Skyrim Enchanting guide and how to enchant weapons and armor

(Image credit: Bethesda)

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1. Level up Enchanting by crafting daggers and gold rings
2. Use smaller soul gems to grind XP
3. Disenchant items to unlock new enchantments
4. Use Ahkari's chest to get items to disenchant and enchant
5. Where to find Enchanting Skill Trainers
6. Find Enchanting Book Locations
7. Skyrim enchanting quests

Learning how to enchant in Skyrim can enhance weapons and armor with magic, buffs and other effects to boost damage, abilities and more. It's a relatively quick and easy way to start tuning your character once you have some gear, and creating some interesting options for builds. Make some heavy armor that regenerates magicka instead of a flimsy robe you say? Tell me more...

While you can start adding all sorts of effects to things as soon as you have a few enchanted items and soul gems, it's the end game you're after. When you reach a Master Enchanter skill level of 100 you can create incredible things and this guide focuses on how to get that done faster. There are three main ways: disenchanting enchanted items you find (which also lets you 'learn' the enchantment), enchanting items, and recharging enchanted things.

We’re going to focus on boosting your skills by disenchanting and enchanting items but before you do anything of that, make sure you find and use the Mage Stone. This is among the Guardian Stones southwest of Riverwood and will buff your magic learning, including Enchanting, to level up 20% faster. Make sure you also have the Well Rested buff for an additional 10% boost by sleeping, or the Lover’s Comfort buff gained by sleeping with a spouse for a 15% boost, whenever possible. Using all these increases will help you gain XP faster.

At this point its also worth digging up all the useless and cheap weapons and armor you've probably accrued at this point in Skyrim so you can enchant them, which is the first step below. You also want to get some Soul Gems together, either from what you've collected or by trawling Archmage Quarters in the College of Winterhold, and dungeons all over Skyrim. Now, let's get busy...

1. Level up Skyrim Enchanting by crafting daggers and gold rings

Crafting a ton of enchanted daggers and gold rings will level up your Enchanting skills and Smithing skills, and leave you with a bunch of stuff for a profit. So it's a win all round.

Creating Iron Daggers at a blacksmith forge is extremely easy and cheap. The only required ingredients are one leather strip and one iron ingot, which you can get by turning ore into ingots at a smelter. Not only are these ingredients easy to find or create, but blacksmiths such as Alvor in Riverwood sell everything you need as well.

Once you have loads of Iron Daggers enchant them at the nearest Arcane Enchanter which will quickly boost your Enchanting skill. You can improve these gains further if you have the Mage Stone and well rested buffs active.

As for gold rinds the best route for that is to first get the Transmute spell so you can easily turn iron ore into silver ore and silver ore into gold. You can find an easy Transmute spell tome inside the caves of the Halted Stream Camp, on a table next to a mammoth corpse and a grindstone. The camp is a short walk north from Whiterun and should only take a few minutes to clear of enemies. Head here on the map:

Halted Stream Camp Transmute spell tome location

Once you have gold ore you can use it to create gold ingots and that's the only thing you need to make gold rings, which can then be enchanted. The Transmute spell makes this almost as easy as creating Iron Daggers, but gives your Smithing skill a larger boost and gives you much more valuable end product.

2. Use smaller soul gems to grind XP when enchanting gear

The size of the soul gem used in the Enchanting process will affect the resulting value and strength of the item being enchanted, but not how much experience you get from the process. As such stick to using petty or lesser soul gems if you're just grinding for experience, as they’re cheaper to buy and easier to find. Feel free to use higher level gems, especially on expensive jewelry, If you’re looking to make some huge profits. Just don't expect any XP gains.

We don’t recommend going out and filling empty soul gems yourself. It is technically cheaper to do that, but considering you can sell your enchanted creations to get the cash back, buying filled gems is the easier route if you’re just looking to level up.

3. Disenchant items to unlock new Skyrim enchantments

Chances are you'll have a random assortment of enchanted gear and you’ll have to disenchant/destroy these items at an Arcane Enchanter to learn the various enchantments you can use to make things and, fortunately, disenchanting earns you a huge skill boost each time that's usually more than you'll get for enchanting gear.

4. Use Ahkari the merchant's chest to get items to disenchant and enchant

If you head to Dawnstar you can find Ahkari, a traveling Khajiit merchant who often appears near the town entrance. Her chest is filled with soul gems, enchanted gear, and non-enchanted gear and be access thanks to a glitch, so you can loot the contents without being caught and then disenchant it all. The chest then refills after 48 hours so you can keep repeating the process (if it doesn't, try speaking to Ahkari to move things along).

To find the chest head to the east side of Dawnstar and look for the first three rocks you can find to the left of Iron Breaker Mine entrance here:

Skyrim Ahkari merchants chest — (Image credit: Bethesda)

You'll need to crouch but examine the ground near the notch between the rock nearest the wall, and the wall itself you'll eventually see the cursor change to let you search the chest and access its inventory.:

Simply disenchanting all the gear you continually find in this chest is a fantastic way to boost your skill, not to mention learn all the enchantments in the game. Just know that once you learn an enchantment, you can no longer disenchant items that have that particular enchantment, therefore disenchanting alone cannot be your sole means of maxing out your Enchanting skill.

5. Where to find Skyrim Enchanting Skill Trainer Locations

You can also pay coin to have your skill leveled up for you. There are two Enchanting trainers in Skyrim:

Sergius Turrianus

Sergius teaches Enchanting inside the College of Winterhold. You can find him in the Hall of Elements or the Hall of Countenance. He is an Expert-level trainer.

Hamal

Hamal can be found inside the Inner Sanctum of the Temple of Dibella in Markarth. You’ll either need to pick the lock on the door (expert or master level) or pickpocket the key from Senna, who keeps watch nearby. You’ll also have to complete Hamal’s quest, “The Heart of Dibella,” before she will offer her training services. She is a Master-level trainer.

6. Skyrim Enchanting Book Locations

There are five books to be found throughout Skyrim that enhance your Enchanting skill upon reading. Below you’ll find the locations for said books, though you only get the boost upon your first read.

Catalogue of Weapon Enchantments

Leaning against the treasure chest in the center of the Roadside Ruins, just northwest of Falkreath
On an upstairs table in Emporer’s Tower of Castle Dour in Solitude
Between two barrels inside The White Hall of Dawnstar
Quest reward from Urag gro-Shrub of the College of Winterhold for completing “Hitting the Books”
On an Arcane Enchanter in Darkwater Pass

Catalog of Armor Enchantments

On a shelf in Falion’s House in Morthal
Next to the Arcane Enchanter in Fort Amol, southwest of Windhelm
At the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon, a Daedric shrine on the mountain east of Morthal
Below deck of the Brinehammer shipwreck, west of Dawnstar
On a table inside Steamscorch Mine of Kynesgrove, just south of Windhelm

Enchanter’s Primer

On the floor of Carlotta Valentia’s House in Whiterun
On the Arcane Enchanter inside Hob’s Fall Cave, at the midway point between Dawnstar and Winterhold
Inside Honeyside (a purchasable home) in Riften
In a cart next to some corpses just west of Whistling Mine, southwest of Winterhold
Next to a shrine just northwest of Valthume, a location far southeast of Markarth

Twin Secrets

In Calcelmo’s Lab in Markarth
On the Arcane Enchanter in Serpent’s Bluff Redoubt, a Forswron camp just southwest of Rorisktead, southwest of Dawnstar
In a basket on a barrel in a room inside Jarl’s Longhouse of Winterhold
Near the Shrine of Stendarr, southeast of Swindler’s Den, south of Dawnstar and east of Rorisktead
In the bandit chief’s room of Treva’s Watch, far west of Riften

A Tragedy in Black

In the room with the Arcane Enchanter in Ilinalta’s Deep, directly north of Falkreath
On a bookshelf in Bruca’s Leap Redoubt, a Forsworn camp west of Dragon Bridge
Near the Arcane Enchanter in Glenmoril Coven, a cave northwest of Falkreath
At the Shrine of Akatosh, northeast of Twilight Sepulcher, directly west of Falkreath
On a crate just east of Eldergleam Sanctuary, northeast of Ivarstead

7. Skyrim enchanting quests

There are a small number of quests that, upon completion, boost your Enchanting skill. They are as follows:

Discerning the Transmundane (+5 to Enchanting upon completion)

To begin this quest, seek out Septimus Signus in his outpost north of the College of Winterhold (pictured above). The quest is lengthy, but at the end, choose the ‘path of the mage’ for your stat boost.

Find Pantea’s Flute Quest (+1 to Enchanting upon completion)

To take on this quest, speak to Pantea in the Bard’s College (or the Winking Skeever inn) of Solitude. The flute is in Hob’s Fall Cave.