Skyrim - Skills

Skills are the eighteen disciplines a character improves through use in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Every skill levels by doing rather than by spending points, so a character who never draws a bow will never raise Archery no matter how high their overall level climbs. Most skills start at 15, with each race granting a bonus to a handful of them.

The eighteen are split across three specialisations. Magic skills are governed by the Mage Stone, Combat skills by the Warrior Stone and Stealth skills by the Thief Stone, and standing at one of those stones raises the rate at which its skills improve.

Perks are what turn a skill level into an actual ability. There are 180 distinct perks across the game, 251 counting every rank of the ones that have several, and each character level grants a single perk point. Reaching Smithing 90 on its own does nothing; the Daedric Smithing perk is what lets you forge the set. Points cannot be undone in the base game, so the order you spend them in matters. Patch 1.9 added Legendary skills, which reset a skill at 100 back to 15 and refund every point spent in it.

The three crafting skills interact more than any others. Alchemy potions strengthen Enchanting, enchanted apparel strengthens Smithing, and better Smithing feeds equipment back into combat, which is the loop behind most high level character builds.

All Skills