Potions and poisons can be found all over Skyrim. They are crucial for keeping your health and magicka topped up, as well as dealing out damage in a fight. You’ll find vials containing all sorts of alchemical wonders during your travels, but it’s all the more reliable to make your own. Here is our guide on how to get started in alchemy in Skyrim.
skyrim Alchemy guide Step One: We Need a Cauldron
Well, not a cauldron per se, but we need an Alchemy Lab. These glowing tables can be found all over Skyrim. They are hard to miss with their multi-coloured vials and liquids. You’ll find them in apothecary’s shops, as well as the homes of mages and even in some taverns. One of the best ways to have an easy to access Alchemy Lab is to have one in your own home.
There are plenty of homes you can own in Skyrim, we have detailed how to get a few. One of the simplest ways to get one is to become the owner of Goldenhills Plantation. This is the farm that you can own and run, and we have an extensive guide on how to acquire it. However, once you own this place you can use it as a regular home, no need to farm. That said, farming and alchemy do go quite nicely together.
Goldenhills Plantation has an Alchemy Lab in the basement, and that basement is stocked full of alchemical ingredients. Once we have this, we are ready to brew.
Alchemy Step Two: Magical, the Gathering
The key thing to alchemy is ingredients. Skyrim is teeming with things that can be used to create potions and poisons. Mastery comes from learning the flora, where they can be found and what effects they have. Many mushrooms can be found in caves, nirnroot grows along the edge of lakes, many plants only grow in the marshlands near Morthal. It can seem daunting, but learning where to find the ingredients you regularly need isn’t too difficult. Here are some basic recipes to get you started.
Health Potion
Arguably the most important thing to learn how to make, health potions are always good to have more of. The first ingredient you need is a blue Mountain Flower. The Mountain Flower is very common around Skyrim, and develops with various colours. The colouring is important in alchemy, as each colour has a different effect. For this, we want the blue variant. Finding Mountain Flowers is pretty easy, just follow a road out into the countryside and you will see these flowers growing alongside. Grab any blue ones you find.
The next ingredient is the Swamp Fungal Pod. To find these, head to Morthal. To the north of the town, there is a swampy area where many unusual plants grow. Check around the edges of water bodies to find the pods growing. After this, we need wheat. Super easy, just pick a farm and check their crops. To stock up on plenty of wheat, check out the farms in Rorikstead.
Lastly, we need the wings of a Monarch Butterfly. Butterflies are everywhere in Skyrim, but different kinds appear in different places at different times. Check around Whiterun Hold during the daytime to find one. With all these ingredients, return to your Alchemy Lab and combine them to create a healing potion.
Lingering Damage Health Poison
This is your classic video game poison. Anyone afflicted by it will take damage over time. There are lots of poisons that deal instant damage or have other effects like reducing magic damage. Here are the items you’ll need to collect to make the poison.
Firstly, you’ll need Mora Tapinella mushrooms. Check the forests for these mushrooms. Your best bet is to look for any stumps, they tend to grow in those. Head to Riverwood and look around that area for some. You’ll need Imp Stool mushrooms as well, these grow in caves all around Skyrim. The Chillwind Depths cave west of Morthal is a great place to go to harvest all kinds of cave-growing mushrooms, be sure to stock up while you’re there.
Next, you’ll need an Orange Dartwing, a dragonfly most commonly found over lakes. Many potions and poisons call for bugs like these and the various butterflies, which can be tricky to catch. If you level up Speech and unlock the Merchant perk, some apothecary vendors will sell these to you. Combine the above to create a poison for your blades that will damage your enemies over time.
Alchemy Step Three: Get Creative
Every ingredient has an effect. You can mix anything and everything together to find out what combining these effects will create. Head to your Alchemy Lab and start mixing ingredients, see what you come up with! If you want to find some specific recipes, there are plenty of resources online to find exactly what you need. Otherwise, get creative with it!
This is our guide to alchemy in Skyrim, we hope it helped you get started with this branch of crafting. For more Skyrim tips, we have guides on everything from weapons to marriage, from making money to being a thief. Fish are often used in potion-making, so why not check out our guide on fishing! We have so much more so do check out our guides section to learn more.
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Featured Image Credit: Bethesda