Today we’re going to run through some essential tips to help you get started in Skyrim as a brand new player (assuming such people still exist). First, we’ll cover the different versions and DLC so you know what you’re actually playing. Then we’ll move into character build tips—race choice, skills, and perks, along with some early-game decisions that can give you a strong start.
After that, we’ll broaden things out with tips that will help throughout your entire playthrough, including easy ways to make gold, how to take advantage of crafting, and more.
1. game versions
Let’s start with which version of Skyrim you should actually play, because it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. The original version released in 2011 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, but unless you’re limited to those platforms, it’s not worth it. Skyrim Special Edition released in 2016 and massively improved the graphics while including all DLC by default, making the original version largely obsolete.
Special Edition is available on PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X, and even the Nintendo Switch. There’s also Skyrim VR, which is more of a niche experience—I personally didn’t last long with it, but if you’re into VR it might be worth trying. Finally, there’s the Anniversary Edition, which builds on Special Edition by adding a large bundle of community-created mods. Some are excellent and add new content, but they do change the core experience slightly. If you want the pure version, go with Special Edition; if you like the idea of curated mods included, Anniversary Edition is a solid option.
2. understanding DLC
Skyrim has three main DLCs, and they’re all worth playing. Dawnguard is one of the strongest storylines, centred around the conflict between the vampire hunters of the Dawnguard and the vampires of House Volkihar. It also adds major features like becoming a Vampire Lord and using crossbows.
Dragonborn introduces a new zone – the island of Solstheim – along with another great storyline, new areas to explore, and even the ability to ride dragons. Hearthfire is a DLC of a different nature, focusing on player housing rather than story, letting you buy land, build homes, farm, hire staff, and adopt children.
If you buy Special Edition all three DLCs are included by default, so you won’t need to worry about picking them up separately.
3. Picking the right Race
Ok let’s get into the game itself, starting with your race choice. It’s one of the very first decisions you make, and while it won’t make or break your playthrough, it does matter (especially on higher difficulties). The right race gives you a strong early boost through skill bonuses, as well as useful passive abilities and racial powers that support your build long term.
For example, if you’re going for a mage, High Elf is a great choice. Their racial ability massively boosts magicka regeneration for 60 seconds once per day, letting you overwhelm enemies with spells, and they also start with +50 magicka and bonuses to multiple magic skills. On the other hand, something like an Orc offers very little for a mage build but is incredibly strong for warriors. So it’s absolutely worth looking in detail at each race and picking something that complements what you actually want to play.
4. How Levelling and Skills Work
Skyrim doesn’t use a traditional class system. Instead, it’s completely classless – any character can level any skill just by using it. There are 18 skill trees split across warrior, mage, and thief styles, and using a skill improves it. Swing a sword to level one-handed, cast spells to level destruction, and so on.
As your skills level up, they contribute to your overall character level. Each time you level, you can increase health, stamina, or magicka, and you gain a perk point to spend in a skill tree. These perks unlock passive or active bonuses that improve your effectiveness, giving you a lot of flexibility in how you build your character.
5. Don’t Waste Your Perks
Perk points are easy to get early on, but they become much harder to earn later. As your skills increase, they take longer to level, which slows down your overall progression and reduces how often you gain new perk points.
That means wasting perks early can hurt your build long term. If you spread them too thin or invest in the wrong areas, it takes a lot more time to recover later, so it’s worth being deliberate with how you spend them from the start.
6. Have a Playstyle in Mind
This leads into the next tip – have a playstyle in mind when you start a new character. Skyrim gives you a lot of flexibility, but there’s a clear advantage to matching your race with the skills you want to focus on and spending your perk points with some intention. It also helps you avoid having to grind out extra levels later to fix a messy build.
It can also be frustrating using underlevelled skills against stronger enemies, so it’s generally more enjoyable to level the skills you actually plan to use as you go. You don’t need everything mapped out, and you can always change direction, but it’s worth giving your playstyle a bit of thought early on to save yourself some pain later.
7. Don’t Miss the Standing Stones Blessing
Another easy one to miss early on is picking up a standing stone blessing after leaving the tutorial. You’ll come across the Warrior, Mage, and Thief stones near Helgen, and each one boosts the rate you level certain skills by 20%.
You can switch between them at any time, which is useful if you change focus. Alternatively, the Lover Stone, found northeast of Markarth, boosts all skills by 15%. It’s slightly less efficient for specific builds, but far more convenient if you don’t want to keep switching for a small gain.
8. Save Frequently
Moving on to general tips, the first one is simple: save often. Skyrim’s autosave isn’t reliable, as it mainly triggers when entering new areas.
If you’re exploring the open world, you can go hours without an autosave, which means dying can wipe out a huge amount of progress. Saving regularly avoids that frustration (and potentially stops you putting your keyboard through your monitor!).
9. Explore Everything
Speaking of the open world, explore everything – and I really do mean everything. Skyrim is huge and incredibly interactive. You never know when you’ll stumble across a quest, a useful item, a new system, or a piece of the game’s lore, and you won’t find any of that if you stick to a straight path.
That’s how Elder Scrolls games are designed. You’re not meant to follow a linear route, you’re meant to create your own adventure. Delve into dungeons, explore caves, talk to NPCs, read books, loot what you find—just interact with the world. Going off the beaten track is encouraged and rewarded, so let your curiosity take over.
10. Don’t Overuse Fast Travel
Alongside that, don’t rely too heavily on fast travel, especially when moving through areas you haven’t explored yet. If you constantly teleport between locations, you’ll skip a huge amount of content without even realising it.
A lot of what makes Skyrim special happens between destinations, not just at them. Travelling on foot gives you a chance to discover things naturally, which is where the game really shines.
11. Get a Horse
That said, you don’t have to walk everywhere – you can get a horse. It’s a good middle ground, letting you travel faster without completely skipping everything like fast travel does.
Horses are also useful for escaping fights you’re not ready for, and you can use ranged attacks while riding, which is a nice bonus. The easiest way to get one is to buy it from the Whiterun stables.
12. Don’t Overly Mod Your First Playthrough
In a similar vein, try not to go overboard with mods on your first playthrough. It might be a bit controversial, but it’s worth experiencing Skyrim as it was designed at least once.
Mods can be great, but they can also change the game so much that it feels completely different. If you do use them early on, it’s probably better to stick to things like bug fixes or visual improvements rather than anything that overhauls the story or core systems.
13. Start the Main Story Quest
Despite saying you don’t need to follow a set path, there are some questlines worth progressing early because of what they unlock. The main one is the main story itself. I’d suggest advancing it at least until dragons start spawning, which happens after you kill the first dragon near Whiterun.
This is important because it unlocks dragon shouts. You can find new shouts at word walls across Skyrim, but you need dragon souls to activate them—and you only get those by killing dragons. No dragons means no souls, and no souls means no shouts. The downside is that random dragon attacks can get a bit tedious, so it’s up to you how much you value having them available.
14. Join the Dark Brotherhood
Another questline worth starting early is the Dark Brotherhood. It offers some strong rewards, especially for thief-style builds, including powerful gear like the Ancient Shrouded Armor, one of the better horses in the game, and a huge 20,000 gold payout at the end.
To start it, you’ll need to complete the “Innocence Lost” quest by speaking to Aventus Aretino in Windhelm. After finishing it, go to sleep to trigger the next stage of the questline. It’s a strong early investment that pays off quickly.
15. Join the Thieves Guild
It’s also worth joining the Thieves Guild early. Like the Dark Brotherhood, it offers solid gear and rewards, along with access to trainers and other benefits.
Most importantly, it gives you access to fences who will buy stolen goods, which is a great way to make easy gold. To join, head to the Riften marketplace during the day, speak to Brynjolf, and complete his task to begin the questline.
16. Join the College of Winterhold
Despite being my least favourite guild due to its fairly lacklustre questline, the College of Winterhold is still worth joining early if you’re playing a mage. The main benefit is access to spell vendors and expert trainers, which makes progressing your magic skills much easier.
You also get some solid rewards, including the Archmage’s Robes, which boost multiple magic skills. To join, just head to Winterhold and speak to the NPC guarding the bridge to start the questline.
17. Use Enchanting
It’s not just weapons, armour, and spells that improve your combat ability – non-combat skills can make a huge difference too. Enchanting, in particular, lets you apply powerful effects to your gear, like increased weapon damage, reduced spell costs, or improved resistances.
It’s a deep system, so not something to fully break down here, but it’s definitely worth using. It can significantly boost your overall effectiveness once you start taking advantage of it.
18. Use Alchemy
Alchemy is another strong support skill, letting you craft potions to restore health, magicka, and stamina, or boost skills like Sneak, Lockpicking, and Speech.
You can also create poisons to weaken enemies, deal damage over time, or reduce their resistances. It’s an easy way to give yourself an edge in tougher fights without relying purely on your main build.
19. Use Smithing
The final major non-combat skill is smithing, which lets you upgrade and create powerful weapons and armour. This is key for maximising both your damage and survivability.
As you progress, you can craft high-tier gear like Daedric and Dragonbone equipment, and when combined with enchanting, it becomes extremely powerful.
20. Jewellery for gold making
Crafting isn’t just for gear, it’s one of the best ways to make gold. A great example is using transmutation to turn iron ore into silver and gold, then crafting that into high-value jewellery with smithing.
To get started, you’ll need the Transmute spell from Halted Stream Camp. Head inside, clear out the bandits, grab the key, and loot the spell tome. Once you’ve got it, you can convert iron ore into gold and turn it into jewellery for an easy profit.
21. Enchanting for gold making
Enchanting is another easy way to boost your income. Simply take items (like the jewellery you’ve just crafted) and add an enchantment to massively increase their value before selling them.
Some enchantments are worth far more than others, so it’s worth looking into which ones give the best returns, but even basic enchants can significantly increase your profits.
22. Alchemy for gold making
Alchemy is also a very reliable gold-making method. The basic idea is simple; pick up every ingredient you find, turn them into potions, and sell them.
Some potions are worth far more than others, so it’s worth learning which combinations are most valuable, but even without that knowledge, you can make steady gold just by crafting and selling regularly.
23. Stealing and selling
Of course, there’s the less honest approach – stealing. You can take items and sell them to fences, which is a quick way to make money if you don’t mind a bit of crime.
You can also get around the “stolen” tag by using stolen materials to craft new items. Once crafted, those items are no longer marked as stolen, effectively letting you fence them without needing a fence.
24. Weight:value ratio
When looting or stealing, always think about weight-to-value ratio. It makes no sense to carry heavy, low-value items when better options are available.
Focus on things like jewellery, gems, expensive potions, and light enchanted gear. Basically, items that give you high value without filling your inventory too quickly.
25. Use Followers as mules
If you’re carrying more than you can handle, bring a follower along to take some of the load. It’s an easy way to massively increase your carrying capacity.
Just be careful, as if your follower dies while holding valuable loot and your inventory is already full, getting everything back to sell can become a real headache.
26. Get a player house
A better long-term solution is to buy a player house and use it to store your items. That way, you can regularly offload both your inventory and your follower’s without losing anything.
The cheapest house is in Whiterun, available for 5000 gold from the Whiterun Steward after completing the “Dragon Rising” quest. It’s a great early investment and saves you from having to dump valuable items.
27. Level scaling is inconsistent
Skyrim does use level scaling, but it’s not applied to everything. Some enemies, such as giants and mammoths, don’t scale the same way and can destroy you early on.
So don’t assume every enemy will match your level. Some encounters are just far more dangerous, and it’s worth approaching them with caution.
28. Use favourites
The favourites menu makes switching gear much faster. Instead of digging through your inventory, you can assign items and access them quickly when needed.
On PC, you can open this menu with the Q key, making it much easier to swap weapons, spells, or items mid-combat.
29. Weapon charges
Speaking of weapons. It’s worth knowing that enchanted weapons have a limited number of charges and require you to use soul gems to recharge them. You can do this by selecting the weapon in your inventory and pressing the recharge button. This will permanently consume the soul gem in the process.
30. Vampirism
Another cool little feature of Skyrim that could easily be missed is that you can actually become a vampire, or even a vampire lord if you have the Dawnguard DLC. Vampirism actually comes with quite a few disadvantages, so it’s definitely worth looking into it before making the leap. However, vampire lords in particular are especially powerful so you may consider it worthwhile.
31. Lycanthropy
Alternatively, you can become a werewolf by progressing through the Companions questline in Whiterun. This unlocks a new skill tree and a range of unique abilities.
Like vampirism, it’s a powerful option, but one that’s worth looking into before diving in.
32. Crime and punishment
Another thing worth knowing if you are totally new to Elder Scrolls games is that Skyrim features a law system. And if you are caught breaking the law your will be caught, fined and sent to prison by the guards, and if you resist arrest they will kill you!
33. Leave the chickens alone
Which leads me to my final, and probably most important point in this entire article (and obligatory in any Skyrim beginners guide at this point). Leave the chickens alone. Nothing will anger the townsfolk more than an unprovoked assault on their beloved chickens. If you are reckless enough to perpetrate this most heinous of crimes you will be promptly hacked to pieces by the guards… don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Anyway, that should put you in a pretty good place to get started with Skyrim. Clearly you can find a shed load more detail on this website and my YouTube channel (linked at the top and bottom of the page) when it comes to Skyrim guides, so check those out if you’re interested.
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