Achievement Breakdown: (50)
Story Related: (9)
Secondary Objectives: (18)
Character: (6)
Collectibles: (9)
Slay: (1)
Miscellaneous: (7)

DLC Breakdown – Hearthfire: (5)
Secondary Objectives: (5)

DLC Breakdown – Dawnguard: (10)
Story Related: (3)
Secondary Objective: (1)
Character: (2)
Collectibles: (1)
Slay: (1)
Miscellaneous: (2)

The DLC Breakdown for the Dragonborn DLC is included in the Sequence it is covered in.*

We can earn all Achievements in the game through one full playthrough of Skyrim. It is important to note that there are not really any Missable Achievements in this game & because of that, do not let me railroad you into playing MY playthrough of Skyrim. I will do my best to not make things too linear, & guide you to all the required Items & Quests needed for our 100%. There is so much to explore & discover in this game, & my guide will not cover it.

The most important items in the game are Alchemy Ingredients, Enchanting Soul Gems, & Smithing Materials. By making Weapons, Armor, & Potions we will be netting the bulk of our Gold as well as Leveling us up. Hoard all of these Materials & store them in your Homes for later. For the Hearthfire DLC we will need LOTS of Materials for fully constructing three Houses. As well, we need to reach a minimum of Level 78 to spawn a Legendary Dragon to kill for the Legend Achievement; farming Alchemy, Enchanting, & Smithing, resetting & re-Leveling them is a great way to boost our Character Level. I will get into more details about this at the end of the guide. But even if you are loaded with money & materials & don’t think you’ll need more for Leveling… you will need more, trust me.

If you want a more independent approach to your Skyrim 100%, I recommend checking out Map Genie’s wonderful interactive map of Skyrim & Solstheim. It is a very useful resource to have!
https://mapgenie.io/skyrim/maps/skyrim

There are three DLCs in the game each with its own set of Achievements; the Anniversary Edition, while adding in a lot of content, has no new Achievements & is not required for 100%.

For those interested, here is an organized list of all the Achievements/Secret Achievements. This is how I derive my Achievement Breakdowns & the first reference I create before I begin my 100% journeys.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3416068295

Before You Play!: Mods downloaded/bought from the Creations tab of the main menu will disable Achievements! You cannot play a game with any of these Mods installed for our 100% playthrough; Anniversary Edition content or “third party installed Mods” do not count & can be used.

If you want to use Creations content, you need to use it on a different game from your 100% Achievement game.

Guide contains major spoilers*.

1. Falkreath Hold: Helgen, Riverwood, Bleak Falls Barrow
2. Main Quests: Unbound, Before the Storm
3. Standing Stones: 1/11
4. Shouts: 1/20
5. Achievements: 4/75
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Difficulty does not affect our Achievements & you can play the game on whichever setting you prefer. Once again, the Anniversary Edition is not required for 100% & there are no associated Achievements with it.


Main Quest #1 – Unbound: Ah… you’re finally awake. Create your Character however you like; while your Race does give you a unique Power, it is inconsequential, though can be a boon if you are making a specific build.

After we are freed from our bindings, we need to follow Ralof through Helgen until we reach a crossroads point: choose to either follow Ralof & help the Stormcloaks or Hadvar to help the Imperials. This decision, will not affect our choice to side with either faction later on in the game…

Follow your charge through Helgen Keep, & escape the fortress.

Survival Mode: If you have the Anniversary Edition, when we exit Helgen, we will get a notification to activate Survival Mode. There are no Achievements tied to this & it can be ignored unless you want to use it for an immersion experience.


Achievement #1 – Unbound: Complete Unbound.
Story Related. Exit Helgen & wait for the Dragon to leave the ruined fort. After our companion mentions we are safe, the Main Quest will complete, & we will unlock this Achievement.

Miscellaneous – Join the Imperial Legion/Storm Cloaks: Stick to the road, & follow our companion down it towards Riverwood. Shortly after we leave Helgen, our chosen companion will mention that we should join their faction.

We can acquire the alternate Miscellaneous Objective for the other faction if you wish it later on…


Standing Stone #1 – The Guardian Stones: As we follow our companion along the road to Riverwood, we will come across three Standing Stones on the side of the road overlooking Lake Ilinalta. Approach the Standing Stones to discover their Location.

There are 11 Standing Stone Locations in total (13 actual Standing Stones, though the Guardian Stones count as 1 Location). We need to locate all 11 Standing Stone Locations to earn the Standing Stones Achievement; you only need to discover the Locations & not equip all Blessing.


Achievement #2 – Blessed: Select a Standing Stone blessing.
Select any one of the three Guardian Stones (Warrior, Mage, Thief) & equip it to earn the Achievement.

These Stone Blessings can be very handy for Leveling in early game depending on your build…


Main Quest #2 – Before the Storm: Travel with our companion to Riverwood, & we will be invited into the home of their close friends. We will then be tasked with going to Whiterun & telling Jarl Balgruuf of what we witnessed in Helgen…

Miscellaneous Objectives: As we play through the game, we will be acquiring many many Miscellaneous Objectives that are essentially mini-Side Quests. For the Hero of the People Achievement we will need to complete 50 of these. If you can, always attempt to complete the local/nearby Miscellaneous Objectives; by the end of the game, you will most likely have over 200 of these completed...

While in Riverwood, speak around with all the villagers to potentially complete some…

Side Quest – The Golden Claw: Enter into the Riverwood Trader & speak with Lucan Valerius about his problem; he will task us with going to Bleak Falls Barrow to retrieve his missing Golden Claw.

Completing Bleak Falls Barrow early will save us from having to go back there later on for the Main Questline…

Miscellaneous Objective – Visit the College of Winterhold: Ask Lucan what Spells he has for sale, & we will receive this Misc Objective to go to the College of Winterhold; this is one of four Guilds we need to join. We will not be venturing to Winterhold until much later in the guide.

This Misc Objective can also be earned in many different ways…

Miscellaneous Objective – Visit the Shrine of Azura: Enter into the Sleeping Giant Inn & speak with the innkeep, Orgnar, about any rumors he has heard. This is a good habit to do when you travel to new Inns as we are able to collect active Misc Objectives or Side Quests. This Misc Objective in particular can also be earned in many different ways…

We will not be venturing to the Shrine of Azura until we go to Winterhold.

Miscellaneous Objective – Talk to Aventus Aretino: This is a potential Misc Objective we can earn by speaking with Orgnar at the Sleeping Giant Inn (or any other innkeep). This will take us to yet another of our four Guilds we need to join.

This Misc Objective can be earned in many different ways…


Side Quest – The Golden Claw: Go to Bleak Falls Barrow when you are ready & enter into Bleak Falls Temple.

Skill Books: For the Reader Achievement we need to earn a Skill Level 50 times by reading Skill Books. A lot of the time the loot in Dungeons is random, so just read all Books you come across just to be safe; you may earn random Side Quests or discover Locations in the process as well…

Side Quest – The Golden Claw: Progress through Bleak Falls Temple until you locate Arvel the Swift. Get the Golden Claw off him & continue through the Dungeon until you reach the Bleak Falls Sanctum.


Achievement #3 – Apprentice: Reach Level 5.
This will come naturally as we play through the game. If you make a point of using a variety of different Spells, Armor types, Weapons, & actions you can easily blast your way through more than a few Levels in early game.

Shout #1 – Unrelenting Force: Open the Nordic Puzzle Door using the Golden Claw in Bleak Falls Sanctum & enter the main chamber where we can find a Dragon Wall. Approach the Dragon Wall, & we will learn our very first Shout.

For the Thu’um Master Achievement we need to learn at least one of three Words from all 20 Shouts in the Base Game. We only need to learn 1/3 Words for all 20 Shouts; learning all the Words to every Shout is not required.

Item – Dragonstone: After we discover our first Shout in Bleak Falls Sanctum, we will have to defeat the boss for this Dungeon. A Draugr Overlord. Slay them, & we can loot this important Main Quest related Item from it.



Achievement #4 – Hard Worker: Chop Wood, mine Ore, & cook Food.
This can be easily earned while in the Riverwood area. To cook Food, enter the Riverwood Trader to find a Cooking Pot near the hearth; use a Salt Pile & any meats or vegetables to create a dish.

To chop Firewood, head over to the Mill in Riverwood & we can find a worktable nearby it with a Woodcutter’s Axe. Approach the Wood Chopping Block close to the worktable with the Woodcutter’s Axe in your Inventory to chop at least one block of wood to earn two pieces of Firewood.

Lastly, leave Riverwood to the Southwest & we can locate Embershard Mine. Inside, we can find a Pickaxe. With the Pickaxe in your Inventory, mine any Ore Vein.

All these activities can be done at anytime, anywhere, & once they are all completed at least once we will unlock this Achievement.

1. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun, Dragonsreach, Western Watchtower
2. Main Quests: Before the Storm, Bleak Falls Barrow, Dragon Rising, The Way of the Voice
3. Companions Quests: Take Up Arms, Proving Honor
4. Standing Stones: 1/11
5. Shouts: 1/20
6. Achievements: 7/75
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Main Quest #2 – Before the Storm: When your business is finished in Riverwood, it is time to continue on Northward to Whiterun.

Miscellaneous Objective – Speak With the Leader of the Companions: As we approach the town, we will see a Giant fighting some warriors near Pelagia Farm (the Giant may already be dead). When you near the warriors, a woman will speak with you & tell us of the Companions – another Guild we need to join.

Ask to join them, & we will receive this Misc Objective.

Persuasion/Intimidation/Bribe Attempt: When you approach the gates to Whiterun, a Whiterun Guard will stop us. Speaking with him, we will have the option to Persuade or Intimidate him (amongst other options). I recommend choosing Persuasion as it is guaranteed to work; Intimidation will need a higher Speech Skill & Bribe is too expensive at this stage in the game.

For the Snake Tongue Achievement, we will need to successfully complete all three of these dialogue options over the course of the game.

Persuasion//Bribe Attempt: In the central market of Whiterun, we can find Carlotta Valentia. Speak with her, & we will receive the Misc Objective to get the bard Mikael to leave her alone.

Speak with him in the Bannered Mare Tavern, & we have the ability to Persuade him or Bribe him to leave her alone.


Main Quest #2 – Before the Storm: When you are finished looking around Whiterun, head up to Dragonsreach & gain an audience with Jarl Balgruuf. Tell him of the Dragon attack at Helgen, & we will complete this Main Quest.

Main Quest #3 – Bleak Falls Barrow: When you are done speaking with Balgruuf, head over to talk to his court wizard, Farengar, about a task he has for us… Farengar’s voice performance is pretty phoned in if you ask me… “Oh yes.”

If you already went to Bleak Falls Barrow & collected the Dragonstone, we will instantly complete this Main Quest. If not, you’ll have to go & collect it.


Achievement #5 – Bleak Falls Barrow: Complete Bleak Falls Barrow.
Story Related. Give Farengar Secret-Fire the Dragonstone & we will complete this Main Quest, unlocking our Achievement.

Main Quest #4 – Dragon Rising: After the Dragonstone has been delivered, there will be an emergency situation. A Dragon sighting. Go with Irileth to the Western Watchtower & get ready for our first Dragon fight; it is a good idea to do this asap so Dragons begin spawning in the world.

We will need many Dragon Souls to unlock our Shouts & for an Achievement…



Achievement #6 – Dragon Soul: Absorb a Dragon Soul.
Story Related. Slay Mirmulnir, & we will receive our first Dragon Soul; it will automatically be consumed & we will be able to use the Unrelenting Force Shout.

For the Dragon Hunter Achievement we will need to absorb 20 Dragon Souls.


Main Quest #4 – Dragon Rising: Report back to Jarl Balgruuf & tell him the news. Speak with Balgruuf again, & we will complete this Quest & become a Thane of Whiterun. We will also acquire our first official Companion, Lydia. She is sworn to carry our burdens…

Whiterun House: Now that we are a Thane in Whiterun, we will be able to purchase our first House from the Jarl’s steward, Proventus Avenicci. It will cost us 5000 Gold though, which is quite a lot. For the next little bit, try saving up as much Gold as you can to purchase this House; having a base of operations to stash excess gear & items is very important!

Main Quest #5 – The Way of the Voice: As of now, we will now put a pin into the Main Questline for quite a while & complete a few side errands in Whiterun & later in Falkreath…

Exploring Dragonsreach: Whenever you can in early game, try reading as many Books as you can. A few such as The Aetherium Wars, The Legend of Red Eagle, & others will give us new Side Quests, Misc Objectives, & new Locations marked on our Map.


Miscellaneous Objective – Speak With the Leader of the Companions: With our pressing business complete & the prospect of a new House on the horizon, it is time for us to go meet the Companions. Speak with Kodlak Whitemane, & ask to join the Companions.

Companions Quest #1 – Take Up Arms: With our application submitted, train with the master sergeant, Vilkas outside for a brief & unnecessary combat tutorial.

With our training session complete, it is time to polish some swords. Take Vilkas’ Sword to Eorlund Gray-Mane then take Aela’s Shield back to her as a counter fetch quest.


Achievement #7 – Take Up Arms: Join the Companions.
After we deliver Aela’s Shield back to her, we will be shown our sleeping quarters in Jorrvaskr by Farkus. Once we are done the tour, we will complete the Companion Quest & unlock the Achievement.

Miscellaneous Objective – Talk to the Companions Leaders For Work: With our first Quest complete, we will need to do a Radiant Quest from any one of the marked Companions. The specific Quest they give us will be random, & inconsequential.

Companions Quest #2 – Proving Honor: Complete one Radiant Quest for the Companions, & we will be told to speak with Skjor. Skjor will tell us of a possible lead in locating a fragment of the legendary Axe, Wuuthrad.

Speak with our Shield-Brother, Farkus, & tell him that we will meet him at Dustman’s Cairn.

1. Whiterun Hold: Dustman’s Cairn, Whiterun
2. Eastmarch: Gallows Rock
3. Main Quests: N/A
4. Companions Quests: Proving Honor, The Silver Hand, Retrieval
5. Standing Stones: 1/11
6. Shouts: 2/20
7. Achievements: 11/75
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Companions Quest #2 – Proving Honor: Make your way over to Dustman’s Cairn & we can meet up with Farkas outside it. Explore Dustman’s Cairn, & Farkus will be forced to reveal an inner secret that the Companions keep…

Be warned, that if you are unprepared, the Silver Hand can be challenging foes; make sure you Save often. There will also be a lot of loot that we can sell, most likely more than you can carry; since this is early game, I would recommend leaving Dustman’s Cairn when your Inventory is full to sell it off, & return. We do need 5000 Gold for that House after all…

Shout #2 – Fire Breath: Venture into Dustman’s Crypt & we will eventually reach the main chamber where we can find a Word Wall with this Shout on it.

Companions Quest #2 – Proving Honor: Directly in front of the Word Wall in Dustman’s Crypt, we can find a Fragment of Wuuthrad. Collect it, & we will need to defeat several waves of Draugr with Farkas’ help. Using a Silver Sword collected from the Silver Hand can be very useful to defeat them!


Achievement #8 – Adept: Reach Level 10.
This will come naturally as we complete Quests & level up our Skills. Use a variety of different Weapons & Spells. Equipping at least one piece of Light Armor & Heavy Armor can also be useful to level both Skills simultaneously.


Companions Quest #2 – Proving Honor: Return to Jorrvaskr, & deliver the Fragment of Wuuthrud to… actually it will be something else entirely. It’s time to be a fully fledged Companion!

Completing this Quest will reward us with needing to complete any Radiant Quest for the Companions to progress. Speak with any of the Circle & receive a Quest to complete.

Companions Quest – Radiant Quest: Complete your given Radiant Quest from whomever of the Circle you spoke to.

Companions Quest #3 – The Silver Hand: Turn in your Radiant Quest, & we will be told to speak with Skjor about a new special mission. Skjor will tell us that we will speak later, at night, in the Underforge.

At night, wait for the Circle to enter the Underforge, & Skjor will stand outside. Speak with him inside the forge, & we will be asked to join the Circle & become a Werewolf. For the Werewolf Mastered Achievement, we need to purchase at least one Level in all Werewolf Skills; these can only be leveled if you are in Werewolf form. It is very important that you agree to become one – there are no negative consequences outside of being unable to receive the temporary bonuses for Sleeping… Who sleeps anyways?

Participate in the Blood Ritual, & we will transform into a Werewolf. Though we exit the Underforge, re-enter it & exit outside Whiterun to roam free; any friendly NPCs will be hostile if they see us as a Werewolf & we do not want anyone important to die! Try not to kill anyone…



Achievement #9 – Blood Oath: Become a member of the Circle.
Eventually, we will black out. When we awaken, Aela will find us just outside a Fort & will discuss the plans of attacking a Silver Hand base up ahead – we will unlock this Achievement during the conversation.

As a Werewolf, any chance you can after you have killed any human enemies, turn into a Werewolf & feed on their hearts to earn Xp. The more Xp you earn, the quicker you can unlock new Werewolf Skills…

Companions Quest #3 – The Silver Hand: Accompany Aela into Gallows Rock & massacre the Silver Hand; when you can, turn into a Werewolf to eat their hearts for Xp. To exit Werewolf form, just pass time; the more hearts you eat, the longer you will have to wait before you return back to normal.

Get to the main chamber, & kill the leader of the Silver Hand, Krev the Skinner.

Ideally, we will be able to loot an Enchanted Item or two from the large Chest in the room we fought Krev in; hold onto at least one of these Items as we need one for an Achievement!

Companions Quest #4 – Retrieval: Before she leaves Gallows Rock, speak with Aela about our next task & we will be told we can find our next Fragment of Wuuthrud at a Cave called Redoran’s Retreat…



Achievement #10 – Citizen: Buy a House.
By this point, you should ideally have the 5000 Gold we need to purchase Breezehome from Proventus Avenicci. For an extra 2050 Gold, we can also fully decorate it as well though that is not required for the Achievement.


Achievement #11 – Artificer: Make a smithed item, an enchanted item, & a Potion.
Making a smithed item & a Potion are easy enough to do, & most likely was completed back in Riverwood if you did the tutorial Misc Objective from Alvor & the barkeep at the Sleeping Giant Inn.

Enchanting an item is a bit trickier, but only because of the set up. First & foremost, you will need to obtain an already enchanted so you can then Disenchant it. By Disenchanting items, we will unlock their bonuses & can then have unlimited uses of it to Enchant items of our own. The next step is getting a Soul Gem that has a Soul trapped in it (not empty). If you need a Soul Gem, you can just buy a cheap Petty Soul Gem from Farengar for around 100 Gold.

Bring any Weapon or Apparel piece to an Arcane Enchanter, use your Soul Gem, & pick whatever Enchantments you have Disenchanted to create an enchanted item.

Once all three of these activities have been completed at least once, we will unlock the Achievement.

Dawnguard #1 – Dawnguard: By this point in the game since we should be beyond Level 10, rumors will begin circulating in general conversation about the reformation of the Dawnguard & we will receive this DLC Quest.

Dawnguard, though technically can be done at any point, is end game DLC; Dawnguard is covered in Sequence 26 of the guide.

1. Whiterun Hold: Redoran’s Retreat, Whiterun, The Ritual Stone
2. Falkreath Hold: Falkreath, Knifepoint Ridge, Lakeview Manor
3. Main Quests: N/A
4. Companions Quests: Retrieval, Striking the Heart
5. Standing Stones: 2/11
6. Shouts: 2/20
7. Achievements: 12/75
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Companions Quest #4 – Retrieval: Go to Redoran’s Retreat & clear out the Silver Hand here to locate the next Fragment of Wuuthrud.


Companions Quest #4 – Retrieval: Return to Jorrvaskr, & bring the second piece of Wuuthrad to Aela.

Companions Quest #5 – Striking the Heart: Our next objective will to assassinate a high up Silver Hand lieutenant who can be found in Oroheim. Oroheim is located on the Hjaalmarch border & we will save going here for a bit later on in the playthrough; if you want to keep going however, don’t let me stop you…

Miscellaneous Objective – Participate In A Drinking Contest With Sam Guenvere: When you reach Level 14, whenever you enter into taverns, there will be a chance that a black robed man named Sam Guenvere will be sitting somewhere in the room. When you approach him, we will obtain a very important Misc Objective that will evolve into a Daedric Artifact Quest.

Do not speak with him yet however as the events of “said drinking contest” will send us all the way over to Markarth in the far West. Sam will not leave whichever tavern he spawned in, so make a note of where he was…


Standing Stone #2 – The Ritual Stone: With a pin put in the Companions Questline for now, we just have clean up to do in Whiterun Hold before we can move on. To start, leave Whiterun to the East past the Honningbrew Meadery & cross the river along the main roadway. Shortly after crossing the bridge, the marker for a Standing Stone should appear on our Compass along with two Caves & a Stormcloak Camp.

Travel to the Standing Stone & discover its Location.

Whiterun Hold Mop Up: Before we move on to our next Hold to explore, I do recommend cleaning up any Misc Objectives & Side Quests local to Whiterun Hold such as (but not limited to): In My Time of Need & finding Amren’s Family Sword.

A lot of other Side Quests & Misc Objectives gained here will take us out of the Region & can be saved for later…

With our business finished in Whiterun Hold, it is time for us to travel South to Falkreath. This is a small region & it should not take long for us to clear out what we need to do here. As a special note, we will be acquiring our first of three Homes from the Hearthfire DLC here in Falkreath – hoarding as many Iron & Corundum Ingots as you can is paramount as many are needed for crafting Building Materials…

Miscellaneous Objective – Speak to Lod: As soon as we approach the gates to Falkreath, a Guard will stop us & ask after a dog – the Blacksmith is missing his. We won’t have seen it, but will be given this new Misc Objective to check out.

This evolves into a Daedric Artifact Quest…

Speak with Lod, & agree to help him find his lost dog.

Miscellaneous Objective – Speak With the Jarl of Falkreath: As we have been playing, you most likely received a Letter from the Jarl of Falkreath from a Courier asking us if we are interested in becoming a Thane.

Speak with Jarl Siddgeir & he will give us a Misc Objective to clear out some Bandits he had some backroom dealings with. Agree to help him.

Side Quest – Ill Met By Moonlight: Before we leave town, if it is during the day, head in behind the Corpselight Farm building where the garden is & we can speak with a man named Mathies. He will tell us… that his daughter was brutally murdered.

Speaking with Sinding in the Falkreath Jail will lock us into completing this whole Quest; we will go help him a bit later on… This is an important Daedric Artifact Quest.

Side Quest – A Daedra’s Best Friend: When you are done in Falkreath, our first manner of business should be to help the Jarl deal with those Bandits at Knifepoint Ridge. Exit outside Falkreath’s Western gates & a dog will approach us. A talking dog. A talking dog named, Barbas.

Speak with Barbas & agree to go with him to speak to his master, Clavicus Vile… At the moment though, ignore Barbas – he will wait for us here on the trail & eventually travel to Haemar’s Shame where we can meet him later.


Miscellaneous Objective – Kill the Leader of Knifepoint Ridge: Travel West through Falkreath Hold over to Knifepoint Ridge. Enter into Knifepoint Mine kill the Bandit Chief.


Miscellaneous Objective – Return to Siddgeir: With the Bandit Chief killed, return back to the Jarl & tell him the news.

Completing this Misc Objective will unlock us access to buying property in Falkreath Hold from the Jarl’s Steward, Nenya. It will cost us 5000 Gold.


Achievement #12 – Landowner: Buy a plot of land.
This is a Hearthfire DLC Achievement & will be unlocked as soon as we purchase our first plot land from a Hold.

We can buy land in Falkreath Hold, Hjaalmarch, & The Pale.


Lakeview Manor will be our baby project & major Gold sink for the next little bit. Use the Drafting Table to select new expansions for our Home then accumulate the materials needed to make them; the Blacksmiths in Riverwood, Whiterun, & Falkreath can supply us with a lot of bulk materials if you have the Gold to spare.

If you need more Sawn Logs, you can purchase them from a man named Boland in Falkreath at the Deadwood Lumber Mill found at the Northeast end of the town.

Make a point of trying to fully construct Lakeview Manor over the course of our time spent here in Falkreath Hold; we have two other full Homesteads to build later on…

1. Falkreath Hold: Falkreath, Bloated Man’s Grotto, Haemar’s Shame, Ancient’s Ascent, Shriekwind Bastion, The Lady Stone, Lost Valley Redoubt
2. Main Quests: N/A
3. Companions Quests: N/A
4. Side Quests: Ill Met By Moonlight, A Daedra’s Best Friend, The Break of Dawn
5. Daedric Artifacts: 1/15
6. Standing Stones: 3/11
7. Shouts: 5/20
8. Achievements: 13/75
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Side Quest – Ill Met By Moonlight: Enter into the Falkreath Jail & speak with Sinding; you need to have the Side Quest or he won’t approach you. Agree to take the Cursed Ring of Hircine from him; note that the moment we do this, we are locked into completing this Side Quest. The Cursed Ring of Hircine will auto equip, & will cause us to randomly use Beast Form… which can be catastrophic.

As soon as we take the Ring from Sinding, we need to make a B-Line for the great beast; make sure you have a decent Bow or a good way to kill a galloping stag. Kill the White Stag & an Aspect of Hircine will appear in its place. Speak with the Daedric Prince, & agree to help him track Sinding down.


Side Quest – Ill Met By Moonlight: We now need to head straight towards Bloated Man’s Grotto which can be more easily accessed from Whiterun Hold.

Fight through the hunters & we will reach Sinding & have to make a choice: kill him for Hircine or let him go. There are two different Daedric Artifacts on the line. Kill Sinding, & we will strip the flesh from his bones for Hircine & acquire Saviour’s Hide. Let Sinding live, & he will uncurse Hircine’s Ring. In my opinion, Hircine’s Ring is much better than Saviour’s Hide as the Ring will give us unlimited Beast Form transformations which makes farming Werewolf Xp faster. Saviour’s Hide gives us 15% Magic Resistance & 50% Poison Resistance with not an exceptional Armor Rating on top of that…

Agree to help Sinding to obtain the Ring, or hunt him down & flay him. Either way, we will complete the Side Quest & obtain a Daedric Artifact; you have to leave Bloated Man’s Grotto & speak with the Aspect of Hircine if you want to uncurse Hircine’s Ring.

If you want both Daedric Artifacts, agree to help Sinding & uncurse Hircine’s Ring then re-enter Bloated Man’s Grotto & kill Sinding to trigger the Aspect of Hircine to appear once again.


Achievement #13 – Daedric Influence: Acquire a Daedric Artifact.
Completing Side Quest – Ill Met By Moonlight will net us our first Daedric Artifact be it Saviour’s Hide or the uncursed Hircine’s Ring; getting both Artifacts still only counts as one for the Oblivion Walker Achievement.


Side Quest – A Daedra’s Best Friend: Now it is time to assist another Daedric Prince. Select this as your new active Quest & link up with Barbas at Haemar’s Shame found far to the East past Helgen.

Enter inside the Haemar’s Cavern & fight your way to the Vampires inhabiting it; fortunately, because we are a Werewolf already, we are immune to the Sanguinare Vampiris Disease that would normally curse us with Vampirism. Don’t worry… we will be fully exploring Vampirism later on in the game.

Fight through the Vampires & enter into Haemar’s Shame where Clavicus Vile’s Shrine is located. When we reach the Shrine, we will need to defend Barbas from Vampires attacking him.

When they are dead, speak with Clavicus Vile & he will give us a proposition: help him retrieve the Rueful Axe & he will give us a boon. Unfortunately, it is located in Rimerock Burrow which is found way up at the far Northern end of the Haafingar Hold. We will not be going there until later; if Barbas annoys you, tell him to stop following us, & he will wait outside Rimerock Burrow for us.

You can go there by yourself if you want, but beware, the Daedric Artifact is actually Missable depending on the decision you make when you return the Rueful Axe to Clavicus Vile… If you do this, make sure to side with Barbus & refuse what Calvicus Vile asks us to do.

Side Quest – The Break of Dawn: After we have reached Level 12, any time we open large Chests, we have the potential to find an Item called Meridia’s Beacon. Collect it, & Meridia herself will speak to us & command us to bring it to Mount Kilkreath.

This is another Daedric Quest we will be saving until we venture to the Haafingar Hold. Unless you want to head there sooner by yourself…

That was essentially all of our primary business to do in Falkreath. Now, we can scout around & locate a few first Words to new Shouts.



Shout #3 – Animal Allegiance: Our first Shout will be located on a Dragon Peak called Ancient’s Ascent. Head directly South of Lakeview Manor & to reach Ancient’s Ascent, we will first have to pass through the Cave, Bonechill Passage.

Exit the Cave, & head up to the summit to Ancient’s Ascent… & find a Dragon or Blood Dragon, if you are unlucky, guarding it. Defeat the Dragon, & approach the Word Wall to learn the first Word of Animal Allegiance.


Shout #4 – Elemental Fury: Next, we will need to head to the Nordic Ruin, Shriekwind Bastion, which can be found directly North from Falkreath in the nearby mountains looming above the town. Navigate through the massive Ruin, all the way to the highest chamber where we can find the Word Wall containing this Shout.


Standing Stone #3 – The Lady Stone: In the middle of Lake Ilinalta, there is a large island in the Western corner. Swim over to it, & we can find a new Standing Stone here.


Shout #5 – Become Ethereal: For our final task here in Falkreath Hold, we need to travel to the Nordic Ruin, Lost Valley Redoubt. It is located in the mountains to the Southwest of Fort Sungard.

Lost Valley Redoubt is a massive outdoor area that is full of Forsworn bandits; this is a great place to get some Werewolf Xp!

At the very top of Lost Valley Redoubt, will be Bard’s Leap Summit. In this area, we can find a Word Wall across a stone bridge surrounded by flowing water – be warned, there are two Hagravens here trying to summon a Forsworn Briarheart here!

Become Ethereal is probably the most useful Shout in the game as it allows us to briefly become invulnerable. This can become clutch if you want to bypass parts of Dungeons or travel time by leaping off high points while Ethereal & taking no fall damage!

1. Falkreath Hold: Lakeview Manor
2. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun, Dragonsreach
3. The Reach: Markarth
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Companions Quests: N/A
6. Side Quests: The Whispering Door, A Night to Remember, The House of Horrors, The Taste of Death
7. Daedric Artifacts: 2/15
8. Standing Stones: 3/11
9. Shouts: 5/20
10. Achievements: 15/75
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Achievement #14 – Architect: Build 3 Wings on a House.
Ideally, you have been spending most of your Gold on Sawn Logs, Iron Ingots, & Corundum Ingots for Building Materials.

Once our Entry Way & Main Hall are constructed for Lakeview Manor, we can move on to the Wings. There is an East, North, & West Wing each with three different options we can choose from. Choose whichever of the three Wings you want (since there are three Homesteads we will be making that each have three Wings, you can make one of each Wing if you want) & after fully constructing all three Wings, the Achievement should unlock.

To be safe, it is a good idea making a Save before you build the last Wing just in case the Achievement glitches & does not unlock as it has been known to happen.

You should not have to Remodel the House into Entryway or remove any of the Workbenches to unlock the Achievement. You also do not have to build any Furniture or Containers inside the Homestead at all either. Your best bet is to make sure there are no available projects to build at the Carpenter’s Workbench if the Achievement is not unlocking.


Achievement #15 – Proud Parent: Adopt a Child.
This can be done as early as owning Breezehome in Whiterun if you chose the Child’s Room Upgrade over the Alchemy Lab Upgrade. If not, we can with Lakeview Manor.

There are many Children to adopt throughout the game, but the first & easiest to find is Lucia who can be found wandering around in the Cloud District of Whiterun near the Gildergreen Tree. Speak with her, & if there is a Children’s Bed available in any of your Homes, we can adopt her & unlock the Achievement.


Miscellaneous Objective – Visit the Museum In Dawnstar: When we reach Level 20, a Courier will approach us to deliver a Museum Pamphlet from someone named Silus Vesuius in Dawnstar inviting us to come check it out. Obtaining this letter will grant us this Misc Objective.

We will not be pursuing it until much later when we go to Dawnstar; this segways into a Daedric Artifact Quest…

Miscellaneous Objective – Ask About Balgruuf’s Strange Children: Once you are Level 20, go to the Bannered Mare Tavern in Whiterun, & speak with the barkeep Hulda. Exhaust her dialogue about rumors & gossip, & a new one should appear where she will tell us about some strange rumors going around about Jarl Balgruuf’s children.

Travel to Dragonsreach, & ask Balgruuf about his children.


Side Quest – The Whispering Door: Go to speak with Nelkir, & he will tell of us of the mysterious Whispering Door in the Dragonreach basement. Listen at the Old Wooden Door, & we will hear from the Daedric Princess, Mephala. Mephala needs us to release the Ebony Blade from its prison behind this Old Wooden Door.

Agree to help her, & go back to speak with Nelkir. We need to obtain the Whispering Door Key from either Farengar or Balgruuf; I recommend not killing Farengar as it is never a good idea killing Merchants. The only kicker, is if your Sneak/Pickpocket Skill is not high enough… you may have no choice but to kill him. Alternatively, you can postpone this Side Quest until you have a higher Pickpocket Skill or Enchantments that boost it. Either way, make sure you Save before attempting the Pickpocket; you can always abuse the RNG of the steal percent.

Daedric Artifact #2 – Ebony Blade: Obtain the Whispering Door Key & obtain it to reveal the secret prison for the Ebony Blade. There is technically more to the Ebony Blade, & we can murder Followers to increase its power – killing 10 Followers will restore it to its full power.

Fortunately, all that is required for our Achievement is that we collect the Ebony Blade. If you want to enhance it with treachery that is up to you…


Miscellaneous Objective – Participate In A Drinking Contest With Sam Guenvere: When you are finished all of your relevant business in Falkreath Hold & Whiterun Hold, it will be time for us to travel West to Markarth in The Reach.

To kill two birds with one stone, we may as well participate in the drinking contest with the strange man named Sam Guenvere – he will appear in any discovered Inns or Taverns. Speak with him, & agree to drink with him. Continue to drink, & drink, & drink, & win that contest putting them away like you’re Badlands Chugs.


Side Quest – A Night to Remember: We will awake, quite hungover, in the Temple of Dibella… in Markarth. Apologize to priestess Senna, & pick up your mess. Senna will give us our lead to finding Sam Guenvere – Rorikstead.

Miscellaneous Objective – Speak to the Witchhunter About the Abandoned House: Now that we are in Markarth, go to the Silver-Blood Inn & ask the innkeep Kleppr about any rumours around town. One of them, will be regarding a strange witchhunter who is investigating a local abandoned house.

Miscellaneous Objective – Speak to Verulus About the Hall of the Dead: Continue to ask Kleppr about rumors or for work, & we may also get directed to speak with Brother Verulus in the Markarth Hall of the Dead; even if we do not get the Misc Objective, we can manually locate the Hall of the Dead ourselves…

Side Quest – The House of Horrors: To start, head to where the Quest Waypoint is for locating the witchunter just up the street & we can find Vigilant Tyranus. He is a Vigilant of Stendarr… hunter of all things supernatural.

Enter inside the Abandoned House with Vigilant Tyranus, & we will approach a locked door. Spooky business will happen, & Tyranus will go to flee. While this happens… we will hear from the Daedric Prince, Molag Bal. Do as the Prince says… & kill Vigilant Tyranus before he leaves the Abandoned House.

With Tyranus killed, venture further into the house, & collect the Rusty Mace. If you couldn’t guess from Molag Bal’s enticing words… this is definitely a trap. To receive our Daedric Artifact for this Side Quest, we need to agree to help Molag Bal punish the priest of the Daedric Princess, Boethiah.

The priest has been captured by Forsworn, far up North at Deepwood Redoubt near Dragon Bridge; we will be going there later on when we explore the Haafingar Hold.

Side Quest – The Taste of Death: Now go track down Brother Verulus at the Hall of the Dead; you have a Persuade, Bribe, & Intimidate dialogue option when we speak to him.

Get the key to the Hall of the Dead, & investigate… & we will be immediately accosted by the Daedric Princess, Namira. A woman named Eola will approach us, & insinuate some disturbing things. She will then ask us to meet her & the “others” at Reachcliff Cave…

1. The Reach: Markarth, Dead Crone Rock, Reachcliff Cave
2. Whiterun Hold: Rorikstead, Whiterun
3. Main Quests: N/A
4. Companions Quests: N/A
5. Side Quests: A Night to Remember, The Taste of Death
6. Daedric Artifacts: 3/15
7. Standing Stones: 3/11
8. Shouts: 6/20
9. Achievements: 18/75
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Complete as many of the local Side Quests & Miscellaneous Objectives you uncover here in Markarth as you like.


Achievement #16 – Snake Tongue: Successfully Persuade, Bribe, & Intimidate.
As we speak to people during Quests, we may get Persuade, Bribe, &/or Intimidation options in dialogue we can choose from. Successfully complete one of each option to unlock the Achievement.

Read the situation. Bribe almost always works, Persuade more “tougher” folks & Intimidate the meek.


Achievement #17 – Hero of the People: Complete 50 Misc Objectives.
As we travel from town to town, we will be accruing a large sum of Miscellaneous Objectives if you are diligent in speaking with most people you come across. These typically range from mundane tasks to retrieving an Item from a Dungeon.

Make a point of completing Misc Objectives that are local to your Hold as you play – the Achievement will unlock in no time.


Side Quest – A Night to Remember: When you are finished in Markarth, it is time to venture outside it. Travel to the Village, Rorikstead, to find Sam Guevenne.

When we arrive in the Village… the situation will be way worse than we could have possibly imagined. Way worse. Travel South from Rorikstead to locate the Goat, Gleda, that we absconded with… & kill her Giant captor, Grok. When Grok is dead, take Gleda back to Ennis in Rorikstead.


Side Quest – A Night to Remember: Our next lead will take us back to Whiterun, to the up & coming merchant, Ysolda. Speaking with her will give us to options: the default is to head to Witchmist Grove to find our fiancé, or we can use a Speech Option to get her to tell us the location of Morvunskar.

Either way, the path the Quest will end in Morvunskar located in the Eastmarch Region; we will save this for later, unless you want to head there sooner.




Shout #6 – Dismay: Return to Markarth, & begin heading Southwest from its exterior gates towards the Orc Stronghold, Dushnikh Yal. From the gates of the stronghold, begin heading West into the mountains along an unmarked dirt road. The road will head up above the entrance to Purewater Run Cave & continue across a bridge towards a Nordic Ruin called Hag Rock Redoubt. This location is the perfect opportunity to feast on more bodies for Werewolf Xp!

Fight through the Forsworn inhabiting the Nordic Ruin, & carry on to the summit where Dead Crone Rock Tower is. Enter inside the Nordic Tower, & fight your way to its upper exterior where we will have to defeat the unique Hagraven, Drascua.

We can find the Word Wall for the first Word of the Dismay Shout up here.

Shard of Mehrunes’ Razor #1 – Pommel Stone: Be sure to loot the Pommel Stone of Mehrunes’ Razor off of Drascua when you kill her. We cannot drop it once it is collected, but it can be missed if you do not grab it after she is dead & you leave the area.

This is one of three pieces to Mehrunes’ Razor – one of our 15 Daedric Artifacts. This is associated with the Side Quest – Pieces of the Past that we will receive when we travel to the Museum in Dawnstar; we are collecting the Pommel early since we are already here…


Achievement #18 – Expert: Reach Level 25.
This Achievement will come naturally as we play. Really diversify your play-style to use as many different Skills as you can. Wear at least one piece of Heavy & Light Armor to Level both Skills at the same time & try using at least one Spell from each of the five Magic Schools on a semi regular basis if you can.

Skills like Sneak, Lockpick, Speech, Archery, & One-Handed or Two-Handed will Level as we play. Smithing will Level as we construct new Building Materials for our Homesteads or from crafting new Items. Hoard all Ingredients for Alchemy so we can make Gold quickly. You get the idea.

If you are flush with Gold, you can take advantage of Trainers to really make the most out of each Level. You can only use a Trainer 5 times per Level, which is technically 5 “free” Skill Levels per Level if that makes sense. I recommend using Trainers to Level Skills you do not normally Level up through your play-style as using them on your “day-to-day” Skills is a bit of a waste since you will most likely max Level them naturally throughout the playthrough...


Side Quest – The Taste of Death: Return back to Dushnikh Yal, & head down the road Northeast from it to find the entrance to Reachcliff Cave. Outside the Cave, we can meet up with Eola… that creepy girl we met at the Hall of the Dead.

Venture into the Cave with her, & clear out the Draugr that infest it; you will want Eola’s help as well as an extra Follow for this Cave, it is pretty high Level. Be warned! If Eola dies, the Side Quest will fail & void us earning the Daedric Artifact! Save often! Eola also does a lot of splash damage with her Fireballs & can potentially aggro our Follower if we are unlucky…

Defeat the difficult Draugr Death Overlord & we will have reclaimed the Shrine to Namira. Eola will tell us to bring Brother Verulus to the shrine…

Return to Markarth & either Persuade, Intimidate, or Bribe Brother Verulus to come with us to Reachcliff Cave. When we arrive, all the brothers & cousins will be present at Namira’s Shrine. Go Hannibal Lector on Brother Verulus, & make him into a nice protein scramble to start our day…

Daedric Artifact #3 – Ring of Namira: After we take a few nibbles from Brother Verulus, Princess Namira will speak with us & grant us her Ring. With this, we will complete her Side Quest & collect our third Daedric Artifact.

1. The Reach: Valthume, The Lover Stone, Ragnvald, Shrine to Peryite, Bthardamz
2. Main Quests: N/A
3. Companions Quests: N/A
4. Side Quests: The Only Cure
5. Daedric Artifacts: 4/15
6. Standing Stones: 4/11
7. Shouts: 8/20
8. Achievements: 18/75
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Shout #7 – Aura Whisper: Return back to Dushnikh Yal & this time travel down the road Southeast from it, past the Dwemer Ruin, Arkngthamz (you will want to discover this Location for later!), down the road to the East towards where Lost Valley Redoubt is. Before we get to it, we will come across a different Nordic Ruin called Valthume.

Enter into Valthume Vestible… & an ancient Nordic ghost named Valdar will speak to us. Valdar will warn us of a terrible evil, a Dragon Priest called Hevnoraak, trapped in this ruin & we will receive the Side Quest – Evil In Waiting. Agree to help him & collect the three Vessels scattered throughout Valthume & the Catacombs.

Use the Iron Claw to open the Nordic Puzzle Door, & defeat a challenging Draugr encounter before we can claim the final Vessel. As soon as we do, it will release a pressure plate & open a barred alcove ahead of us that contains our Word Wall.


Standing Stone #4 – The Lover Stone: From Salvius Farm just outside Markarth, begin walking Northeast down the road & we will see the marker of a Standing Stone on our Compass. Head up a steep slope, & we can find the Lover Stone at an overlook above Kolskeggr Mine.

This Standing Stone is one of the best in the game (or at least for our purposes) as it will improve Xp gain for all Skills!


Shout #8 – Kyne's Peace: Begin heading directly West of the Standing Stone now, & we will eventually see a Nordic Ruin marked on our Compass. Head to it, & we will discover Ragnvald. Enter inside Ragnvald Temple & to access the vault we first must locate the Saerek’s & Torsten’s Skull Keys that are found in Ragnvald Crypts & Canal.

Once you have both Skull Keys, place them on the sarcophagus & we will need to defeat the Dragon Priest, Otar the Mad. When he is defeated, we can safely enter the vault where the Word Wall is located.


Side Quest – The Only Cure: So long as you are a higher than Level 12, we will be able to receive a brand new Daedric Artifact Quest. From Ragnvald, begin heading back down the road we came up then make your way along a difficult to discern dirt pathway leading Northeast. As we head Northeast, we should have the marker for a Daedric Shrine appear on our Compass. Head up the mountain & we will reach the Shrine to Peryite.

Here we will find a Khajiit named Kesh the Clean. Speak with him, & ask if you can commune with Peryite. Before we can, we first need to make special incense that requires four different ingredients. The Deathbell Flower & Vampire Dust can be found fairly easily – either bought from an Alchemist or at Haemar’s Shame. Silver Ingots can be sometimes bought from Blacksmiths or you can steal one from the Blacksmith, Ghorza gra-Bagol’s forge outside Understone Keep down the stairs from The Hag’s Cure in Markarth.

As for the Flawless Ruby, there are many chances to randomly get them by Mining or looting, but there are few local areas where one is guaranteed to spawn. Fortunately, there is one close by; it is the Marker in the red circle on the Map above.

Head to The Lover Stone, then make your way South of it to Kolskeggr Mine. From the mine, head across the nearby bridge & down the road to the South. As you walk, look off your left to see a deep gorge with a river winding through it. Just as the river bends towards the East, look down into the gorge below to see a rowboat stuck on the cliff walls. Drop down to it, & carefully climb into the rowboat. Inside it, we can find a whole bunch of Flawless gemstones, one of which is guaranteed to be a Flawless Ruby!

Once all the ingredients have been collected, return back to Kesh the Clean & he will brew us the incense. Breathe deep, & we will commune with the Daedric Prince, Peryite.


Side Quest – The Only Cure: Peryite will command us to go to the Dwemer Ruin Bthardamz, & locate the false shepherd, Orchendor; Bthardamz is located due West of the Shrine to Peryite. To reach Orchendor, we first have to fight through all the Afflicted found within the Upper District, through the Workshop, Lower District, & the Study – we can find Orchendor in the Arcanex. As a side note, there are many human enemies we can feast upon in Bthardamz to earn Werewolf Xp…

Before you fight Orchendor, make sure you Quick Save first! Orchendor has a habit of teleporting around the room when he takes damage; there is a glitch that if he is killed mid teleport his body will not re-appear! The Quest will still progress, but you will be unable to collect the Key to Bthardamz Elevator & you will have to backtrack through the entire Dwemer Ruin to escape it!


Daedric Artifact #4 – Spellbreaker: With Orchendor slain, return to the Shrine & speak with Peryite to be rewarded with arguably one of the best Shields in the game, Spellbreaker.

1. The Reach: Arkngthamz, Deep Folk Crossing
2. Main Quests: N/A
3. Companions Quests: N/A
4. Side Quests: Lost to the Ages
5. Daedric Artifacts: 4/15
6. Standing Stones: 4/11
7. Shouts: 8/20
8. Achievements: 19/75
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Miscellaneous Objective – Investigate the Ruins of Arkngthamz: In your journeys, you should hopefully have encountered the Book called The Aetherium Wars. Upon reading it, we will be directed to investigate the lost Dwemer Ruins of Arkngthamz. Fast Travel to it (or head down the road East from Dushnikh Yal to discover it).

This is an area tied to the Dawnguard DLC; completing the Side Quest will give us the Lost to the Ages Achievement so it is important to do...

Side Quest – Lost to the Ages: Shortly upon entering, we will encounter the ghost of a dead adventurer named Katria. Katria will guide us through the ruins & we will eventually reach the Tonal Lock puzzle blocking our way. To open the door, we need to shoot the 5 Resonators. There are two Resonators on the top & three Resonators on the bottom; Katria’s Journal & a Scrap of Paper found on a nearby dead Adventurer can tell us the first three… & I’ll tell you the last two.

The correct order is: Bottom left, bottom right, top left, top right, bottom center.

Aetherium Shard #1: Solving the puzzle will allow us to collect the first of four Aetherium Shards.


Aetherium Shard #2: Our next Shard can be found quite easily at the Deep Folk Crossing. Fast Travel back to Bthardamz, & begin heading North towards a Landmark marked on our Compass to discover Deep Folk Crossing. Walk across the bridge then up the nearby hill to find the Aetherium Shard at a small Dwemer shrine.

As of now we have no more pressing business in the Reach & in Markarth. Before we continue on, take this in between time to complete any local Side Quests or Miscellaneous Objectives. We should also be at the stage where money is becoming less of an issue with how expensive the loot we are finding is as well…

Trainers: To fully optimize each Level Up we gain, if you have the coin to spare, I recommend paying Trainers to learn five Levels in a Skill. These are five “free” Levels for a Skill & can really start fast tracking how quickly you will Level Up. I recommend paying Trainers for Skills you don’t normally use in your build as well; no sense paying money for a Skill you will end up maxing out naturally…


Achievement #19 – Werewolf Mastered: Acquire all 11 Werewolf Perks.
By this point if you have made an effort to eat as many humans as you can, you should be well on your way to earning this Achievement; the Savage Feeding Perk makes things progress even faster.

Anytime you think it is worth your effort, be sure to change into a Werewolf to feed. To unlock the Achievement, you must earn enough Xp to fully max out the entire Werewolf Skill Tree. 7/11 of the Perks are all unique ones to learn, however we must acquire all 4 levels of the Bestial Strength Perk as well… When you have completely maxed out all Werewolf Perks, we will unlock the Achievement.

1. The Rift: Riften, Thieves Guild, Goldenglow Estate
2. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun
3. Main Quests: N/A
4. Companions Quests: N/A
5. Thieves Guild Quests: A Chance Arrangement, Taking Care of Business, Loud & Clear, Dampened Spirits, Scoundrel’s Folly
6. Side Quests: N/A
7. Daedric Artifacts: 4/15
8. Standing Stones: 4/11
9. Shouts: 8/20
10. Achievements: 21/75
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Now it is time for us to move on to the next Hold of the game, The Rift; travel on foot or take a Stage Coach to Riften…

Miscellaneous Objective – Tell Brynjolf About Joining the Thieves Guild: As you speak with the folk in Riften, it will become quickly apparent that there is a Thieves Guild based out of the city.

Go to the market square in the center of Riften, & regardless if you have this Misc Objective or not, we will be approached by a man named Brynjolf who is tending a Potions stall. He will make a broad judgment of our current wealth, & then give us a little test…

Thieves Guild Quest #1 – A Chance Arrangement: Brynjolf will make a scene in the market square, & we must stealthily approach Madesi’s Jewelry stall. Behind the stall, we need to pick the Adept Lock off the Sliding Door below his stall, then pick the Novice Lock off Madesi’s Strongbox to steal Madesi’s Silver Ring.

Once you have it, you now have to plant it on the Dark Elf, Brand-Shei; we can sneak in behind his stall to the crate wall he is sitting against. Once you are hidden in stealth, Pickpocket him, & plant Madesi’s Silver Ring into his Inventory – it has a very low difficulty modifier to beat. Just in case though, make sure you Quick Save before you attempt this; even at 80%+ chance of succeeding, you can still potentially fail!


Thieves Guild Quest #2 – Taking Care of Business: Once the ring has been planted, return to Brynjolf & he will task us with navigating the Ratway to get to the Thieves Guild hideout. Fight through the Ratway, & enter into the Ragged Flagon where we can meet up with Brynjolf.

Our next task to prove ourselves to the Thieves Guild will be to collect the debt of three people: Haelga, Bersi Honey-Hand, & Keerava.


Achievement #20 – A New You: Change your face.
Before we leave the Ragged Flagon, head up the small wooden wharf over the water to find the woman, Galathil. When we approach her, she will talk to us & introduce herself as the face sculptor. To earn this Dawnguard DLC Achievement, pay her 1000 Gold, & we will enter back into the Character Creator menu & can alter our appearance.

All we have to do is enter the menu to unlock the Achievement; you do not have to change your appearance if you do not want to. You can also reload a Save if you would like as well to keep that 1000 Gold…

Thieves Guild Quest #2 – Taking Care of Business: To get the debts from all three people, you will most likely have to complete the Optional Objectives you can receive by speaking further with Brynjolf. Either way, get all the debts collected & return back to see Brynjolf in the Ragged Flagon.


Achievement #21 – Taking Care of Business: Join the Thieves Guild.
Complete Thieves Guild Quest – Taking Care of Business to unlock this Achievement. We are officially a member of the Thieves Guild!

Thieves Guild Quest #3 – Loud & Clear: Follow Brynjolf into the Cistern & we will meet the guild leader, Mercer Frey.

Trainer – Vipir the Fleet: Now that we are in the Thieves Guild, all of their services will become available to us. With that, we can now learn Levels in the Pickpocket Skill from Vipir the Fleet. I strongly recommend you spend any excess Gold during your Level Ups to boost this Skill; as one of the two conditions for the Thief Achievement, we need to pick 50 Items from NPCs pockets. Having a high Level Pickpocket Skill will make this Achievement much easier…


Thieves Guild Quest #3 – Loud & Clear: When you are ready, set out to Goldenglow Estate & get ready for the heist; operating at night, wearing Light Armor, & dismissing your current Follower can drastically increase your odds of success at remaining stealthy… That being said, being stealthy is optional…

First you need to get to the Bee Hives – use the Flames Spell we begin the game with to burn all of them down. Next enter the Goldenglow Estate building & go to the Basement to locate Aringoth’s Safe. It is blocked by an Expert Lock; if you cannot manage to pick it, you will need to obtain the Key from Aringoth himself on the Second Floor of the estate.

Once the Bee Hives are burnt & the Goldenglow Bill of Sale has been looted from the Safe, return back to the Brynjolf in the Cistern.


Thieves Guild Quest #4 – Dampened Spirits: Regardless of how well or poorly you handled the mission, we will receive our next Quest from the Thieves Guild to meet with the feared, Maven Black-Briar. She will task us with helping her bring down the Black-Briar Meadery’s competition, the Honningbrew Meadery.


Thieves Guild Quest #4 – Dampened Spirits: Travel to the Bannered Mare in Whiterun, & seek out the man named Mallus Maccius. Maccius will tell us the plan of how we are going to take over the Honningbrew Meadery…

Travel to Honningbrew Meadery, & speak with Sabjorn about his current predicament at the Meadery. Receive the Pest Poison from him, & complete the job Maccius described for us… Be careful as there is a pretty difficult Destruction Mage deep in the Honningbrew Basement who can be quite the challenge.


Thieves Guild Quest #4 – Dampened Spirits: With the job completed & the Promissory Note collected, return back to Maven Black-Briar then to Brynjolf to complete the Quest.

Thieves Guild Quest #5 – Scoundrel’s Folly: Speak with Mercer about the information we gathered from the Promissory Note, & it will lead us to a potential contact of ours that has betrayed us. Gulum-Ei.

Gulum-Ei will be all the way over in Solitude however, so this is as far as we will continue in the Thieves Guild for now; if you want to progress further, do so.

1. The Rift: The Shadow Stone, Forelhost, Largashbur, Fallowstone Cave, Autumn Watchtower
2. Main Quests: N/A
3. Companions Quests: N/A
4. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
5. Side Quests: Siege On the Dragon Cult, The Cursed Tribe
6. Daedric Artifacts: 5/15
7. Standing Stones: 5/11
8. Shouts: 10/20
9. Achievements: 23/75
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With our short foray into the Thieves Guild completed, we can now move on to our mop up in the Rift.


Standing Stone #5 – The Shadow Stone: Exit Riften from its Southern gate, & begin heading directly South of it to immediately see a Standing Stone appear on our Compass. Take a trail up above Snow-Shod Farm, & we can find our next Standing Stone.


Side Quest – Siege On the Dragon Cult: From the Shadow Stone, we should be able to see a Nordic Ruin marked on our Compass East of our position (there is also a Dragon Lair South from us). To reach it however, you need to travel around the base of the mountain the ruin is on until you are at its Southeastern end. Here we can find the trail leading up to the summit.

At the summit, we will encounter the Imperial, Captain Valmir. Agree to help him, & we will receive Side Quest – Siege On the Dragon Cult; note that Forelhost is chalk full of very high Level Draugr, bring your A game. Fight through to the Crypt, obtain the Forelhost Well Key (or pick the Master Lock), & enter into the Refectory.

Fight through the Refectory, obtain the Glass Claw, & use it to pass into the vault room. Unfortunately, entering up the stairs in the vault will trigger a small army of difficult Draugr… along with the Dragon Priest, Rahgot. Remember, running away & re-stealthing is aways on option – kill who you can run away back into the dungeon, hide, & go back for another round.

When Rahgot & his merry men are defeated, we can collect the Dragon Priest Staff for the Side Quest as well as the Forelhost Balcony Key.

Shout #9 – Storm Call: While we are still in the vault, use the Forelhost Balcony Key to exit out onto the Battlements. Walk out along the Forelhost exterior & we will come across a Word Wall with this new Shout.

We can jump down from here to return to Captain Valmir as well to complete the Side Quest…


Side Quest – The Cursed Tribe: Return to the Shadow Stone once again, but this time begin making your way down the road West from Snow-Shod Farm towards the town, Ivarstead. As you travel down the road, you will eventually see an Orc Stronghold marked on your Compass further West. Cross a stone bridge when you near a Mill, & head over to the Orc Stronghold, Largashbur.

When we approach, the stronghold will currently be assaulted by a Giant. Help them kill it, & the witch Atub will speak with us. This stronghold is under a terrible curse, & to help them, we need to help them speak with the Daedric Prince, Malacath, for guidance.

To do this, we need to collect Troll Fat & a Daedra Heart. Both can be purchased from Herbalists if they have them in stock. Alternatively, we can find both of these Ingredients in Kodlak Whitemane’s room in Jorrvaskr. You will have to steal them though…

Once you have the two Ingredients, bring them to Atub & she will perform the ritual with Chief Yamarz present. To free Largashbur from the curse, Malacath will demand Chief Yamarz to retrieve the club of the Giant Chief. Of course, he won’t want to, & demand that we do so instead… so we will.


Side Quest – The Cursed Tribe: Follow Chief Yamarx to Fallowstone Cave, halfway across the Rift to the East, & escort him into the cave. Pass through the cave, & we will exit into the Giant’s Grove. When we approach the Giant Chief, Yamarz will give us a proposition. Decide what you will, but that Giant Chief will have to be slain.

Do so, & collect Shagrol’s Warhammer… & to no surprise, Yamarz will think he is actually the main character of the game.


Daedric Artifact #5 – Volendrung: With Shargrol’s Warhammer in hand, return back to Larbashbur & we will break the curse the tribe has been suffering. Place the warhammer on the shrine as instructed, & it will transform into Volendrung.


Shout #10 – Marked for Death: With Largashbur saved, Fast Travel to Haemar’s Shame in the snowy mountain pass at the far Eastern end of Falkreath Hold. From here, begin following the road down the hill to the East out of the mountain pass. Shortly after we exit the snow, we can find the Alchemist’s Shack off the side of the road; when we get this far, we can see a Dragon Lair marked on our Compass to the Southeast.

Head up to it, & we can see an old ruined watchtower. Kill the Dragon living here, & we can collect this new Shout at the very top of the tallest tower.

That was our final formal business to attend to in the Rift, our next stop will be further North into the Eastmarch Hold. Before we do so, tidy up any Misc Objectives or Side Quests in the area if you would like…


Achievement #22 – Explorer: Discover 100 Locations.
This will come to us naturally as we playthrough the game; the Rift is probably the earliest you will unlock this if you have been doing a lot of extracurricular exploring. If not, no rush as this is guaranteed to unlock at some point after we do our first tour through each of the eight Holds.

You can check how many Locations you have discovered in the General Tab in General Stats…


Achievement #23 – Sideways: Complete 10 Side Quests.
This should also come naturally during our first run through each of the eight Holds so long as you are diligent in speaking with folk. Not all Side Quests (such as Daedric Artifact Quests) count towards this Achievement & neither do any Faction Quests. Typically, only the obscure “randomly obtained” Side Quests count.

You may have also obtained Side Quests, but they tell you to go to areas not yet covered in the guide. This is fine, as we will get to them soon enough (unless you decide to go to the Holds early).

You can check how many Side Quests you have completed in the Quest Tab in General Stats as well…

Fort Dawnguard: While we can venture to Fort Dawnguard found at the far Southeastern end of the Rift, I strongly recommend saving this for Post Game. We can get some very strong Weapons & Armor from this DLC Questline, & to take the most advantage of it, it is best to leave until we are a much higher Level…

1. Eastmarch: Morvunskar, Windhelm, Bonestrewn Crest, The Atronach Stone, Sacellum of Boethiah
2. Main Quests: N/A
3. Companions Quests: N/A
4. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
5. Dark Brotherhood Quests: Innocence Lost, With Friends Like These…
6. Side Quests: A Night to Remember, Boethiah’s Calling
7. Daedric Artifacts: 7/15
8. Standing Stones: 6/11
9. Shouts: 11/20
10. Achievements: 23/75
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Side Quest – A Night to Remember: With our business finished for now in the Rift, it is time for us to continue Northward to Morvunskar to finally track down Sam Guevenne. The Fort will be full of different kinds of Mages we will have to defeat; be careful as some of them can kill you in seconds if you are not careful!

Get to the main chamber & kill the “boss” Mage & approach where our Quest Marker leads. When we reach the destination up the stairs, a portal will open to the Misty Grove…

Daedric Artifact #6 – Sanguine Rose: Enter through the portal, & we can find Sam at a banquet table along with a few… familiar faces? Speak with him, & just like that, we will be rewarded with the staff… & Sam will reveal himself to be not who he seemed…

Once we have the staff, “Sam” will teleport us back to whichever Tavern we first encountered him in.

Now, we can travel straight to Windhelm; it is as far North as we will be going for now. Like most cities, there are many different Side Quests & Miscellaneous Objectives we can collect here.

Ulfric Stormcloak: The Jarl of Windhelm is also none other than Ulfric Stormcloak himself! But, even if you wish to join his ranks, hold off on doing so for now; though we have to join a side for the Civil War Questline, it causes much upheaval in the process (NPCs may die) & is best done after we do our first run through of all the Holds...

You can re-introduce yourself to Ulfric, but do not talk with his war commander, Galmar Stone-Fist…

Gjalun Salt-Sage: If you are quite the explorer of Windhelm, you may also encounter Gjalun Salt-Sage. He is the Ship Captain that will take us to Solstheim, an entirely new Region from the Dragonborn DLC. You could pop over there early if you’d like, but ultimately, it will be the very last place we end up going during our 100%...

Miscellaneous Objective – Talk to Aventus Aretino: Once you have explored Windhelm, it will be time to get on with our only real important business here: the Dark Brotherhood. If you did not already have this Misc Objective, you are bound to collect it here in Windhelm as everyone is talking about it.

Go to the Aretino Residence, & we can find Aventus… performing the Black Sacrament.

Dark Brotherhood Quest #1 – Innocence Lost: Speak to Aventus Aretino, & he will beseech us to kill his old caretaker, Grelod the Kind. Even though we are most certainly not an Agent of the Dark Brotherhood… our character is chronically addicted to questing… & that sounded like a quest… so, (Censored by Steam) it, let’s go kill her I guess.

Travel to Riften, & go to Honorhall Orphanage where we can find Grelod the Kind. So long as we do not cause a scene, the Guards will be none the wiser of our crime... Do the deed as you see fit, then return back to Aventus to tell him the news.

When we complete the Quest, we will not receive another one immediately…

Dark Brotherhood Quest #2 – With Friends Like These…: Go & sleep in any Bed… & we will wake up somewhere else. We have been captured by an agent of the Dark Brotherhood, Astrid. To leave the Abandoned Shack we were taken to, we must do as she asks & murder one of the three other captives here – one of which being guilty. Do not attack Astrid! Attacking her here will make her hostile, & void the entire Dark Brotherhood Questline!

Vasha is the most blatantly “evil” & is an obvious choice. Alea Quintus is a single mother & gives off some Karen energy, however in this day & age of Skyrim, that is no simple task & she can be forgiven for that – outwardly, there are no red flags she presents. Lastly we have Fultheim the Fearless, who is practically in tears; he is a mercenary & most certainly has not done great things… but neither have we in that same sense.

Technically, there is no wrong answer & you can kill anyone of them (or all of them) to please Astrid. Take your pick, & we will be allowed to leave. We will also be invited to go to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary located in Falkreath Hold…




Shout #11 – Frost Breath: Before we carry on with the Dark Brotherhood, we can do some quick errands around Eastmarch. Travel through the hot spring taiga lands South of Windhelm, towards a Dragon Lair called Bonestrewn Crest.

Kill the Dragon, & we can find the Word Wall at the peak of Bonestrewn Crest.


Standing Stone #6 – The Atronach Stone: While at the peak of Bonestrewn Crest, we will have a Standing Stone marked on our Compass South of our location. Head to it, & discover it; it is unguarded…


Side Quest – Boethiah’s Calling: Now it is time for another Daedric Quest. Unless you were lucky & stumbled upon a Book called Boethiah’s Proving, we will not currently have this Quest or the Location marked. Finding it is fortunately very simple, & you can just travel in a straight line directly East from the Windhelm Stables.

As soon as you approach the Daedric Shrine, you will acquire the Side Quest. Speak with the Priestess of Boethiah, & we will be given some very disturbing instructions. To progress the Quest, we need to slay a Follower at Boethiah’s Shrine; I recommend simply recruiting a Mercenary from a Tavern & killing them. We can kill Jenassa from The Drunken Huntsman & Uthgerd the Unbroken from The Bannered Mare in Whiterun, Marcurio from The Bee & Barb in Riften, Stenvar from Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm, any Housecarl, & many other potential Followers. Obviously do not kill anyone you can’t live without…

Once you have chosen your sacrifice, take them to the Sacellum of Boethiah, make your Follower interact with the Pillar of Sacrifice, equip the Blade of Sacrifice, &… sacrifice the sacrifice… Boethiah will take control of our dead Follower as a vessel, & she will make demands of us. But first we must become her champion, & to do that, we must defeat anyone else who wants the honor… which is literally every one of the Boethiah Cultists.

Once we are the only one alive, Boethiah will command us to kill her current champion at Knifepoint Ridge. Knifepoint Ridge is somewhere we should already be familiar in Falkreath Hold when we became a Thane there. Enter inside Knifepoint Mine… & kill everyone.

Daedric Artifact #7 – Ebony Mail: Slay the Champion of Boethiah, & we can collect the Ebony Mail. Put it on (from you own Inventory not from the Champion’s) & we will become Boethiah’s new champion… So it shall be.

1. Falkreath Hold: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
2. The Reach: Markarth
3. Eastmarch: Shearpoint, Raldbthar
4. Hjaalmarch: Morthal
5. Main Quests: N/A
6. Companions Quests: N/A
7. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
8. Dark Brotherhood Quests: With Friends Like These…, Sanctuary, Mourning Never Comes, Whispers In the Dark
9. Side Quests: Laid to Rest
10. Daedric Artifacts: 7/15
11. Standing Stones: 6/11
12. Shouts: 12/20
13. Achievements: 25/75
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Dark Brotherhood Quest #2 – With Friends Like These…: Travel to the marked Location of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary found West of Falkreath. Speak the password, & go & speak with Astrid. Welcome to the family…


Achievement #24 – With Friends Like These…: Join the Dark Brotherhood.
We will receive this Achievement after we complete Dark Brotherhood Quest – With Friends Like These as the description suggests.

Dark Brotherhood Quest #3 – Sanctuary: Go & speak with Nazir, & we will receive three Contract Quests to kill some NPCs. The three Contracts we will be receive are for: Narfi, Ennodius Papius, & Beitild. In terms of our exploration, we can kill all of them except for Beitild as he is located in Dawnstar; it won’t matter though. For now, only kill Narfi & Ennodius Papius, & we will finish the final Contract later on…

None of these NPCs are important in any way, however you need to be careful when eliminating them so you do not have collateral & accidentally kill other NPCs who ARE important…

Dark Brotherhood Quest #4 – Mourning Never Comes: When you return to the Sanctuary to turn in at least one completed Contract, we will see the Family speaking with the Dark Brotherhood Keeper, Cicero. When the scene is over, speak with Astrid, & she will give us a new Quest in Markarth…


Dark Brotherhood Quest #4 – Mourning Never Comes: Go to Markarth & track down Muiri. She will task us with slaying her ex-boyfriend, Alain Dufont, who is a Bandit leader hiding out in the Dwemer Ruins, Raldbthar. We also will get an Optional Objective to kill Nilsine Shatter-Shield in Windhelm; if you pursue this one, be careful not to kill anyone else as collateral!


Dark Brotherhood Quest #4 – Mourning Never Comes: Travel to Raldbthar, kill Alain Dufont, simple.

Aetherium Shard #3: Conveniently, we can also find another Aetherium Shard here in Raldbthar. Progress down into the depths of Raldbthar & reach the end of the Deep Market. Remove the blockages obstructing some gears in the central cavern, & a bridge will drop releasing a Dwemer Centurian.

Defeat it, & we will link up with Katria shortly after. Progress to the loot room & we can collect another Aetherium Shard…


Dark Brotherhood Quest #5 – Whispers In the Dark: After telling Muiri the task has been done, return to Astrid at the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary & she will task us with spying on the new arrival, Cicero. Sneak over to where Cicero has set himself up in the Sanctuary, & listen in to his conversation… with himself. It is here that we will discover that we are… the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, a most hallowed of honors. “Darkness rises when silence dies…”

Things will stagnate after this, & we will need to speak with Nazir once again for another set of Contracts… however, since we have yet to kill Beitild (unless you already have), we will be unable to receive new Contracts. This is where we will pause the Dark Brotherhood, & continue further on in exploring more Holds…


Shout #12 – Throw Voice: Before we carry on to Morthal next, Fast Travel back to Raldbthar & look West on your Compass to see a Dragon’s Lair. Head over to it, & you will discover Shearpoint.

Be carful! Not only is there a Dragon, but if you get too close to the Word Wall here, the Dragon Priest Krosis will emerge from its sarcophagus. Defeat the Dragon first, then approach the Wall to defeat Krosis…


Achievement #25 – Words of Power: Learn all 3 Words of a Shout.
Not only will we learn the first Word to Throw Voice here… but we will actually learn all three Words; apart from Story Related Shouts, this is the only other Word Wall in the game that has all three Words to a Shout.

You do not need to use Dragon Souls to unlock the Words – simply obtaining them is enough to unlock the Achievement…

Complete all business located in our previous explored Holds, & it will now be time to return West, & travel to Morthal – take a Horse Carriage for expedience…

Side Quest – Laid to Rest: When we arrive in Morthal, we will see a bit of a commotion going on outside the Jarl’s longhouse, Highmoon Hall. Enter inside, & speak with Jarl Idgrod Ravencrone about what is going on, & we will learn that someone’s house was burned down.

Agree to help the Jarl discover what became of things, & we shall do just that – completing this Side Quest will progress us to becoming a Thane of Morthal, & earn us our next Homestead for the Hearthfire DLC…

When we investigate the burnt ruins of Hroggar’s House, we will immediately encounter the ghost of his daughter, Helgi. Play with her in a game of hide & seek at nightfall, & we can find her up the hill from the ruined house in a graveyard immediately Northwest of the house. Interact with the Child’s Coffin (at night)… & we will be attacked by a Vampire named, Laelette. This will progress the Quest, & we will need to do a few more tasks around Morthal. Speak to Thonnir, investigate Alva’s House & find her Journal, then show the Journal to the Jarl.

Jarl Raven Crone will gather the able-bodied townsfolk of the village to join us in an extermination quest to take out Alva & her coven at Morvarth’s Lair.

Enter Morvarth’s Lair, & kill Morvarth Piquine… though Alva is not tied to completing the Quest, we can in fact find her here in the lair as well…

Miscellaneous Objective – Assist the People of Hjaalmarch: Return to Jarl Idgrod Ravencrone, complete the Side Quest, & ask her if she needs anything else done around Morthal. To become a Thane of Morthal, we must complete three Miscellaneous Objectives for the people.

To complete this easily, seek out & defeat Benor in a Brawl, agree to locate the Song of the Alchemists Book for Lami (we do not have to actually find it), & deliver a Letter from Idgrod the Younger to Danica Pure-Spring back in Whiterun.

Alternatively you can also chop Firewood & sell it to Jorgen at the Morthal Mill or mine Iron Ore & sell it to Gestur Rockbreaker.

Once at least three citizens of Morthal have been helped, return to the Jarl, & she will name us Thane.

1. Hjaalmarch: Winstad Manor, The Apprentice Stone, Eldersblood Peak, The Lord Stone, Orotheim
2. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun
3. Falkreath Hold: Glenmoril Coven
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Companions Quests: Striking the Heart, Blood’s Honor, Purity of Revenge
6. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
7. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
8. Side Quests: N/A
9. Daedric Artifacts: 7/15
10. Standing Stones: 8/11
11. Shouts: 13/20
12. Achievements: 27/75
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Winstad Manor: As Thane of Morthal, speak with the Jarl’s steward, Aslfur, & we can purchase a lot of land from him for 5000 Gold. Purchase it, & we will acquire our second of three Homesteads for the Hearthfire DLC.

By this point in the game, you should not only be loaded with Gold, but ideally will also have a good stockpile of Iron Ingots & other Building Materials.

For the Master Architect Achievement, we need to fully build three Wings on all three different Homesteads. You can build multiple of the same Wing as well so long as all three Homesteads have three Wings fully completed from the Carpenter’s Workbench.




Standing Stone #7 – The Apprentice Stone: Fast Travel to Morthal, & head across the bridge to the North end of town. Once you are standing beside the Lumber Mill, look Northwest to see a Standing Stone marked on your Compass. Head to it, & we will discover our next Standing Stone…


Shout #13 – Disarm: Return back to Morthal & this time take the road leading South out of the town, then follow the road West. A short ways down the road, we can see a path leading South into the snow towards the nearby mountain. Take this new path, & we can see a Pass (eventually two of them) marked on our Compass. Follow the path up, & we will discover North Cold Rock Pass.

The Pass can be ignored, & you can continue up the path to some stone stairs leading to the mountain summit. Get to the peak, kill the Dragon, & we can collect this new Shout at the Word Wall…


Achievement #26 – Dragon Hunter: Absorb 20 Dragon Souls.
Depending on how much you explore & how much time you’ve put into your playthrough already you may or may not be close to unlocking this Achievement. Fortunately, this Achievement will come naturally over our 100%. There are many Dragons we will fight through the Story, at Dragon’s Lairs where Shouts are, & of course random encounters…


Standing Stone #8 – The Lord Stone: Once again, return back to Morthal & take the South road out of town. This time, take the road Eastward & a little ways down it, we can see a Nordic Ruin marked on our Compass to the South. As well, we can see a large set of stone stairs leading up to it.

Take the stairs up, & we will enter Labyrinthian. Labyrinthian is tied to a neat Side Quest involving the collection of all 8 Dragon Priest Masks. Unfortunately, there is no Achievement for this, but I do recommend checking it out. There are two different Shouts we can find here as well, but we already have one of them & the other will be earned during the Civil War Questline…

Exit Southeast out of Labyrinthian, & we can see a Dragon’s Lair on our Compass to the North. Head to it, & we will get to Skyborn Altar; we already have the first Word of the Shout here as well… At Skyborn Altar, we can see a Standing Stone marked on our Compass to the Northeast. We can also see a Daedric Shrine marked on our Compass close by as well; this is for the infamous Mehrunes Dagon. While we cannot do anything at the Shrine right now, it is most certainly a Location we will be returning to later on…

Parkour over the rocky cliffs like we are not supposed to, & make your way to the new Standing Stone. Defeat the Bandits hiding out here, & discover the Standing Stone.


Companions Quest #5 – Striking the Heart: Now it will finally be time to continue the Companions Questline. Nearby Eldersblood Peak, we can find the Cave called Orotheim where a leader of the Silver Hand is hiding.


Achievement #27 – Reader: Read 50 Skill Books.
If you are diligent in your looting, you may unlock this Achievement at some point during this or the next Sequence. Skill Books have set spawn points as well as appearing as randomly spawned loot; you can typically tell it is a Skill Book when looking at it as their appraised value will be over 50 Gold whereas most Books sell for under 10 Gold.

You can check how many more Skill Books you still need to read in the General Tab of your General Stats. There is no sense looking up Skill Book locations (yet) as there is still so much more of the game we have left. You will most likely read over 100 Skill Books by the end of our 100%...


Companions Quest #6 – Blood’s Honor: With the Silver Hand lieutenant dead, return back to see Aela at Jorrvaskr. Speak with her again for more work, & she will tell us that Kodlak has found out about us wiping out the Silver Hand & wants to speak with us.

Kodlak will tell us of a way to cure the lycanthropy curse afflicting the Companions, or at the very least himself, so that his spirit may go to Sovngarde when he dies.


Companions Quest #6 – Blood’s Honor: To break the curse, we need to hunt down the last surviving Glenmoril Witches & slay them. There are 5 Glenmoril Witches total & each one will give us a severed head we can collect – these are pretty important as they are used to cure lycanthropy. Even if you do not plan to cure yourself, I would strongly recommend collecting them all & storing them some place safe in case you want to later on…


Companions Quest #7 – Purity of Revenge: Return back to Jorrvaskr after all of the Glenmoril Witches have been slain… & there will be trouble. The Silver Hand have attacked the Companions! Kodlak… is dead, & they have stolen all of the Fragments of Wuuthrad.

Vilkus will team up with us, & together we will need to go to the Driftshade Refuge in the Pale region.

1. The Pale: Dawnstar, Driftshade Refuge, The Tower Stone, Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon
2. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun
3. Winterhold: Ysgramor’s Tomb
4. Hjaalmarch: Morthal
5. Falkreath Hold: Cracked Tusk Keep
6. Main Quests: N/A
7. Companions Quests: Purity of Revenge, Glory of the Dead
8. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
9. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
10. Side Quests: Pieces of the Past, Waking Nightmare
11. Daedric Artifacts: 9/15
12. Standing Stones: 9/11
13. Shouts: 13/20
14. Achievements: 28/75
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With our business completed in Hjaalmarch, & pressing business in the North, take a Carriage to Dawnstar or travel there on foot.

Miscellaneous Objective – Visit the Museum In Dawnstar: Before we chase after the Silver Hand, there are a few side errands we can do here in Dawnstar first. We will have received an invitation to see the Dawnstar museum for a very long time, it is time we do just that.

Side Quest – Pieces of the Past: The museum is dedicated to the terrible, Mythic Dawn cult, who were the main enemies during Elder Scrolls IV – Oblivion. Speak with Silus, & he will give us a job to track down the missing three pieces to the Daedric Artifact, Mehrunes’ Razor; we will already have found the Pommel Stone when we were raiding Dead Crone Rock earlier on in the guide…

Side Quest – Waking Nightmare: If you have been speaking with townsfolk around Dawnstar, you will learn that everyone has been having terrible nightmares & have not slept in weeks. Enter into the Windpeak Inn, & we can find the Priest of Mara, Erandur. Speak with him, & he will reveal that the cause of the nightmares is because of the Daedric Princess, Vaermina.

To stop them, we must travel with him to Nightcaller Temple; this is a relatively short Side Quest & we may as well do it now. Tediously follow behind Erandur, & he will lead us up to the temple. When we enter Nightcaller Temple, Vilkas (or your current Follower) will wait for you outside.

Save often during this Side Quest as there are a lot of potential ways it can mess up on you!

Daedric Artifact #8 – Skull of Corruption: The Skull of Corruption will be revealed to be the source of Vaermina’s power here in the temple – help Erandur breach the inner sanctum by Dreamstriding, & get to it. Kill Erandur’s old friends, & he will then dispel the barrier around the Skull of Corruption.

Once the barrier is down, Erandur will begin a ritual to destroy it. While he does this, Vaermina herself will speak to us & command us to kill him. We cannot allow Erandur to destroy the staff as it is one of our 15 Daedric Artifacts we need! Regardless of whether or not she is deceiving us, kill Erandur, & claim the staff!


Companions Quest #7 – Purity of Revenge: Now it is time to avenge Kodlak. Travel with Vilkas Southeast from Dawnstar to the Silver Hand stronghold, the Driftshade Refuge. Kill them all, & reclaim the Fragments of Wuuthrad. Once they are collected… return them to Jorrvaskr.


Companions Quest #9 – Glory of the Dead: Attend Kodlak’s funeral at the skyforge. When the funeral is over, meet with the remaining members of the inner Circle in the Underforge. Before we do, speak with Eorlund Grey-Mane, & deliver the Fragments of Wuuthrad to him so it can be reforged…

In the Underforge, the plan of “what is next” will be discussed. No sooner did we give Eorlund the Fragments of Wuuthrad will he enter the Underforge with the axe fully reconstructed… the man really is the best smith in Skyrim! He will also know exactly what is going on.

With Wuuthrad & our Glenmoril Witch Heads, we must travel to the Ysgramor’s Tomb & free Kodlak’s soul from the curse of Hircine. This is our final Companions Quest.


Standing Stone #9 – The Tower Stone: To reach Ysgramor’s Tomb, Fast Travel back to Driftshade Refuge, & begin heading directly North from it to the Northern coastline of Skyrim. As we draw near, we should see a Standing Stone marked on our Compass Northeast from us – it is located on top of a plateau overlooking the ocean.


Companions Quest #9 – Glory of the Dead: Press on Northeast, across the ocean, to the island Ysgramor’s Tomb is found on. Place Wuuthrad in the hands of Ysgramor’s statue, & we can progress into the tomb towards the burial chamber.

Place one of the five Glenmoril Witch Heads into the Flame of the Harbinger, & we will need to slay Kodlak’s Wolf Spirit. Once it is dead, Kodlak’s soul will finally be free, & he will travel on to Sovngarde.


Achievement #28 – Glory of the Dead: Complete Glory of the Dead.
With Kodlak’s soul freed, he will name us the new Harbinger of the Companions, & we will complete the Companions Questline – unlocking this Achievement.

Curing Lycanthropy: If you interact with the Flame of the Harbinger while having a Glenmoril Witch Head in your Inventory, it will be consumed, & our very own Wolf Spirit will appear. Slaying it will cure us of our Lycanthropy & we will no longer be a Werewolf.

Only do this AFTER you have acquired all Werewolf Perks & unlocked the Werewolf Mastered Achievement. If you do not have the Achievement, keep feasting on Hearts as a Werewolf until you are able to purchase all Perks. Once the Achievement is unlocked, it is up to you if you want to stay a Werewolf or not – be sure to hold onto & store the remaining Glenmoril Witch Heads somewhere safe since we cannot collect anymore!

While we can speak with Aela at anytime to be turned back into a Werewolf, we can only revert our Lycanthropy 4 times!


Side Quest – Pieces of the Past: Now, it is time to collect the remaining pieces to Mehrunes’ Razor. First, travel to Morthal & speak with the lumber mill operator, Jorgen. Convince him to give you the Key to his Chest & collect the Hilt of Mehrunes’ Razor.


Side Quest – Pieces of the Past: The final piece to Mehrunes’ Razor can be found in Cracked Tusk Keep located Southwest of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. The Fortress is actually a rogue Orc Stronghold; kill the Orcs clan chief, Ghunzul, & collect the Cracked Tusk Vault Key off of him. Use the Vault Key to enter into the Cracked Tusk Vaults & collect the Shards of Mehrunes’ Razor.


Side Quest – Pieces of the Past: Deliver all three pieces to Mehrunes’ Razor back to Silus in Dawnstar, & he will ask us to meet him at the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon to reforge the blade. Since we found The Lord Stone already, we can get to the shrine very quickly.

Daedric Artifact #9 – Mehrunes’ Razor: To receive Mehrunes’ Razor as our next Daedric Artifact, speak with the Daedric Prince & agree to kill Silus Vesuius for him. With Silus dead, Mehrunes Dagon will reforge the blade.

1. The Pale: Dawnstar, Heljarchen Hall
2. Falkreath Hold: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
3. The Rift: Riften
4. Winterhold: Winterhold, Saarthal
5. Main Quests: N/A
6. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
7. Dark Brotherhood Quests: The Silence Has Been Broken, Bound Unto Death
8. College of Winterhold: First Lessons, Under Saarthal
9. Side Quests: N/A
10. Daedric Artifacts: 9/15
11. Standing Stones: 9/11
12. Shouts: 14/20
13. Achievements: 32/75
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Dark Brotherhood Quest – Contract Kill Beitild: With Dawnstar now discovered, we can finally kill our final target for the Dark Brotherhood. Wait until late at night when she has gone home for the day to kill her; killing her out in the open will most likely give you a Bounty in The Pale…

Miscellaneous Objective – Kill the Giant In Red Road Pass: With the nightmares dealt with in Dawnstar, speak with Jarl Skald for work to receive this Misc Objective; we need to become a Thane of Dawnstar to receive our final Homestead.

Travel to the Giant Camp Southwest of Dawnstar & kill the Giant here.

Return back to Jarl Skald to turn in the Quest, & we will be able to purchase land from him to build our final Homestead.


Achievement #30 – Land Baron: Buy 3 plots of Land.
We will unlock this Achievement after purchasing Lakeview Manor from the Jarl in Falkreath, Winstad Manor from the Jarl in Morthal, & Heljarchen Hall from the Jarl in Dawnstar.



Achievement #31 – Master Architect: Build 3 Houses.
For this Achievement we need to fully build an East, West, & North Wing for all three of our Homesteads. The Wings do not have to all be different & you can build the same Wing multiple times so long as it is fully built.

Before completing Homesteads, make sure to Save beforehand & check to see if you have an internet connection/your Steam Achievements are available. Build each piece slowly, & if you are confident that your progress is being tracked, continue. Your final Homestead is the most critical to taking these steps into account. If done correctly, & there are no more projects left to build on all three Homesteads Drafting Tables (not including the adding/removing of Workbenches) we will unlock this Achievement.

We have now fully completed the Hearthfire DLC.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #6 – The Silence Has Been Broken: With all our Contract Kills completed, return back to Nazir at the Sanctuary. As soon as we head down the stairs inside, Astrid will confront us, & give us our new Dark Brotherhood Quest – this is technically independent of Nazir’s Contracts & could have been collected earlier if you returned to the Sanctuary after enough time has passed…

Directly West from Heljarchen Hall will be the Nordic Ruin, Volunruud, where we can find our contact, Amaund Motierre. Speak with him… & he will task us with killing the current Emperor of Tamriel.

Return to Astrid, & the contract will be a go. First we need to get some things in order…


Dark Brotherhood Quest #6 – The Silence Has Been Broken: To make sure that the Brotherhood is being properly compensated, we need to get the Jeweled Amulet we received from Motierre appraised. To do this, we will go see Delvin Mallory in the Thieves Guild.

In exchange for the amulet, we will receive an extraordinary amount of “Delvin Mallory Credits” that we will need to take back to Astrid.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #6 – The Silence Has Been Broken: Now things will be set into motion, & we will be tasked with killing a bride at her own wedding… She is the first cousin of the Emperor & she is marrying a Stormcloak – silencing her will pause reconciliation between the Empire & the Stormcloaks.

The wedding takes place in Solitude, the final city I am saving last for us; if you wish to carry on with the Dark Brotherhood, feel free to do so & crash the wedding. If not, then let’s pretend that the wedding reception isn’t being held just yet.

A bit redundant for naming conventions, but before we head to Solitude, let’s go to the second last region we have not been to yet. Winterhold. Find a Carriage or travel there on foot…

Miscellaneous Objective – Visit the College of Winterhold: At long last, we will now encounter our final of the four Factions we need to join, the Mages College. As we head towards it, we will be stopped in our tracks by a woman named Faralda. To enter the College, we must first pass an entry test…

College of Winterhold Quest #1 – First Lessons: The test will require us to cast a randomly designated Spell at or on the flagstone ahead of us. If you do not already possess the Spell, you should be able to purchase it from the High Elf Mage, Nelacar, who is currently staying at The Frozen Hearth inn.


Achievement #32 – Gatekeeper: Join the College of Winterhold.
Pass Faralda’s junior Spell casting test, or by Persuading her to let you in to unlock the Achievement.

College of Winterhold Quest #1 – First Lessons: Meet with our handler, Mirabelle Ervine, & she will take us on a tour of the College grounds – no matter what time of day it is. After the tour, we will be told to listen in on an ongoing lecture by the Mage, Tolfdir, in the Hall of Elements. For me, this ended up being a 3am lecture for my character… oof.


College of Winterhold Quest #2 – Under Saarthal: When the lecture is finished, we will be invited on a field trip to go tour the Nordic Ruin, Saarthal, which is currently being excavated by the Mages College. Travel there, & you may have to wait for everyone else to physically walk there…

Once Tolfdir is standing in front of the entrance, speak with him, & we will be able to head inside. Tolfdir will then pass us off to go help Arniel Gane who will send us out to look for Magical Artifacts. This will set into motion a bigger plot…

Complete some simple puzzles (the answers will be behind or above the symbols) & we will enter the grand chamber. Help Tolfdir defeat one of the three Gauldurson brothers, & we will discover something grand – we will have to report back to the College to tell the Arch Mage!

Shout #14 – Ice Form: To leave Saarthal, we will need to progress past the magical artifact into the next room. Here we will drop down into a room with a Word Wall containing this new Shout.

1. Winterhold: College of Winterhold
2. Whiterun Hold: Fellglow Keep
3. Eastmarch: Mzulft
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
6. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
7. College of Winterhold: Hitting the Books, Good Intentions, Revealing the Unseen, Containment
8. Side Quests: N/A
9. Daedric Artifacts: 9/15
10. Standing Stones: 9/11
11. Shouts: 14/20
12. Achievements: 34/75
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College of Winterhold Quest #3 – Hitting the Books: Return back to the College & inform the Arch Mage of what we discovered. While he goes off to Saarthal to see it for himself, we will be tasked with doing some research about it here at the College. Go the Arcanaeum & speak with the librarian, Urag gro-Shub. Unfortunately, he will tell us that the info we need is most likely in the Books that a rogue Mage, Orthorn, stole from the Arcanaeum. We will need to get them back.


College of Winterhold Quest #3 – Hitting the Books: Orthorn can be found at Fellglow Keep located in the river pass East of Whiterun & Southeast from Heljarchen Hall. Fight through the rogue Mages, & collect the three missing Books; though not required, we can save Orthorn who is trapped in the Fellglow Keep Dungeons.

When you reach the Fellglow Ritual Chamber, we will encounter the Caller. We need those Books… find a way to get them back…


College of Winterhold Quest #4 – Good Intentions: With the stolen tomes in hand, return back to Urag gro-Shub & we will get in his good books… With that done, go speak with Tolfdir next & mention what Urag said about the Book, Night of Tears.

As we discuss the relic… the Aldmeri, Ancano, will arrive to drag us away. Though the reason why is definitely interesting, but his presence will complicate things. In case you are not fully familiar with Elder Scrolls lore, the Aldmeri Dominion are technically very bad & used to rule the world before they were taken down (this is the entire plot of Elder Scrolls Online which take place almost a century before ES3 – Morrowind & ES4 – Oblivion; Skyrim taking place around 200 years after ES4).

Go to the Arch Mages Quarters & we will speak with this new visitor about what they are after. The visitor will tell us to seek out the Augur of Dunlain; to find out who or what that is, go confer with Tolfdir. Tolfdir will tell us that we can find the Augur of Dunlain down in the Midden below the College.

Search the Midden, & we will find the Augur of Dunlain… as it is.

College of Winterhold Quest #5 – Revealing the Unseen: After speaking with Dunlain, report back to the Arch Mage of what it told us. We need to find the Staff of Magnus next to help us deal with the potential threat of the Saarthal artifact. Speak with Mirabelle next & she will point us to the Dwemer Ruin, Mzulft…


College of Winterhold Quest #5 – Revealing the Unseen: Travel to Mzulft & enter inside. Progress to the Aedrome, passing through all the other long areas of Mzulft before it, & we will reach the Oculory – to access it, you will have to search around for the Mzulft Observatory Key found in the rooms East of the locked doors.

Open the doors, & we will find the last surviving Synod Mage, Paratus Decimius. Place the Crystal (we collected from a Falmer in the previous room) into the center of the Dwarven Armillary & we will commence a potentially tricky puzzle; you will need the Spells Flames & Frostbite equipped which can be found/learned up where the three Buttons are. It is important you specifically use Flames & Frostbite as using other Spells of the same element have different damage outputs that will affect the puzzle differently.

Once the Crystal is set, we now need to focus the three off shooting beams to all point up to the center of the Oculory. Without doing anything else, walk down to the center of the Oculory, & use Frostbite three times on the Dwarven Armillary lenses (it doesn’t matter where you hit it) & the beams will be aimed at each of one of the three rings around the ceiling. If you overshoot, use Flames to reverse your lens position.

With this done, head up to where the three Buttons are & each one will control one of the three rings. Rotate the rings using the Buttons until each beam is hitting one of the large mirrors on the rings to direct the beam back to the center. Once this is done, we will complete the puzzle!


Achievement #33 – Delver: Clear 50 dungeons.
This should come naturally as we playthrough the game, even if you do not explore around too much. To Clear a dungeon, you typically need to either: complete Quest criteria, loot the rare Chest at the end, discover the Word on a Word Wall, kill the dungeon boss, etc. When you do this, if you hover your cursor over a Location on your Map it will say Cleared. Dungeons can be anything from Caves, Fortresses, Nordic Ruins, Dwemer Ruins, or even Dragon Lairs.

Sometimes, a Location will not say Cleared when it is completed & that can be for a variety of reasons like missing something or because it has more Quest related objectives later on. Either way, you will unlock this Achievement after Clearing your 50th dungeon; you can check your progress in the General Tab of the General Stats menu.

Aetherium Shard #4: Exit out of Mzulft, but do not Fast Travel away yet. Track the Side Quest – Lost to the Ages, over towards the Dwarven Storeroom just below the steps to Mzulft to locate yet another Aetherium Shard.



Achievement #34 – Revealing the Unseen: Complete Revealing the Unseen.
With the Oculory puzzle completed, it is time we report back to the College. When we do, there will be an issue with the Eye of Magnus… Complete College of Winterhold Quest – Revealing the Unseen, & we will unlock this Achievement.

College of Winterhold Quest #6 – Containment: Exit the College, & Winterhold will be under attack from Magic Anomalies! Kill them all return back to Mirabelle to find out what to do next.

1. Hjaalmarch: Labyrinthian
2. Winterhold: College of Winterhold, Shrine of Azura, Winterhold, The Serpent Stone, Septimus Signus’s Outpost, Alftand
3. Falkreath Hold: Ilinalta’s Deep
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
6. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
7. College of Winterhold: The Staff of Magnus, The Eye of Magnus
8. Side Quests: The Black Star, Discerning the Transmundane
9. Daedric Artifacts: 10/15
10. Standing Stones: 10/11
11. Shouts: 15/20
12. Achievements: 35/75
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College of Winterhold Quest #7 – The Staff of Magnus: To stop what is happening to the Eye, we need to locate the Staff of Magnus. We can find the Staff in the mythical Nordic Ruin, Labyrinthian; use the Torc of Labyrinthian given to us by Mirabelle to enter inside. Progress through the ruin witnessing past visions of the Arch Mage & some of his colleagues along the way.

Shout #15 – Slow Time: Progress through to the Labyrinthian Tribune, & we will come across a Word Wall just before we reach the Staff of Magnus containing the first Word to this new Shout; it is impossible to miss.

College of Winterhold Quest #7 – The Staff of Magnus: Carry on into the central chamber… & we will be witnessing something alarming. Disrupt the Enthralled Wizards, & we will need to take down a ghostly Dragon Priest, Morokei. Like most Dragon Priests, Morokei is very dangerous & can cast some very powerful Spells! Defeat Morokei, & we can collect the Staff of Magnus.


College of Winterhold Quest #8 – The Eye of Magnus: With the Staff of Magnus, rush back to the College & use it to breach the barrier that the Eye of Magnus has put around it. Enter into the Hall of Elements, & undo this entire catastrophe once & for all!


Achievement #35 – The Eye of Magnus: Complete The Eye of Magnus.
The Psijic order will arrive & transport the Eye of Magnus out of the College of Winterhold & away to a safer place. In doing this, we will complete College of Winterhold Quest – The Eye of Magnus & unlock our final associated Achievement.

Don’t ask me why WE were made the new Arch Mage… you’d think it would be passed on to Tolfdir instead? Regardless, as of now we are fully finished with Achievement related business with the College of Winterhold!




Side Quest – The Black Star: With our business at the College complete, we can now explore around the Winterhold region. To start, head due East from Saarthal & we will come across the Shrine of Azura – you will probably see it with your own eyes before it even appears on your Compass… it is massive. Head up to the Shrine, & we will find the Daedric priestess, Aranea Ienith. Speak with her, & she will tell us of Azura’s prophesy & that we are her foreseen champion.

The prophesy speaks of an Elven Mage who can “turn the brightest star as black as night”. The Elf she speaks of, is the High Elf named Nelacar at the Frozen Hearth inn in Winterhold.

Go there, & Nelacar will tell us that the location of Azura’s Star is in the hands of a different Elf named Malyn – he can be found at Ilinalta’s Deep…


Side Quest – The Black Star: Go to the marked Fortress found on an island in Lake Ilinalta. Fight through the Necromancers inside, & we will eventually reach the skeleton of Malyn Varen. At his feet, we can find the Broken Azura’s Star. Collect it, & we will need to take it back to Nelacar…


Side Quest – The Black Star: Now we have a decision to make: take the Broken Azura’s Star to Nelacar to forge the Black Star or to Aranea to forge Azura’s Star. Both options will grant as a Daedric Artifact required for the Oblivion Walker Achievement. The Daedric Artifact we will receive is an infinitely reusable Soul Gem which is extremely useful. In my opinion, the Black Star is much better than Azura’s Star as it functions like a Black Soul Gem & can contain Human Souls whereas Azura’s Star cannot. That being said, it can only contain Human Souls & not any other; choose whichever you think is the most useful…

Daedric Artifact #10 – Azura’s Star/Black Star: Regardless of who you take the Star to, it will be revealed that the soul of Malyn Varen is trapped within the Broken Azura’s Star. Before it can be reforged, we must enter the Star & eliminate Malyn; it is a good idea to make a Save before agreeing to enter the Broken Star as not only is Malyn himself extremely difficult, but he will have three high Level Dremora Valkynaz protecting him as well!

Once Malyn is defeated, we will be extracted from the Star & receive whichever of the two you decided to pick.


Standing Stone #10 – The Serpent Stone: This Standing Stone can be found far to the East of the College of Winterhold out on an isolated island at sea.


Side Quest – Discerning the Transmundane: While we are still out in the cold at sea, travel to the far North across from the College of Winterhold, & we will find the Cave called Septimus Signus’s Outpost. Enter inside, & we will meet Septimus… & he is crazy. Septimus will task us with taking a Blank Lexicon to the Dwemer Ruins, Aftand, & transcribe the knowledge of a legendary Elder Scroll onto it… this is for a Daedric Artifact as well.


Side Quest – Discerning the Transmundane: Take the Blank Lexicon to Alftand, & fight your way all the way down to the very bottom of the Alftand Animonculory (you can technically use the Become Ethereal Shout to drop down) & enter the Alftand Cathedral. At the top of the Cathedral, we can use a Dwarven Mechanism to head down into… Blackreach.

Blackreach is one of the most unique areas we will ever encounter in Skyrim. There are so many secrets (that are optional) to find here in Blackreach such as Crimson Nirnroots & using the Unrelenting Force Shout on the Construct Sun down here to summon the Dragon, Vulthuryol.

Regardless of how much you explore, follow your Waypoint over to the Elevator to the Tower of Mzark.

In the Tower of Mzark, we will reach another Dwemer Oculory. Place the Blank Lexicon into its receptacle, & two Buttons will open off our right. Press the right Button closest to the center console four times to unlock the first Button to the left of the console. Press the left Button two times to unlock the furthest left Button which you must press only once. Completing the puzzle will give us the Runed Lexicon; you can also go down to collect the Elder Scroll (Dragon) which is needed during the Main Questline!


Side Quest – Discerning the Transmundane: Take the Runed Lexicon back to Septimus, & to some how recreate Dwemer blood… we need to collect Orc, Falmer, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, & High Elf blood. That makes sense. When we go to leave… Hermaeus Mora will speak to us… agree to be his champion of course…

1. Winterhold: Septimus Signus’s Outpost
2. The Rift: Ruins of Bthalft
3. Haafingar: Solitude
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Thieves Guild Quests: N/A
6. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
7. Side Quests: Discerning the Transmundane, Lost to the Ages, The Mind of Madness
8. Daedric Artifacts: 12/15
9. Standing Stones: 10/11
10. Shouts: 15/20
11. Achievements: 37/75
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Side Quest – Discerning the Transmundane: There are so many ways to collect the different blood samples we need. Apart from travelling between all Bandit owned Locations, the quickest way is just to murder NPCs… Do not kill any kind of Merchant however! They are very important for obvious reasons… For non-essential NPCs to kill (the list is pretty large, & these are just the ones I recommend):

Falmer & Orc Blood: Since we need Falmer blood, we may as well return to the Tower of Mzark & travel back into Blackreach. Not only will we find Falmer, but the bulk of the Falmer Servants are also Orcs. Search around, & obtain both blood samples before leaving… you may get extra blood types if you are lucky with the Falmer Servants…

Orcs can also be easily killed from Cracked Tusk Keep in Falkreath Hold or at any Orc Stronghold…

High Elf & Wood Elf Blood: Travel to Reachcliff Cave from the Namira Daedric Quest & we can find three people sitting at the banquet table. One is Namira’s champion, Eola, but the other two are Nimphaneth (Wood Elf) & Sanyon (High Elf). Unless Eola is one of your favourite Followers, kill them all & we can collect our next two blood types. This is only possible (& only should be done) after completing Side Quest – Taste of Death & having Namira’s Ring collected…

Dark Elf Blood: Once again, the safest people to target are Daedra followers whom quests we have already completed – for Dark Elf blood we can use Aranea Ienith at the Shrine to Azura. Since we have the Daedric Artifact she is associated with, she has no more importance to our playthrough…

Daedric Artifact #11 – Oghma Infinium: Once all the different blood samples have been obtained at your discretion, return to Septimus & give him the Essence Extractor. Open the Dwemer cube… & we will witness the Oghma Infinium. Collect it, & the Wretched Abyss will speak with us once again. Hermaeus Mora is a very interesting Daedric Prince… we will be seeing him once again in the Dragonborn DLC…

With the Oghma Infinium, you can read it to gain a permanent +5 to your Skills

The Path of Might: Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Two Handed, One Handed, Archery
The Path of Shadow: Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Speech, Alchemy
The Path of Magic: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

I recommend choosing whichever Skills you use the least, for most of you, I imagine choosing The Path of Magic will be most beneficial. Choosing a Path you already have Skills maxed out in or ones you’ll end up maxing out naturally makes the Oghma Infinium much less efficient to use…

The Oghma Infinium will be consumed once it is read, but it will contribute to the Oblivion Walker Achievement having held it…


Achievement #36 – Master: Reach Level 50.
If you have not already been doing so, take advantage of buying Skill points from Trainers to boost how quickly you Level up. While not necessary to reach Level 50, eventually how quickly you Level up will begin plateauing as your Skills get to higher Levels &/or reach 100.

Use Trainers as often as possible to advance your Leveling; we need to reach a minimum of Level 78 to spawn a Legendary Dragon to kill for the Legend Achievement. I do not recommend making a Skill Legendary unless it is one you do not have Perks in… Smithing & Alchemy are good Skills to reset & make Legendary as they are ones you will max out quickly to farm for Gold. The only caveat/danger of resetting Smithing is you may lose the ability to strengthen high level gear when you acquire it.


Side Quest – Lost to the Ages: With all four Aetherium Shards, it is now finally time to put them together. Travel to the Landmark, Ruins of Bthalft, just North of the Autumnwatch Tower. Place the Aetherium Shards in the center of the sun dial contraption, & we will receive the Aetherium Crest. After a long time feeling some tremors, an elevator tower will emerge from the earth, & we can enter the Aetherium Forge…

Reach the forge, & we will have to fight off waves of Dwemer Automatons then slay the Forgemaster boss. Once it is safe, we can use the four Aetherium Shards to forge something very powerful. We will have three choices: the Aetherial Crown, Aetherial Shield, & Aetherial Staff. In my opinion, the Aetherial Crown by far is the best of the Items as it will allow us to equip TWO Standing Stone Blessings… This makes grinding Skill Levels to reach Level 78 so much faster to do!


Achievement #37 – Lost to the Ages: Complete Lost to the Ages.
Use the four Aetherium Shards to forge any of the three Aetherial Items, & we will complete Side Quest – Lost to the Ages, & unlock this Achievement.

With your side questing & other business finished, it will be time to explore our final Hold & city of the game, Solitude – take a Carriage or travel to the city on foot…

While we are in Solitude, like we did in Windhelm, ignore anything to do with joining the Imperials; the Civil War Questline will be saved until after we have completed all the other Faction Quests…

Side Quest – The Mind of Madness: There is a slew of new Side Quests & Miscellaneous Objectives we can complete here in Solitude while also being able to progress the Dark Brotherhood & the Thieves Guild. Before we do, search for the man named Dervenin wandering the residential district of Solitude. Speak with him, & he will task us with locating his master in the Pelagius Wing of the Blue Palace. Search the Pelagius Wing… & we will vanish.

When we come to, you may discover a very familiar face… Lord Sheogorath of the Shivering Isles.

Daedric Artifact #12 – Wabbajack: Go along with the insanity we will be tasked with by Sheogorath within the shattered mind of Pelagius the Mad using the fabled Staff, the Wabbajack. After completing all three puzzles, speak with Sheogorath to return back to Solitude, & we will be able to keep the Wabbajack as well!

1. Haafingar: Solitude
2. The Rift: Riften
3. Winterhold: Snow Veil Sanctum, Winterhold
4. The Reach: Markarth
5. Eastmarch: Irkngthand
6. Falkreath Hold: Twilight Sepulcher
7. Main Quests: N/A
8. Thieves Guild Quests: Scoundrel’s Folly, Speaking With Silence, Hard Answers, The Pursuit, Trinity Restored, Blindsighted, Darkness Returns, Under New Management
9. Dark Brotherhood Quests: N/A
10. Side Quests: N/A
11. Daedric Artifacts: 12/15
12. Standing Stones: 10/11
13. Shouts: 15/20
14. Achievements: 39/75
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Thieves Guild Quest #5 – Scoundrel’s Folly: Now it will finally be time to continue on with the Thieves Guild questline. As instructed, we need to locate Gulum-Ei who can be found at the local tavern, The Winking Skeever. Gulum-Ei will tell us a bit of information, but not all of it, & we will have to tail him. Unlike in Assassins Creed’s classic tail missions, we will not fail if Gulum-Ei sees us… in fact you can walk right beside him not even in stealth if you wanted…

Follow him into the East Empire Company Warehouse, & NOW you will want to be stealthy, though once again, being spotted won’t fail the Quest. Tail Gulum-Ei into the secret cave called Brinewater Grotto & confront him.


Thieves Guild Quest #6 – Speaking With Silence: Return to the Thieves Guild & tell Mercer about what Gulum-Ei has told us…


Thieves Guild Quest #6 – Speaking With Silence: Meet Mercer outside the Snow Veil Sanctum, & begin passing through the rogue agent’s lair.


Thieves Guild Quest #7 – Hard Answers: After we locate the rogue agent, we will receive the journal of the former Guild Master. But it will be in a language we do not understand. To translate it, take the journal to one of the Guild Master’s former associates named Enthir who will be at the Frozen Hearth tavern.

Enthir will tell us that the journal has actually been inscribed in Falmer & he can’t translate it… but Calcelmo in Markarth can…


Thieves Guild Quest #7 – Hard Answers: When we go to see Calcelmo, he will unfortunately be uncooperative. Sneak through the Dwemer Museum & into Calcelmo’s Laboratory, out to the Balcony, & up to Calcelmo’s Tower.

In the tower, we need to collect a Roll of Paper & a piece of Charcoal to make an etching of Calcelmo’s Stone.

Take the etching back to Enthir in the Frozen Hearth Basement, & he will translate Gallus’ Journal.


Thieves Guild Quest #8 – The Pursuit: Return to the Thieves Guild & tell Mercer about Karliah… The secret door to the Ragged Flagon will be mysteriously locked however, & we will have to take the long way through the Ratway. Get to the Ragged Flagon & converse with the Guild about what to do next (& ask them who locked the back door?!)

Soon, we will discover that the Thieves Guild has been robbed blind! For more information, we need to search Riftweald Manor in Riften. Get behind the house to its backyard & we can find a way inside… In the yard, our Waypoint will tell us to enter the house through its second floor balcony door… with no foreseeable way up there.

Stand underneath the balcony & look up to see some iron gears (they can be hard to see depending on the time of day). Shoot the gears, & a platform will drop down. Enter into the house, head down a floor, & search the office where we can find a Suspicious Cabinet to check out near one of the barred doors.

Thieves Guild Quest #9 – Trinity Restored: To save the Guild, we must enter into the covenant of Nocturnal & become legendary Nightingales. Meet Karliah at Nightingale Hall close to the Shadow Stone, & we will receive one of the coolest Armor sets in the game…

Though a Daedric Lord, Nocturnal is strictly tied to the Thieves Guild Questline & has no Daedric Artifact we need for the Oblivion Walker Achievement.


Thieves Guild Quest #10 – Blindsighted: Now it is time to finish this & get our revenge. Travel with the other Nightingales to the Dwemer Ruin, Irkngthand, & get to the Sanctuary. Defeat the traitor, & retrieve the Skeleton Key for Nocturnal.

The cave will soon fill up with water, but do not freak out. After it gets high enough a new escape route will open up in the ceiling that we can swim over to – it is just in behind the Snow Elf statue’s head.


Thieves Guild Quest #11 – Darkness Returns: All that is left to do is to return the Skeleton Key back to Nocturnal. Travel to the Twilight Sepulcher & follow the Pilgrim’s Path – beware the “shadow chamber” & be sure to Save before passing through it as it may take some trial & error to find the correct way through.

Past the shadow room, we will find a statue of Nocturnal with a blocked secret passage behind it. To open it, pull the Chains in behind the two dragonhead braziers to the left & right of the statue.


Achievement #38 – Darkness Returns: Complete Darkness Returns.
Enter the Inner Sanctum, & fall down into the pit trap. Wait for a few seconds, & the Skeleton Key in our Inventory will react & we will phase down into the Ebonmere where we can return it.

Choose your Nightingale Agent Status, & we will unlock our Achievement.


Thieves Guild Quest #12 – Under New Management: Though the Thieves Guild Questline is now finished, there is still more to do – the Thieves Guild is still completely broke. To do this, we need to accept Radiant Quests from Vex &/or Delvin & complete them in Whiterun, Markarth, Windhelm, & Solitude. Radiant Quests in Riften do not count; if you get a Job in Riften, I recommend quitting from it & getting a new one!

We need to complete 5 Radiant Quests per city, & then complete a Special Job that becomes available – completing all 4 Special Jobs will get us the final Thieves Guild Quest – Under New Management…

Unfortunately, we are unable to choose which city the Radiant Quest will end up I; I recommend keeping a tally so you know how close you are to completing 5.


Achievement #39 – One With the Shadows: Returned the Thieves Guild to its former glory.
The quickest Radiant Quests are accepting Numbers Jobs from Delvin. Regardless it does get a bit mindless after a while & we will be Fast Traveling back & forth for a while…

Once all Special Jobs have been completed in each city, return to see Brynjolf, & he will officially make us the new Guild Master of the Thieves Guild. We will unlock the Achievement after we retrieve our new Guild Master Armor set…

This does not have to be grinded all at once either. So long as you keep track of how many Radiant Quests per city you have done, you can chip away at this Achievement over the course of our 100%.

1. Haafingar: Solitude, Dragon Bridge, Statue to Meridia
2. Falkreath Hold: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
3. The Pale: Dawnstar Sanctuary
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Dark Brotherhood Quests: Bound Until Death, Breaching Security, The Cure For Madness, Recipe For Disaster, To Kill An Emperor, Death Incarnate, Hail Sithis!
6. Side Quests: The Break of Dawn
7. Daedric Artifacts: 13/15
8. Standing Stones: 10/11
9. Shouts: 15/20
10. Achievements: 42/75
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Dark Brotherhood Quest #7 – Bound Until Death: Now it is time for the moment you have been waiting for, it is finally time for Vittoria Vici’s wedding. How you kill her is entirely up to you… just don’t get caught. The potential for other people dying during this assassination as collateral is very high, so you need to be very careful… unless that is exactly what you want to happen.

For the bonus, the client wants Vici killed while she is giving her speech; you can use a loose gargoyle statue above the balcony to kill her “accidentally” or use a ranged Weapon. Note that if you stealthily kill her & immediately Fast Travel away before the Bounty appears, you can avoid the Bounty entirely. Not receiving the Bounty however, even if you did in fact kill Vici on the balcony, the Bonus will still be forfeit – the bonus is just more Gold.

I would recommend disbanding your Follower if you plan to go for the high chaos assassination. You will be attacked by the Guards & party goers – your Follower can kill them & add to your Bounty!



Achievement #40 – Bound Until Death: Complete Bound Until Death.
Return to see Astrid at the Sanctuary, & we will unlock this Achievement after we complete Dark Brotherhood Quest – Bound Until Death.

Dark Brotherhood Quest #8 – Breaching Security: Our next contract will be to kill the Penitus Oculatus Commander, Gaius Maro. To earn our bonus we need to kill him while he is in a city & not on the road, or in Dragon Bridge where he starts.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #8 – Breaching Security: As soon as you can, immediately travel to the village of Dragon Bridge. Gaius Maro should be there & begin setting out on the road as soon as we arrive; quickly enter the Penitus Oculatus Outpost & steal Maro’s schedule so we can plan our ambush.

If you do not care about the bonus, kill him however you like. If you want the bonus, you need to be travel & wait for Maro in Solitude on Morndas day, Windhelm on Tirdas day, Riften on Middas day, Whiterun on Turdas day, & Markarth on Fredas day. Take your pick, then wait to pass time until it is the correct day.

Kill Gaius Maro, then plant the Incriminating Letter on his body. Oddly enough, unless you are truly caught, you will not get a Bounty for killing Maro…


Dark Brotherhood Quest #9 – The Cure For Madness: Return to the Sanctuary & speak with Astrid of what to do next. There will have been a bit of an incident here while we were gone.

Travel to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, just North of Dawnstar, & search around for clues of the assailant… find him & make your decision about their fate.

Dark Brotherhood Quest #10 – Recipe For Disaster: Return back to the Falkreath Hold Sanctuary, & we will receive our next contract in the plot to assassinate the Emperor. Our next mark, will be the one & only, Gourmet.

Travel to Understone Keep in Markarth, & we will need to question the Jarl’s personal chef Anton Virane about the Gourmet’s identity. He will tell us that the Gourmet is an Orc, & that they are currently in Skyrim staying at the Nightgate Inn. Take him out, & assume his identity.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #11 – To Kill An Emperor: It is now time to kill the Emperor. Travel to Castle Dour in Solitude, & prepare to make the greatest meal of all time that even Gordon Ramsey would enjoy… except for maybe the heartburn at the end.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #12 – Death Incarnate: Once the Emperor has been slain, return to the Sanctuary & we will be under attack by the Penitus Oculatus!

Dark Brotherhood Quest #13 – Hail Sithis!: In the aftermath, the survivors & yourself will need to plan revenge!

Track down our old contact, Amaund Motierre, at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun & tell him we still plan to honor the contract.


Dark Brotherhood Quest #13 – Hail Sithis!: Our final target will be found aboard the Katariah just Northeast of the Solitude harbor – use the anchor chain to get into the lower decks. Finish the job.

Once it is complete, return to Motierre, & find out where our payment is.



Achievement #41 – Hail Sithis!: Complete Hail Sithis!
Return to Volunruud to the chamber we first met Motierre to collect the dead drop, & then head to the new Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary re-established in Dawnstar.

Speak with Nazir to tell him the news, & we will complete the Dark Brotherhood Questline & unlock this Achievement.

There is still some Post-Questline tasks to complete, but they are optional & have no associated Achievements…


Side Quest – The Break of Dawn: With all Faction Questlines completed, we can now turn our attention to finishing up exploring the Haafingar Hold. By now, you will most certainly have collected Meridia’s Beacon & received this Side Quest. Travel to the Statue to Meridia, & the Daedric Princess will task us with restoring her temple & slaying the defiler, Malkoran.

Daedric Artifact #13 – Dawnbreaker: Kill Malkoran in the Kilkreath Catacombs, & we can collect the sword called Dawnbreaker which is our Daedric Artifact reward for completing this Side Quest.


Achievement #42 – Golden Touch: Have 100,000 Gold.
Over the course of our 100% this Achievement should be inevitable. To speed through it, I recommend hoarding Ingredients & making Potions/Poisons to earn serious Gold. Hoard Ingredients at your primary residence, & when you are over flowing, brew them up. Then just travel from Hold to Hold, Merchant to Merchant, & sell them all off.

Alchemy is also a great Skill for farming Levels. When it reaches 100, make it Legendary & keep farming Levels. Alchemy is both a Gold farm & an Xp farm!

I bring this up now as if you still have to grind out all 20 Numbers Jobs for the Thieves Guild, make a point of buying up Ingredients, making Potions/Poisons, & selling them off since we are travelling across the nation to complete the Radiant Quests! Now is as good a time as any…

1. Haafingar: The Steed Stone, Deepwood Redoubt, Rimerock Burrow
2. The Reach: Markarth
3. Falkreath Hold: Haemar’s Shame
4. Main Quests: N/A
5. Side Quests: The House of Horrors, A Daedra’s Best Friend
6. Daedric Artifacts: 15/15
7. Standing Stones: 11/11
8. Shouts: 15/20
9. Achievements: 47/75
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Standing Stone #11 – The Steed Stone: Now it is time to clean up our last few bits of exploration through the Haafingar Hold. To start, return back to the Statue of Meridia, & look to the North to see a Standing Stone marked on our Compass. Head to it, & discover the Steed Stone.


Achievement #43 – Standing Stones: Find all 13 Standing Stones.
If you have been following along with the guide, we will unlock this Achievement after we discover the 13th & final Standing Stone.


Side Quest – The House of Horrors: Now it is time for us to rescue the long lost Priest of Boethiah from the Forsworn at Deepwood Redoubt. Fight through the Nordic Ruin & enter into Deepwood Vale to then reach Hag’s End. Locate Logrolf the Willful, & release him.


Daedric Artifact #14 – Mace of Molag Bal: With Logrolf free, he will head straight to the Abandoned House in Markarth where Molag Bal’s altar is located. Head there yourself, & Logrolf the Willful will become ensnared in a trap. Molag Bal will then bestow the Rusty Mace upon us. With it, begin beating the Boethian Priest. Beat him down twice, then finish him off. Molag Bal will then convert the Rusty Mace into the Mace of Molag Bal & we will receive this Daedric Artifact along with completing the Side Quest.


Side Quest – A Daedra’s Best Friend: Now to wrap up our final Daedric Side Quest. Travel North to Rimerock Burrow, & collect the Rueful Axe.


Daedric Artifact #15 – Masque of Clavicus Vile: This next part is important as this is the only Daedric Artifact that is actually Missable. Return to Haemar’s Shame with the Rueful Axe & speak with Clavicus Vile.

Clavicus Vile will allow us to keep the Rueful Axe if we kill Barbus; the Rueful Axe is not the Daedric Artifact! Tell Clavicus Vile you will not kill Barbus & that he should take the dog back. Barbus will then join Clavicus Vile at the shrine, & we must wait for them to stop speaking to one another. Once that is done, the Side Quest will complete, & we will receive the Masque of Clavicus Vile.


Achievement #44 – Oblivion Walker: Collect all 15 Daedric Artifacts.
If you have been following along with the guide, we will unlock this Achievement after collecting the 15th Daedric Artifact. As mentioned above, the Masque of Clavicus Vile is the only Missable one, all other Daedric Artifacts can be earned just by completing their respective Side Quests.

Before we begin the Civil War Questline, we may as well polish off a final few random Achievements. Due to the nature of these Achievements, especially that last one, you will most likely want to make a separate Save while earning them so you can reload back to before we have a high national Bounty…


Achievement #45 – Thief: Pick 50 Locks & 50 pockets.
Ideally, you took my advice during our time at the Thieves Guild & paid for Pickpocket Trainer from Vipir the Fleet to boost our Skill. Picking the 50 Locks will just come naturally as we play, & you most likely met the requirements a long time ago.

There is no perfect place to farm pockets to pick. Any City works best with lots of people like Riften or Markarth. Going to Guard Barracks while the Guards are sleeping is a good place as well. You need to pick 50 individual items from people; steal one item, exit the pocket, then you can re-enter for another item. Always pay attention to the % chance to steal. I would only go towards items of 80% success chance or higher. If you succeed, Save your game & if you fail, reload.


Achievement #46 – Wanted: Escape from jail.
Next up, it will be time to be sent to jail. Get caught picking a pocket, stealing an item, or committing any other crime & agree to be sent to prison. In prison, we will have to pick an Adept Lock to escape & only be given a single Lockpick to do so. Make a Save in case you break the Lockpick, & pick open your cell door; alternatively, if you are quick, you can pick a patrolling Guard’s pocket for the Jail Key.

Once you are free, either Sneak… or sprint out of the Jail & exit into the City you were imprisoned in to unlock the Achievement. You will probably want to reload your Save afterwards…


Achievement #47 – Master Criminal: Bounty of 1000 Gold in all 9 Holds.
This next Achievement is pretty fun, but also can be tedious; you will definitely want to reload your Save after earning it. Start in any City/Hold & give yourself a Bounty by any means. If you earn at least a 1000 Gold Bounty, escape the City & go hide somewhere outside it so we can Fast Travel. Then just Fast Travel to the next City, & earn your next Bounty. Be careful going on a murder rampage as you can accidentally kill all Witnesses & remove your Bounty.

Sometimes, we will be unable to Fast Travel because we will be perpetually be “pursued by Guards” even if none are in sight. If this happens, you may have to travel to the next City/Hold manually on foot or by Horse. Being a Werewolf can speed things up if you are unable to find a Horse (the downside of being a Werewolf is you cannot check your Map & potentially can’t Wait to revert back).

You can check your current Bounties in all Holds in the Crime Tab of our General Stats.

As soon as you have at least a 1000 Gold Bounty in all 9 Holds, we will unlock this Achievement… reload your Save back before we attempted any of this.

1. Haafingar: Solitude
2. Eastmarch: Windhelm
3. Whiterun Hold: Korvanjund, Whiterun
4. The Rift: Fort Greenwall, Riften
5. The Reach: Fort Sungard
6. Main Quests: N/A
7. Side Quests: N/A
8. Civil War Quests: Join the Imperial Legion/Stormcloaks, The Jagged Crown, Message to Whiterun, Battle For Whiterun, Reunification of Skyrim, Compelling Tribute, Battle For Fort Greenwall/Sungard, Battle For Windhelm/Solitude
9. Shouts: 15/20
10. Achievements: 51/75
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With all side business now finally completed, it will be time for us to put an end to the Civil War. Which side we choose be it the Stormcloaks or the Imperial Legion does not matter, & we can earn the three associated Achievements regardless of the Faction.

Civil War Quest #1 – Joining the Imperial Legion/Stormcloaks: Travel to the respective headquarters of your chosen Faction & speak with either General Tullius or Ulfric Stormcloak to join the cause. We will then be asked to speak with their second in command & we will be given a small task to complete before we are officially allowed to join.

For the Imperials, we will be tasked with clearing out Fort Hraggstad. For the Stormcloaks, all we need to do is kill an Ice Wraith.


Achievement #48 – Taking Sides: Join the Stormcloaks or the Imperial Army.
Complete the task, & report back to join our Faction. Take the oath, & officially join the war effort; taking the oath solidifies your choice & if you plan to swap sides, you have to do so before the oath.


Civil War Quest #2 – The Jagged Crown: Our next Civil War Quest will be the exact same regardless of our Faction. We need to accompany some soldiers & collect the ancient Jagged Crown from the Nordic Ruin, Korvanjund.

Once the crown is retrieved, return back to our Faction leader to complete the Quest.


Civil War Quest #3 – Message to Whiterun: Our Faction leader will give us a new task to deliver a message to Jarl Balgruuf in Whiterun of an impending attack & to join our Faction’s cause.

Civil War Quest #4 – Battle For Whiterun: Now it will be time for the siege of Whiterun – you will either by the attacker or defender depending on your Faction. Drive off the Stormcloaks, or overtake the Whiterun Guard & capture the City in the name of Ulfric.


Civil War Quest #5 – Reunification/Liberation of Skyrim: Return to our Faction leader & we will be given the largest of our Civil War Quests which involving traveling around Skyrim to the different Faction War Camps & receiving separate Side Quests completing different objectives.

For the Empire, we will receive Civil War Quests: A False Front, The Battle For Fort Dunstad. We will be charged with regaining The Pale.

For the Stormcloaks, we will receive the Civil War Quest – Rescue From Fort Neugrad. We will be charged with regaining Falkreath Hold.


Civil War Quest #6 – Compelling Tribute: Our next task for our Faction will be to take The Rift or The Reach. This will set up the next Civil War Quest that has an Achievement attached to it.

Civil War Quest #7 – The Battle For Fort Greenwall/Fort Sungard: It is now time to take the Fort to reclaim the current Hold we are campaigning in. If you are with the Empire, you will be tasked with taking Fort Greenwall & if you are Stormcloak it will be Fort Sungard.


Achievement #49 – War Hero: Capture Fort Sungard or Fort Greenwall.
Complete Civil War Quest – The Battle For Fort Greenwall/Fort Sungard by reducing the enemy number to 0%, & we will unlock this Achievement.


Civil War Quest #5 – Reunification/Liberation of Skyrim: After taking our second Hold, report back to our Faction leader for the next objective which will be to take our third enemy controlled Region.

For the Empire, we will need to complete Civil War Quest – Rescue From Fort Kastav. We will be reclaiming Winterhold.

For the Stormcloaks, we will need to complete Civil War Quest – A False Front. We will be reclaiming the Hjaalmarch Hold.

After the Hold is taken, our final objective will to be take the home Hold of the enemy. For the Empire, we will need to complete Civil War Quest – The Battle For Fort Amol to undermine control in the Eastmarch Hold. For the Stormcloaks we will complete Civil War Quest – The Battle For Fort Hraggstad to undermine control in the Haafingar Hold.

Civil War Quest #8 – The Battle For Windhelm/Solitude: It is now time to finish the war. Link up with your soldiers, & siege the enemy City.


Achievement #50 – Hero of Skyrim: Capture Solitude or Windhelm.
Capture the enemies City, & decide the fate of either General Tullius or Ulfric Stormcloak to complete the Civil War Questline & unlock this Achievement.



Achievement #51 – Married: Get married.
At this point in the game, we will have met many & all NPCs in the game barring those we meet in the DLC. Before we risk our lives & defeat Alduin… maybe it is time we get married. To start, we need to have an Amulet of Mara; these can be found as random loot, but we can also purchase one for 100 Gold from Maramal at the Temple of Mara in Riften.

Speak with Maramal about getting married, then equip the Amulet of Mara. Speak with your desired partner; if they are a potential romance option, we can ask them if they are interested in us, & we will receive a special Miscellaneous Objective.

Speak with Maramal to arrange the wedding, wait for a day (or 23 hours to be safe) then attend your wedding to unlock this Achievement. Congratulations!

1. High Hrothgar
2. Hjaalmarch: Ustengrav
3. Falkreath Hold: Riverwood
4. Haafingar: Thalmor Embassy
5. The Rift: Riften
6. The Reach: Karthspire
7. Main Quests: The Way of the Voice, The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, A Blade In the Dark, Diplomatic Immunity, A Cornered Rat, Alduin’s Wall
8. Side Quests: N/A
9. Shouts: 16/20
10. Achievements: 54/75
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We are now in the final stretch of the Base Game. With peace brought to Skyrim & unification under one banner, we can now turn our attention in force to the Dragon crisis.


Main Quest #5 – The Way of the Voice: If you have not already done so, it is finally time for us to answer the call of the Greybeards & travel to the summit of High Hrothgar. Meet Master Arngeir, & we will begin our training in the ways of the Thu’um.

Shout #16 – Whirlwind Sprint: After practicing with the second Word for Unrelenting Force, we will head outside & learn the first Word for the Whirlwind Spirit Shout; if you have been exploring, you may have already found the other one or two Words for this Shout…


Achievement #52 – The Way of the Voice: Complete The Way of the Voice.
Story Related. Complete your initial training with the Greybeards & we will complete this Main Quest, unlocking the Achievement.


Main Quest #6 – The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller: As per Master Arngeir’s request, we must now reclaim the lost horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Fight through to the grand chamber, & we will need to use the Whirlwind Sprint Shout to get past a fast closing set of gates to continue onwards.

When we reach the vault containing the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller… the horn will be missing. Read the Mysterious Note, & meet up with the thief down in Riverwood.


Dragonborn #1 – Dragonborn: As of completing Main Quest – The Way of the Voice, we are officially declared the Dragonborn throughout the realm. In doing so, we will attract the attention of some strange Cultists that will randomly ambush us no matter where we Fast Travel to. They will warn us of the impending return of one called “Lord Miraak” & attack us – this will begin the Dragonborn DLC.

Read the Cultist’s Orders, & we will have to head to the Dunmer island of Solstheim; until we complete the Main Questline & the Dawnguard DLC, we will be saving this for the end of our 100%.

Main Quest #6 – The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller: Once in Riverwood, head to the Sleeping Giant Inn & we will find… Delphine? The Riverwood Inn’s matron whom you may know already. Ask for the attic room to let on we know…

Main Quest #7 – A Blade In the Dark: Speak with Delphine in our room, & we will acquire a new Main Quest. After she reveals herself to be an Imperial Blade, we will have to head to Kynsegrove in Eastmarch to witness a Dragon… being resurrected.

Defeat Sahloknir & prove that you ARE worthy of the name Dova.

We can also return the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller back to Master Arngeir as well to complete Main Quest – The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller.


Main Quest #8 – Diplomatic Immunity: Meet with Delphine back in Riverwood, & we will talk about what our next steps are. Travel to the Winking Skeever in Solitude & talk with our contact, Malborn, about the mission. Be sure to leave our best Weapons, Armor, Arrows, your Lockpicks, & a good chunk of Potions with him so we can collect them on the inside as everything we do not leave with him will be temporarily confiscated.

Attend the Thalmor party & read the Thalmor Dossier: Esbern to learn of the Thalmor’s involvement. Escape the party by any means, & return to Delphine in Riverwood (be sure to retrieve your stashed gear here at the Sleeping Giant Inn as well).


Achievement #53 – Diplomatic Immunity: Complete Diplomatic Immunity.
Story Related. Complete Main Quest – Diplomatic Immunity & speak with Delphine about the contents of the Thalmor Dossier. We are going to Riften…


Main Quest #9 – A Cornered Rat: The Thalmor Dossier will name an ex-Blade named Esbern as a person of interest – someone Delphine is all to familiar with. Travel to Riften & enter the Ratways to speak with our old acquaintance, Vekel the Man.

Enter the Ratway Vaults then the Warrens, & locate Esbern to complete this Quest.


Main Quest #10 – Alduin’s Wall: Take Esbern back to Riverwood to link up with Delphine. Together, Esbern will tell us where we need to go to find more about Alduin & his return – Sky Haven Temple. This temple can be accessed through the Forsworn Camp at Karthspire in the Reach.

Enter the Kilkreath Ruins, & to lower a drawbridge, rotate three small pillars until they all have the same symbol; the correct symbol is the heart shaped one. Next we will find these same symbols strewn across the floor with a Chain we can pull at the far end. Only step on that heart shaped symbol we used before.

For the final puzzle when we reach the entrance to Sky Haven Temple, we need to wait for Esbern to veeeery slowly approach it. When he does, he will tell us of a blood seal locking the temple that only we can open; interact with the blood seal.

Enter inside the temple now, & we will have to wait for our companions to approach Alduin’s Wall before anything will happen; you may have to speak with Esbern before he continues walking.


Achievement #54 – Alduin’s Wall: Complete Alduin's Wall.
Story Related. We will learn that the Greybeards used a specific Shout to defeat Alduin, but we do not know which one. Speak with Delphine about the next steps, & we will complete this Quest & unlock the Achievement.

1. High Hrothgar: The Throat of the World
2. Whiterun Hold: Whiterun
3. The Rift: Skuldafn
4. Sovngarde
5. Main Quests: The Throat of the World, Elder Knowledge, Alduin’s Bane, The Fallen, The World-Eater’s Eyrie, Sovngarde, Dragonslayer
6. Side Quests: N/A
7. Shouts: 20/20
8. Achievements: 58/75
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Main Quest #11 – The Throat of the World: Return to the Greybeards at High Hrothgar, & go speak with Master Arngeir of what we discovered on Alduin’s Wall. Arngeir does not know the Shout to stop Alduin however, only the grandmaster of the Greybeards does, the one called Paarthurnax.

Shout #17 – Clear Skies: Paarthurnax lives at the Throat of the World, the very peak of High Hrothgar. To get there, we have to stop the whirlwind preventing us from proceeding up to it; Arngeir will teach us all three Words to the Clear Skies Shout as well as provide us with Dragon Souls to learn it.

Main Quest #11 – The Throat of the World: Use the Shout, & proceed up to the Throat of the World to speak with Paarthurnax.


Main Quest #12 – Elder Knowledge: To defeat Alduin, Paarthurnax will tell us we first need to obtain the Elder Scroll (Dragon); if you completed Side Quest – Discerning the Transmundane to collect the Daedric Artifact, the Oghma Infinium, we will already have this collected. If not, you will have to return where we transcribed the Lexicon & retrieve it.


Achievement #55 – Elder Knowledge: Complete Elder Knowledge.
Story Related. Collect the Elder Scroll (Dragon), & we will complete this Main Quest & unlock the Achievement; if you already have the Elder Scroll, this Main Quest will complete immediately after finishing the previous one…

Main Quest #13 – Alduin’s Bane: With the Elder Scroll (Dragon), stand upon the Throat of the World… & read it.

Shout #18 – Dragonrend: The Elder Scroll will send us back in time, & we will be taught the Words to the Dragonrend Shout.

Main Quest #13 – Alduin’s Bane: Conveniently, after we return from our vision, Alduin will arrive to attack us & we can test out our new Shout. Defeat Alduin, & he will fly away… we cannot slay him. Yet.

Main Quest #14 – The Fallen: Speak with Paarthurnax after Alduin flees, & he will advise us to team up with… Jarl Balgruuf?


Main Quest #14 – The Fallen: Head to Dragonsreach, & speak with the Jarl about attempting to trap a Dragon here…

Shout #19 – Call Dragon: Travel to either speak with Paarthurnax or Esbern & Delphine, & we will by taught all three Words to the Call Dragon Shout by learning the name of the Dragon, Odahviing.

Note that if you speak with Esbern, we will receive an optional Side Quest to actually kill Paarthurnax. This is optional, & you do not have to complete it if you do not want to…

Main Quest #14 – The Fallen: Once you have learned the Call Dragon Shout, return to Dragonsreach to prepare for the trap. Use the Shout to call in Odahviing, then use Dragonrend to ground the Dragon & lure it inside Dragonsreach; if you have a Follower, they will mess this part up by not running away & keep fighting Odahviing on the balcony.


Achievement #56 – The Fallen: Complete The Fallen.
Story Related. Once Odahviing is trapped, speak with him about a makeshift alliance to defeat Alduin. When he agrees, we will complete the Quest & unlock this Achievement.


Main Quest #15 – The World-Eater’s Eyrie: Set Odahviing free, & we will ride on his back to Skuldafn where Alduin’s home is in Skyrim. Note that this is a temporary point of no return, & we will be locked into completing the last few Main Quests & defeating Alduin. Make sure you are stocked up on whatever supplies you need… our Follower will not be able to come with us either.

Fight through the Draugr & Dragons, & get to the Skuldafn Temple. Fight through the temple & we will emerge out on top of it where we will have to kill the Dragon Priest, Nahkriin. Kill the Priest, & collect the Dragon Priest Staff to open the gateway to Sovngarde.


Main Quest #16 – Sovngarde: Once we arrive in Skyrim’s version of Valhalla, travel the forlorn trail through the mist to the Hall of Valor… passing the souls of the past, & people we once knew… or sent here ourselves.

Defeat the giant of a man named Tsun, & gain entry into the Hall of Valor. Once inside, speak with the legendary heroes of old who fought Alduin before us about how to defeat him.

Main Quest #17 – Dragonslayer: Team up with the ancient Dragon slayers, & we will charge out to find Alduin. It is time to finish this. Use the Clear Skies Shout to dispel Alduin’s mist, & Aldin will be forced to face us.


Achievement #57 – Dragonslayer: Complete Dragonslayer.
Story Related. With the help of the Dragonrend Shout, defeat Alduin, & save the known world! DRAGONBORN!

Shout #20 – Call of Valor: With Alduin defeated, speak with Tsun & he will send us back to the realm of the living. Before we go, he will teach us our final Shout


Achievement #58 – Thu’um Master: Learn all 20 Shouts.
If you have been following along with the guide, after learning the Call of Valor Shout, we will have learned the final Shout from the Base Game & unlock this Achievement.

Though not directly needed, if you did come across the Dawnguard DLC Drain Vitality Shouts in your travels, you may unlock this Achievement sooner…

77% Complete

1. The Rift: Fort Dawnguard, Redwater Den
2. Hjaalmarch: Dimhollow Crypt, Forebears’ Holdout
3. Haafingar: Castle Volkihar
4. Dawnguard Quests: Dawnguard, Awakening, Bloodline, The Bloodstone Chalice, Prophet, Seeking Disclosure, Chasing Echoes
5. Side Quests: N/A
6. Achievements: 59/75
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Now it is time for us to begin our first of two major DLC expansions, Dawnguard. In this DLC we will have a choice to side with either the Dawnguard paladins… or side with the Vampires. Unfortunately for our 100%, it will not be a choice at all, & you MUST side with the Vampires to unlock the Vampire Mastered Achievement; siding with the Dawnguard will lock us out of that Achievement & you will have to do it on a new playthrough or reload a Save… Fortunately, in my opinion at least, the Vampire arc is much more interesting.


Dawnguard Quest #1 – Dawnguard: We will have received this DLC Quest a long time ago most likely through hearsay passing by NPCs. Follow your Waypoint & travel to Dayspring Canyon where we can reach the fabled Fort Dawnguard.

Dawnguard Quest #2 – Awakening: As soon as we enter inside, we will be quickly dispatched by the Dawnguard Commander, Isran, to check out a lead of a possible Vampire artifact being housed in Dimhollow Crypt.


Dawnguard Quest #2 – Awakening: Without much ceremony of our new membership, travel to Dimhollow Crypt & enter into the Cave. Fight through the Vampire occupants, & pass into Dimhollow Cavern to find… the artifact. Defeat the Vampire guards, & push the button in the center of the shrine.

To access the artifact, we must first complete a short puzzle pushing Braziers around to complete the purple flame ring; approach each Brazier & push them up or down their rails until they light on fire.


Achievement #59 – Awakening: Complete Awakening.
Story Related. The artifact… will not be an artifact at all, & instead by an ancient Vampire entombed for many years. Her name is Serana, & she has an Elder Scroll with her.


Dawnguard Quest #3 – Bloodline: Serana will be cryptic about her past & for more information, we must first take her home. Leave Dimhollow Crypt, & travel to the boat launch at Icewater Jetty to reach Castle Volkihar.

Enter inside, & we will meet a regular Dracula… Lord Harkon, Serana’s father. Speak with Harkon, & he will give us but one reward for rescuing his Elder Scroll… erm, his daughter. Becoming a Vampire Lord. For the Vampire Mastered Achievement we must accept his offer & become a Vampire Lord! This will overwrite our Werewolf Blood as this is a new transformative power.

Accept Harkon’s gift, & we will become a Vampire Lord & be set down the Vampire arc for this DLC. If you want to remain a Werewolf &/or be faithful to the Dawnguard, make a separate Save to reload back to before speaking with Harkon.

As a Vampire Lord, similar to when we were a Werewolf, we can access a separate Skill Tree while in the transformation form. For the Vampire Mastered Achievement, we need to earn enough Xp while in Vampire form to purchase all 11 different Vampire Skills. For the rest of this DLC, transform as often as possible to earn Xp, but be warned as all NPCs will become hostile if we do so…

Complete the Vampire Lord tutorial with Harkon; to earn Vampire Lord Xp you must kill enemies using your Drain Life Spell or Claw Finisher. Unlike being a Werewolf, we are able to transform into a Vampire Lord & revert back to humanoid form at will.

Dawnguard Quest #4 – The Bloodstone Chalice: From here on, this guide will only be covering Dawnguard Quests from the Vampire arc; the Quest objectives will be different if you are opting to do it from the Dawnguard perspective. If you want to speed run the Vampire Mastered Achievement so you can reload your Save & play the Dawnguard arc instead, simply travel around to all the Cities in Skyrim & massacre everyone using Drain Life to quickly purchase all 11 Vampire Lord Perks…

Speak with Garan Marethi & tell him that Lord Harkon has said “It is time”. We will then be given the powerful artifact called the Bloodstone Chalice, & be tasked with filling it to the brim at Redwater Den…


Dawnguard Quest #4 – The Bloodstone Chalice: While we complete Quests or travel around, remember to be in your Vampire Lord form as often as makes sense, & kill enemies using your Drain Life power.

Travel to Redwater Den, & make your way to the Redwater Spring; there are many Vampires & Skooma addicts we can consume for more Vampire Perks here…

Fill the Bloodstone Chalice at the Bloodspring, & return back to Castle Volkihar.


Dawnguard Quest #5 – Prophet: After delivering the Bloodstone Chalice to Marethi, speak with Lord Harkon & for the next phase of the grand plan, we need to track down a Moth Priest who can read the Elder Scroll Serana is carrying.

The easiest way to find a Moth Priest is to speak with Urag gro-Shub at the College of Winterhold who will tell us that there is one in Skyrim right now staying at Dragon Bridge…


Dawnguard Quest #5 – Prophet: Travel to Dragon Bridge & speak with one of the Guards about a Moth Priest being here, & they will tell us that they are still nearby. Travel South along the roads from Dragon Bridge, & we will come across an overturned wagon & the scene of an attack. Read a Note on a dead Vampire, & we will learn that the Moth Priest has been captured by rogue Vampires & taken to Forebears’ Holdout Cave.

Enter the Cave, & if you sided with the Vampires… we will find Dawnguard soldiers protecting the Moth Priest instead. Free the Moth Priest, & use our Vampire Seduction Power to calm him down so we can feed on him & make them our Thrall. Once this is done, we can take them back to Castle Volkihar…


Dawnguard Quest #6 – Seeking Disclosure: Command our Moth Priest Thrall to read Serana’s Elder Scroll… & he will tell us to learn the full prophecy, we must obtain two more Elder Scrolls. Since we completed the Main Questline, we will already have the Elder Scroll (Dragon), but speak with Harkon & we will learn that his former wife will have stolen the remaining one.

Dawnguard Quest #7 – Chasing Echoes: For our first lead to obtain Elder Scroll (Blood), speak with Serana. She will tell us that her mother actually had her own secret garden here at the castle that Harkon never ventured to…

Before we carry on further into this Quest, make sure you are fully stocked on Health Potions, Arrows/Bolts (if you use them), along with making sure you have good Weapons & Armor; I also recommend making your Inventory as light as possible. We are about to enter into an area we will not be able to return from for a while…

1. Haafingar: Castle Volkihar
2. The Soul Cairn
3. Falkreath Hold: Ancestor’s Glade
4. Dawnguard Quests: Chasing Echoes, Beyond Death, Seeking Disclosure, Unseen Visions
5. Side Quests: N/A
6. Achievements: 62/75
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Dawnguard Quest #7 – Chasing Echoes: Exit the castle & begin following around the outer coast Northeast around it. Locate & enter the Volkihar Undercroft & pass through it to reach the Courtyard. To progress onwards, we need to solve the Moon Dial Puzzle.

We need to search around the Courtyard & find the missing three Moon Crests. We can find one in a small pond Northwest of the Moon Dial resting on a rock half in the water. Another can be found in a small Nightshade garden East of the Moon Dial. The final Moon Crest can be found up a set of stairs East of the Moon Dial on the ground near a table & two chairs. Place the Moon Crests into their slots, & we will be able to access the Volkihar Ruins.

Fight through the Skeletons & Gargoyles until you reach a room that seems to be a dead end. Kill the three Gargoyles here, then approach the fireplace in the opposite alcove as the two Sleeping Coffins. To the left of the fireplace, we can turn one of the candlesticks to open up a secret passage leading to Valerica’s lab.

Locate Valerica’s Journal from one of the library shelves here, that will tell us that she has left to somewhere called the “Soul Cairn”. Collect the ritual ingredients scattered around the lab, & perform the ritual to open the portal to the Soul Cairn. Once we enter the portal, we will not be able to exit it until we beat the Quest.


The Soul Cairn: The Soul Cairn is a vast area that we can explore with many Side Quests & unique Items to find. Unfortunately, there are Achievements associated with none of it, so I will not be covering it in the guide. If you are interested in exploring around, ineonez has a great Map & walkthrough for what there is to find here! If their guide helps you out, be sure to Rate & Award it as well as say something nice in the Comments!
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=947468381

Throughout the Soul Cairn, you may come across Soul Husks. These are a form of currency here, & we can use them to trade with Morven Stroud. As a final note worth mentioning, when we return to Valerica’s lab in Castle Volkihar, we are able to return back to the Soul Cairn anytime we want!

Dawnguard Quest #8 – Beyond Death: Regardless of whether or not you want to explore around the Soul Cairn, follow your Quest Marker across the dead plains over towards the ominous fortress in the distance first. Here we will find Valerica, & to help her escape the Soul Cairn, we need to defeat the three Bone Keepers scattered across the plains.

Travel around & kill them all, then return back to Valerica when you are ready to leave the Soul Cairn.

When we enter the Boneyard, we will have to defeat the Dragon boss, Durnehviir, to escape. Once he is defeated, follow Valerica over to where she stashed the Elder Scroll (Blood).

Durnehviir: After collecting the Elder Scroll, go to leave the Boneyard… & Durnehviir will return to us already half corporeal. But he does not want to fight. Instead, he wants a chance to fly the skies of Skyrim, if only briefly. Like summing Odahviing, Durnehviir will teach us a Shout that can summon him. Epic!


Achievement #60 – Beyond Death: Complete Beyond Death.
Story Related. After learning Durnehviir’s Shout, it is time for us to leave the Soul Cairn the way we entered it. Leave the Soul Cairn back to the Volkihar Ruins, & we will complete this Quest & unlock the Achievement.


Dawnguard Quest #6 – Seeking Disclosure: Now that we have both the Elder Scroll (Dragon) & the Elder Scroll (Blood), return to our Moth Priest Thrall to have him read them… except he can’t. He is now blind. We will have to find a way to do this ourselves…


Dawnguard Quest #9 – Unseen Visions: Fortunately, the Moth Priest will tell us of the special location in Skyrim where we can perform a ritual to read these Elder Scrolls ourselves. Travel up to Ancestor Glade in Falkreath Hold, enter inside, & perform the ritual. Stand in the column of light, & read the Elder Scroll (Blood); we will then proceed to read the other two Elder Scrolls & discover the location of where we can find Auriel’s Bow… in Darkfall Cave.

It is almost the beginning of the end for the Dawnguard DLC. Before we proceed, we should complete these two Achievements; the first can be done whenever, but the latter can technically be missable if you decide to reverse your decision of being a Vampire Lord.


Achievement #61 – Soul Tear: Learn all 3 Words of Soul Tear.
Use the Summon Durnehviir Shout, & Durnehviir will portal in from the Soul Cairn to visit us in Skyrim. For the first three times we summon him, he will teach us a Word to the Soul Tear Shout. Found an open area we can summon him, to learn one of the Words, wait for 2 hours, then do it over again to learn all 3 Words to the Shout & unlock this Achievement.

You do not need to unlock the Words using Dragon Souls to unlock the Achievement…


Achievement #62 – Vampire Mastered: Acquire all 11 Vampire Perks.
Similar to learning all the Werewolf Perks, we must also learn all 11 Vampire Perks for this Achievement. Fortunately, it is a much quicker process as we do not need to Wait to revert back to Human Form. Simply Fast Travel to all locations across Skyrim where you know there will be Bandits, Forsworn, Stormcloak/Imperial Camps, etc. & kill them all using our Drain Life Spell or our Claw Finisher.

If you have a Follower, it may make getting Vampire kills take longer, but it could still be a good idea having one present to help keep us alive…

1. Haafingar: Darkfall Cave, Castle Volkihar
2. The Forgotten Vale
3. Dawnguard Quests: Touching the Sky, Kindred Judgement
4. Side Quests: N/A
5. Achievements: 64/75
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Dawnguard Quest #10 – Touching the Sky: When you are ready to continue, travel to Darkfall Cave with Serana. Navigate your way through the cave, past some Spiders, then Trolls, & look around the corner to find… a Snow Elf? Speak with Knight-Paladin Gelebor & agree to help him in exchange for Auriel’s Bow.

Pass through the Wayshrine, & we will need to fight our way through Darkfall Passage to reach the entrance to the Vale. Fill up the Initiate’s Ewer at the next Wayshrine, & we will be allowed to enter the Forgotten Vale.


Dawnguard Quest #10 – Touching the Sky: Now that we are in the Forgotten Vale, we need to travel to the final four Wayshrines to fill up the Initiate’s Ewer. Similar to the Soul Cairn, this is a pretty big area with a few optional places to explore. Make your way along travelling to each of the Wayshrines then pour the collected water from the Initiate’s Ewer into the chantry basin to gain entry to the Inner Sanctum.

Find & confront Arch-Curate Vyrthur & we will have an epic boss fight. After he is defeated, we can collect the ancient artifact, Auriel’s Bow.



Achievement #63 – Auriel’s Bow: Use the special power of Auriel's Bow.
Now that we have Auriel’s Bow, we can now unlock this cool Achievement. First of all, we need to have some Elven Arrows; purchase or make some if you do not have any. Next, speak with Serana & we can now ask her to treat our Elven Arrows with her blood to make Bloodcursed Elven Arrows.

With Auriel’s Bow & the Bloodcursed Elven Arrows equipped, wait until it is daytime (& the sun is out)… then fire an arrow at the sun for a real spectacle. This effect is temporary, but it will unlock our Achievement.


Dawnguard #11 – Kindred Judgement: With Auriel’s Bow, it is time to return to Castle Volkihar & go to speak with Lord Harkon in the Volkihar Cathedral. Make your decision regarding the bow, & we will have a final boss fight to complete.


Achievement #64 – Kindred Judgement: Complete Kindred Judgment.
Story Related. Defeat the final boss of the Dawnguard DLC & we will complete the Kindred Judgement Quest & unlock this Achievement.

Curing Vampirism: If you have unlocked the Vampirism Mastered Achievement, & no longer wish to be a Vampire Lord there are two ways we can remove the Curse.

For the first & fastest method, speak with Aela the Huntress & ask her to regain the Gift of Beast Blood. This will cure our Vampirism, but turn us back into a Werewolf.

If you do not want to be a Werewolf either, the second method is to travel around to different Inns across Skyrim & ask the Innkeep if they’ve heard any Rumors. Doing so will most likely give you the Side Quest – Rising At Dawn which is about a man named Falion who is studying Vampires in Morthal; completing this Quest will cure us of Vampirism.

As a final note if you do cure yourself, we are fortunately able to reverse our decision if you want at anytime by asking Serana to turn us back into a Vampire Lord…

85% Complete

1. Eastmarch: Winterhold
2. Solstheim: Raven Rock, Raven Rock Mine, Old Attius Farm, Fort Frostmoth
3. Apocrypha
4. Dragonborn Quests: Dragonborn
5. Side Quests: The Final Descent, March of the Dead
6. Black Book: 1/5
7. Dragon Aspect Words: 1/3
8. Achievements: 65/75
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DLC Breakdown – Dragonborn: (10)
Story Related: (4)
Secondary Objectives: (1)
Character: (2)
Collectibles: (2)
Miscellaneous: (1)

This DLC is very buggy & will often times crash for no apparent reason; make sure you Save often. The Temple of Miraak & Nchardak are two locations that will most likely make your game crash consistently. Sometimes if you Fast Travel somewhere else, Wait, then return to head towards your destination as it may reset things. Alternatively, if you go to the game in your Steam Library, & go to Manage – Properties – Installed Files, try Verifying Integrity of Game Files to see if any are missing or corrupted; Verifying my files fixed the crashing for me.


Dragonborn Quest #1 – Dragonborn: With all our prior business complete on the mainland, it will be time for us to travel East of Skyrim to the volcanic island Solstheim in Morrowind.

To get there, head to the harbor outside of Windhelm & speak with Gjalund Salt-Sage for passage to the island.



Achievement #65 – Outlander: Arrive on Solstheim.
Story Related. We will unlock this Achievement as soon as the Northern Maiden docks at the harbor in Raven Rock.

Dragonborn Quest #1 – Dragonborn: When we arrive, we will be accosted by an inquisitive Dark Elf named Adril Arano. While we speak with him, ask him about Miraak for less then hopeful information. Regardless, he will mention something about an “Earth Stone” we can check out West of town.

Head over to it… & there will be something strange going on here. Speak with another Dark Elf named Neloth about Miraak & he will direct us to the Temple of Miraak found near the center of Solstheim.

Miscellaneous Objective – Retrieve the Ancient Nordic Pickaxe: Before we leave Raven Rock, there are a few important errands we need to complete. To start, speak with the local Blacksmith, Glover Mallory, & he will task us with retrieving his Ancient Nordic Pickaxe from a man named Crescius.


Miscellaneous Objective – Retrieve the Ancient Nordic Pickaxe: Enter into Raven Rock Mine, & we will find Crescius. Speak with him, & before we can ask for the Pickaxe back, we can speak to him about an entirely different problem that will lead into Side Quest – The Final Descent. Agree to help him.

After we have the Side Quest, speak with Crescius again & demand to take the Ancient Pickaxe from him.

Side Quest – The Final Descent: Now we will want to follow through & complete this Side Quest as it is tied to a brand new Shout that we need to find all three Words to for the Dragon Aspect Achievement.

Stalhrim: The reason having an Ancient Pickaxe is so important, is it is the only Pickaxe able to mine Stalhrim – regular Pickaxe’s won’t cut it. We need Stalhrim for the Stalhrim Crafter Achievement, though we won’t be able to forge anything with it until we learn how to from a later Side Quest. We also need to have a minimum of 80 Smithing to make Stalhrim Items as well.

When you see Stalhrim Deposits, be sure to mine it! We can find some deep inside Raven Rock Mine, & in Bloodskal Barrow found within the mine too…

Dragon Aspect Word #1: Navigate through the depths of Raven Rock Mine as we search for Gratian Caerellius’ Journal & we will eventually reach a strange red runed door. Loot Gratian’s skeleton, & we can collect the Bloodskal Blade. Equip it, then use directional Power Attacks to fire red beams of energy into the glowing red slashes on either side of the runed door to open it.

Pass through the vault into the grand chamber & we can see a Word Wall at the far end of a deep pool of water; this Word Wall contains the first Word to the Dragon Aspect Shout. Be careful though, as when we go to approach the Wall a unique Dragon Priest named Zahkriios will emerge from the pool to attack us…

Black Book #1 – The Winds of Change: As we go to leave the grand chamber after earning our new Shout… we will see a strange Black Book on a pedestal at the bottom of the exit stairs leading up. Collect it… & the Book will suck us into it!


Side Quest – Winds of Change: When we come to, we will awaken in Apocrypha, the realm of the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora. Now we must try to escape. Fight your way through this brief introduction to Apocrypha, & we will have to slay a challenging Lurker. Once it is dead, interact with the final two Scryes, & we can find the true Black Book.

Open the Book, & we will be able to select one of three different permanent bonuses. Once a bonus is selected, we will be able to return to Solstheim. For the Hidden Knowledge Achievement, we need to read 5/7 Black Books & earn a bonus from each of them.


Miscellaneous Objective – Speak to Ralis Sedarys At Kolbjorn Barrow: Before we leave Raven Rock to go exploring the island, enter into the Retching Netch Inn & head down stairs to speak with the Innkeeper, Geldis Sadri. Ask him about any rumors, & we should receive this important Misc Objective.

This Misc Objective will lead into the Side Quest – Unearthed that ends with a Black Book. If you are only interested in the Achievement, I recommend skipping this as 1/2 Black Books we don’t need to read… It is quite a long Side Quest that requires waiting for 3 days at a time to progress.


Side Quest – March of the Dead: When you are ready to leave, travel South out of Raven Rock & we will shortly encounter a Redoran Guard being attacked by constructs made of ash. As soon as we approach him, we will receive this important Side Quest.

Defeat the Ash Spawn, then agree to help the man in figuring out where these Ash Spawn are coming from; we can find a Declaration of War Note in one of the nearby Ash Piles.

The Declaration of War will come from someone called General Falx Carius… we will need to kill him.


Side Quest – March of the Dead: Press on East now & head to Fort Frostmoth. Breach the fort & track down General Carius. The General will be locked inside a room we cannot open in the fort basement. Proceed a bit further down into a small catacomb, & we can find the Fort Frostmoth Key inside a Knapsack leaning against a stack of Coffins.

With the Key, open the locked door & kill the General.

1. Solstheim: Raven Rock, Raven Rock Mine, Ashfallow Citadel, Whiteridge Barrow, Saering’s Watch, Benkongerike, Temple of Miraak
2. Apocrypha
3. Dragonborn Quests: Dragonborn, The Temple of Miraak
4. Side Quests: March of the Dead, Best Served Cold
5. Black Book: 3/5
6. Dragon Aspect Words: 2/3
7. Bend Will Words: 1/3
8. Achievements: 67/75
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Side Quest – March of the Dead: With the General slain, return to Captain Veleth back in Raven Rock & we can turn in the Side Quest.

Side Quest – Best Served Cold: Shortly after turning in the previous Quest, Captain Veleth will seek us out to tell us that Adril Arano needs to see us about a pressing issue. Speak with him, & we will learn that the Councillor of Raven Rock could be in trouble.

Go to the Retching Netch & speak with the Innkeep Geldis Sadri once again & he will tip us off on a strategy for luring out the potential assassins.

Wait inside the Ulen Ancestral Tomb… & they will arrive… or at least, someone of interest. Report back to Adril, & we will need to find more proof of their involvement. Head over to Severin Manor, & all Hell will break loose. Loot the Severin Safe Key off of Tilisu Severin & open the Severin Family Safe to collect our proof. As a final endeavor to stop the plot, we will chase down the remaining survivors of the Severin line to Ashfallow Citadel…


Side Quest – Best Served Cold: Link up with the Redoran Guard outside Ashfallow Citadel, & defeat the Morag Tong Assassins. Get to the inner basement of the fort, & kill Vendil Severin to foil the plot to kill the Councillor.


Side Quest – Best Served Cold: Return to Adril Arano in Raven Rock to tell him the Councillor is now safe. Arano will then take us to see the Councillor himself.


Achievement #66 – Raven Rock Owner: Own a House in Raven Rock.
As a token of his thanks, Councillor Morvayn will bestow Severin Manor to us & we will now become a citizen of Raven Rock. Fortunately for us, we now have a base of operations to stash our excess loot without having to make the voyage back to Skyrim.



Black Book #2 – The Sallow Regent: Before we proceed to the Temple of Miraak, we can make a few quick pit stops up North to snag ourselves more Black Books. Whether you follow the Western coast & cut up or just plow straight North to it, head to the Nordic Ruin called White Ridge Barrow. Pass through into White Ridge Sanctum & we can find the Black Book in the main chamber where an optional Word Wall & the Dragon Priest, Dukaan, are as well.


Side Quest – The Sallow Regent: Read the Black Book, & we will once again be returned to Apocrypha. In this part of the realm, the shadows will hurt us (minor damage) & it will only be safe to move around underneath the flying light sources.

This realm can be easily sprinted through. Reach the true Black Book at the end, & choose one of three bonuses.


Bend Will Word #1: Exit back out of White Ridge Barrow, then look Eastward on our Compass to see a Ruin, a Dragon Lair, & two marked Caves. Make your way over to the Dragon Lair, & there will be a whole host of Draugr fighting a Dragon. Dispatch everyone here, then head up to learn the first Word of this important Shout.

For the Dragon Rider Achievement we need to learn all three Words to the Bend Will Shout so that we can tame & ride Dragons!


Black Book #3 – Untold Legends: From Saering’s Watch now, head to the Cave Southeast of us to discover Benkongerike. Navigate through the frozen passages & kill any of the Riekling inhabitants that get in our way to enter into the Benkongerike Great Hall. Complete the puzzle in the main chamber to open the gate, & we can find another Word Wall ahead. Continue on past it through a hole in the wall… & we can find the next Black Book in a strange Apocrypha styled shrine.


Side Quest – Untold Legends: Read the Black Book, & read varies Chapters of the Black Book to progress further & further into the realm. Get through Chapter V, & we will be able to reach the true Black Book to select our bonus.


Dragonborn Quest #1 – Dragonborn: With our side business completed for now, it will be time for us to make the trek into the heart of Solstheim to reach the Temple of Miraak.

Note that the Temple of Miraak can be super buggy & your game may crash when you approach it. Reloading your Save & approaching it will still result in a crash. For me, what worked was Verifying my File Integrity as apparently two texture files had corrupted & were causing the issues.

Dragonborn Quest #2 – The Temple of Miraak: When you can successfully make it into the Temple of Miraak, we will encounter a Skaal woman who seems to be unaffected by the strange hypnosis. Speak with Frea, & together we will enter inside the temple to find whatever source of power Miraak has here.

Dragon Aspect Word #2: Pass into the Temple of Miraak Sanctum, & eventually we will reach a dead end room that has a Word Wall in it containing our second Word to the Dragon Aspect Shout.

This is a Story Related Word as we need to learn it to be able to continue through the temple…

Black Book – Waking Dreams: In the bowels of the Temple Sanctum, after travelling quite a ways down, we will enter a room that contains another one of the Black Books we need. Give it a read, & we will pop over to Apocrypha.

Note that this Black Book is a DLC Quest Black Book & does not contribute to the Hidden Knowledge Achievement.


Achievement #67 – The Temple of Miraak: Complete The Temple of Miraak.
Story Related. When we arrive in Apocrypha, it will play out a little differently than we are used to… as we will be interrupting a meeting. When we abruptly get booted out, speak with Frea of what we saw to complete the Quest & unlock this Achievement.

1. Solstheim: Skaal Village, Wind Stone, Tel Mithryn, Nchardak
2. Apocrypha
3. Dragonborn Quests: The Fate of the Skaal, Cleansing the Stones, The Path of Knowledge, The Gardener of Men
4. Side Quests: A New Source of Stalhrim
5. Black Book: 4/5
6. Dragon Aspect Words: 3/3
7. Bend Will Words: 2/3
8. Achievements: 70/75
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Dragonborn Quest #3 – The Fate of the Skaal: Escape the Temple of Miraak, & travel with Frea to the Skaal Village. At the village, speak with the Skaal clan chief Storn Crag-Strider.


Dragon Aspect Word #3: Before go to free the mind controlled Skaal at the Wind Stone, go into our Inventory & re-read Black Book – Waking Dreams to return to Apocrypha. Read the different Chapters of the book to traverse up through the tower & collect the various On Apocrypha Books.

Once we have all four On Apocrypha Books, get to Chapter V, & place them all on their pedestals to summon Chapter VI which will take us to the very top of the tower. Here we can actually find a Word Wall that has the final Word to the Dragon Aspect Shout.


Achievement #68 – Dragon Aspect: Learn all 3 Words of Dragon Aspect.
If you have been following along with the guide, we will unlock this Achievement after learning the final Word to the Dragon Aspect Shout. We do not need to use Dragon Souls to unlock the Words for the Achievement…

Black Book – Waking Dreams is important to the DLC Questline; we can only progress up to this Word Wall for now. Open the Black Book again from our Inventory to return back to Solstheim…


Dragonborn Quest #3 – The Fate of the Skaal: To free the Skaal we first need the Bend Will Shout from Haering’s Watch, but we also need to unlock it with a Dragon Soul. Before using Bend Will on the Wind Stone, make a Save! If some of the Skaal here die, it will actually void a Side Quest/Achievement we need to earn from them later on.

Use the Shout, & defeat the Lurker as fast as possible so no Skaal die!


Dragonborn Quest #3 – The Fate of the Skaal: Return to the Skaal Village & speak with Chief Storn about what to do next to receive two new Dragonborn Quests.


Dragonborn Quest #4 – Cleansing the Stones: Similar to how we dealt with the Wind Stone, travel to the remaining four Stones & use our Bend Will Shout on them to free the trapped people. Like before, Save each time in case the Lurker kills anyone.

As a side note while we travel around Solstheim, for the Solstheim Explorer Achievement we need to discover 30 Locations here…


Side Quest – A New Source of Stalhrim: After a little time has passed, return to the Skaal Village to see Fanari Strong-Voice & Deor Woodcutter talking about their missing Blacksmith, Baldor. Speak with Deor, & he will give us a lead about two Elves dragging something away the day Baldor went missing… & they didn’t think to investigate?

Head to the Quest Marker & we can find some Thalmor outside of the Abandoned Lodge. Dispatch them, & we can rescue Baldor.

Next, travel to the Northwestern coast of Solstheim to the Northshore Landing where the Thalmor’s ship is moored. Convince the Thalmor to leave… or kill them all. Either way, collect the Stahlrim Source Map & return back to Baldor at the Skaal Village to complete this Side Quest.


Achievement #69 – Stalhrim Crafter: Craft an item out of Stalhrim.
With the Side Quest completed, we now can craft items out of Stalhrim, though there are still two perquisites we also need as well. First, we need to have a Smithing Level of 80 & we also need to have the Ebony Smithing Skill purchased.

With those complete, simply craft any Stalhrim item to unlock the Achievement; if you have none, we can purchase some expensive pieces of Stalhrim from Baldor we can use.


Dragonborn Quest #5 – The Path of Knowledge: To defeat Miraak, we need to obtain & read more of the mysterious Black Books of Apocrypha. Storn suggested we speak to the local master wizard, Neloth, who can be found at Tel Mithryn.

Head to the wizards tower, & speak with Neloth about where we can find more Black Books. Though he has one himself… he will be unwilling to let us read it; we will come back for it later. Instead, we will turn our attention to the Dwemer Ruin, Nchardak.


Dragonborn Quest #5 – The Path of Knowledge: Approach the main gates of Nchardak, & Neloth will open up the ruin for us. When we enter the Reading Room, we can see the Black Book sealed in the floor below us. To open it, travel down into the Nchardak Great Chamber, & Neloth will instruct us to obtain more Control Cubes so that we can boil away the ocean water that has flooded the chamber. Collect the Control Cubes from the Nchardak Workshop & Aqueduct, & place them in their sockets back at the Grand Chamber to remove the water.


Achievement #70 – The Path of Knowledge: Complete The Path of Knowledge.
Story Related. Return to the Nchardak Reading Room after the four boilers are activated, & we can press the Button to release the Black Book from its vault completing this Quest & unlocking the Achievement.

Black Book #4 – Epistolary Acumen: With the Black Book now released, approach it, & read it.


Dragonborn Quest #6 – The Gardener of Men: Instead of a Side Quest, it will actually be a part of the DLC Questline to read this Black Book & uncover its secret. Similarly to other Black Books, we will need to read the internal Chapters to progress along.

Get to Chapter IV, & we can find the true Black Book; read it for our bonus…

Bend Will Word #2: We will learn the second Word to the Bend Will Shout after we open the Black Book. When we go to leave Nchardak, a unique Dragon named Krosulhah will attack; we can use its Soul to unlock the second Word to use…

1. Solstheim: Tel Mithryn, Skaal Village
2. Apocrypha
3. Dragonborn Quests: The Gardener of Men, At the Summit of Apocrypha
4. Side Quests: Reluctant Steward
5. Black Book: 5/5
6. Bend Will Words: 3/3
7. Achievements: 73/75
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Side Quest – Reluctant Steward: Return to Tel Mithryn & speak with master Neloth & he will be complaining about being unable to find his servant, Varona. Agree to go look for her. To get a Quest Marker for it, walk over to the Tel Mithryn Kitchen building & speak with Ulves Romoran about where she went.

Follow our Quest Marker North, past the Silt-Strider Ferry… & we will find her.

Return back to Neloth, & he will task us with going to Raven Rock to hire him a new servant. Go to The Retching Netch to speak with a Dark Elf named Drovas Relvi, & he will immediately accept the position. Return to Neloth once again to complete the Quest. Wondering why I made you do this trivial Quest? To receive the Staff Enchanter Key.

Black Book #5 – The Hidden Twilight: With the Staff Enchanter Key, we can now access the room in Neloth’s tower that contains his vaulted Black Book; it is on the Arcane Enchanter.


Side Quest – The Hidden Twilight: You know the drill. Progress through the internal Chapters, & when you reach Chapters VII & VIII, you need to go to Chapter VII first to use the Scrye to unveil the bridge to continue.


Achievement #71 – Hidden Knowledge: Learn the secrets of 5 Black Books.
There are 7 Black Books in the game, but only 6 of them end in a permanent bonus or “secret” that counts towards the Achievement. If you have been following along with the guide, we will unlock this Achievement after earning the Bonus from Black Book – Hidden Twilight.

The final sixth Black Book is located in Kolbjorn Barrow at the very end of the tedious Side Quest – Unearthed that requires you to fund Ralis’ expedition four separate times & waiting 3 days in between each investment.



Achievement #72 – Solstheim Explorer: Discover 30 Locations on the island of Solstheim.
If you have not already done so, Fast Travel around Solstheim to different Locations to locate undiscovered ones on our Compass. Travel to them, & once you have found at least 30 Locations, we will unlock this Achievement.


Dragonborn Quest #6 – The Gardener of Men: We are now reaching the beginning of the end. Travel to the Skaal Village, & as our Daedric Prince commanded, uncover the secrets of the Skaal from Storn Crag-Strider.

Bend Will Word #3: By giving Haermas Mora what he wanted, he will reward us with the final Word to the Bend Will Shout.

If you have not already done so, we will now need to make sure we have unlocked all three Words. Finding Dragons in Solstheim can be difficult – if you need to, head back to Skyrim for Dragon Souls.


Dragonborn Quest #7 – At the Summit of Apocrypha: When you have all three Words of Bend Will unlocked, read the Black Book – Waking Dreams, & prepare to confront Miraak. Now for the fun part. Miraak is a challenging boss, & you will want to make sure you bring lots of Potions along with you.


Achievement #73 – At the Summit of Apocrypha: Complete At the Summit of Apocrypha.
Story Related. Defeat Miraak, Dragonborn to Dragonborn, & we will complete the DLC! The reward from the Black Book will allow us to reset all our Perks for chosen Skills if you need to.

1. All of Skyrim
2. Achievements: 75/75
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Achievement #74 – Dragonrider: Tame & ride 5 Dragons.
With a fully upgraded Bend Will Shout, travel around to the different Dragon Lairs around Skyrim & use the Shout to ride four more Dragons; the one we ride in Apocrypha counts towards the Achievement. Fly around for a few seconds, then land for it to count.

It is possible for Dragons to resist our Shout as well & you may need to find a different one…

Reaching Level 78: Now for the final grind of the game. By this point, 150 hours into the game, I was only Level 66. To spawn a Legendary Dragon to slay for the Legend Achievement we need to reach a minimum of Level 78. To speed up your Leveling, make sure to have the Lover Stone Blessing for an extra 15% Xp bonus to our Skills; if you chose the Aetherial Crown as the reward for beating Side Quest – Lost to the Ages, you can also select the Blessing from the Warrior, Thief, or Mage Stones as well for a 20% Xp bonus! Anytime you Level Up, make sure you increase your total Magicka over Heath/Stamina; this becomes very important for Leveling our Magic Skills which is the most efficient source of Level Ups…

When a Skill reaches 100, make it Legendary & do it over again; for Smithing though if you are resetting it, make sure that you do not need to reinforce any of your primary gear! Remember that anytime you Level up, always go to see a Trainer to get your five free Skill Levels! Whatever you do, do not make your primary Weapon Skill Legendary unless you can guarantee it will be back at 100 before we fight the Legendary Dragon!

Off the bat, if you have been hoarding Smithing Materials, Ingredients, & Soul Gems start burning through them all to Level Smithing, Alchemy, & Enchanting. For Smithing, opt for the quantity over quantity to make your Materials last; Smithing is impacted by the Warrior Stone. Then take those forged items to an Arcane Enchanter & use your Soul Gems to begin enchanting them; Enchanting is impacted by the Mage Stone.

For Enchanting, you want to choose the most expensive Enchantment available for each item such as Paralyze for Weapons, Sneak for Rings, etc. The same goes for brewing Potions; choose the most expensive Potions/Poisons to make first for the most Xp.

After crafting all your items & ideally getting a Level Up or two, I would then recommend painstakingly going through & selling all the items to Level your Speech; Speech is impacted by the Thief Stone. Fortunately, even if a Merchant has no money, giving them items for free will still count the items worth towards your Speech & you will still get Xp for it. Give the Merchant items worth 1000-1500 Gold at a time to drag out Xp earned; if you sell off large amounts of items, it counts for less Xp oddly enough.

Next up are Magic Skills that can be spam casted. You will want to equip gear that reduces the Magicka cost of Spells (like the Archmage’s Robes) as well as increases our maximum Magicka; Magicka Regeneration is not needed. Next you will need the Adept Alteration Spell Detect Life along with the Apprentice Illusion Spell Muffle. Now simply hold down Detect Life as a passive & use Muffle in your other hand to simultaneously Level up both Skills. When available, you will want to purchase the Adept Alteration & Apprentice Illusion Skills so that the two Spells cost less Magicka. Use up all your Magicka, wait an hour – rinse & repeat.

Tedious, but I was able to go from Level 66-78 in only an hour & a half of Illusion/Alteration grinding. To save time, you can also hang out in the Hall of Countenance at the College of Winterhold where all the Master Mages are & can train us in between Levels. I recommend training Destruction, Conjuration, or Restoration.

For other alternatives to farming (& me not wanting to just copy/paste all their hard work) I recommend checking out True Achievement’s KJT CD ACD great walkthrough for Levelling most Skills in various ways.
https://www.trueachievements.com/a165695/legend-achievement


Achievement #75 – Legend: Defeat a Legendary Dragon.
After we painstakingly Level ourselves up to Level 78, simply travel to any Dragon Lair & we have a good chance encountering a Legendary Dragon. It isn’t guaranteed & any Dragon can technically spawn. If it isn’t a Legendary Dragon, just travel to a different Dragon Lair & try again.

When it arrives, kill it, & we will unlock this final Achievement & earn our well deserved 100%. If the Legendary Dragon is too difficult, you can lower the Difficulty to Apprentice or Novice as well…

How many times has Bethesda released Skyrim? Seven times. How many times have I bought it? Four times. Why? Because Skyrim is just… good. It definitely isn’t perfect, but it is the best at what it is. The shear amount of content in this game is absurd, & this guide barely scratches the surface of where you can explore & what you can find. 100% took me around 150 hours to complete, though I did get bogged down quite a bit completing… every single Miscellaneous Objective & Side Quest I came across, & checking out the new Anniversary Edition content.

If this guide helped you achieve 100%, rate the guide or let me know in the comments. Helps me know if I am doing things right!



100% Complete
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