This is a post specifically for you playing Vanilla Skyrim (major props to you btw if you are) or if you prefer playing Skyrim in a way that is truer to how the game was made or even harder than the game was made. I know there are mods specifically for survival type things.
Quick story time: When I met my boyfriend and we began to merge our save files into one hard drive, he was shocked by the sheer amount of gold I had in my unmodded version of Skyrim. He was a console player at the time and had a spell that once he casted it? Boom, 100,000 gold. Even with that spell he had, my gold rivaled his.
Years later, even after I got the modable version of Skyrim on the PS4, I still found myself playing without the mods or adding a slightly more realistic aspect to the game. Here’s what I learned in my time in the Old Kingdom of Tamriel.
DISCLAIMER
If you do this too much in the very beginning of the game, you will make your game hard af! This meathod DOES affect your in game level and if you grind out gold for the first three hours? You’ll find out everything now has a vengeance for you like you kicked their blind puppy with three legs. Space this out or you’ll have a bad day in the dungeons.
You can start this as early as once you reach Whiterun. I’ll typically start it about then and branch off after that. There’s only a handful of things needed in the beginning.
- About 100-500g depending on how quickly you want to branch this out.
- Access to a forge(which you can get even earlier than Winterhold)
- The spell transmute and a pickaxe (You can get from Redorna’s Retreat or Halted Stream Camp)
- A weapon with Soul Trap or the spell Soul Trap (for step two!)
Pretty simple start right? The last one, the weapon with Soul Trap, you don’t technically need right away, but it’s the way to make sure you get the biggest profit for pretty low! Here’s what you do.
Step 1: Iron Ore
This is assuming you have all the necessary ingredients stated above, you need iron. You can either look around the world for iron veins or you can go to a mine for iron ore.
If you don’t want to hunt for it, you can also buy it in Whiterun from Belethor, Eorlund, Adrianne, and Ulfberth. Of these four, I will typically spend most of my time with Adrianne and Ulfberth. They typically have the most stock and they have the chance of Silver Ore too. Eorlund also has a decent stock of both of those. Belethor is a wild card, might have a ton, might have nothing at all.
Step 2: Transmute
Remember that spell I mentioned above, Transmute? This is where you need it and where it becomes super in handy. With all of the iron you have, you can now turn it into Gold or Silver. Your choice as to which. I typically go silver early in the game so I don’t throw off the levels too much. Find a comfy spot and just keep casting that spell until you have everything transmuted.
One thing to note! With the transmute spell, it will always go for the highest rated ore first to transmute. If your goal is silver ore, you have to be constantly dropping silver ore in order to get more. If you transmute while holding silver ore it will turn into silver ore.
Step 3: Forge
Here, you want to take all of the ore you just created and turn it into Ingots. Whiterun has a nice set up where the Smelter is right by the Forge. Once all of your ore is in Ingot form, you can start the actual smithing portion. If you have any precious jewels, use them! This will make the rings/necklaces you make so much more valuable and will increase your profits by a ton.
Step 4: Enchant (Optional)
So this part isn’t really needed, but it helps take a 100 gold ring or less and make it 400+ for very little effort. Run up to Dragonsreach and you should find Farengar. This mage will sell Soul Stones if you do not have one and some of them will be filled. Through most of the beginning of the game finding soul stones isn’t as common unless you’re going against mages. Then they’re everywhere. Or when you hit Blackreach, but that’s for another time.
I will typically use Petty Soul Gems specifically because beyond filling weapons they’re kinda useless, and even then they don’t do a lot for filling weapons. Petty Soul Gems are also really nice because they’re extremely easy to fill. If you get one, you can pretty easily run around outside of Whiterun in the fields and kill a deer or a mudcrab or what have you and you’ll fill it. The only tricky thing is how you kill it. Make sure your spell is active or your weapon is enchanted to capture the spell!
The actual enchanting part is super easy as well. With your jewelry and your soul gem, you can put an enchantment on your item. In the beginning you probably don’t have a lot of options as to what you can put on. Once you start to accumulate the enchantments you have, I’ve found Waterbreathing tends to dish out a lot of gold with any level of gem.
Step 5: Sell!
This part is both the easiest and the hardest. Finding someone who can take the items your selling can be tricky if you haven’t unlocked the ability in the skill tree where every vendor takes everything. Sometimes you have to hold on to things for a little bit before you’re able to sell them for what they’re worth.
With this, you should be able to get every house with ease, every upgrade simply, bribe any guard, purchase any weapon or armor, and still have plenty to toss Silva the Unseen a coin now and then.
Once I get my new file of Skyrim up and running, I’ll actually time how long it takes me from when I get to Whiterun for the first time to when I’m able to unlock travel to all the holds, get Breezehome(at the least) and still have a couple thousand just hanging out. Stay tuned!