Guide: Skyrim Crafting - How-To, Types, and Recipes

With the amount of exploration, quests, and crafting that is available in Skyrim it feels like an MMO - without the MM part. You can study Alchemy, Enchanting, Smithing, Cooking, Mining, Smelting, Tanning, Wood Chopping, and probably a few I forgot to mention.

Point is that there are a ton of activities - and I love me some activities.

Below you will find an explanation on each craft, along with their respective recipes. No more wasting your time Alchemist! We have the answers here!

Alchemy

Step 1: Foraging for Ingredients
There are three types of ingredients to be found. There are those that are grown, those that are alive, and those that are taken from an enemy’s corpse. When you collect an ingredient they are stored in your “Ingredients” tab in your inventory

Step 2: Learn the effects of your ingredients
Under each of your ingredients you will notice there are four effects. In the beginning these are all listed as “unknown” – it’s your job to figure out what they do. How do you do this? Eat it stupid! Yep, that’s right. Put it in your mouth and see what happens. Sometimes you will have health benefits, other times you will notice your stamina lowers.

If you don’t feel like eating it to figure it out, you can attempt to craft a potion from said ingredient. You need to find an alchemy table and start experimenting. While this isn’t as simple and quick as eating the ingredient, it does yield potion results and won’t harm your body.

Step 3: Crafting Potions
You need to find an Alchemy Lab. These are found in nearly every major city, so find one that you like and get used to using it. If you have a little bit of money, you should simply buy your own house. This gives you access to your own Alchemy Lab!

Once at the Alchemy Lab, select two different ingredients and mix them. If you are one of those crazy, rebel types, you can even mix more than two ingredients at once. Crazy, right?!  Your result will be shown immediately, leaving with you with a multitude of different recipes. Sometimes they work out great, sometimes they don’t. That’s the beauty of Alchemy – it’s all one big experiment.

As you increase your Alchemy skill, your potions will last longer and be stronger. A normal health potion may give you +100 due to your skill level. Or a stamina potion may last +60 seconds because of it.

Novice Recipes
Health Potions
Potion Effect	1st Ingredient	2nd Ingredient
Restore Health	Blue Mountain Flower	Butterfly Wing
Fortify Health	Giant’s Toe	Hanging Moss
Resistance Potions
Resist Fire	Fly Amanita	Snowberries
Resist Frost	Snowberries	Thistle Branch
Resist Shock	Glowdust	Snowberries
Stamina Potions
Restore Stamina	Pine Thrush Egg	Purple Mountain Flower
Fortify Stamina	Garlic	Lavender
Regenerate Stanima	Bee	Mora Tapinella
Utility Potions
Invisibility	Chaurus Eggs	Nirnroot
Waterbreathing	Chicken’s Egg	Nordic Barnacle
Magicka Potions
Restore Magicka	Creep Cluster	Red Mountain Flower
Fortify Magicka	Red Mountain Flower	Tundra Cotton
Regenerate Magicka	Garlic	Salt Pile
Poisons
Damage health (Weak)	Falmer Ear	Imp Stool
Damage health (Strong)	Falmer Ear	River Betty
Damage Magicka	Butterfly Wing	Hanging Moss
Paralysis	Canis Root	Imp Stool

The list below is not complete. It's everything I have found so far (as of 11/13/2011). Please, if you have found any other effects or ingredients, let us know in the comments section below. You can also email me at anthonyaccinelli@strengthgamer.com. Thanks!

Name of Effect	Ingriedients that Yield Said Effect
Fortify Two-handed	Troll Fat, Fly Amanita, Dragon’s Tongue
Fortify Smithing	Glowing Mushroom, Sabre Cat Tooth, Spriggan Sap
Fortify Sneak	Powdered Mammoth Tusk, Frost Mirriam, Hawk Feathers, Human Flesh, Purple Mountain Flower, Abecean Longfin, Beehive Husk
Fortify Conjuration	Lavender, Blue Mountain Flower, Bone Meal, Frost Salts, Blue Butterfly Wing, Hagraven Feathers
Fortify Health	Hanging Moss, Wheat, Blue Mountain Flower, Giant’s Toe, Glowing Mushroom, Bear Claws
Fortify Heavy Armor	White Cap, thistle Branch, Ice Wraith Teeth, Sabre Cat Tooth, Slaughterfish Scales
Fortify Illusion	Dragon’s Tongue, Dwarven Oil, Mora Tapinella, Scaly Pholiota, Taproot
Fortify Carry Weight	Giant’s Toe, Creep Cluster, Hawk Beak, River Betty, Scaly Pholiota, Wisp Wrappings
Invisibility	Vampire Dust, Crimson Nirnroot, Ice Wraith Teeth, Chaurus Eggs, Luna Moth Wing, Nirnroot
Damage Health	Troll Fat, Void Salts, Small Antlers, Slaughterfish Scales, Crimson Nirnroot, Deathbell, Ectoplasm, Skeever Tail, Slaughterfish Egg, River Betty, Red Mountain Flower, Jarrin Root, Mora Tapinella, Nightshade, nirnroot, Human Heart, Imp Stool, Orange Dartwing
Resist Fire	Dragon’s Tongue, Elves Ear, Mudcrab Chitin, Snowberries, Bone Meal, Fly Amanita
Restore Health	Wheat, Swamp Fungal Pod, Blue Dartwing, Blisterwort, Rock Warbler Egg, Daedra heart, Eye of Sabre Cat, Butterfly Wing, Imp Stoll, Charred Skeever Hide
Cure Disease	Hawk Feathers, Mudcrab Chitin, Vampire Dust
Damage Magicka	Chicken’s Egg, Daedra heart, Swamp Fungal Pod, Torchbug Thorax, Wheat, Namira’s Rot, Nightshade, Glow Dust
Damage Magicka Regen	Bear Claws, Spriggan Sap, Human Heart, Jarrin Root, Spider Egg
Damage Stamina	Blisterwort, Creep Cluster, Nirnroot, Rock Warbler Egg, Silverside Perch Skeepver Tail, Jarrin Root
Damage Stamina Regen	Large Antlers, Silverside Perch, Wheat, Histcarp, Juniper Berries
Fear	Powdered mammoth Tusk, Daedra heart, Cyrodilic Spadetail
Fortify Barter	Butterfly Wing, Dragon’s Tongue, Tundra cotton
Fortify Alteration	Spriggan Sap, Grass Pod
Lingering Damage Magicka	Wheat, Torchbug Thorax, Hagraven Claw, Swamp Fungal Pod
Fortify Marksman	Canis Root
Fortify Block	Tundra Cotton, Briar heart, Honeycomb
Fortify Barter	Butterfly Wing, Hagraven Claw
Lingering Damage Health	Slaughterfish Scales, Slaughterfish Egg
Weakness to Shock	Bee, Void Salts
Weakness to Fire	Bleeding Crown, Powdered Mammoth Tusk, Ice Wraith Teeth
Weakness to Magic	Creep Cluster, Dwarven Oil, Torchbug Thorax
Weakness to Frost	Abecean Longfin, Fire Salts, Ice Wraith Teeth
Weakness to Poison	Pine thrush Egg, Sabre Cat Tooth, Small Antlers
Regenerate Health	Garlic, Vampire Dust
Regenerate Magicka	White Cap, Orange Dartwing
Regenerate Stamina	Bee, Thistle Branch
Slow	Large Antlers, River Betty, Deathbell, Salt Pile
Waterbreathing	Chicken’s Egg, Nordic Barnacle, Histcarp
Restore Stamina	Silverside Perch
Restore Magicka	Giant Lichen, Dwarven Oil, Ectoplasm
Resist Frost	Small Pearl, Frost Mirriam, Slaughterfish Scales
Resist Poison	Beehive Husk, Thistle Branch, Troll Fat, Falmer Ear, Grass Pod
Resist Magic	Bleeding Crown, Void Salts, Hagraven Claw, Lavender, Chicken’s Egg
Resist Shock	Snowberries, Glow Dust, Swamp Fungal Pod, Blue Dartwing
Ravage Stamina	Bone Meal, Honeycomb, Bee
Ravage Magicka	White cap, Lavender, Frost Mirriam, Orange Dartwing
Ravage Health	Skeever Tail, Giant Lichen, Cyrodilic Spadetail, Silverside Perch
Paralysis	Canis Root, Imp Stool, Briar Heart
Lingering Damage Stamina	Chicken’s Egg, Nightshade

The list above is not complete. It's everything I have found so far (as of 11/13/2011). Please, if you have found any other effects or ingredients, let us know in the comments section below. You can also email me at anthonyaccinelli@strengthgamer.com. Thanks!

Enchanting

Enchanting involves placing magical enchantments on an item. These enchantments are powered with soul energy. Problem is, this soul energy is taken at the expense of other items. It’s up to you to decide if you are willing to break down these items in hopes of making something stronger.

Step 1: Disenchant an Item
In order to enchant an item you’re going to need to disenchant one first. This will destroy the original item and teach you the base enchantment of it. For example, if you have a weapon with with fortify health ability, and you disenchant it, you will learn the base enchantment of “Fortify Health”. Make sense? Good – because it’s important.

Step 2: Find some Soul Gems
You are going to need to find and use soul gems if you want to enchant an item. You can find them throughout the world, buy them from merchants (which is expensive so not recommended), or steal them – my favorite way.

Great places to find soul gems are Warlock Dens, Nordic Ruins, and Dwarven Cities. I have found a ton of them from Court Wizards and College Mages as well.

NOTE: thanks to reader “youknowthatsright” for pointing out that the College of Winterhold has a ton of soul gems just laying around for the taking.

Step 3: Fill Soul Gems with… Souls
You’re going to need one of two things to capture the soul of an enemy. One of them is the “Soul Trap Spell”. If you cast this on a creature and kill it before the spell wears off you will catch it’s soul. You can purchase this spell in Whiterun, from the Court Wizard Farengar.

You can also use a “Soul Trap Enchantment” that you find on some weapons. Simply kill an enemy with such a weapon and the soul will automatically fill a soul gem.

Keep in mind that only creatures will fill soul gems, not humans.

Step 4: Find an Unenchanted Item
You’re going to need something unenchanted if you’re going to enchant it. That’s just common knowledge. So you’re either going to have to buy them from a merchant, or find them while exploring. Oh, there’s also that whole Smithing thing, which we will get to later. But seriously, Smithing is going to be the most profitable way to go about this whole enchanting thing.

Step 5: Enchant a Weapon
You’re going to need to find an Arcane Enchanter now that you have completed the four previous steps. You have completed them… right? Once here, select the weapon/armor you want to enchant and the soul gem you wish to use. It’s important to choose the correct soul gem for your purpose. The stronger the soul gem, the stronger the effect the enchant will have. Choose wisely young grasshopper.

Every enchanted weapon is going to carry a “charge”. This is the amount of times the weapon can be used before the enchant wears off. After this, it is simply a normal weapon – unless you were to enchant it again with another soul gem.

A simple equation to this is as follows: Charge Capacity/Enchantment Cost = Charges.

Your charge capacity is determined by the soul gem that you used during the enchantment process. Once again, the soul gem strength is a direct result of the strength of the soul you used, which is determined by the level of the creature that you stole the soul from.

One of the greatest aspects of Enchanting is that the stats will stack. So a light armor increase of +20% on both your cuirass and your greaves will equate to +40% total. Shwing!

Smithing *coming soon*

Cooking *coming soon*

Mining *coming soon*

Smelting *coming soon*

Tanning *coming soon*

Wood Chopping *coming soon*



COMPLETE LOCATIONS MAP
WORDS OF POWER (SHOUT) LOCATIONS MAP
CRAFTING GUIDE
UNIQUE WEAPONS DETAILED LOCATIONS
UNIQUE ARMOR AND ITEMS DETAILED LOCATIONS
TRADERS LOCATIONS
COMPLETE RACE BREAKDOWN
MARRIAGE 'HOW-TO' AND LIST OF POSSIBLE SPOUSES
SIDE QUEST AND TREASURE MAP WALKTHROUGH (SPOILERS - BEWARE)