It seems im way behind everyone else but i am getting well caught up in the game now. Got myself a sidekick to follow me around, took down a dragon and discovered i was dragon born, joined some group of warriors whos name escapes me right now....... im getting addicted

Right well i've been playing pretty solidly this weekend and i've been doing the Whiterun Challenge (as i call it).

Going between the two forges building iron daggers and leatehr helmets, then upto the enchanter in Dragonsreach to give them basic enchantments, then selling these items back to the enchanter, and the various smithys, merchants, whoever i can.

I then intersperse this with trips to the river side to kill mud crabs, foxes, elks etc with my "Pointy Stick of Souls" to fill up soul gems for the next round of enchanting.

I am now at Level 53 and have 100 Smithing, 84 Enchanting and have 3 level up 'perks' queued up waiting for when i get my enchanting level to 100.

(i dont want to use them now on enchanting 'perks' or all my home made weapons will become to expensive for me to sell easily)

Darkshade - only level 12? Good or bad idea?

Your level is not really a badge(to tell whether you're ready) rather it keeps the playing field level by having an affect on the game.

As you level up, so the enemies you meet get stronger. (ie, at the start when you meet undead characters they are usually skeletons and easier draugr, now i cant go in a tomb without it being full of draugr magelords!

So dont worry about your level, just make sure you have a good weapon, armour, health potions and you'll have no worries.

I'm in a slightly awkward place at the moment becuase i have been levelling up so quickly as i improved my smithing and enchanting skills, that the enemies have gotten tricky again.

So its back to the hack n slashing, to bring up the one handed and armour skills.

Finished dark shade - the trolls were fun and filled a few soul gems.
Got a few side quest to finish then going to start improving items.

Ross

Just had a frustrating afternoon of Skyrim, doing the quest to get rid of pirates for the East Empire Trading Co.

The quest seems full of bugs - if you try to climb out of the sea near where the pirate ship is docked, or fall off that pier you get stuck in a little gap in the rocks from which there is no escape other than waiting for somebody to kill you or re-loading a saved game.

After you've completed the objective of killing the battle-mage the person you're supposed to report back to won't speak to you until you've killed all of the pirates (the job she's meant to be doing).

When I finally got her to talk to me she took me back to Windhelm, and then kept asking if I was ready to head back. Getting out of that conversation I reported to the EET Co. office, only to have the person I was supposed to be speaking to act as if I'd just broken in (I hadn't the door was unlocked when I went there), then calling the guards.

With every guard in Windhelm on my tail I decided to make a run for it, but as I got outside Windhelm a dragon spawned. I decided to fight it, as the Windhelm guards, faced with the choice of taking down the dragon who was flaming their city or catching somebody accused of breaking and entering, decided I was the priority target.

To make matters worse, when I drew a weapon to attack the dragon the system seemed to assume I was attacking the guards, and upped my Windhelm bounty by 1,000 gold. So with a dragon in front of me and every guard in Windhelm at my back I went down pretty damn quickly.

Bloody annoying thing, the autosave has me in a crappy position just outside Windhelm, so I'm going to have to go back to halfway through the pirate quest and hope that everything works second time around.

Grrrr!

Ok word of advice people.

When those voice people tell you to get the word at Valskygge, you tell them go DO ONE!

Flippin eck that was difficult! A huge series of cavens and tombs with everything in it. You fight your way all the way to the top, and then face the most difficult MageLord thingy that i've encountered so far.

Then i found you could just run up the hillside and cut all that goign through the ruins in the first place!

Lol - looking forward to te above 2 quests you mention.

I decided I was gonna try and get rid of the dog, by completing the mission.... Got side tracked again.

Ended up finding red eagles sword. Which means I'm headin down to rebels cairn to see if that is the sword it wants. As its close.

Ross

Ok - ended up going into Volskygge - was about 2300 and thought I'll clear out this bandit camp thing then head to bed.

Haha - its not that simple or easy.

Ended up with a magic mask though.

That was my first real challenge. That draugr at the end and then the Mage. I'm only lv 15, so that would explain it.

Ross

Ok - as mentioned elsewhere as Im pretty much housebound with my knee, I've been playing skyrim - a lot!!

Up to lv 31 now. 2 things I'd like to mention to help those looking to progress

1. Find kesh at the perite shrine and complete the quest - spell breaker has been invaluable for me.
2. Don't enter kilkereath temple unless your ready for a major fight - plus dawnbreaker isnt that good a reward in my opinion.

As a side I got the staff of chain lighting from someone, might have been a dragon priest, and that combined with some high level destruction magic is a lethal combination against most. I just find my follower constantly getting in the way though.

How the rest of you guys getting on?

Ross

Ps I still haven't finished the horn quest for the greybeards, as I'm too busy trying to finish side quests which are like the hydras heads - finish 1 and another 2 pop up.

I'm on level 38, with a sneak score of 100 and a smithing score of 71, which means I can make enchanted glass daggers, so I can take down most things with one hit.

Busy working my way through the Thieves Guild quests at the moment. I started on the civil war quest-line, but reached a point where I needed to talk to the same NPC as I need to in order to continue the main quest line, and all they want to talk to me about is the main quest.

I completed the "In the mind of madness" quest to end up with the Wabbajack - now there's a weapon that makes for some strange fights. Most of the time though I go with sneak dagger attacks, or if there are a lot of enemies in one place I tend to send in a fire or storm atronach.

My top-tip; when you start on the civil war quest line don't be too quick to join up with the 'cool' rebels of the Stormcloaks - Ulfric's a bit of a nobber and I now wish I'd picked the Imperial side.

Oh, my other tip is always carry a lot of lock-picks (50+) - it's very frustrating to make it through a huge dungeon (and I'm thinking particularly of the Dwemner ruins here) and then find a master level locked door or chest near the bottom, only to have to leave it because you don't have enough lock-picks to open it.

Ok, level 60 here, 100 in:

Light Armour,
Single handed wepaons
Archery
Enchanting
Smithing
Lockpicking
Sneak

(probably some more that i cant think of)

My top tops are:

In every shop, buy as many arrows and lockpicks that they sell. They dont weigh anything but they give the seller lots of money (as they often have 50-100+ arrows) which you can then use to sell them all the other rubbish you've picked up along the way.

Get or make an ebony bow, upgrade it (to legendary or epic) then enchant it with a health absorb spell and a soultrap. Fantastic at single shot killing all sorts of people at distance and keeps a nice fuel line of souls coming in for your other weapons.

Also, go with single handed weapons, then use the perks to unlock beefed up duel wielded attacks. I can now walk into any room with my 2 health absorbing swords and just hack n slash my way through anything.

I've now reached a point where there are no more 'big' quests for me, it's all help bob out with his plumbing or pop to the shops for Mrs Green. So i think i'll be whittling down my play time. I still have about 4 'words' to find though to complete my collection, but the greybeards have stopped telling me where to find them!

Hi truffs.

Good bit of advice there - cheers.

I have about 25% of the map still to explore. Im still trying to complete as many side quests as possible but example - complete the man who cried wolf. Get courier next time in white run telling me there is an issue and I need to return so that's not finished and there is another few things to sort as well. Bloody good game but - apart from the lack of treasure chests - known glitch based on forum help sections.

Ross

Still loving the game and progressing well. Without giving any storylines away, does the game ever actualy have an ending as such does anyone know? Its just ive never heard of anyone finishing it and now theres comments of quests being regenerated infinite times.

Erm...I guess there isnt really.

I mean there is an end to the main 'problem' but, as they say, life goes on.

I completed the story months ago and i'm still wandering round finding places i havent been to yet. (although i did have a 1 month break from playing).

Whoop!

Finally found all the Words! The last couple were hiding places i visited early on in the game before i was taught all the voice stuff.

Now i need to kill 7 more dragons to unlock them.

I also have a full set of Enchanted Dragon armour which i've made.

I'm busy doing the Nightingales quest line at the moment, so hopefully the nightingale armour will soon be mine. Currently ridding the world of Falmer.

Right, well i think i'm done with Skyrim now. I've just spent the last few days of my game time wandering round the map looking for places i havent been to yet as i have nothing else to do really.

A little tip:

I cant remember exactly where (but i think it was around the south-east corner of the map) There is a deadric cult which you have to sacrifice a 'follower' to join.

By follower i mean one of those people you can hire to be like a pack mule for you.

Once you do this the deadric lord tells you to go on a quest . Complete this quest and you get a full set of Ebony armour as reward (the strongest armour apart from Dragonplate) which is also enchanted with two cool spells.

1. Eminates Poison: All enemies with a short distance of you automatically start taking damage. This doesnt affect people when you're in towns or whatever, it only affects those people who are recognised as enemies (red dots on the compass).

2. Super Sneak: It makes you practically invisible, I had 100 sneak but still found this armour made me even harder to see, i could pretty much sneak through any room regardless of line of sight or lighting.

This armour came in very handy whilst i was wandering around finding those last few words and killing dragons to make my own armour.

Boethiah - it's south east of windhelm.

I'm struggling to beat dragons now they are elder dragons - any tips?
Ross

Ross, have you done enough of the main quest-line to get the Dragonrend shout? You have to keep hitting the dragon with it to keep them on the ground, because you don't stand a chance when they're in the air.

I normally whip up a storm or flame atronach to keep them busy and then blast them with fireballs.

Yeah Elder dragons are a bitch, Keep em on the ground and try to stay to their side and just slash away at their wing.

If the dragon keeps trying to turn to face you, leg it before it can eat you and get behind a tree or rock to block its frosty menthol fresh breath.

Let it fly up a bit, hit it with Dragonrend then get in position to its side before it lands and repeat.

I removed Skyrim from my PC last night.

Splitter!

I completed the thieves' guild quest-line last night, with a bit of an anti-climax...



On a side note, it's a real shame that Karliah isn't one of the NPCs that you can marry in the game ... she has a *sexy* voice.

@AndrewR - I haven't even found windcallers horn thingy yet, so main quest = not far.

I find them a right pain when they on the ground!! Keep getting eaten!!

Ross

One weird thing that is bugging (pun not originally intended) me is that every now and again I get a quest that doesn't clear from my to do list (PS3 FWIW).

For example I cleared the Red Eagle sword quest ages ago but it stayed in my list until I went through the (now mostly empty) dungeon again. Retracing my steps worked to clear that one but in the "Kill the Hargraven Petra" quest, I've killed her and can go back and clearly see her corpse but no amount of stabbing her again clears the quest from my to do list. I haven't tried dragging her body outside yet which I may do if I get bored one night. Maybe drag it behind me around the whole map until the quest item clears.

I've just had a quest similar to that last night. I can't remember which one it was but when I got to the "boss" baddie it just stood there without making any attack towards me whilst I turned it into a pin cushion with arrows. I did have a helper and some demon thing (I can't remember what it's called but the thing that the Sanguine Rose summons) distracting it but even so.

I have the same issue (also on PS3). I have a miscellaneous quest item to investigate the college at Winterhold, despite having completed the entire college quest-line.

I also have the mission active where you have to collect the 24 gems (I forget what they're called) which has an uncompleted objective, "Become a full member of the thieves' guild", although again I've completed the thieves' guild quest-line.

It is very annoying as I'm the kind person that likes to tick off every item their to do lists! This could seriously affect my sanity.

Well i finaly finished the main quest and what i would consider to be all the main side bits. Was a little disapointed at the end to be honest.
Has anyone purchased the expansion pack with all the new quests etc on it? Is it worth the money?

I've got no idea what skyrim is, but it sounds like Dungeons and Dragons minus the 64-sided dice, so I say stop now before your inner nerd takes you over completely. Just leave it alone and get a grip of yourselves. Nerds.