from me.

So, after 13 years, I just found out that Haming (the boy you saw in Helgen during the dragon attack) is moved in with his grandfather in a shack southeast of Ivarstead. When I stumbled upon the shack and saw Haming sitting in a chair, I said to myself, man, this kid looks familiar. 

Also, before entering the bridge to the College of Winterhold, you must speak to Faralda before you can cross. She will ask you to cast a spell before allowing you to cross the bridge. What I didn't know is that if you don't have the spell she asks you to cast, she will teach it to you for 30 gold. I always went back to town to buy a spell book like a dolt. 

[vancleef]

  On 12/6/2024 at 8:41 AM, MonikaCreyyy said:

 

That's an awesome discovery! Breaking out of the forced dialogue with Balgruuf keeps things flexible and lets you fulfill your promise to Alvor or Gerdur without being railroaded into the main quest. It’s great that the NPCs reset to their usual routines, so you can interact with them normally. Skyrim never ceases to amaze with all these little workarounds and roleplay opportunities!

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How am I just learning this? Literally started a new character last night but have already started the main quest. Gonna go back to an earlier save and erase the future!

[vancleef]

Ha! Had an experience I've never had before and never heard of even on "Secrets of Skyrim"-type videos!

Started a new game and rolled into Riften. I was only there to sell stuff (since there are 7 merchants within easy reach of each other) and leave. After quickly skipping through Maul's conversation, I ran into the marketplace and kept avoiding Brynolf so I didn't get drawn into conversation with him since I had no interest in playing the Thieve's Guild questline with this character.

Eventually he caught up to me and I was, like, "Aw, fuck, here we go!" Instead, he frowns and says, "I can take a hint, lad! Come see me when you want to make some coin!", turned and walked off to start hawking his Saber Cat Elixir! 

And as far as I know, he's still working the crowd! I'll never have to talk to him again even if I return to Riften!

Edited December 30, 2024 by vancleef

[Kendo 2]

Had a night time World Interaction encounter I've never seen before; a vampire and two vampire fledglings fighting a werewolf.  That's three werewolf encounters I know of; the duo of werewolves just running around, the husband/wife farmers on the road (if this spawns at night the husband will be in werewolf form and the wife will be dead), and now the one with the vampires.

[vancleef]

  On 2/13/2025 at 4:59 AM, Kendo 2 said:

Had a night time World Interaction encounter I've never seen before; a vampire and two vampire fledglings fighting a werewolf.  That's three werewolf encounters I know of; the duo of werewolves just running around, the husband/wife farmers on the road (if this spawns at night the husband will be in werewolf form and the wife will be dead), and now the one with the vampires.

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Wow! I have never had a werewolf encounter in the wild. The vampires fighting one sounds awesome! Like a Frank Frazetta painting!

[ritualclarity]

I had a similar encounter. I was either a vampire or warewolf. I can't remember. I never had that encounter otherwise. I believe I was above whatever level was needed to be able to  start the vampire/warewolf campain.

[vancleef]

The Destruction Rune spells.

These have become my ultimate weapon against Draugr. I discovered (by accident) that you can place the runes on the sarcophagi containing lurking undead. Doing so will either completely destroy the occupant if they're low level or awake them prematurely before you cross the trigger point. You will have to have the perk that allows you to cast the runes further from your character, but the range is phenomenal!

Some tactics:
1) There is one dungeon (Forsaken Cave) where the PC has to pass through a swinging blade trap into the main burial chamber and, of course, as soon as he crosses the threshold, the boss and his minions awake. Instead, stand in the corridor, time your spell to avoid the swinging blades and place the rune. The boss exits the sarcophagus, trundles down the hallway towards you, snicker-snack go the blades, and boss dies before he even gets close. Easy-peasy!

2) Some burial chambers have multiple sarcophagi containing a bajillion undead that activate and swarm the PC when you enter the room. As above, stand inside the doorway before the trigger point, cast a rune on one sarcophagus at a time. If the rune doesn't take out the occupant, you can easily dispatch it one-on-one. Work your way thru the room, preferably in stealth mode. In some dungeons you can completely eliminate the minions before triggering the boss. Way easier to fight him without being swarmed by his minions at the same time!

3) Try and find an inaccessible spot in the chamber.  Sometimes Draugr ruins have corner ledges that can reached either by jumping or using the Whirlwind Sprint shout. Once in position, place your rune and take out the enemy. If your stealth is high enough, you can even do this from a spot where the creature can still reach you but they usually un-aggro and you can rinse and repeat.

Seriously. The versatility of this spell is amazing. Sometimes you can clean out a large chamber before entering.