Guide to Soul Gems and Enchanting

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Soar Tueth

Member
Does an Elixir of Enchantment work while creating enchanted items or does it improve the rating of the ones you are equipping?
 

felix566

New Member
An aspect of Skyrim's game play is the use of soul gems, and item enchantment. The game does explain how enchanting and soul gems work, but not in great depth.

Contents (use the Control+F command to quickly find the info you need!) ::
1. General Soul Gem Info
2. Black Soul Gems and Azura's Star
3. Soul Sizes
4. Enchanting Basics
5. Leveling
6. Skill Tree Perks
7. Random Notes


First off, this is an Arcane Enchanter:
View attachment 658

Secondly, these are soul gems (black soul gem is not included, nor Azura's Star) :
Soul_gems.jpg





1. General Soul Gem Info
First, you need to know what a soul gem is before you even think about enchanting! Basically, a soul gem is a pretty rock of a light purple and/or blue color that can store a creature's soul to be used as energy. The smaller the soul gem, the more purple it is; the larger the soul gem, the more blue it is.

You can find soul gems in many places. The most common ways are finding them in burial crypts (dungeons), Dwemer cities/ruins, vampire lairs, and to buy them from merchants (particularlly court wizards like Farengar or mages at the College of Winterhold). If you're feeling adventurous, you can go look for enemy mages or Forsworn and kill them, then see if they had a soul gem on them. More often than not, they don't, but most of the time they have one, it's a filled soul gem. Yet another way is to complete the College of Winterhold questline and do the Aftershock quests as they appear. I won't spoil it for you, but doing that as often as you can will yield you a gold reward and three filled soul gems of differing size for each time you do that quest. There are also geode veins in Blackreach that give out precious gems and level-based empty soul gems.

When a soul is captured, the name of the soul gem will change in your inventory. For example, instead of reading as “Petty Soul Gem”, it will now read as “Petty Soul Gem (Petty)”. This means it can be used to recharge a weapon enchantment, or be used to create a new enchantment on an item.

Now you're probably wondering, “But how do I fill a soul gem?” Easy! There are two ways to go about this: one way is to learn the soul trap spell and then cast it on a creature in combat. If you kill it within sixty seconds and have an empty soul gem of proper size, the creature's soul will be captured when it dies. The second way, and also the best way in my opinion, is to use a weapon with a soul trap enchantment. You can either make this yourself if you have the necessary items, or buy one from a shop keeper. If you use the item to kill an enemy, you will capture its soul into one of your soul gems. It's like the first method with a step taken out. (I should note that there is a perk on the Conjuration tree called Soul Stealer. If you have this perk, killing an enemy with a bound weapon will capture the creature's soul, assuming you have an empty soul gem of proper size.) (I should also note that a soul gem's value is multiplied three to four times when it is filled, depending on the soul gem size, and the size of the soul within the gem.)

And now you're probably wondering, “Now what the heck do I do with my filled soul gem?” Good question! As stated, there are a few uses for filled soul gems: enchanting a weapon or piece of apparel, recharging a weapon enchantment, or selling them for gold. What you do with them is your choice.


2. Black Soul Gems and Azura's Star
Before we continue, it's important that I detail the two special types of soul gems: black soul gems, and a daedric artifact called Azura's Star. First, I should explain that there are two types of souls: white souls, and black souls. White souls are the souls of non-sentient creatures, such as foxes, bears, etc. Black souls are the souls of any NPC that is of one of the playable races. For example, orcs and nords have black souls. (Side note: though creatures like Falmer, Draugr, and hagravens are intelligent enough to talk, they do not have black souls.) The problem is, normal soul gems cannot hold black souls. That's where the black soul gems come in. Black souls are always detailed as the largest type of soul, a grand soul, but seem to be even stronger than creature grand souls.

Azura's Star is obtained at the end of the quest titled “The Black Star”, and may be obtained in one of two ways. “Azura's Star” refers to the artifact in the way it should be: as an unbreakable soul gem capable of holding souls of creatures. The “Black Star” refers to the same artifact in a corrupt way: as an unbreakable black soul gem. No matter its state that you choose to obtain it as, it functions as a soul gem, and cannot be broken. However, it will only hold one soul.


3. Soul Sizes
There are a few different sizes of soul gems. They are listed here from smallest to largest: petty, lesser, common, greater, grand, black. A soul gem can be filled with a soul of its size or smaller, but not larger. For example, a grand soul gem will hold a grand soul or any soul size smaller, but not a black soul. A common soul gem will hold a common sized soul, or a smaller size soul, but not a greater, grand, or black soul.

In general, the stronger a creature is, the larger the soul. I would type out a list of soul sizes for creatures, but the last time I did, I wasted an hour and my laptop crashed. When it crashed, it corrupted the document I had spent hours working on. I'm not doing that again. Instead, here's a link to a page with all the soul sizes: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Souls

(Fun fact: While setting up this text to be posted on the site, my laptop crashed again. It really does not like soul gems or enchanting. o_O)

The larger a soul, the stronger the charge it will create on an item you are enchanting. For example, if you enchant a piece of armor with Fortify Health, using a filled black soul gem will yeild you the best results. With my current enchanting skill and perks, I can add eight points to my health with a piece of armor made with a petty soul gem. However, if I do the same thing but use a black soul gem, that piece of armor will add 50 points instead!

That general rule isn't the same with weapons though. I can create a fire damage enchantment on a dagger and get the same enchantment no matter what soul size I use, but its new value won't be as high if I use a petty soul gem. For example, if I enchant a pickaxe with Absorb Soul with my current skill level using a black soul gem will raise the value to 669; if I use a petty soul gem, the value only goes up to 339. However, the Absorb Health charge is exactly the same.

Keep in mind that not all creatures have souls to be captured, such as Dwemer machines.


4. Enchanting Basics
Now to start learning how to enchant things! First, you must obtain an enchanted item, then take it to an Arcane Enchanter and disenchant this. When you disenchant something, the item is destroyed, so if you find an item with a powerful enchantment, it's not recommended to disenchant it unless you have a high enchanting level.

An excellent place I've noticed for finding enchanted items is Nord burial crypts (dungeons). Draugr may have enchanted weapons equipped, especially the ones before the end of the crypt (i.e. the “boss” draugr). You may also find enchanted items just hanging around, or in chests or burial urns. Vampire lairs and mages also sometimes have enchanted items. Same with stronger bandits (marauders and chiefs in particular).

Once you've learned an enchantment or two, take an unenchanted item, pick an enchantment, pick a filled soul gem, and enchant it!


5. Leveling
Leveling your enchantment skill can be done in many ways.
  • Disenchanting items. Skill gain increases with the value of the item.
  • Enchanting items that do not currently possess an enchantment. Same skill gain regardless of item and size of soul gem used.
  • Using a Soul Gem to recharge weapons, (Soul Siphon does not count). Larger skill gains based on size of soul regardless of actual charge gained.
  • Skill books
  • Training

A good way to go about leveling is to also level your speech and smithing at the same time. Here's a step by step guide:
  • Gather smithing items
    • Either iron and leather, or a lot of leather. Decide whether or not you will be making iron daggers or leather bracers. Leather bracers need one leather and two leather strips. Iron daggers need one leather strip and one iron ingot. Which item you'll make depends on how easily the items needed are to obtain for you. If you encounter a lot of animals and take their pelts, leather bracers may be preferable. If you encounter a lower amount of animals but can take the time to mine a lot, iron daggers would be preferable for you. Keep in mind that iron is the only metal in which one ore creates one ingot; all over metals need two ores.
  • While you are collecting materials, it is a good idea to take along empty soul gems and fill them, either with the Soul Trap spell, or with a soul trap enchanted weapon. This way, you get two tasks completed at once.
  • Find a blacksmith's forge and create your item. Whiterun is a good place, as there are two blacksmithing places, one at the gates, and one on the way to Dragonsreach (which you'll need to head up to for the Arcane Enchanter).
  • Once you've made all the items you can head up to Dragonsreach, or another place with an Arcane Enchanter. Once there, start enchanting the items.
  • After you've enchanted all the items you can, sell them off, or keep what will be useful to you. If you have enchanted all that you can and ran out of soul gems but still have items left over, I recommend that you keep them in a home or living quarters that belong to you. That way, you can go back to leveling your enchanting skill when you have more soul gems.
Selling items increases your speech skill.


There! You've successfully worked to level three skills at once!


6. Skill Tree Perks
Within the skill tree for enchanting, there's quite a few useful perks. The right branch is rather useless in my opinion. The left and middle branches are perfectly useful, however.

The middle branch has two perks that makes enchantments on armor stronger. This means that enchantments like Fortify Health, Fortify Magicka Regen, Fortify Magicka, Fortify Stamina, and similar enchantments will be stronger. Good for mage type characters, or just a player looking for some help against dragons.

The left branch has perks that make Fire, Frost, and Shock based enchantments on weapons and armor 25% stronger. Obtaining the fire perk means you'll be able to deal lots ofdamage to enemies, as will the frost perk. The shock perk, however, means that fighting dragons and magic users will be easier. I've noticed that when attacking a dragon with strong shock spells before they use a shout will cause the Shout to either be cancelled, or be shortened greatly. Use this to your advantage!

The last perk is the perk that requires a 100 skill level in Enchanting: Extra Effect. This allows you to put two enchantments on one item. This is amazingly useful. I don't need to explain it.


7. Random Notes
This area will detail little tid bits of info that I didn't feel fit in elsewhere.

If you give a follower empty soul gems, plus a weapon with a soul trap enchantment, they will be able to fill all soul gems in one go. Just make sure that you don't give your follower, for example, fifty grand soul gems and allow the follower to kill a wolf. All those gems will be filled with a petty soul, a huge waste.

Without looking at the item's name or its description in your inventory, you can tell if an item is enchanted based on its appearance. Enchanted items have colored decorations on them, sometimes resembling a thick spider web. They also make a sound when unsheathed.

The Notched Pickaxe, as well as random items that may be found in the world, can increase smithing ability. If you use these, and also add the enchantment to all that you can and then wear the enchanted items, you can create some very powerful weapons.

In addition to the above, there are potions that will temporarily increase the strength of your enchanting. If you use the potion and already have a high enchanting level and relevent perks, you can place high damage enchantments on high damage weapons.

The higher your level, the more enchanted items you will come across. In addition to that, the items will usually also have better enchantments.

Followers can use enchanted items, including staffs. Weapon enchantment charges will never run out when used by followers.

While enchanting an item, you can rename it. For example, I am currently dual weilding daedric swords, one with a fire damage and absorb health enchantments, and the other with a shock damage and absorb magicka enchantment. The first one looks rather red, while the other looks quite blue. On the other hand, they look identical in my favorites list, so I renamed them. The red one was renamed to “Sword of Fiery Health Absorbing”, and the blue one to “Sword of Electric Magicka Sapping”.

If you have a soul gem with a small soul in it, you can drop the gem, then pick it back up and it will be empty.

Mage robes can be disenchanted. The Arch Mage Robes, however, cannot be disenchanted.

Unique amulets (such as of Talos, of Arkay, etc) cannot be disenchanted.

Some items cannot be disenchanted, such as the Dragonbane and Ring of Hircine.



Well, I think this about covers everything about enchanting and how to use soul gems! Got any questions or comments? Feel free to send me a PM or comment on this article.

The slider image was taken from TonyNinja's Arcane Enchanter re-texture mod, found here.

Like this article? Download it here!
 

ShenziSixaxis

Article Writer
How well do items with the same enchantment enhance the effect? If I have a ring, necklace, and gauntlets of Smithing, each claiming 20% more, what's the net improvement? 60%? Or gauntlets of 40% more bow damage plus a ring with the same yields 80%?


Yup, that's exactly how it works.

Does an Elixir of Enchantment work while creating enchanted items or does it improve the rating of the ones you are equipping?

It increases the strength of the enchantment you're placing on a weapon for the first time.
 

Nakatsu_Hime

Active Member
I really must look into this enchanting malarkey.
Up to now I've been mostly throwing flames at people, and hitting them with swords until they fall down.

Enchantment sounds almost fun.
 

Soar Tueth

Member
I hit 'em with my sword, too. My glass sword is Legendary and enchanted, absorbs 30 points of health from my foe, does 46 damage of fire on top of 110 regular damage. If I wear an enchanted ring to fortify one-handed by 40%, the stats show 142 damage. Hacking is good for my health.
 
Actually it is a glitch. If you read the quest there is two options. One is to go to her and have the white version which will absorb all but black souls, a *pure* version of it. The black star is supposed to be an evil corrupt version that ONLY absorbs black/human souls. If you read the wikies on this item and the quest it will help straighten out your misunderstanding. Black soul gems and the black star are not the same thing.
It's not a glitch. It was purposely programmed like that, because it IS the same thing as a black soul gem just unbreakable. And the Black Star is the UNevil, UNcorrupt version. As Nelancar said, the Daedra are evil. Even though the Black Star seems more evil, the Daedric Artifacts in general are evil, so that doesn't matter.
 

Soar Tueth

Member
No matter your Enchanting skill, there is the same chance of paralysis, and even a paralysis of one second is usually enough to turn the tide of battle, since the enemy still has to stand back up after the effects wear off.

I prefer my foes to not get back up when I hit them.:rolleyes: The ice form shout does a good job of that. I just had 3 falmer attack me. I backed up so they would form a line as they approached. I froze them in a line and hacked them to Sovngard with my glass sword enchanted at 46 fire damage, plus 46 frost damage.
 
I prefer my foes to not get back up when I hit them.:rolleyes: The ice form shout does a good job of that. I just had 3 falmer attack me. I backed up so they would form a line as they approached. I froze them in a line and hacked them to Sovngard with my glass sword enchanted at 46 fire damage, plus 46 frost damage.
The ice Form shout takes a horribly long time to recharge, and doesn't work on stronger opponents without all three words. And why would you NEED to freeze Falmer? Or am I just THAT good that everyone else seems to be horrible at this game?
 

ShenziSixaxis

Article Writer
Falmer can be real asshats if you're at a higher level and getting attacked by Skulkers and Gloomlurkers with honed weapons. It also doesn't help that you can find them in caves that don't allow for lots of movement. At least, that's my experience. I should give a paralyze spell a try when I'm raiding one of their caves.
 

Dmarie

New Member
I really enjoyed this article, except that in Oblivion all of the soul gems were worth different amounts of refill amounts and the magical items indicated how much was needed to fill them. I do not find anything in Skyrim that indicates how low the charge is and therefore what gem is required to fill it. Am I missing something??
 

ShenziSixaxis

Article Writer
image 1
Look at the bottom right hand corner. Above where the stamina bar would be if it were visible is a thin, gray bar. That's the current charge on the weapon you're using. (If it were in the left hand, it would be above the magicka bar.)

image 2
I've ran around and killed some things; see how the gray bar has changed?

image 3
In your inventory, press whatever button is currently set up to be used to Charge weapons and it'll bring up that little box on the right. The blue coloring in the gray bar is how much the currently highlighted soul gem will fill the enchantment charge.
 

01ccook

New Member
This is super useful, thank you! I love creating my own weapons from the bottom up. I collect the materials, craft and enchant but I always found the enchanting process a bit confusing compared to the crafting. One question I still have is about the Azura's Star. Which version do you think is more valuable to a player, long term?
 

Joanner1210

New Member
This is an awesome guide! I really dont have an idea how to enchant properly, Im enchanting my weapons and armor but I really dont know what im doing. Its just say more damage, so i enchant them. and i dont have a clue in the things that i need, now i know what those soul gems are. XD really thanks for this guide! :D
 

Wauten Dayhil

Demon Hunter and Wordplay Extraordinaire
This is super useful, thank you! I love creating my own weapons from the bottom up. I collect the materials, craft and enchant but I always found the enchanting process a bit confusing compared to the crafting. One question I still have is about the Azura's Star. Which version do you think is more valuable to a player, long term?
Black... No... Azura's... It depends, honestly. If you find yourself fighting monsters more than men, take Azura's Star. If you're fighting humans more, such as bandits, then take the Black Star. As far as I know, a Black Soul Gem and a Grand Soul Gem have the same amount of power in them (they both hold something like 5,000 Magicka points), so the Black Star would be more useful in that it only grabs human souls, giving you 5,000 Magickal power for your enchanting. But again, it's up to you.
 

_Eddard_

Member
As I enchant my items, I like to rename them to distinguish an Ordinary Glass Bow from an enchanted one. A simple way to do this is to put the @ sign in front of it. This sorts it to the top for quick access. When I learned double enchanting I named them @@.

I do the same thing, but with a different purpose. I rename my items to separate the different tiers of armor. For example:

Eddards Fighting Boots
Eddards Fighting Gauntlets
Eddards Fighting Clothes
Eddards Smithing Boots
Eddards Smithing Gauntlets
Eddards Smithing Clothes

It makes very easy when I need to change between them.

I really don't know how can somebody play without develop smithing and enchanting. I love both skills and they make my life a lot easier. Also, for the role-play, is cool to think that your Dragonborn is so badass that he creates and improves his own armors and weapons.
 

dblanch

New Member
In my opinion, enchanting never ends up being beneficial until you hit like level 90 or so. Still, it's a worthwhile trade, definitely if you're looking for a quick ways to earn lots of gold and you pair it with the smithing skill.
 

Bluesnow222

New Member
Thanks Alot!

I just recently started playing Skyrim again and enchanting had always been something I wanted to figure out. I think I'm going to bookmark this guide. I appreciate all the effort you put into it!
 

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