Enchanting (Skyrim)

The more powerful the enchanter, the stronger the magic he can bind to his weapons and armor.

Enchanting is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Enchanting falls under the Mage play-style. It acts as the Mage's crafting skill, and parallels the Thief's Alchemy and the Warrior's Smithing.

To be able to enchant items, the player must first disenchant an item with a pre-existing enchantment at an Arcane Enchanter. Doing so permanently destroys the item, but henceforth the character can apply that enchantment to items using filled Soul Gems. Soul gems are also used to restore the depleted enchantments of weapons, as weapons slowly lose their charge as they are used. The quality of soul gem used for weapons determines the amount of charge the weapon has to begin with, while on armor and jewelry it determines the magnitude of the enchantment. Armor and jewellery do not have charges; their effects are permanent.

(Note: The enchantment perk Soul Siphon allows weapons to recharge slightly when the player kills a monster)

Leveling
The following actions raise the Enchanting skill
 * Disenchanting items.
 * Enchanting items that do not currently possess an enchantment.
 * Using Soul Gem to recharge weapons (Soul Siphon does not count).

If the player owns Azura's Star (gained from the quest The Black Star) he can enchant a weapon with Soul Trap for 1 second and recharge it after every kill for cheap and easy progress. To learn the Soul Trap enchant, once a certain level is reached (as early as level 4) merchants such as Ulfberth War-Bear will sell weapons with the enchantment on them. If the merchant does not have a weapon with the enchant, wait 48 hours so the merchant restocks his/her supply. These weapons can be found in the world but it is easier to buy the weapon from a merchant. These weapons can then be disenchanted to learn the enchantment. The enchantment can then be used as often as desired to enchant or recharge a weapon with Soul Trap.

Enchanting an item appears to give the same skill regardless of materials used. A cheap method to level enchanting would be to craft Iron Daggers, or use found items from adventuring, and enchanting using Petty Soul Gems before selling for the cost of materials. If you are trying to maximize your gold return from the items you are enchanting in order to buy more soul gems, pay attention to the value of the item as you place enchantments on it as some enchantments raise an items' value more than others. The Banish enchment in particular has a very high return ratio. Note: the quality of soul gem used in the enchant does not affect the skill gain, so Petty Soul Gems are the best way to go.

Another way to maximize your return is to find the Transmute spell and turn iron into silver or gold in order to craft rings which can be enchanted. Selling the rings covers the cost of the soul gems.

Since Enchanting falls under the Mage play-style, activating the The Mage Stone will increase the speed the skill levels at.

You can also obtain a Rested Effect from sleeping in a bed for an additional bonus to skill gain. Note: Rested Effect does not stack with the Lover Stone's +15% skill gain, but The Mage Stone will.

Books
The following is a list of books that raise the Enchanting skill:


 * A Tragedy in Black
 * Catalogue of Weapon Enchantments
 * Complete Catalogue of Enchantments for Armor
 * Enchanter's Primer
 * Twin Secrets

Training

 * Sergius Turranius at The College of Winterhold teaches up to Expert level Enchanting.
 * Hamal in Temple of Dibella in Markarth teaches up to Master level Enchanting(after completing The Heart of Dibella quest).

Winterhold

 * At College

Whiterun

 * In Farengars Room (to the right of Jarl's throne in Dragonsreach)

Markarth

 * Understone Keep (in front of Nchuand-Zel Excavation Site)

Riften
Windhelm
 * In Honeyside after purchasing the house and the Enchanter house upgrade from the Steward.
 * In the court-mage Wuunferths quarters.

Other

 * In the room in Dustman’s Cairn where you get ambushed.
 * Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary: in the area that Babette is sitting watching over her caged frostbite spiders. This is her laboratory with a collection of Alchemical ingredients, alchemy and enchanting tables.

Riverwood

 * In Delphine's Secret Room, in the Sleeping Giant Inn (unlocked through the main quest).

Obtaining Enchantments
Players do not start with any Enchantments, but Altmer, Imperial, and Orc characters gain a +5 boost to Enchanting at the start of the game. To gain enchantments to place on items, you must first disenchant a magic item. This destroys the object but allows you to use the learned enchantment for enchanting your own items.

Weapon Enchantments

 * Absorb Health
 * Absorb Magicka
 * Absorb Stamina
 * Banish
 * Fear
 * Fiery Soul Trap
 * Fire Damage
 * Frost Damage
 * Huntsman's Prowess
 * Silent Moons Enchant
 * Magicka Damage
 * Notched Pickaxe
 * Paralyze
 * Shock Damage
 * Soul Trap
 * Stamina Damage
 * Turn Undead

Enchanting Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Note: it will usually be more worthwhile to take an extra rank in Enchanter vs. taking something like Fire or Frost enchanter unless you've maxed out Enchanter already.

Exploit For Extremely Powerful Weapons And Armor
Using Alchemy, enchanting and smithing, ultimate weapons can be made. To do this, start by using Alchemy to create potions of "Fortify Enchanting", which allows the player to create stronger enchantments of "Fortify Alchemy". The player can now create a stronger potion of "Fortify Enchanting" and so on building on each other. The process is described below.

Usually the player can make a set of four items of +25% alchemy skill for any fortification skill like alchemy and enchanting. There is an exploit in which you can wear a Falmer helmet over a circlet and both have stacked effects [Tested PS3]; quite useful for this. So now make 25% fortify alchemy enchantments on the Falmer Helmet, any ring, any necklace, and gloves/bracers and a circlet. Note that the falmer helmet and circlet can be worn at once. Wear all of the enchanted equipment and make a fortify enchanting potion. With this potion, you should be able to create fortify 29% alchemy and smithing enchantments. Also while enchanting try to be quick as potion lasts for 30 seconds. Note that there is a cap of 29% fortifying alchemy and smithing enchantments so going over this number is not possible. Using this you should be able to create 147% smithing fortification potion [Tested PS3]. Also a 37% enchanting fortification potion can be created but since 29% has been reached its not much useful for this but quite good for other enchantments.

Using this we would get 4 x 29% smithing gear and 147% smithing potions. Using these, staggeringly powerful weapons and armors can be made and improved.

For this process to be possible it is requiered to have 100% in enchanting, alchemy and smithing with the relevant perks.

Note: This process uses the falmer helmet worn over circlet glitch which ultimately allows a potion of 147% fortify smithing potion and 37% enchanting potion to be brewed.

Notes & Tips

 * Staves, quest items and some unique items cannot be disenchanted. (Example; Staff of Fireballs, Dragonpriest masks)


 * The Shadowsight, Shadowstrength, Shadowstrike, and Shadowthrive enchantments are learned from disenchanting Linwe's Armor, Linwe's Boots, Linwe's Gloves, and Linwe's Hood. The Blessing of Mara is obtained by disenchanting The Bond of Matrimony after you get married. Yes the table is correct, these enchantments cannot be placed on anything. This may be a bug either in that the enchantments may not be intended to be obtained, or that they are unable to be placed on anything.


 * The Player is able to rename their enchanted items, so they can easily identify their different custom handcrafted items. Also, If you put a space in front of the name it will always be at the top of the list.


 * Enchanting can allow for a player to have Smithing improved items be +100% better at 100 enchanting skill. This allows a player with little skill in smithing to have Legendary or higher armor/weapons when used with an Alchemy potion that enhances smithing.


 * With the Alchemy skill the Player can make potions that increase the effects of the enchanting skill. This allows for imbuing even stronger enchantments on an item past what 100 skill and 5/5 Enchanter perk normally allow. Using the +20% Enchanter's Philter makes a +46% element resistance into a +51% resistance for example.


 * With the perk Extra Effect the player can choose up to two different enchantments for one item in enchantment selection. The enchantments must be different, i.e. you cannot stack two + healths or two fortify magics. The power of enchantments will be determined by the size of the Soul Gem used and not be influenced by each other. For example you can enchant both a +40% One-Handed Damage enchant and a +25 Light Armor enchant without affecting their strength.


 * Enchanting "Fortify " at 100 skill level and 5/5 Enchanter perk with a Grand soul results in a 25% casting cost reduction for that school. This stacks additively; meaning that with 4 items (chest, ring, amulet and head) you can cast spells in that school for free.


 * A very good way to make money and get skills up is to smith iron daggers for very little cost, then enchant them raising their price well above their initial base value of 10. If you use Banish as the enchantment with a petty soul gem the dagger's base value goes up the most. If Banish is not available, the following enchantments result in a slightly lower value, but may be easier to find. In order of descending value: Paralyze, Stamina Damage, Turn Undead, Absorb Health, Absorb Stamina, Absorb Magicka. Then you can sell the daggers back one at a time with ease. This method increases your enchanting, smithing, speech and not to mention the money in your pocket.


 * Another decent method for getting your enchantment high is to get the Transmute Spell (Alteration) which can be found at the Halted Stream Camp. With that spell you can transmute iron ore into silver and then gold ore. You can then smith gold jewelry and enchant it yielding a rate of return on gold coins when selling. This method does take time however to convert your iron ore to gold ore. This grants increases to alteration, enchanting, smithing, and speech skills with this method.


 * Another method is to purchase boots, clothes, gloves from clothing stores (for 2g each) and enchant them. Armor takes less time between enchantments because you do not have to select how many charges on the item.


 * Helms can be found with resistance to elements as loot, but an enchanter cannot make a helm with elemental resistance. The same "rule" also applies for carry weight and other enchantments; You can find items in game that the player can not make.


 * It seems that the value of enchanted items goes down as Enchanting skill increases. See this discussion.


 * The easiest way to capture souls for enchanting is to use either magic/melee weapon or two weapons. Enchant one with Soul trap for 1sec with a petty soul gem. Use that weapon for the killing blow. You can capture up to 40 souls without a refill in this way. With the black star, you can continually recharge the weapon as you collect souls.


 * You cannot remove an enchantment once it is placed. Be careful with your Daedric Armor!
 * For enchants that have two effects, e.g. Firey Soul Trap, The second effect is constant and the number of charges is based on the first effect. This means that you can set it to one second soul trap and still keep the +10 fire damage. With a grand soul you can get over 2000 charges of +10 fire damage using Firey Soul Trap but you would only be able to get around 50 charges if you used the Fire Damage enchant to get the same +10 Damage. It is very useful for characters that don't have any enchanting skill.
 * Weapon enchants over the 100 mark in enchanting, "including perks" charge count seem's to lower to lower dramatically, (this is a bug which probally wont be fixed) after exiting and relaunching the game and reloading a save.