Skyrim Enchanting guide and how to enchant weapons and armor

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Mastering how to enchant in Skyrim can enhance weapons and armor with magic that can give you useful buffs and other effects. Skyrim enchanting is basically the crafting end game, giving you some of the most powerful gear you can get in the game once you level up the right skills.

Skyrim enchanting basically enables you to raise gear above its base stats or add bespoke effects. You'll have to work for it in Skyrim though and reach a Master Enchanter skill level of 100. That's why a large part of this guide is simply how to get that done faster, and will cover how to max out your enchanting skills quickly. There are three main ways to do this: disenchanting enchanted items you find (which also lets you 'learn' the enchantment), enchanting items, and recharging enchanted things with souls gems.

We’re going to show focus on boosting your skills by disenchanting and enchanting items but before you do anything, make sure you find and use the Mage Stone. This is among the Guardian Stones southwest of Riverwood and will buff your magic learning so Enchanting will level up 20% faster. Make sure you always 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. Using these increases will help you gain the required 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 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 ring will level up you Enchanting skills as well as your Smithing skills, and it'll leave you with a bunch of stuff you can sell at 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 plenty of Iron Daggers you can enchant then at Arcane Enchanters, easily boosting your Enchanting skill. Remember to make sure you have the Mage Stone and well rested buffs active to increase your gains even more.

If you have the Transmute spell, you can easily turn iron ore into silver ore or silver ore into gold ore. If you don’t have it, a Transmute spell tome is most easily found inside the caves of the Halted Stream Camp. The spell can be found on a table next to a mammoth corpse and a grindstone. The camp should only take a few minutes to clear out and is a short walk north from Whiterun.

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

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

If you head to Dawnstar you can find a chest that belongs to Ahkari, a traveling Khajiit merchant who often appears at the entrance to Dawnstar. It's filled to the brim with soul gems, enchanted gear, and non-enchanted gear. The contents reflect her inventory (so, for example, you can get your gold back if you were to buy anything from her). And, after looting the chest, it will fill up again after 48 hours (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 some rocks a few steps south of Irgnir's House, left of Iron Breaker Mine. It's invisible so you'll only know you've found it when your cursor changes, so scan the rocks around here until you can interact with it. It won't count as theft either.

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.

3. Know where to find 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.

4. Find 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

5. Complete 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.

6. Disenchant items to unlock new Skyrim enchantments

Depending on where you are in the game and how much time and effort you’ve put into Enchanting, you may have tons of gear stashed away that is already enchanted. If you haven’t dabbled much in Enchanting yet, chances are you’ll have to disenchant/destroy these items at an Arcane Enchanter in order to learn various enchantments anyway. Fortunately, disenchanting earns you a huge skill boost each time you do it - usually more than enchanting gear yourself.

7. Grind smaller soul gems when enchanting gear

The size of the soul gem (make sure they’re filled) used in the Enchanting process will affect the resulting value and strength of the item being enchanted, but will not affect how much experience you get from the process (nor will the item or enchantment, the skill increase is always the same flat rate). As such, we recommend sticking to petty or lesser soul gems as you grind for experience, as they’re cheaper to buy and easier to find. If you’re looking to make some mad profit, however, feel free to use higher level gems - especially on expensive jewelry.

We don’t recommend going out and filling empty soul gems yourself. Yes, it’s cheaper to do that, but considering the fact that you can sell your enchanted creations for a profit, buying filled petty/lesser gems is the easier route if you’re solely looking to level up. Magic and general goods merchants carry soul gems.