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Guide: Surviving Skyrim

Tags: #RP:Guide  #Survival 
  • June 7, 2018

    Inspired by all the great hunting and survival mods for Skyrim on Xbox One and PC, this is basically my attempt at bringing a similar experience to players that don't have access to mods. It's basically a series of roleplay restrictions and tips for emersion based around a central exploit of the Necromancer's Amulet enchantment.

    For this, you'll first need a follower...Faendal is a great option because you can grab his services early without gaining much experience. Have him follow you to Windhelm and complete the Blood on the Ice quest to obtain the Necromancer's Amulet. If you want to limit your experience gain during the setup, then Faendal can easily fight on your behalf here.

    Next you'll want to obtain one of the possible transformation powers. If you don't have access to DLC content you can become a werewolf through the Companions questline. However, becoming a Vampire Lord is much quicker. Especially since you can charge through most of Dimhollow Crypt without having to fight anything. You'll have to clear out the Dimhollow Cavern in order to free Serana, but using the Scroll of Fire Storm you pick up the top of the stairs while Faendal distracts the vampires will end the battle quickly.

    Once you have a transformation power, head to nearest walled city and drop the Necromancers Amulet on the floor by the main gate. Ask your follower to pick it up and immediately exit the city. Go back in and there should be an Amulet both on the ground where you dropped it and in your followers inventory.

    Leave town and find a secluded area to use your Vampire Lord/Werewolf power. Activate it, and talk to your follower at the exact moment you start to change form. By asking to trade with them you'll be able to access your own inventory and equip multiple items in a single equipment slot. Equip both amulets to completely remove your health and stamina regen.

     


    8 Ways to Spice up Vanilla Gameplay

    Legendary Difficulty - Playing on Legendary will appropriately make many attacks deadly while making others much more dangerous. This adds a bit of realism as most people would do their best to avoid getting struck with a sword or bitten by a wolf since it'll probably do a good bit of damage that they won't recover from very quickly.

    No Fast Travel - This one is probably obvious, but to survive the wilderness you'll have to spend a good bit of time out in it. Survivalist gameplay is all about the journey so travel by foot or horseback and hunt, forage and even let yourself get distracted along the way.

    No Healing Potions/Magic - The aim here is to make hunting and cooking essential gameplay mechanics, so we want to avoid any other ways of restoring health/stamina. Poisons are fine, as are resistances and skill-fortifying potions, but nothing that restores your attributes.

    Experimenter - Speaking of Alchemy, if you're into foraging then this neat little restriction will give the Experimenter perk a much more interesting function. No more randomly combining ingredients to "discover" the effects you just googled. If it isn't in your list of possible potions/poisons then you can't make it. Unlock more effects by eating ingredients and investing in Experimenter.

    Live off the Land - No looting, finding or buying weapons and armor, you should be able to craft anything you need. Same goes for potions and even food. For the most part, all the ingredients you need can be hunted, grown or scavenged. Don't even take things to be resold, you can make good money selling the armor and potions you craft. (Especially if you've restricted yourself from using healing potions).

    Wear and Tear - When you take health damage, each piece of your armor takes 1/10th that amount in "wear and tear". This will be easy to track since your health doesn't regenerate. Once the wear surpasses an items armor rating it is considered "broken" and has to be discarded and replaced. Smithing a piece of a damaged armor before it's broken completely will "repair" it...but patchwork only goes so far. Over-repaired (i.e. fully upgraded) armor is the most durable, but beyond salvaging if it breaks. So you might want to be tactical about when you choose to upgrade your equipment.

    Mother Nature - When facing severe weather try to find shelter immediately. Once inside, use the wait function before heading back out and using Clear Skies to simulate "waiting out the storm". If the wait function is not available due to nearby enemies, then explore a bit and clear them out. You can't leave shelter until after waiting at least an hour, so you might as well investigate anything interesting you find when taking shelter.

    Dead is Dead - Simple enough, if you die you die for good (i.e. the characters save is deleted). This forces you to act more cautiously and maybe even take less risks but surprisingly also makes gameplay much more exciting. Most Survival mods don't even have this so it's far from required to complete the experience...but if you ever considered trying DiD, it synergies really well with the above restrictions.

     


    The Joy of Cooking

    For some reason, the "Restore Health X points for X Seconds" effect doesn't work with stacked Necromancer Amulets, but the stamina version does. So you can still achieve unlimited bashing to help avoid damage, but with 15pts being the highest that food items can heal, it might take a bit of hunting and cooking to recover from any attacks you can't parry or dodge.

    Venison Stew (Venison+Salt Pile+Potato+Leek) - Restore Stamina 15pts, Restore Stamina 1pt for 720 secs

    Horker Stew (Lavender+Tomato+Garlic+Horker Meat) - Restore Health/Stamina 15pts

    Potato Soup (Potato+Salt Pile) - Restore Health/Stamina 10pts

    Steamed Mudcrab (Mudcrab Legs+Butter) - Restore Health 12pts

    Cooked Red Meat (Red Meat+Salt Pile) - Restore Health 10pts

    Cooked Fish/Poultry (Fish/Poultry+ Salt Pile) - Restore Health 5pts

     

     

    Party Guests

    Frost - Stamina can be in short supply when wearing stacked Necromancer's Amulets, and things like vegi soup are best saved for combat. So a horse is pretty much essential. Any horse will do, but frost is free and has a little extra stamina.

    Barbas - Barbas is not particularly strong but he's completely invulnerable, making him a great distraction in difficult combat situations. Other dogs will do until lv10 when you meet Barbas.

     

     

    Home and Garden

    Lakeview - Building your own shelter and growing crops are both skills you might want for this kind of playthrough. The size and elegance of Heathfire homes may distract from the whole "live off the land" vibe if you're going for a true survivalist roleplay, but they're extremely useful if you are willing to ignore the decadence. Lakeview is easy to obtain and is a bit more humble looking than the rest.

    Honeyside - If you don't have Heathfire then buying a house is also a good option. How you obtain the funds may have more Roleplay significance if you aren't building the house yourself though, so strongly consider the "Live of the Land" restriction of you go this route. Honeyside is a good non-dlc choice since it's also less fancy, is fishing themed, and has a garden upgrade with useful crops.

    Lund's Hut - For those who really want to feel like they're living in seclusion, Lund's Hut is a good option for a small respectable shack. It has a pest problem, but once the Skeevers are cleared out it's free for the player to use as their own. Complete with Cooking Spit and a few useful food items.

  • Member
    June 8, 2018

    Lovely comptrhensive guide here, Tyso! Before I delve into it can I just mention that the title should be 'Guide: Surviving Skyrim'. No need for the 'Roleplay'. And you can add the tag 'RP:Guide' to it as well so it fits in with all the other guides.

    You know what, I can't believe that I've never heard of the Necromancer Amulet trick. I've been wracking my briand for years probaby wondering how to eliminate Health regen without becoming a vampire, so thank you very much for informing me!

    The 8 Spicy Tips are all awesome and bang on for helping the experience. My only criticism would be that not all characters will be crafters, so looting would be a necessary gameplay aspect for them, especially if the character revolves around 1 or 2 artefacts or unique items. I always take my newly found gear to a smith to RP that they adjust the loot to the character's requirements. This guide seems to be focussed on a Hunter/Gatherer build, which not all characters are. Everything else is great though! Especially like taking shelter in bad weather.

    Cooking section is great, so is the Home section and the Party Guests section. But maybe you could mention the DLC followers like the Troll or Death Hounds? They could definitely help you survive Skyrim - they're tanky as anything.

    Overall a great guide though, Tyso, really enjoyed the read!

  • June 8, 2018

    Zonnonn said:

    You know what, I can't believe that I've never heard of the Necromancer Amulet trick. I've been wracking my briand for years probaby wondering how to eliminate Health regen without becoming a vampire, so thank you very much for informing me!

    Neat little trick, right? You can also resto loop it, but that takes some skill grinding. My way is a little more legwork, but it lets you start your regenless journey from lv1.

     

    Zonnonn said:

    The 8 Spicy Tips are all awesome and bang on for helping the experience. My only criticism would be that not all characters will be crafters, so looting would be a necessary gameplay aspect for them, especially if the character revolves around 1 or 2 artefacts or unique items. I always take my newly found gear to a smith to RP that they adjust the loot to the character's requirements.

    True. Frankly, having to rely on hunting and mining to craft your own gear is as survivalist as it gets in vanilla, but I see what you're saying that not every character to use this guide will also want to craft a bunch. All my suggestions are meant to be optional, but I'll edit that section so that it explicitly states that. Would you mind if I provided your idea as an alternative? It's pretty clever.

     

    Zonnonn said:

    Cooking section is great, so is the Home section and the Party Guests section. But maybe you could mention the DLC followers like the Troll or Death Hounds? They could definitely help you survive Skyrim - they're tanky as anything.

    You're right, I'll have to add them. In fact, a spear throwing Riekling would be a really interesting pet for a melee based character using this guide...which would make my guide a little more inclusive.

     

    Thanks Zon! I've already edited the title/tags and I'll get started on the rest when I get home.

     

  • Member
    June 10, 2018

    I didn't think of the guide as something specific to Survivalists, it makes loads more sense that way. And sure man you can use it no problem, happy to contribute to such a great guide :)

  • July 25, 2018
    Cool presentation, love the magazine cover look.
  • Member
    July 26, 2018

    Oh snap this is awesome. These headlines are killing me. "Loner to Homeowner," "Heart healthy beef stew." This is an awesome comprehensive little guide and I love your presentation here. I feel like these should be a regular publication! :D

  • July 28, 2018
    Haha, thanks. I probably had a little too much fun with the magazine theme.