Cash is king, even in Skyrim. There are plenty of roads to success as the Dragonborn, hard work and determination will get you far. What it won’t get you, is rich. If you want to rake in the gold in Skyrim, you’re going to have to seek it out. There are so many streams of income in Skyrim to choose from, will you be the honest merchant or profit from your ill-gotten gains? Here’s our guide on how to make money quickly in Skyrim.
Skyrim money guide step one: get the blessing and the bling
The first thing you want to do is get yourself to Riften. Leave the city, pass by the stables and follow the road between the guard towers. As the road reaches the bottom of the hill and opens into a wide area, you will see a large fort ahead. Look to your right, you will see some ruins just up a small hill. Head up there, deal with the giant spider and survey what you have found. This is a shrine to Zenithar.
On the table there will be some gold, don’t say no to that. More importantly will be two things, an Amulet of Zenithar and the shrine itself. Wearing the amulet grants a mercantile bonus of ten per cent better prices, whether you are buying or selling. Activating the shrine grants a similar bonus, so now you have a twenty per cent boost. The shrine’s blessing only lasts for eight hours, so be sure to return regularly and before you plan on making any big sales. Let Zenithar be your guide to making money in Skyrim, he won’t steer you wrong.
step two: crypt(o) mining
Now that you have the means to boost the value of the items you sell, let’s discuss what to sell. Selling treasures and unwanted gear will always be a decent source of income, but we want something more specific, more focused on making money. For this, we want the Transmute spell. This is an adept level spell, so it will require an Alteration skill of at least forty.
To get your hands on this spell, head to Whiterun. Directly north of the city gate, there is a bandit camp. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you find the Halted Stream Camp. It’s an old mine that these bandits have taken over as their hideout. It would be a good idea to clear the camp, deal with the bandits and give yourself the breathing room to grab what you need.
At the back of the camp is a door leading to the interior of the hideout. Inside is another guard, kill him and take his key. While you’re here, you might want to grab one of the nearby pickaxes and mine yourself some iron ore from the floor, that will be important later. The key unlocks the door to the next area, so use it and follow the corridor. In the next room, you’ll find the bandit leader with two of his goons. Deal with them, and loot the room. There’s plenty of goodies to grab here, but we have a particular book in mind.
In the back left of the room from where you came in, there is a table. On the right side of this table is a stack of books, and nestled inauspiciously among them is the spell tome Transmute Mineral Ore. Grab the book and read it to learn the spell, easy peasy.
step three: profit
As said before, using the spell will require a decent level of alteration magic, but the results are worth it. What this spell does is transmute iron ore to silver ore, and silver ore to gold. Yes folks, this is the philosopher’s stone of Skyrim. Law of equivalent exchange be damned.
Using these tools we have given you, you can take simple iron ore, turn it into gold, and sell it for a twenty per cent mark up. If you did this in real life, you would become the next obnoxious billionaire overnight. So work on your alteration magic and try to bump up your speech skill for some better bartering, and you will be the richest Dragonborn that Skyrim has ever seen.
That’s our money guide for getting the gold flowing in Skyrim, we hope it helps! We have plenty of other guides for Skyrim available as well, like how to get married, how to start fishing, and how to get your hands on some powerful weapons early! You can also check out our guides to the best warrior, mage and thief builds.
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Featured Image Credit: Bethesda