Soul Gems

Soul Gems
Type	Crafting Material
Used At	Arcane Enchanter
Sizes	Petty to Grand
Mined From	Soul Gem Geodes
Skill	Enchanting

Soul Gems hold the souls of dying creatures and power everything the Enchanting skill does. A filled gem is spent to place an enchantment or to recharge a weapon, and the size of the soul inside decides how much charge a weapon gets. Only a black soul gem or The Black Star will take the soul of a person, and that soul always counts as grand.

Acquisition

A Soul Trap effect on a weapon or cast as a spell binds the soul of anything that dies within the duration. The gem used is always the smallest one that will hold the soul, so carrying a stack of petty gems alongside your grand ones stops good gems being wasted on skeevers.

Empty gems come from merchants, from loot, and from geode veins in Blackreach, which give two to three of any size. Grand and black gems start appearing in geodes at level 16 and reach their full rate at 31.

The Three That Do Not Break

Azura's Star behaves as a grand gem and survives use. The Black Star behaves as a black gem and also survives, which makes it the better reward of the two for most characters since it takes both kinds of soul. Soul Tomato, from Saints and Seducers, is a grand gem that likewise does not break.

Soul gem fragments are minor loot, not gems, and do nothing.

Standard Gems

Capacity is the charge a filled gem gives a weapon.

Gem	Capacity	Empty value	Filled value
Petty Soul Gem	250	10	40
Lesser Soul Gem	500	25	80
Common Soul Gem	1000	50	150
Greater Soul Gem	2000	100	350
Grand Soul Gem	3000	200	500

Reusable Gems

None of these break when used.

Gem	Behaves As	Source
Azura's Star	Grand Soul Gem	The Black Star quest
The Black Star	Black Soul Gem	The Black Star quest
Soul Tomato	Grand Soul Gem	Saints and Seducers
Flawed Varla Stone	Common Soul Gem	Rare Curios

Crafting Materials

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  Ores

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  Ingots

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  Leather

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  Wood

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  Creature Materials

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  Stalhrim