- "Ari gave me this dagger when we first started hunting together. Always said it brought her luck. You should be the one to carry it now."
- ―Valdr[src]
Valdr's Lucky Dagger is a unique steel dagger found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Background[]
Valdr's Lucky Dagger is owned by a Nord hunter named Valdr who received it as a gift from his good friend Ari. During a failed incursion into Moss Mother Cavern, Ari and their friend Niels were killed by a spriggan, leaving Valdr wounded and unable to return home.
Acquisition[]
During "Hunter and Hunted" quest, assisting Valdr in killing the remaining spriggans in Moss Mother Cavern so that he may bury his friends will prompt him to bestow the dagger as a reward and a gift of thanks.
Enchantment[]
The dagger's inherent properties grants a 25% chance of a critical hit with each strike. The effect itself is not considered to be an enchantment, so the weapon cannot be disenchanted to learn the effect. In addition, it is affected by Elemental Fury.
Critical hits[]
While the 25% chance of a critical hit may appear beneficial, the effect is less impressive at higher levels as critical hits only affects the base damage of the weapon. A critical hit multiplies the damage of an attack by 1.5. This means a critical hit with this dagger will only add 2.5 points of damage to the existing hit. One-Handed skill, perks, or smithing improvements do not increase critical damage:
Usefulness[]
When fighting enemies directly, this dagger will fare better than an Orcish dagger. However, since daggers cannot stagger enemies and have shorter reach, using them for face-to-face combat is ill-advised. Looking at the Valdr's Lucky Dagger as an assassination weapon, even with just the Backstab perk from the Sneak skill, an Orcish dagger will easily outshine Valdr's. Reach Assassin's Blade, and the difference becomes so dramatic that the enchantment on Valdr's Lucky Dagger becomes obsolete.
Smithing[]
It can be upgraded with a steel ingot at a grindstone and also benefits from the Steel Smithing perk, which doubles the improvement. The Arcane Blacksmith perk is not required, as the dagger is not actually enchanted. Unfortunately, tempering this dagger will have no effect on its critical damage, as it's calculated off the base damage of the weapon, thus the upgrade is not factored in.
Trivia[]
- The sheathing sound of this dagger is the one from a one-handed sword instead of the one used for daggers.
- This dagger's base value is 15 gold, whereas the regular Steel Dagger's base value is 18 gold.
- Critical hit damage also stacks with sneak attack bonus, but it is not multiplied by it.
Bugs[]
|
This section contains bugs related to Valdr's Lucky Dagger. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:
|
- PC 360 PS3 When placed upon a weapon rack, the dagger may become stuck, rendering it unable to be retrieved.
- Exiting the cell, then re-entering it may fix this.
- PC 360 NX If Valdr is attacked by an enemy before he finishes talking at the end of the quest, the dagger will still be put into the Dragonborn's inventory. After the enemy is defeated, he will restart his speech and give the Dragonborn a second dagger.