Detect Life (Skyrim)

Detect Life
School of Magicka	Alteration
Skill Level	Adept (50)
Effect	Nearby living creatures, but not undead, machines, or daedra, can be seen through walls.
Magicka Cost	100/second
Spell Tome	Quest reward
Tome ID	000A26E7
ID	000211EE

For the Oblivion spell, see Detect Life (Oblivion).

Detect Life is an adept Alteration spell in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that enables the caster to see nearby living creatures, but not undead, those that are invisible, machines, or daedra, through walls.

Usefulness

• The Detect Life spell allows the user to distinguish between friendly and hostile characters through the color of the mist it uses to show their presence — hostile characters are red, and friendly characters are light blue.
  • Note that the blue mist surrounding what appears to be a friendly character/creature may become red mist as the Dragonborn approaches and the character/creature becomes hostile on sight.
• Useful for stealth-oriented classes, as it can be used to find out how many foes are in the next room, then calculate an efficient plan of attack.
• Can be extremely efficient at raising Alteration, as it increases the amount of experience gain the more targets it is able to see. For example, seeing one person may take a couple of minutes to increase, while seeing two people will cut that in half. So to get the most of this spell, cast it in a major city such as the Whiterun or Riften markets.

Spell tome

Attributes

• Weight: 1
• Value: 332
• See Spell Tome for a complete table of spell tomes, their descriptions, and their values.

Acquisition

• Obtained from Stalleo after completing the quest Infiltration at Treva's Watch.
• May be found in Labyrinthian in the first chamber.
• May appear as random loot, and might randomly appear available for purchase from the following:

• Tolfdir at the College of Winterhold
• Wylandriah at the Mistveil Keep

Bugs

•  PC   PS3   As a vampire, using Detect Life while out in the day will sometimes result in limitless use of the spell, thus providing unlimited experience. This can sometimes be triggered by moving in any direction right as magicka runs out.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim