The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Flexible character customization and an almost infinite number of quests offer endless replayability. Some of that customization comes from Skyrim’s crafting skills, which allow you to craft, refine, and enchant equipment.
Unlike most games, crafting items in Skyrim is ridiculously powerful and a shortcut to getting the strongest gear possible. Enchantments are a big part of this, giving equipment a magical effect. With an Arcane Enchanter and a filled Soul Gem, you can turn any mundane weapon into a fire-breathing instrument of death. A complete guide to enchanting skills in Skyrim, including tips for leveling up and unique enchantments to look out for, is here.
Updated May 18, 2023 by Charles Burgar: Skyrim’s enchantment system hasn’t seen any changes, but crafting the ultimate weapon can be a tedious and somewhat confusing process. We’ve updated this guide with improved leveling and enchantment tips and reorganized some sections to make it easier to understand so you can craft the strongest weapons and armor possible.
Why Level Enchantments?
Enchanting is a crafting skill in Skyrim that allows you to imbue your weapons, armor, and gems with magical properties such as elemental damage and underwater walking. For the purposes of the Guardian Standing Stone, enchantments are part of the mage skill archetype.
Equipment crafted in Skyrim is far superior to any unique item you can find throughout your adventures, thanks to the sheer strength of enchantments. If the enchantment is rank 100 and all its perks are enabled, You can also craft weapons that deal an extra 100 points of elemental damage, or take almost no elemental damage. Equipment has some magic resistance enchantments. Enchantments are considered by many to be one of Skyrim’s strongest skills, as all builds in Skyrim can benefit from enchanting equipment.
Attractive overview
There are four ways to level up your enchantment skills.
- Enhance non-magical equipment with the Arcane Enchanter.
- Disarm magical equipment with the Arcane Enchanter, destroying items in the process.
- Purchase levels from enchanted trainers.
- Reading certain books will improve your enchantment skills.
Enchanting and disenchanting items are the best sources of enchanting XP. Leveling up this skill requires a large number of unenchanted items, so it’s a good idea to level up your blacksmithing alongside enchantments.
Use Arcane Enchanter
To enchant an item in Skyrim you need 3 things:
- Items without enchantments
- Filled Soul Gem
- Arcane Enchanter
You can enchant almost anything in Skyrim, including weapons, armor, and gems. Items that are already enchanted may not be enchanted, but these items can be unenchanted to unlock additional enchantment traits.
Head to Arcane Enchanter (the name of the enchanting table in Skyrim). The Enchantments menu allows you to select the item you want to enchant, the enchantment you want to apply, and the type of Soul Gem to use to enchant the item. Enchanting an item will cause it to lose the selected Soul Gem. The item cannot be re-enchanted either, so think carefully about what you apply to it.
Disarming items is a similar process. While using the Arcane Enchanter, go to the “disenchant” tab and select the item you wish to dismantle. Unenchanting an item permanently destroys it and unenchants the item for future use. Once a recipe is unlocked, items with the same enchantment cannot be deconstructed again. Daedric Artifacts and similar unique items cannot be disenchanted.
Fascinating skill trees and perks
Skyrim’s enchantment tree consists of: 9 unique perks, most of which have multiple ranks. The table below shows the effect of each perk on each investment point.
Every 10 enchantment ranks increase enchantment strength by 1%.
park name |
skill requirements |
explanation |
---|---|---|
Enchanter |
none |
New enchantments are 20/40/60/80/100% stronger. |
Soul Squeezer |
20 enchanting, enchanter |
Soul Gems provide extra Magicka for recharging. |
fire enchantment |
30 enchanting, enchanter |
Weapon and armor fire enchantments are 25% stronger. |
frost enchanter |
40 enchantment, fire enchantment |
Frost enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. |
Soul Siphon |
40 Enchanting Soul Squeezer |
Breathing death into a creature instead of a human captures 5% of the victim’s soul and recharges the weapon. |
Storm Enchanter |
50 Enchantment, Frost Enchanter |
Weapon and armor storm enchantments are 25% stronger. |
insightful enchanter |
50 enchanting, enchanter |
Armor skill enchantments are enhanced by 25%. |
Corpus Enchanter |
70 enchanting and insightful enchanters |
Armor health, magicka, and stamina enchantments are enhanced by 25%. |
extra effect |
100 Enchanting, Storm Enchanter or Corpus Enchanter |
You can have two enchantments on the same item. |
Fastest way to level up enchantments
We highly recommend leveling up your Enchanting skill alongside your Blacksmithing skill, another crafting profession required to craft the most powerful items in Skyrim. When using his smithing skill to create weapons and armor, those items he takes to the Arcane Enchanter to imbue them with magical properties. Try to use as many souls as possible to maximize experience.
The leveling process looks like this:
- Earn as many XP increasing effects as possible.
- Craft an iron dagger or dwarven bow at the smithing station.
- Run to Arcane Enchanter to enchant all items you create or purchase.
- Bankrupt the town by selling all magic equipment to the town merchant.
- Use your newfound wealth to purchase even more craft supplies.
- Repeat this process until the skill is level 100 or all nearby towns are out of supplies.
Before starting this process Prepare a lot of soul gems.. Soul Gems can be found as loot in dungeons or purchased from the Court Mage in each Hold Capital. There is also an NPC at the College of Winterhold who frequently sells soul gems. Once you have enough Soul Gems, use a weapon with the Soul Trap enchantment to fill them. If you don’t have a weapon with this enchantment, you can easily get Molag Bal’s Mace to soultrap your enemies.
leveling tips
To speed up the process of leveling up, enchant the item with as large a soul as possible. Grand Souls give the most experience, Petty Souls give the least. It doesn’t matter what enchantment you apply to the equipment. Deenchanting equipment uses this same principle, giving additional experience points based on the strength of the enchantment. The stronger the enchantment, the more experience you get when destroying the item.
If you need more XP, The Sorcerer’s Standing Stone near Riverwood increases all Enchantment XP gains by 20%. You can also sleep in an owned bed to gain the Well Rested buff and gain an additional 10% experience bonus for 8 in-game hours. If you’re married and your spouse lives in the same house as you, you’ll be granted the Lover’s Comfort buff instead, giving her 15% more experience for 8 in-game hours.
Anyone who owns the Dawnguard DLC or the Special/Anniversary Edition of Skyrim, Acquire an Ethereal Crown and attune to both the Lover’s and the Mage’s Standing Stones at the same time, Enchant skill experience is increased by 35% while the circlet is equipped. This item can be crafted by completing the “Lost to the Ages” quest.
all fascinating books
If you’re a few levels short of reaching level 100 enchantment, keep an eye out for books that increase enchantment levels. there are 6 in all Things to note:
Book |
position |
Note |
---|---|---|
black tragedy |
Glenmoril Society |
Found on Arcane Enchanter |
Catalog of armor enchantments |
Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon |
N/A |
Catalog of weapon enchantments |
Castle Dool, Solitude |
On the table in the Emperor’s Tower building |
Enchanter Primer |
Carlotta Valencia House, Whiterun |
between bed and end table |
twin secret |
Dwemer Museum in Markarth |
About Calcelmo’s Arcane Enchanter |
Oghma Infinium |
Seventh Sign Outpost |
Acquired by completing the “Discerning the Transmundane” quest. |
all attractive trainers
3 NPCs can improve their enchantment skills for a modest gold fee. He can only level up enchantments this way 5 times per level. Trainers cannot raise enchantment levels beyond their own proficiency.
trainer |
skill level |
position |
Note |
---|---|---|---|
Sergius Turianus |
75 |
College of Winterhold |
lives in the halls of the elements |
porter |
90 |
Dibella Shrine, Markarth |
Appears after clearing Dibella’s Heart. |
Neros |
90 |
Tel Mithrin, Solstheim Island |
none |
How to maximize enchantments
In addition to enchantment perks, the best ways to improve enchantment effectiveness are: Drink a potion with the Fortify Enchanting effect. These potions can be crafted by combining the following ingredients:
- Ancestral Moth Wing
- blue butterfly wings
- Chaurus Hunter Antenna
- hagraven claw
- snowberry
- spawn ash
- spriggan sap
Wear armor with the Fortify Alchemy enchantment to further enhance these potions.
There is also a buff called.magic seeker” Increases enchantment effectiveness by 10%. This buff is obtained from the Black Book of Twilight Regent, available during his main quest in Solstheim.
Notable Unique Enchantments
Some Skyrim enchantments can only be obtained by unlocking unique items. These enchantments are far from the best, but offer benefits that are difficult to replicate. Here are some of them:
enchantment |
explanation |
item location |
---|---|---|
Fiery Soul Trap |
If the target dies within 5 seconds, the soul gem is filled and the target is burned for X points. Burning targets take extra damage. |
Burning Soul Steel Battleaxe (Iron Bind Barrow) |
Huntsman Valor |
X points of extra damage to animals. |
Poacher’s Ax (Holded Stream Camp) |
jagged pickaxe |
Increases the user’s Smithing Ability by 5 and deals X Shock damage to enemies on hit |
Notched Pickaxe (World Throat) |
Silent Moon enchantment |
* While the moon is out, burn the target for X points. |
Lunar Weapon (Silent Moon Camp) |
*Please note that this enchantment is buggy and does not do the bonus damage it should. Install the Unofficial Skyrim Patch mod to fix this issue.
For even more powerful enchantments, check out the best Skyrim enchantments article.