Skyrim:Blackreach

Cave: Blackreach (view on map)
Clearable	No
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	10 days
Level	Min: 18
Occupants
Falmer, Dwarven Automatons, Chaurus, Frost Troll, Wispmother, Giant, Vulthuryol
Console Location Code(s)
BlackreachCity, BlackreachOrigin, BlackreachArena, BlackreachElevatorAlftand, BlackreachElevatorMzinchaleft, BlackreachElevatorRaldbthar
Regions
The Pale, Winterhold
Location
Beneath Alftand, Mzinchaleft, and Raldbthar
Ore Veins
# of Corundum	14
# of Ebony	6
# of Geode	34
# of Gold	3
# of Moonstone	2
# of Orichalcum	3
# of Quicksilver	3
# of Silver	3

Inside Blackreach

Blackreach is an immense, naturally lit cavern inhabited by hordes of Falmer and containing the ruins of a Dwemer city. It is approximately 4 square miles in size.

The cavern itself is reached by traversing two levels of Alftand, a Dwemer ruin. The Dwemer theme continues within the cavern proper, featuring what appears to be a small city, which has long since been claimed by Falmer. The most northern point of the cavern features a Dwemer observatory and a lift to the surface for easy access. It is the only place where crimson nirnroot can be found, which was of great interest to the great botanical alchemist, Sinderion. The cavern also houses many geode veins, which can be mined for soul gems using a pickaxe, as well as an assortment of other ore veins scattered around.

Blackreach can be accessed by descending either Alftand, Mzinchaleft, or Raldbthar. In order to access the entrances to Blackreach, the attunement sphere is needed to reveal the stairs leading to each entrance (obtained from Septimus Signus during the quest Discerning the Transmundane).

Zones

Blackreach is a huge cavern that can be difficult to navigate, especially since your in-game map will only ever allow you to see part of the cavern.

Most players will first enter Blackreach in the northeast corner, through the door leading to Alftand Cathedral. The Great Lift at Alftand is found a short distance to the south; it is one of three lifts that provide direct access to the surface. Directly across from the Alftand Cathedral entrance is the first of many buildings scattered throughout the cavern:

• Sinderion's Field Laboratory — Sinderion's alchemical foothold in Blackreach. This is the only building in Blackreach that contains an alchemy lab, an arcane enchanter, a cooking pot, or a workbench.

One distinctive section of the cavern is the ruined Dwarven city, found in the western part of the cavern. It contains several buildings:

• Debate Hall — A small Dwarven ruin within Blackreach containing Falmer.
• Hall of Rumination — A small Dwarven ruin within Blackreach containing Falmer.
• Pumping Station — A small Dwarven ruin inside Blackreach containing Falmer Servants.
• Silent City Catacombs — A small Dwarven ruin inside Blackreach containing Falmer.

The cavern entrances related to Mzinchaleft are located north of the city, namely the door to Mzinchaleft Gatehouse (in the northwestern corner of the cavern) and the Great Lift at Mzinchaleft. Two other buildings are also found along the northern wall of the cavern:

• Silent Ruin — A small abandoned Dwarven ruin found in Blackreach.
• Reeking Tower — A Dwarven structure within Blackreach occupied by frostbite spiders.

Entrance to Raldbthar Deep Market

The southern part of Blackreach is dominated by waterfalls plunging into a lake far below the rest of Blackreach. The entrances related to Raldbthar are to the southeast, namely Raldbthar Deep Market and the Great Lift at Raldbthar. The Tower of Mzark is on a spire to the southwest. Several buildings are scattered around the edges of the lake:

• Derelict Pumphouse — A small Dwarven ruin located in Blackreach.
• Farm Overseer's House — A small empty Dwarven house in Blackreach.
• War Quarters — A small Dwarven building in Blackreach.

Exit Locations

Overlooking the Silent City

Once you enter Blackreach, there are several different exits from Blackreach to Skyrim. The quickest way to the surface is by using any of the "Great Lifts", which are effectively elevator shafts leading to gatehouses on the surface. These lifts can only be accessed from Blackreach, however once you open the gate at the top of the lift it becomes a new access point for Blackreach, with a quick-travel marker on your map. One other exit, namely Tower of Mzark, must also be initially accessed from Blackreach.

Lift locations:

•  Great Lift at Alftand — A Dwarven lift to Blackreach located northeast of Nightgate Inn. (map)
•  Great Lift at Mzinchaleft — A Dwarven lift to Blackreach located south of the Mzinchaleft ruins. (map)
•  Great Lift at Raldbthar — A Dwarven lift to Blackreach located west-southwest of Anga's Mill, in the mountains. (map)

Other exits:

•  Alftand — A large Dwarven ruin southwest of Winterhold. (map)
•  Mzinchaleft — A large Dwarven ruin located southwest of Dawnstar. (map)
•  Raldbthar — A Dwarven ruin located in the mountains west-southwest of Windhelm, between Lake Yorgrim and the White River. (map)
•  Tower of Mzark — An abandoned Dwarven tower located in Blackreach. (map)

Related Quests

• Discerning the Transmundane: Uncover the secrets of the mysterious Dwemer lockbox.
• Elder Knowledge: Recover an Elder Scroll to learn an Ancient Secret.
• A Return To Your Roots: Go where a famous alchemist could not in order to aid ground-breaking research.

Maps

• 

  Complete map of Blackreach

• 

  Annotated map of Blackreach with Crimson Nirnroot and Geode Vein positions

• 

  Span of Blackreach shown on Skyrim map

Notes

• For historical information on Blackreach, see the lore article.
• Using the Unrelenting Force shout on the large orange globe hanging above the Silent City will summon Vulthuryol, a dragon, to attack you.
• There are 36 geode veins scattered throughout Blackreach: 34 in the cavern itself, and 2 in Silent City Catacombs. 23 of these geode veins can be mined to yield level-dependent empty soul gems (grand soul gems appear starting at level 30; black soul gems at level 31^{[verification needed — see talk page]}). However, the other 13 geode veins are no different from standard corundum ore veins; these veins will always yield three corundum ores, with a chance of also yielding one or more regular gems.
• Even though it's a dungeon, in-game it's considered to be outdoors. This makes the Summon Arvak^DG spell and the Storm Call shout usable, but not the Call Dragon shout. In previous versions, vampires would suffer from the sun in Blackreach, but this was changed in a patch.
• One copy of the Heavy Armor skill book 2920, MidYear, v6 can be found on a table at the top of the stands overlooking the ring (with the lever activating a rotating blade trap) just south of the War Quarters.

Bugs

• Lifts to the surface can occasionally cause the game to effectively freeze on the loading screen, barring all actions apart from quick-loading.
  • This can be fixed by pressing tilde and waiting 5-10 seconds, then pressing tilde again to close the console, or by repeatedly pressing Q to open the favorites menu. This can also be prevented entirely by temporarily disabling autosaves on traveling, and then enabling them after using the lifts. Another way of fixing this is typing in the console "disableplayercontrols" then closing the console then immediately typing in the console "enableplayercontrols".
  • Hitting the guide button at the moment the loading screen goes away, but before it comes back can also break the glitch.
  • This appears to have been fixed by version 1.6 of the Official Skyrim patch, although some may still experience this glitch.
• Attempting to exit at Mzinchaleft and immediately returning can cause Blackreach to have normal daylight or even snowy weather, just like any area above ground.
• Entering a Falmer hut at the southwest end of Blackreach can cause you to become stuck permanently inside. For some reason, the collision around the hut's doorway allows the player to enter but never to exit. This can also be observed with a Falmer should one spawn within the hut.
  • If you're a Werewolf, you can enter Beast Form to get unstuck.
  • If a Falmer approaches you can unstick yourself by performing a cinematic kill.
• Using the Fireball spell on a Falmer may cause the game to crash. ^?
• Sometimes followers can get stuck on the stairs of Sinderion's Lab.
  • Using Unrelenting Force to push them off, or simply using the "wait" feature can resolve this.
• Casting a Summon Spell (i.e. Conjure Dremora Lord) will often bring the summoned creature into play in a different location than the caster was aiming, either to one side, behind the caster or, in areas with different levels, vertically. ^?