Skyrim Enchanting offers you a very effective way to empower your equipment. Weapons, armor, and accessories can be imbued with empowering enchantments to help you survive and thrive. In this guide we’ll go over getting into Enchanting in Skyrim and how to make the most of it.
The Basics of Enchanting in Skyrim
To learn an enchantment in Skyrim, you’ll need to obtain any magical item that has that particular enchantment already. Then, head to an Arcane Enchanter table to see the disenchant tab.
Selecting an item will destroy it, but you’ll permanently learn that effect.
Please note that certain gear, such as quest items or Daedric Artifacts, cannot be disenchanted at all.
In most cases, the gear pieces that you can enchant shouldn’t have a particular magical perk, to begin with. You should then see these listed in the succeeding tabs. Combine a base item, enchantment, and Soul Gem (more on this in a while) to create a magical item.
- Weapons – Magical enchantments on weapons require charges, meaning Soul Gems need to be refilled.
- Armors and accessories – Conversely, magical enchantments on armors or accessories are often active. Higher levels of Soul Gems simply empower the effect further.
Soul Gems and Soul Trap
To complete the process, you’ll also need a Soul Gem with a trapped soul. Soul Gems can be found as loot or out in the wild, or purchased from vendors. They come in various types:
- Petty Soul Gem
- Lesser Soul Gem
- Common Soul Gem
- Greater Soul Gem
- Grand Soul Gem
- Black Soul Gem
- Azura’s Star or The Black Star
The type of Soul Gem indicates which kinds of souls it can hold. The act itself involves casting the Soul Trap spell (Conjuration school) on an enemy and killing it while the effect is active. Alternatively, you can kill a target while wielding a weapon with the Soul Trap enchantment.
The defeated opponent’s soul will be transferred into a Soul Gem in your inventory. If you don’t have one, or the enemy’s type exceeds that of the gem, then the soul is lost.
Smaller or weaker creatures will usually require Petty to Common Soul Gems. However, stronger foes require Greater or Grand Soul Gems. There are special types such as:
- Black Soul Gems (can hold the souls of humanoid NPCs)
- The Black Star (a unique item that acts similar to a Black Soul Gem, but it’s not destroyed after it’s completely used)
- Azura’s Star (cannot be destroyed and can hold any type of soul except humanoid NPC races)
Enchanting perks
Below, you’ll see the Enchanting perks that you can learn in Skyrim. Likewise, we encourage you to try the Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim mod made by Enai Siaion. It adds more perks to various skills, making the leveling process more engaging.
- Enchanter (has five ranks with increasing requirements starting at Enchanting 0) – New enchantments are stronger.
- Soul Squeezer (requires Enchanting 20 and Enchanter) – Soul Gems provide extra magicka for recharging.
- Fire Enchanter (requires Enchanting 30 and Enchanter) – Fire enchantments on weapons and armors are 25% stronger.
- Soul Siphon (requires Enchanting 40 and Soul Squeezer) – Deathblows to creatures (not people) trap 5% of the victim’s soul to recharge your weapon.
- Frost Enchanter (requires Enchanting 40 and Fire Enchanter) – Frost enchantments on weapons and armors are 25% stronger.
- Storm Enchanter (requires Enchanting 50 and Frost Enchanter) – Shock enchantments on weapons and armors are 25% stronger.
- Insightful Enchanter (requires Enchanting 50 and Frost Enchanter) – Skill enchantments on armors are 25% stronger.
- Corpus Enchanter (requires Enchanting 70 and Insightful Enchanter) – Health, magicka, and stamina enchantments on armors are 25% stronger.
- Extra Effect (requires Enchanting 100 and either Storm Enchanter or Corpus Enchanter) – Allows you to put two enchantments on the same item.
Skyrim Enchanting Books and Trainers
To level up Enchanting in Skyrim, you’ll want to continue disenchanting and/or giving magical enchantments to your weapons or armors. Recharging Soul Gems also confers XP, which is why it’s more advisable to use the Azura’s Star or The Black Star since they can’t be destroyed once all charges have been used up.
Moreover, you can gain a one-time increase to your Enchanting skill by reading these books:
- Catalog of Armor Enchantments
- Catalog of Weapon Enchantments
- Enchanter’s Primer
- A Tragedy in Black
- Twin Secrets
- Oghma Infinium
Lastly, you may visit various trainers:
- Sergius Turrianus (Expert) – College of Winterhold.
- Hamal (Master) – Markarth (Temple of Dibella).
- Neloth (Master) – Soltsheim (Tel Mithryn).
That’s it for our Skyrim Enchanting guide. If you it helpful, check out some of our other Skyrim guides here on GameSkinny.
Related Guides
- Skyrim Illusion Magic Guide
- Skyrim Ill Met by Moonlight Guide
- Skyrim Potion and Poison Recipes
- How to Build and Buy Houses in Skyrim
- How to Find Invisible Chests in Skyrim
- Skyrim Enchanting Guide
