Skyrim question

[hockeyrobot]

I love this game....blowing Fallout Out of the water in my opinion. But I wanted to get some advice......what the heck do you guys do with all of your money? I mean I'm only at level 13, but I've found weapons and armor in the wilderness that are better than I can buy at the places I've been to so far. Any suggestions?

[Nights]

I love this game....blowing Fallout Out of the water in my opinion. But I wanted to get some advice......what the heck do you guys do with all of your money? I mean I'm only at level 13, but I've found weapons and armor in the wilderness that are better than I can buy at the places I've been to so far. Any suggestions?

Well, I started out saving cash for my house to buy that and furnish it. I just finished a quest giving me 20k though :/ (Although technically you're supposed to use 19k of it, but I won't :O)

Probably just going to buy another house (probably Solitude) once I get that quest line done. Apart from that, you could always just buy stuff to further your skills (Iron Ingots/Leather for a billion Iron Daggers, etc...)

I'm enjoying the game like crazy so far (Done with the main Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines - gonna finish the main one soon now).

[Cataclysm]

Houses and Training, that's basically all I used it for...

Sometimes buying stuff, but I usually have tons just lying around anyways haha

[mister_mcgoo]

I love this game....blowing Fallout Out of the water in my opinion. But I wanted to get some advice......what the heck do you guys do with all of your money? I mean I'm only at level 13, but I've found weapons and armor in the wilderness that are better than I can buy at the places I've been to so far. Any suggestions?

I love this game too, so I'm happy to help...
you will find that you can easily make more money than you can spend just by accumulating loot and selling it, I always run a big surplus but here are some good ideas:

1)training - there are 3 levels of training (adept, expert and master)...adept is up to 50, expert up to 75, master up to 90. I 'believe' you can train 5 times at each level. Adept level is great bang for the buck (like 300-500 GP) but after that it gets expensive very quickly so take advantage early and level up the skills you want to perfect
2)potions - figure out what your game play style is...at least half the potions you collect you won't use...sneaky characters like poisons, invisibility, marksman, pickpocket, paralysis, etc...mages will enjoy fortify magicka (and the various fortify [magic type] potions], warriors will like stamina potions, block, one/two handed, etc. Everyone needs health potions (cure poison and cure disease are also usually good additions) so save all those but otherwise sell the ones you don't use and buy the ones that you do
3)spell tomes - even if you don't use magic a lot with your character, you should perfect a handful of key spells that benefit your play style...My character is a thief/assassin so I know that style best at the moment so I stocked up on illusion spells (muffle, invisibility, etc) but a mage character should try to learn every spell possible because their offense and defense will rely heavily on their casting ability.
4)smithing - if you are not a mage then smithing is a great skill to learn because it allows you to make armor, weapons as well as upgrade existing armor/weapons. A good way to level this skill up is to go on a hunting trip, kill a bunch of wolves, bears, sabre cats, etc and collect their pelts. Then go to the blacksmith, buy all their leather and leather strips in their inventory. Then go to their forge and make as many leather bracers as you can make with your stock. Every 5-6 you make will bump you up a level in smithing...then sell em all to the blacksmith, you wont make any money but the upgraing of that perk is sweet and will really help your equipment if you are a rogue or warrior.
5)houses - once you get to be level 20-25 or so you probably oughtta buy a house...the one in Whiterun is probably the easiest and its only $5000 + furnishings. The benefit of owning a house is that you can store your heavy valuable stuff for later and you can have an alchemy table in-house (later houses you can get an enchanting table too). So for example, when you kill a dragon, you can harvest scales and bones which are invaluable for making dragon armor...but you need to be a master smith to make dragon armor (which takes awhile) so better to stash it until you need it. I also stash ingots, alchemy ingredients, specific equipment, etc.

[hockeyrobot]

To #4 above. How do upgrade current armor? Anytime I try to it just say (fine) beside the weapon or armor.

Man....so many to learn in this game!!!

[Nights]

To #4 above. How do upgrade current armor? Anytime I try to it just say (fine) beside the weapon or armor.

Man....so many to learn in this game!!!

Click then (if on PC) R to craft. From my understanding, the higher you are in Smithing, the better that upgrade will be (I know I'm at Superior right now... only lvl 34 or something in smithing though).

[hockeyrobot]

Click then (if on PC) R to craft. From my understanding, the higher you are in Smithing, the better that upgrade will be (I know I'm at Superior right now... only lvl 34 or something in smithing though).

I will try it out. Thanks!

Seriously though, aside from the usual NHL VGs, I'm a huge fan of Mass Effect and Portal 2. But this might go down as the funnest game to play.

[mister_mcgoo]

To #4 above. How do upgrade current armor? Anytime I try to it just say (fine) beside the weapon or armor.

Man....so many to learn in this game!!!

OK so, like everything else in the game, the better you get at a skill (i.e. smithing) the better you can use it. That tip I gave you with the leather bracers is a good way to improve that skill because it takes the fewst materials and still improves the skill. You can only do 'fine' improvements on the grindstone/workbench because your skill isnt great...they steadily improve with the skill...the progression is like: exquisite, legendary and epic or something like that. You can also artifically improce smithing by putting on enchanted items that improve the skill or drinking a potion of 'fortify smithing' beforehand which will give you a bonus too. So learning alchemy to make that potion and learning enchanting to enchant items to improve a given skill is a good way to tackle it.

You also need to invest in the smithing tree too if that's the kind of character you want. You need to invest perks in it so that you can work with each of the various materials (dwarven, elven, glass, ebony, dragon, etc). One of the key perks in this tree is 'Arcane Smithing' (requires 60 in smithing) which allows you to improve on already enchanted armor/weapons (which is everything you will find/use in the mid to late game

[hockeyrobot]

Ah thank you again mcgoo. After playing Fallout, where your weapons are constantly damaged after long periods of use, I just assumed that the "fine" was referring to the condition of the weapons or armor in that I didn't need to fix it. Stupid assumption now that I see the real meaning haha

[mister_mcgoo]

Ah thank you again mcgoo. After playing Fallout, where your weapons are constantly damaged after long periods of use, I just assumed that the "fine" was referring to the condition of the weapons or armor in that I didn't need to fix it. Stupid assumption now that I see the real meaning haha

actually its really good that you brought up that aspect of fallout because Skyrim does have a similar feature!

any weapon that is enchanted has a 'charge'...so for example, I have a sword that I have enchanted with 'drain health' (takes health from them, gives it to me! one of the best enchantments IMO ). Everytime I land a hit with it it will use one charge so you need to recharge them periodically. Enchanted weapons can only be recharged with soul gems...to do so, just go into your inventory, select the item and you'll see the option to 'charge' it, then just pick a soul gem to use and it will fill it up. I tend to use the weak gems (petty, common, etc) for my weapons since its easy to acquire them and easy to fill them. If your weapon is out of charges it will tell you with every hit.

[hockeyrobot]

actually its really good that you brought up that aspect of fallout because Skyrim does have a similar feature!

any weapon that is enchanted has a 'charge'...so for example, I have a sword that I have enchanted with 'drain health' (takes health from them, gives it to me! one of the best enchantments IMO ). Everytime I land a hit with it it will use one charge so you need to recharge them periodically. Enchanted weapons can only be recharged with soul gems...to do so, just go into your inventory, select the item and you'll see the option to 'charge' it, then just pick a soul gem to use and it will fill it up. I tend to use the weak gems (petty, common, etc) for my weapons since its easy to acquire them and easy to fill them. If your weapon is out of charges it will tell you with every hit.

You are single handedly redefining my Skyrim experience. This is so much easier than going on some gaming forum where I'll get called a noob 18 times before someone answers.

[mister_mcgoo]

You are single handedly redefining my Skyrim experience. This is so much easier than going on some gaming forum where I'll get called a noob 18 times before someone answers.

hahaha no problem dude, I've played it a lot! (I'm on a 3 day hiatus now because I actually burnt myself out!) I'm level 56 or so I think I have a decent handle on most of the basic mechanics now, but don't feel like a noob because its massively detailed and featured such that it takes quite a bit of time to figure out all the little nuances and how to do what you want with your character (basically everyone is a noob early on, even if they're too cool to admit it

what kind of character are you trying to craft? I might be able to give you some tips on some things if you are building a similar character in some way

[hockeyrobot]

h

what kind of character are you trying to craft? I might be able to give you some tips on some things if you are building a similar character in some way

I dont even know at this point. Not a lot of magic thus far, most sneak, lockpick and fighting skills. Probably not a very good combination, I know....but that's where Im at.

[lockedge]

Honestly, all I've spent my money on so far is training, potions and smithing mats. I've gotten my heavy armor up to 50 and my smithing to 50 by level 18, so that I can legitimately punch enemies to death with the "add armor value to H2H damage" feat. I just killed a mammoth and a dragon with my right hand and my shield.

Punching all my enemies to death has been incredibly rewarding and I recommend it to anyone who thinks it's an awesome idea

[Pengwin7]

...you guys are effin killing me... I'm very close to pushing myself to going out and buying this game.
You guys make this game sound so good.
(I love RPG games)

It's awesome, right?