User:Philbert

Who Am I: Phil Robertson
Where Am I: Mid-Western, USA
Profession: Semi-Retired Packaging Machinery Consultant
Company: PRR Packaging Consultant LLC
Website: PRRPackagingConsultant.com
Hobbies: Music - Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd mainly (I have a 50th anniversary Fender Stratocaster that is my pride and joy) and of course the video gaming.
Platform: PS3

I've played Oblivion for years, soon after its first release, and found UESP while trying to get help on a (now forgotten) quest. I've been impressed with the amount and quality of the information gathered here and the dedication of the administrators and fans of Bethesda's games. I've made minor edits in the past, usually typo's.

So, with the release of Skyrim I decided to become a more active, albeit still amateur, contributer since the wiki format controls still give me a lot of difficulty. But, I figure if I do add content there are many out there that can come back and format it better and add detail to what I add better than I.

I was impressed with how quickly the Skyrim pages added up after the game was released. It was kind of exciting watching and being a minor part of that process.

If, on a page, a post, a discussion, or an answer - you think a remark of mine is snide or sarcastic, its not!!! Somewhere there in the post is a smile that I had meant to be shared and (obviously if there's any question about it) was not. For any misunderstandings that may occur I apologize now although I always hope to avoid that kind of issue. In the written word its hard for the other person to "see" the smile behind the words that would soften the intent. It's why I hate e-mail.
If on the other-hand, I come off too formal or business-like, that's the Consultant part of me coming out.

I take all criticism as constructive so if any have a reason to criticize my additions, please feel free to do so that I may learn and get better.

Thanks to everyone on this site for all their hard work!!!
And a special thanks to Bethesda for creating such great games and worlds to discover and play in. Kudo's to their whole team!!!

(Philbert)

Skyrim Tips

Here I'm going to place tips as I run into them. These are as much for my reference as anyone reading this page. You are allowed to disagree on any or all the below LOL - These are just my opinions. First and foremost, have fun playing the game. If this is your very first time playing, ignore all the below, jump in and discover fresh a world full of adventure. See what you can find, see what you can do, make mistakes, die (often - we all do), don't worry about the nuts and bolts or what works and what don't. Then, after you have enjoyed yourself and want to start fresh with a few ideas from others, revisit this page and see if anything here helps. I'm doing this to keep track of what worked for me, this may not be what works for you.

• During the start of the game, I like to go with Ralof for two reasons 1) By killing the Imperial boss lady (who by the way wanted you dead) at the start you get some decent starting armor and his sister gives you a few items to start with. 2) I don't like the idea of anyone chopping off my head.
• In the torturers chamber there is a knapsack, this is a great storage area for all the goodies your starting to get. You can run back and forth taking stuff there and Rolf will wait. The knapsack is a good first place for the first few game days then bandits move in. Still not a bad place since now you can take on the bandits as they reset to help level up. REVISED: The "entire" keep is marked as "never reset" so every container, including already dead bodies, can be used.
• Do not do the main quest or "The Golden Claw" yet although you can make them active. The main reasons to hold off are 1) Lydia is leveled and you don't want her too low or she becomes obsolete fast. 2) You don't need Dragon's in your life yet. I usually wait until level 30 (25 at the bare minimum.) This may seem like a lot but the levels go very fast until level 25 then they start to slow down but don't crawl until about 50. After 50 its very slowwwwwwwwwww. I'm in the mid-60's and I'm sure snails are faster when they're not in a hurry. <grin>
  • You can deliver the message for the guards sent to Riverwood and accept the next quest but don't do Bleak Falls Barrow yet.
• Sell everything in Riverwood at the start except what your wearing, one hand weapon, and the bow and arrows. (This is where you get The Golden Claw quest.) Accept and ignore.
• When your delivering the message from Riverwood, or just heading there, run don't walk to Whiterun and take the shortcut south of the buildings to help the Companions with the giant. Save before you start the run in case your late or you miss with an arrow. Get at least one shot into the giant so she likes you. This makes it marginally easier to start the Companion questline. Hold off joining though until you can take a few blows. Also, one of the companion quests includes a Shout Wall and you don't want these yet.
• You may get a lot of side quests. Accept them but don't do them yet.
• Find and carry a pickaxe. You never know when you'll run into ore and you really want to mine them.
• When you have the $$$, use the cart to take you to the major towns so you can fast travel to them. 1) It's easier and faster than fighting your way to each. 2) I tend to avoid "discovering" locations until I get a quest for them. I didn't do that on my first play through and if this is yours please, discover away, its fun to do that at least once. But, later you'll find dungeons don't fully reset so when you do get a quest for one some of the fun is gone. Besides, I don't like the map filled up with a bunch of places I've discovered but not entered. It's just my "style", feel free to discover your own. At the least though, try to start the College of Winterhold quests as soon as you can which means traveling there by cart. There are too many benefits to pass up not to.
• As soon as possible, go to the Steed Stone and activate it. It takes your carry weight way up.

Selling Stuff

• Find Gjukar's Monument as soon as possible. Its a great fast travel point for the middle region and even better, just east is a Shrine to Zenithar that increases your Barter for 7 hours - this is not game time nor real time so its hard to say how long its active but it is good for several round trips between Markarth and Riften (~25 hours one way - Merchant reset is 48 hours.) Oddly, stopping at the monument shortens the trip to ~23 hours. There is also a shrine just north of Riften usually guarded by a bear. Its just east of the farthest north watchtower in the rocks with a sort of path to it. This one has a Amulet of Zenithar too for an additional 10% price boost. REVISED: The eastern shrine also has an amulet, its usually on the ground.
• Discover Haemar's Shame (East of Helgan) and the Falkreath Stormcloak camp on the way - DO NOT ENTER. Then go to Falkreath and talk to Lod about a dog. Do the quest but don't follow the dog - its a pain. Fast travel to Haemar's Shame and follow the dog inside. Stay in sneak and let the dog do most of the work. Get the next quest. Do it fast, the dog is a REAL PAIN!!! Tell him he can have his dog back. Receive, Masque of Clavicus Vile - Pretty decent armor but more important, Prices 20% better, +10 Speech, and magic regen thrown in for good measure Woo Hoo!!!
• A good sale round trip is; several trips between Markarth and Riften - try to end in Markarth around 7pm'ish. Then go to Windhelm which is 22h or about 5:30pm, then head to Solitude which should get you there about 8~9am, make the sell then run (do not fast travel) to Haafinger Stormcloak Camp just north of Dragon's Bridge, make the sale. (A little explaining - Fast Travel takes 2 hours, a run takes 30 minutes.) Then fast travel to Riften which should get you there about 7:30~ 8am'ish to start the Riften - Mararth run again. I hit only the women for the 10% Allure boost in price when playing as a male - this is one reason to play as a female, more male vendors.
  • The Stormcloaks have 1100 while the rest have 750. If you find your getting cleaned out before heading to Riften get Honeyside asap and use it for an alternate storage place as your looting in that area. That way you always have something to sell. Alternately you can travel to Whiterun to pick a few things up and still make Riften by 8am'ish.
  • If you need to put a few coin into their hands to sell them that one item, buy some arrows or lockpicks from them, you'll get it back and this is a great way to stock up on those items.
  • Keep an eye on your active effects and when you see the Zenithar perk down around 1 hour hit the shrine north of Riften by fast traveling to the stables or hit the one near Gjukar's Monument.

Alternate Route: If thats a bit tough to follow or keep supplied do this one instead.

• Make the Markarth -> Riften run as described then around 6~8pm from Markarth do the Windhelm run and jump back to Markarth, You'll gain 2 hours but cannot sell in Markarth. Restock and go to Winterhold, sell, then return to Markarth. This will gain an additional 6 hours so your back to around 10am. Sell in Markarth then start the Markarth -> Riften run again. If your using the Abandoned House in Markarth you lose one sell but its a lot easier to do since you can easily keep restocked for each sell.

Back to General Tips

• Do the College of Winterhold questline up to but not including Under Saarthal - They will wait and there's a Shout Wall there. It gives you access to trainers and a free room with storage.
  • Save before entering, Don't worry about having a spell, reload until she gives you a good one you can actually cast. Have the $$$ ready.
  • Same with the ward training session.
• Get the Abandoned House in Markarth as soon as you can then use it for storage. <Thus, no need for the house in Whiterun - yet.>
• AVOID ALL SHOUT WALLS!!! ---- You don't want them until you have dragon souls to activate them and getting them early just complicates things. The game seems designed around the idea you are doing Bleak Falls Barrow first so I found it better just to avoid them all. Not really a big deal until you run into that accidental one.
• AVOID ALL SKILL BOOSTS!!! ---- This includes Skill Books. Save them all for when you get that skill into the 90's. The skill books do not disappear from a dungeon/location and there's several to choose from.
  • I carried the Bards quest items in inventory all the way up to level 60 and have only turned in 2 of the 3. You adjust to the carry limits so they don't matter but some of the quest skill boost items have larger weights and are a pain to carry around so get the quest but don't do them. Some of the boost quests are a series, one has to be completed before you can start another. This can be a pain if say you get a speech boost quest and the other in the series is enchanting and you have enchanting at 94 and really want to do it so you can read the 5 skill books to max enchanting the easy way. <sigh> Nothings easy. Planning who you talk to helps but that means your hitting the wiki heavily and that may kill some of the games enjoyment. You have to decide how to play this.
  • If you want to collect the skill books, wait until you have a companion then return to all the places they were and have the companion pick them up. Take them out of the companions inventory and store them away.
• As soon as you have some decent Resist Fire wear (amulets, rings, etc) Do the Azura's Star quest and choose the Black Star. Make sure to do a hard save before he sends you into the star. Use The Black Star Grand souls for enchanting items you'll keep preserving the Black and Grand filled soul gems for storage. You will go through several starting sets of armor/weapons combinations before you get to your final set.
  • Subnote on Enchanting Potions: You have EXACTLY 30 seconds to select the item, select the enchantment(s), select the soul gem, and change the items name. Here's the easiest way to do that.
    • Do a dummy run up to and including changing the name. The new name is now in the right hand column. Cancel and Exit. Take the potion, quickly do the first three, then in the name (PS3) use the square to erase (or a combination of L1 and square as needed), Enter the first letter (the rest should show up on the right), get over to that right column fast and select it, (multi-names will appear as you entered them so its all good from here) exit name, a quick verify that the potion benefits still there, and accept. Goto your inventory and recheck. Its a pain and I only do one at a time between door reloads in case I messed up. I don't use potions on the stuff I'm selling so no time limit.
  • UPDATE: As of Patch 1.5 this is no longer true. Once you take the potion then activate the Enchanting Menu you have all the time needed.
• As soon as you see any armor with Muffle - buy it (hopefully it will be in loot.) Its a rare item and works wonders for a sneak especially once you get the perk - this seems to be additive.
• Once you do start the main quest work your way through Diplomatic Immunity quickly - heavy sneak skills are good for this one as well as a good invisibility potion for the Thalmor Mage at the door. The reason is because Dragons will suddenly stop appearing until this quest is done and you really want the souls because by now your getting shouts.
• Before you climb to the top of the mountain to meet the boss (you know who I mean - or will and I don't want to spoil it) start the While Phial quest so you can get the snow. Also, while your up there, get the notched pickaxe (and the ores) at the peak.
• You do not have to join the Thieves Guild to do Cornered Rat. They pretty much ignore you when your in the sewer.
• Doing the Riften Thanes quest on Skooma will not screw you up with the Thieves Guild.
• If you get Kahvozein's Fang before the quest, after you kill a dragon but before you loot it, go to your inventory and make it your right hand weapon. You will get the item FROM ALL DRAGONS despite warnings on the wiki page about Ancient Dragons. At my level that's about all I see and I've always gotten them this way.
• Do not sell all those super cheap nordic weapons Dragur carry (except the Honed ones.) Save them up, or at least a good number of them. They can be modified after the Companions questline to valuable items.

Screwwy Quests (spelling error on purpose LOL)

There are a few places to avoid because they can conflict with quests. Here are a few.

• Gallows Rock - Part of a Companion Quest. Due E of Whiterun SW of Windhelm.
• Driftshade Refuge - Part of a Companion Quest. SE of Dawnstar.
• Swindlers Den - Quest: In My Time of Need. NE of Gjukar's Monument.
• Ilinalta's Deep - Quest: Azura's Star. South of Whiterun on the other side of the mountain chain.
• Fellglow Keep - Quest: Azura's Star. East of Whiterun.

I think that's the worst offenders. Most of the others may start the quest early but are not real deal breakers. Each of the above are ones where I did clear them then got the quest and it could not be completed for one reason or another. This list may grow as I encounter them.

The largest problem here is that some radiant quests will send you to them. Then you have no choice unless you hold off until you are also doing the quest listed above in tandem. The worst one seems to be the College of Winterhold Arniel quest to get a staff and Onmund's quest to also get a staff. Both send you to Enthir to get the location and in some cases it gets screwed up. Do one at a time. He can also send you to Ilinalta's Deep as one of the locations. If you've already done Azura's Star this is one of the places you go, all are dead and possibly ashes so the staff quest pointer is there but not the staff. This dungeon does not reset so it becomes a broken quest. Its also possible to get either staff early so its now in your inventory as a quest item but the quest needs you to pick it up. The fix for this is easy though, go to your house in Whiterun (buy it if you have to and fully equip it) use the weapons rack near the door and put the staff there as soon as you get it. Now when you get the quest it will point to your house. Go get the staff and all is good.

Soul gem glitch

• As of this writing, there is a glitch with soul gems you find/buy and fill and those that you find/buy already filled (except Black and Grand). They are not the same. Those already filled stack properly in your inventory and storage while those you fill do not. Also, those you fill can lose their filled state on storing or retrieving them. And (even worse) they do not increase in value. So these are good for enchanting cheap stuff to level up enchanting, selling cheap enchanted stuff to make money, and recharging weapons.
  • Make sure to store the higher valued filled ones before using the cheap ones, there is no way to tell which one you are consuming when you are recharging and you don't want to waste the ones that can be stored. When you use a gem for Enchanting, if you look, the value is shown so you can select a cheap one.

Leveling

This is tricky because everyone plays a different style and I have yet to decide mine (although I usually prefer stealth.)

• Your first levels will occur so fast you cannot really use the 5 training for every level because of lack of funds. Buy as much as you can in areas you DON'T use. For me that's pickpocket and illusion.
  • Pickpocket: You want to get to 50 for the EXTRA POCKETS perk. She's the begger girl in Windhelm.
  • Illusion: You need 50 for the QUIET CAST perk and its worth it later in the game. Trainer is in the College of Winterhold.
• Avoid getting the AUGMENTED FLAMES perk until after you have finished "Arniel's Endeavor" - for some reason this breaks the quest. But, as soon as that quest is done get both levels.
• In destruction: See above then Novice ASAP, Apprentice, Rune Master, and Adept.
  • Update: Conjuration for the great conjured bow!!! Get to 30 for Soul Stealer and you'll get all the souls you need. You also save on weight by not carrying a bow as a weapon. I'm down to a knife only for those surprise moments when there's no time to conjure.
  • Working on the higher levels so I don't know how Expert or Master will change things.
• In Alchemy: Get Alchemist to 5, Physician, and Benefactor. The rest don't matter and could actually hurt gaining experience.
• In Enchanting: Get Enchanter to 5, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, and Extra Effect.
  • Disenchant any Iron or Steel items that you find. Keep the higher $$$ items for later.
• In Smithing: Get Steel, Arcane, then follow the Heavy Armor tree up to Ebony - beyond later but start here. Making and selling the Heavy armor brings in a lot of gold even if your following the Light Armor course. At least get the Dwarven since you'll get lots of metal to make them.
  • Max out each of the 3 skills above as quick as you can. Make cheap daggers, enchant them, sell them. Make cheap potions, sell them.
  • The higher value the potion, the more your experience increases and this usually means those with several effects - good and bad.
  • Then, make a Alchemy suit (yep, I used the Falmer glitch) make a great Enchant Potion and go to town making your own Mega weapons and Armor. However, the restoration glitch is a game breaker so I avoid using that - Falmer helm is good enough.
• I'm an archer type player so I get all 5 Overdraw, Eagle eye, and both Steady Hands as they come available.
  • Note: I like the critical kill cut scenes so I've been doing more blades lately LOL
• In Speech I get 1 in Haggling to get Allure for the opposite sex boost. With all the other enhancements and no other perks I'm at 95% based on prices received from the opposite sex. It's hard enough selling at this level so the only reason I can see to add to this tree is to get the extra $$$ into the vendors pockets. Since I have over $200K I don't really see a need.
  • Masque of Clavicus Vile, self made necklace with Barter 29%, and Blessing of Zenithar from shrine +10%.
• I put one perk in each of the following; Restoration, Heavy Armor, Block, Two-Handed, and One-handed.
• Sneak: All 5 Stealth, Muffled Movement, Backstab, Deadly Aim. ASAP

Leveling Tips

• To increase speech, find the most expensive item a vendor has. Have 1 or many expensive item(s) of your own. Buy theirs, sell it back to them, buy it back and so on - (I cap them at 10K because I read somewhere of a problem at higher $$ and cannot remember the actual number.) Eventually they can buy one or more of your expensive items so you get your money (and theirs) back at the cost of something you couldn't sell at full price anyway. Meanwhile your speech goes up fast.
• Sneak - find someone to hide from and go into sneak mode. As long as they don't see you, your leveling. Sneak everywhere all the time.
• To level Alteration (using Oakflesh), Illusion (using Muffle), and Conjuration (using any Bound Weapon [sword is cheapest in magicka cost]); first make sure you have the spell, go to the island with The Lady Stone, get the slaughterfish excited (red dots), make sure your on land, keep casting any combination. No attack necessary. Its a good idea to have clothing, necklaces, rings that increase magic amount plus regen and anything that lowers spell costs. For Restoration you can use Equilibrium in one hand and Heal in the other and keep them both going constantly. This does not seem to increase Alteration though but its great for restoration. Keep the fish mad though otherwise it don't work. There has to be an active enemy.
• To level Heavy/Light armor and Shield, find something to fight and let it bash you. Its best to have a good amount of health first as well as Fast Healing in case they get ahead of you. At low levels and armor numbers Mudcrabs are great. Later you need to stand and let a bear or two take you on while hitting the healing spell constantly.
  • BTW, This is why I haven't added any but the one point into Shield or Heavy Armor (+Well Fitted and I'd take that back if I could) - I don't need them. Dragonbone armor with shield all Legendary using built in perks only; AC=1128 - without shield AC=942 - I don't get hurt!!! {I know, there's an armor cap...still}
• Alchemy, as mentioned, make expensive potions.
  • Don't go crazy on the whole Alchemy/Enchant argument. The built in stuff is good enough and if you go too crazy you can break the game.
  • From the wiki page on Alchemy (thank you whoever posted this!!!)
    • With Giant's Toe: Hanging Moss + Bear Claws + Giant's Toe or Blue Butterfly Wing + Blue Mountain Flower + Giant's Toe
    • Without Giant's Toe: Glow Dust + Glowing Mushroom + Hanging Moss or Creep Cluster + Large Antlers + River Betty
• The rest you just have to use. Don't only do archery if your an archer. Every now and then use the two-handed weapon or one-hand dual wielded or single with shield. Use destruction spells even though it takes forever to kill something, later it won't. Get two badguys fighting each other using fury or frenzy then kill the last one standing. Go invisible even though you don't have to. Conjure up a flaming familiar just for fun.

Shouts

Get used to using all the Shouts.

• Throw Voice is very useful when you want to take down just one enemy at a time for their souls and loot them to make sure the cleanup crew doesn't disappear the body while your gone but their buddy (who you want next) is too close.
• Dragonrend really does make them land (just not always where you want LOL) the recharge is fast and you can keep them grounded.
• Whirlwind Sprint has so many uses its hard to put them all down (leaping long distances with a single bound AKA Superman, getting away from the action for a breather, gaining a little time when your overloaded and walking home slow, making it through those swinging blade traps, walking on water for a short distance).
• Unrelenting Force for gaining a breather (and its fun to watch the badguy go flying across the room) or knocking the badguy into a swinging blade trap (big fun - use Throw Voice near the trap to get them in the right place then Unrelenting Force to push them in - Amulet of Talos helps the recharge rate), finding things (yep, you can use this to knock things off of pillars, out from under tables, and out of nooks and crevices. Just don't knock them into those hard to reach areas).
• Storm Call for large groups of badguys as long as you can run to avoid the strikes - keep moving LOL.
• Animal Allegiance when the animals are the badguys LOL.

Well, you get the idea. Don't assume with Shouts, think outside the box.

So far that's about it. I'm on my third start and up to Level 66 and enjoying myself completely.

Things to do after playing a long time

• Try to make the highest level possible without dying once.
• Try to see how fast you can complete the main quest without dying and at the lowest level.
• Try to see how fast and the lowest level you can get all shouts.
• Try to see how fast and the lowest level you can complete all major quest-lines, (choose a side to complete in the revolt ,,, then do the other side.)