Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Non-Combat Stealth Takedowns

Tags: #Relycs 
  • Member
    May 28, 2016
    Have you ever been in that situation where you wanted to play a character which should be able to do stealth takedowns (a thief or maybe an assassin) but in the end wasn't because standard stealth kills are overused/not your way and/or unarmed is too weak and noisy?

    Yes? Great, because I'm here to present a 'trick' that can roleplay you out.


    What it does: Silently kills or temporarily disables a target.

    What you need: Pickpocket lvl 40 (the 'Poisoned' perk), a mid-lvl Alchemy skill (works at all lvls but best at max) or a Philosopher's Stone , Sneak to remain undetected

    How it works: In fact, it's just putting a paralysis poison or a dmg health poison (you will need the Stone to create poisons that can kill higher lvl foes) into the pockets of your enemy(s). But! The roleplay effect of doing this is that you're silently knocking them out.

    In case of Paralysis, the enemy will recover shortly after (6 seconds duration with 40 Alchemy + perks), so this is also suited for pacifist runs or a thief that doesn't kill.
    Dmg Health will drain the enemys health, but only 60 at maximum lvl. You can do it with lingering dmg poisons but they can alert other enemys around. The Philosopher's Stone can make incredible strong poisons that do enough dmg to take out higher lvl enemys, which would normaly be op but the fact that you have to sneak onto the enemy and that it only works while you're undetected/none seeks you and the enemy isn't a draugr or vampire, makes it more of a rewarding challenge.


    • Things to know:
    - You can train to 40 pickpocket in less than 5 min by beeing taken to the prison in Riften and using pickpocket on one of the prisoners there. He wont become hostile and if you give him 200 septims, and later 500 septims, and steal it back, it will give you 2-4 lvls at a time.

    - It takes about 4-5 seconds to give the enemy a poison. You can improve this by getting rid of all weapons that you're carrying around (this will make the 'Weapons' section disappear) and by removing unnecessary potions/poisons, to make the poison you want to use beeing the first one in the list. Doing both will increase the speed at which you can place poisons to 3-4 seconds. A standard stealth takedown animation takes about the same time.

    - Using Imp Stool + Swamp Fungal Pod + Mora Tapinella or Red Mountain Flower results in an easy Paralysis/Lingering Dmg Health or Paralysis/Dmg Health poison.


    Thanks for reading. Positive criticism is appreciated, negative isn't.
    Check the Relycs tag for more.
  • Member
    May 28, 2016
    I will polish this up later.
  • May 28, 2016

    Unfortunately if you use the Philosophers stone this won t work. Poisons made with the stone are very expensive making your success chance to place them in an opponents inventory 0% Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I've tried this before. Standard poisons still work though.

  • Member
    May 28, 2016
    Indeed, I forgot to make a note how strong they should be at max. The base value of dmg health is very low so even poisons that have a high magnitude wont be that difficult to place (I think everything up to a value of 999 works).
    Thank you.
  • May 28, 2016

    You could use a weak paralysis poison to lead into one of the super poisons. There's a bug where even zero chance will be successful if you pickpocket while the target is recovering from the paralysis. 

  • Member
    May 28, 2016
    Great idea! Will update this soon (+ credits).
  • February 7, 2017

    Dude this sounds like an absolutely fantastic way to play the game. Sometimes I come on this site and think "How do these people even think of this stuff?" truly inspiring my friend

  • Member
    February 9, 2017
    Thanks, Tristan, really appreciated.
    Well, I used to love this game and to play around with its mechanics, that's where those tricks are comming from.
    There is more, click the "Relycs" tag for a list of all my discussions here.