I only allow myself to find 9divine amulets and new enchantments as random loot

Ok well on this playthrough, which may be my last character for quite awhile as I now have a backlog of games that need to be played, but I want to wrap up Skyrim before I work on other games in my massive games library, I've decided I will only learn new enchantments and get amulets of the 9 divines purely through finding them as random loot.

So in other words, I've stopped myself from going to Radiant Raiment and buying all the enchantments I don't know, same for shop traders and such. Everything MUST be found as random loot, so it really feels like a major accomplishment when I learn a new enchantment because I found it as random loot.

The current amulet that is proving elusive is the Amulet of Zenithar. Lord knows how long it will be before I find a "Fortify Bartering" necklace as random loot, as well as the Amulet of Zenithar.

In other words, I don't just show up to a shrine where I know the amulet is at, and pick it up to obtain the amulet.

The other ones have come up, but some are much rarer than others. My goal is to find 2 amulets per god each for my Lakeview house, one for display purposes, and one for the shrine in the basement.

The enchantments are coming in slowly, I'd like to work on pickpocketing skill as soon as I can find a fortify pick pocketing enchantment and I won't be able to do the fortify alchemy/enchanting loop until I find fortify alchemy.

Implementing this restriction on my character makes finding new enchantments a whole lot more rewarding, if you're starting a new character anytime soon, you might try it yourself.

This would work well if Skyrim was an online game and had an auction system, so you could auction off rare enchantments and amulets, but since it's single player, it still keeps the game fun when you open up chests and such to find new enchantments you never had before.

I almost always use this restriction. Amulets of Zenithar and Julianos usually prove nearly impossible to find when I need them for building shrines. Amulets of Talos can be really elusive, too. Every single time there is at least one Divine amulet that takes a billion years to find - even if I start looking in stores.

As for enchantments, it's a matter of luck. Sometimes I find stuff life Muffle and Waterbreathing within the first 10 levels, sometimes it takes forever to find something less uncommon, such as soul trap.

Yea I need an amulet of Talos at the moment. I know one of the Graybeards pretty much always has one but pickpocketing his would violate my restriction. since I have the Frostfall mod, I want to put it into my carrying backpack since it's probably the best power of all the bonus's the amulets give off and I already used one up on my shrine.

Stendarr's are a dime a dozen.

You know what's helped me find amulets, I have populated skyrim civil war battle, so there will be these massive battles between imperials and stormcloaks as you're walking along the roads, and often times I'll find at least one amulet.

Julianos, that's weird because I've already found 2 of those. It was one of the first shrines I built. Zenithar though, that one is going to take some spelunking and dungeon crawling to find him.

And that Fortify Barter enchantment virtually NEVER comes up, probably because it can only be done on necklaces and no other types of gear at all.

I also need akatosh and arkay, no idea when those are going to appear either.

I've found in the past that amulets are so freaking difficult to fine Radiant Rainment isn't much help. The part of Skyrim that calculates what random loot is available in shops, if I am lucky and it is in a nice mood, goes: "You are after Amulets of Julianos and Talos? Ha ha, have an Amulet of Stendarr! You are after Amulets of Akatosh and Zenithar? Ha ha, have an Amulet of Arkay!" Mostly though its, "Ha ha! No Amulets at all today!"

As it happens, I'm doing something similar now. I wanted to see if it was possible to make Lakeview Manor without buying anything. The character I'm doing it with also refuses to do quests which start by talking to people as she spent years being a vampire's thrall and is now utterly terrified of people. Level 29, house mostly built, and she is still after Amulets of Akatosh, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth Talos and Zenithar, which I think is not bad. She managed to find two amulets of Arkay somehow.

Other non-amulet related items proving surprisingly difficult to find in dungeons and the wild include bear pelts (Skyrim is full of CAVE bears), steel ingots (because I used all my corundum ore to make locks) a grand soul gem (I have a horrible feeling I'll have found all the amulets before this) and goat horns. Not many goats in the wild have harvestable horns. I suspect my character will be solely responsible for the extinction of Skyrim's goat population.

I agree, goat horns are a pain to find if you're not buying materials. I always buy them, because I don't want to kill goats. Straw and glass are also insanely hard to find as random loot, so I buy them as well.

I'm using Immersive Patrols with the battles enabled, so I too get massive battles. I usually only take arrows, though - and only from the red team. The soldiers most often have amulets of Stendarr, anyway - and those are indeed more than common. Vigilants are everywhere, and have a tendency to get killed.

I know you can get an Amulet of Arkay as a quest reward (investigate the Hall of the Dead in Markarth), if you're willing to bend the "find only" rule a little.

Btw, I totally agree on the Frostfall backpacks. Mine almost always remains amuletless (is that even a word?) until I find a Talos one. Sometimes I make a Kyne backpack simply because that tiny dragon skull is so adorable.

One time I tried going to Radiant Raiment (the first time I'd ever entered the store) in search of amulets, but got a trespassing glitch ("You need to leave" when it was around noon) and haven't returned to that place since.

I just finished off Lost to the Ages and came away with a lovely Aetherium Staff, a Grand Soul Gem, two refined malachites an amulet of Dibella and along the way some goat horns and the only bear in Skyrim (as opposed to cave bears).

Now I'm off to do half of the Forbidden Legend quest and hope along the way I find amulets of Akatosh, Julianos, Kynareth, Talos and Zenithar. Also, some steel ingots would be nice...

I got Hunterborn mod, for immersion mods btw I recommend Hunterborn, Fishing in Skyrim, Frostfall, and Basic Needs and Diseases, all 4 of those basically make for one super immersive experience if you enjoy being an outdoorsy type, as I hunt, kill prey, tan their hides for leather and eat their meat for food. Fishing in skyrim helps for getting the salmon meat for light snacks when not eating whole goat legs or elk steaks help as well.

I found an amulet of Dibella, no Amulet of Zenithar though, but my character is at least getting decent shop prices now between the amulet and the gift of charity.

I also got Coins of Tamriel Mod, I just sent in a request to the creator of that mod to add a weighted coins version of it.

It takes hours of play before I discover even a single new enchantment, and the 3 super useful ones haven't come up yet, Smithing, Alchemy and I'm looking for Pick Pocket so I can get to work on pick pocketing.

When my character finally finds pick pocketing, I'm gonna enchant some jewelry with it and then go pick pocket people in Whiterun until I got the Extra Pockets perk.

Frostfall and a needs mod (I prefer iNeed myself) are essential parts of my setup. I recently discovered a mod called "Living Takes Time", which makes it so that crafting/looting/inventory etc. (customizable) take time. Adds a lot of immersion, especially the "reading takes time" option. It always bothered me that even if I read twenty books in a row, no game time passed.

With my previous character I spent ages hunting for the resist fire enchantment (I did check in stores every time I visited a town). Resist frost is super easy to find, but fire and shock not so much. At level 36 I finally found the elusive enchantment - a necklace with 60% fire resistance. By the time I retired that character (level 38, IIRC) I hadn't found a single Amulet of Talos, Dibella or Zenithar (but like three Amulets of Julianos)...

I'd like to recommend the Imperial Army as a source of Amulets. I just took a new character through the Imperial questline and she looted two Talos Amulets, a Kynareth Amulet, a Mara Amulet and a Dibella Amulet off Stormcloaks through her army duties.