The Ultimate Enchanting Guide

OK. In lieu of the numerous threads about Enchanting ,I have decided to try and make this once and for all definitive but "quick" guide. This is for reference purposes for our members and guests here on the forums so if I miss something or am wrong about something (I'm sure I am) please feel free to let me know so I can fix it.

Enchanting

1. How to Enchant
2. Gems
3. Available Enchants
4. Enchanting Perks
5. Leveling Enchanting
6. Enchanting Strategy

1. How to Enchant
Alright so first we'll start with a list of things you're going to need.

• Your Item (Whether it be Armor, Jewelry or Weapon(s)
• A Known Enchant (Learned by Disenchanting an already Enchanted item. See section 5.)
• A Filled Soul Gem (See section 2 for more info regarding Soul Gems.)

After you have these three you'll find an Enchanting Table (see section 4.) and begin. The first step is to select your item to be enchanted. Next will be selecting your enchant. It is important to note that not all types of enchants will go on all types of items. Please see section 3. for a guide on what type of enchant is allowed on each type of item.

Once you have selected your enchant you will then select your Soul Gem. The Soul Gem must be filled in order to be used. (For more on Soul Gems see section 2.) Once you have selected the Soul Gem and your are satisfied with your item of choice and the Enchant create your Enchanted item with your platforms designated key.

So this is the rundown on how to Enchant an item. Below you will find information that will effect the strength of your Enchanted item with your chosen Enchant. So! Continuing on...


2. Gems

Alright so first let's get this out of the way for you naysayers lol. THE BLACK STAR IS BY FAR THE BEST! (You'll understand what I mean in a minute.)

Types of Gems from weakest (top) to strongest (bottom):

• Petty Soul Gem
• Lesser Soul Gem
• Common Soul Gem
• Greater Soul Gem
• Grand Soul Gem
• Black Soul Gem
• Azura's Star
• The Black Star

How to fill a Soul Gem

Ok so you've got your Soul Gem and you want to use it but there's no Soul in it? What a bummer!. First off let me say that you should invest in the Soul Trap spell (Located in Whiterun on Farengar the Court Wizard; Dragonsreach Building on the right). When cast on the target if it is killed within 60 seconds then you've filled your Soul Gem.

NOTE: YOU CANNOT TRAP A CREATURE IN A BLACK SOUL GEM OR THE BLACK STAR. YOU ALSO CANNOT TRAP A HUMAN SOUL IN A GEM BESIDES A BLACK SOUL GEM OR THE BLACK STAR.

The Azura's Star and The Black Star are two different outcomes of the same quest. (Quest started at the Shrine of Azura). Each one is reusable. So what's the difference you say? And why is the Black Star the ultimate choice? Well i'm glad you asked!

Azura's Star: A reusable soul gem capable of trapping all souls up to Grand level EXCEPT Human Souls.

The Black Star: A reusable black soul gem only capable of trapping Human Souls. (ALL HUMAN SOULS ARE GRAND LEVEL SOULS).

So there you have it. Now bare with me while we ponder this for a moment and answer these questions in your head. Why would you want to use a Soul that is less than Grand to enchant something? How many Bandits are there in Skyrim? How easy is it to kill a normal Bandit for a Grand Soul? How easy is it to kill a Frost Troll for a Grand Soul? Which one's easier?

(Thinking dots)
...
..
.
By now you have concluded that the Black Star is indeed the winner of two, and for that my friend you recieve an A+. lol


3. Available Enchants

Well this is going to be a little bit of a list. Please keep in mind that the outcome of how powerful these Enchants will be are based upon your skill level as an Enchanter, The Enchanting perks you have taken (see section 4.), And the type of Soul Gem you are using. Next to each is what type of equipment you can put it on.

Armor Enchantments

Fortify Alchemy - Head, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Alteration - Head, Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Archery - Head, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Block -Hands, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Carry Weight -Hands, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Conjuration -Head, Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Destruction -Head, Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Healing Rate -Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Health -Chest, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Heavy Armor -Chest, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Illusion -Head, Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Light Armor -Chest, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Lockpicking -Head, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Magicka -Head, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Magicka Rate -Head, Chest, Ring
Fortify One-Handed -Hands, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Pickpocket -Hands, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Restoration -Head, Chest, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Smithing -Chest, Hands, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Sneak -Hands, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Speech -Necklace
Fortify Stamina -Chest, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Fortify Stamina Rate -Chest, Feet, Necklace
Fortify Two-Handed -Hands, Feet, Ring, Necklace
Muffle -Feet
Resist Disease -Chest, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Resist Fire -Feet, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Resist Frost -Feet, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Resist Magic -Shield, Ring, Necklace
Resist Poison -Chest, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Resist Shock -Feet, Shield, Ring, Necklace
Waterbreathing -Head, Ring, Necklace

Weapon Enchantments

Absorb Health
Absorb Magicka
Absorb Stamina
Banish
Fear
Fire Damage
Frost Damage
Magicka Damage
Paralyze
Shock Damage
Soul Trap
Stamina Damage
Turn Undead

Whew that was tedious...moving on...


4. Enchanting Perks

http://skyrimcalculator.com/ (Great tool for planning out everything)

I'm not going to spend alot of time on this one as it really is going to be dependent on the type of character build you're going for. I will say that I personally think that at least every build should have 5/5 Enchanter as Enchanting really does help boost your Resistances/One-handed damage and so on. If you are trying to Enchant gear that is already Enchanted (IE: Dark Brotherhood Armor) then you must at least progress to Extra Effect to be able to add a secondary Enchant.


5. Leveling Enchanting

Ok so thankfully leveling Enchanting isn't that hard. The hardest part about it is destroying those precious Enchanted items that could have gone for mucho Gold right? The biggest thing to remember when you're disenchanting is that you should aim for the lesser valued items and sell the higher valued ones.

For example, if you have a ring that gives +20% pickpocketing success I would recommend keeping it or selling it. Chances are you will find something else that is much weaker and worth alot less. Basically, what I am getting at is a sword worth 3000 gold thats Enchanted to do 30 points of fire damage each hit with a high recharge is going to give you the same Enchant as a Iron Dagger that does 2 points of fire damage with a recharge value of 1. You can use the more powerful items early on.

Enchant everything you sell! Not only will it make you a ton of gold but it will put you on the fast track to maxing out your Enchanting. (In a non glitch way).


6. Enchanting Strategy

Ok so I am sure there are more strategies than mine for fast and powerful Enchanting, but this is my own simple non-glitch way. Once you get the Black Star (because you got an A+ and chose the Black Star right? ) head over to the mines west of Riverwood grab you a bandit (Only one!) and take his soul MWA hahaha hah..haha. and then go North a couple hundred meters to Old Elises basement and do some Enchanting. Rinse and repeat until you've Enchanted until your hearts content. Need more money? Enchant those 450 daggers you made for your smithing, or all those rings you pickpocketed.




So all in all this is my short, quick and dirty guide to Enchanting. Please feel free to post with any helpful tips for others that I can include and i'll make sure to do so. Likewise, if anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me a PM.

Thanks bro for the tips.

good call on enchanting those rings and daggers you forge to duel level

Glad you guys like the guide. Hope it helps someone .

Hey, this was really helpful! But I have one question. Do you need to fill the Black Star everytime you use it or do you only need to fill the Black Star once and the soul is permanently usable.

You haft to refill it each time you use it.

A dagger of Soul Trap (that you make yourself of course) is a very handy item, especially for a non-mage. Equip it before entering combat, as soon as you have hit, swap for your normal weapon/shield.

There are a couple of Soul Trap items in game. What would you rather carry, an Staff weighing 8, or a nice little Dagger ?

While I do see this being a viable option it seems it would be easier to just favorite the spell for the left hand and keep swinging your sword with the right. Guess it's all in personal taste.

As a sneak theif I like to use a soul trap bow and only carry black soul stones and Azuras Star on me as soon as their filled I deposit them with my other crafting items

Great tutorial
My method:
Iron Dagger + Banish = Enchantment + £££
They can sell from 600 - 1200 (afiak) depending on Speech lvl and gem type.

Good stuff!!!

I've spent hours on the wiki and I didn't learn as much as I have here. The key thing I appreciated learning was I can put secondary enchants on items already enchanted (assuming they only have 1 enchant to start with). You'd think the wiki could have mentioned that. Too bad you couldn't go into more detail on the correlation between enchanting skill level and +% to an enchant though.

didn't realize that you could enchant from Azura's Star or the Black Star. thought they were just for recharging existing items....failed that test

but I have black soul gems, and was wondering are they stronger then grand or the same?

thanks for the help!


also, and I may be drifting off topic here, but...
do the gems, black not included, get filled from smalest possible up? so a small soul won't wind up in a grand gem if I have empties of both?

Same with the exception that black soul gems only trap human souls. (Actually a good thing as bandits are easy).

I was wondering where can you buy Black Soul GEMS?

What I have been doing is, cleaning out dungeons, looting them, taking all the Daggars and Bows. I normally enchant them with Absorb Magika, since I dont have Banish, or Paralize yet.

I then sell them off, and buy all the soul gems I can find, and all ingredients, and sell them back Enchanted Daggars... Pretty good trade. I Have a Orcish Bow (Legendary) with Soul Trap from a Grand Soul. I have been using it forever, and every time I shot something with it, I do it in sneak mode, and capture their soul. doesnt matter if its a fox, or a Troll. that way, I can level up y enchantment skills. I am at lvl 82 right now, should hit over 90 tonight.

Its good to level up in speech, and get the perk where every merchant can buy any item, that way, if your talking to an alchemist, mage, warrior, food traveler, whoever, you can take thier entire inventory, and refill them with enchanted daggars..

Still would like to know of a good place to get black soul gems. thanks!

Great great grat post.

Thank you very much. First thing I'm gonna do when I get home is geting the Blackstar!

The most reliable carriers of Black soul gems are Necromancers. Since only human souls can be trapped they are considered too evil for normal vendors to sell. Rumor has it one certain member of the Mages College sells them..

Great guide mate, but theres a Enchant you missed off "Huntsmans Prowess" gives bonus damage V animals, i found it on an axe in a random cave somewhere and it can be learned, got a feeling there might be a few more rare/hard to find ones out in this big old world as well.

For the duel enchanting perk, do you have to do both of them at the same time? or can you add the second enchantment at a later date, when you get the perk? I'm thinking you have to do both at once, but never hurts to ask.

thanks

Got a feeling you have to do them both at the same time mate, but tbh never tried it so i could be wrong

Where can i learn spells for all these enchanting?