r/skyrim • u/Duke_of_Moon Warrior • 11h ago
Question How to earn money as a beginner ?
I'm playing Skyrim for the 1st time. Watched some YT vids about how to earn gold.
I tried Alchemy but my potions were only worth 50 at Max. I don't want to search for specific ingredients at various places cuz that would be boring(ingredients I've gathered until now were used up in making potions)
I got the transmute spell from the bandits and made 10+ gold necklaces. But they sold for only 400(40 each) even tho It said 120 value š
And that also took a lot of time as I had to mine iron from camp, embershard mine and then turn it into.... Well u guys know.
I really want a house and a horse.(My own not stolen) Whiterun stable doesn't have a option for horse map( is that not available in Special Edition?)
Is there any interesting/fun way to earn money ? (Jarl only gave me 100 for a quest, so ig quests don't pay much)
Should I sell the dragon bones and scales for money?
Edit - Damn this sub is fast, 4 comments in 4 minutes
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u/Not_Shingen 11h ago
Mine iron
Get transmute spell from I think white river watch
Turn iron into gold
Turn gold ore into ingots
Turn inogts into rings
Sell all
That way you get smithing skill and moolah
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u/Jmoz1310 10h ago
Halted stream camp not white river watch close tho
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u/ExScysm 10h ago
When you end bandits take everything from them till youre full. Sell it all.
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u/Delila-Doughnut 10h ago
Even better: once youre full give it all to lydia and fill up again
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u/ThisYourMotherDaniel Blacksmith 9h ago
Also, when a follower won't carry any more then just drop what you want carried and tell them to pick it up. Infinitely useful
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u/shyguyshow Mage 5h ago
Selling dungeon loot is my go-to. If iām not using an enchanted axe in my playthrough, iāll still grab it so i can pawn it off at Belethors
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u/shyguyshow Mage 4h ago
Also another tip, donāt sell gems or ingots as is. Turn them into jewelry for way better profits and increases smithing skill as a bonus
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u/TheMotte 3h ago
100%, turned into jewelry, then enchant it with any filled soul gem to Fortify sneak or archery, and it'll be worth a ton more than before
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u/cenosu 4h ago
There is also the transmute spell to turn iron ore to silver or gold
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u/First-Coat4026 4h ago
I usually stop at silver, because I can use up the lower quality gems like garnet in making rings.
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u/nongregorianbasin 2h ago
I take all the silverware too.
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u/half_baked_opinion 1h ago
Anything that weighs less than its worth can be sold, and then you just train your speech skill anytime you are able so your sell prices go up. Work alchemy on the side and you get rich fast, especially if you went the spriggan sap/dwarven oil route to fast level alchemy.
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u/lobo1217 Mage 11h ago
Make potions and poisons and sell them. The profit is crazy once you learn what to make.
You can literally empty the inventory of an alchemy shop and triple or more your money.
For a very low level beginner, I recommend reading around riverwood and whiterun collecting blue butterflies š¦ and blue Mountain flowers.
Eventually you will be making a single potion worth over 5k gold. The biggest issue is finding shops with enough gold to buy it.
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u/HFentonMudd 11h ago
What potion is worth 5k
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u/youngpotato307 11h ago
Waterbreathing with salmon roe! Very easy with unrelenting force on salmon swimming on the surface. Chicken's egg is my easiest second ingredient. For super easy ones starting as soon as you're out of helgen, blue butterfly wing + blue mountain flour is worth 200+ gold at level 1.
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u/BottledFizzyCoffee 10h ago
I need to learn more about all of this. You seem to be tremendously experienced and I would love for you to provide a little more detail on what youāve said here. I will be paying Kloess attention. Thank you for helping out the novice alchemists.
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u/bis_levu 6h ago
Look up the restoration loop with enchanted gear. One potion can clean out a vendor's pockets easy. Plus you get dumb amounts of speech skill. Ive gone legendary on my speech, alchemy and enchanting skill tree like 17 times in my most recent playthrough š
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u/Primary-Sail6667 11h ago edited 11h ago
For me, quick stop over Halted Stream, grab Transmute. Find any and all Iron and Silver ore I can, craft a boatload of jewlery, enchant said jewlery, sell
Slow at first but, levels several skills at once.Ā
Quick edit: use Transmute to turn iron into silver/gold
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u/capnfantasy 11h ago
Yes this! Get as many soul gems as you can and enchant enchant enchant.
Tip if early game:
Go to Markarth and do the House of Horrors quest, so you can get the Mace of Molag Bol. Capture souls whenever you can. If you already have Transmute, hoard iron ore and turn it to gold.
This will also help level you up quickly if you are practicing Transmute, Smithing, and Enchanting as well as Barter when you sell.
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u/Uncle_Burney Helgen survivor 9h ago
Transmutation, iron, and smithing
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u/The_Chimeran_Hybrid 8h ago
Potion crafting is how I made my first 100k gold.
I would be fucking dead if I had that mod that puts things you craft into the open world.
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u/Kosherlove 8h ago
no matter what rpg I end up playing I end up an alchemist. picking flowers eating berries, slaying dragons, making stews.
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u/eldonfizzcrank 8h ago
Alchemy + Lakeview garden = gold farm. And you can get Lakeview really early on if you pick up the Black Briar Mead in Helgen.
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u/Gloomy-Log7951 Spellsword 11h ago
Dragons are infinite sources of money, lad. You will wish they give you a break from appearing and attacking you. Just sell it's bones and scales, you will have a bunch of them when you get the dragon smithing perk.
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u/Captain_Canuck97 PC 11h ago
Dragon bones and dragon scales do sell for a lot but you'll need to go to a merchant right after. The cost to weight ratio is not the greatest. Making expensive potions is one of the quickest and efficient ways to make septims imo
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u/TheDungeonCrawler 10h ago
Also important to remember, Alchemy Merchants buy all varieties of bones including Dragon Bones and Scales.
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u/CammieKa 9h ago
Potions and gold rings of fortify sneak are pretty good money, invest the profits into more soul gems and make sure to hit iron veins when they respawn, or even just buy a handful of ore when passing the blacksmith
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u/Ridgearoni 11h ago
As soon as you start, head down to the Guardian stone then head west along the lake. Soon you should see the marker for the Lady Stone appear, so aim for it. Swim down just south of that stone and collect all the nordic barnacles. There are several. There are also a few in the moat outside Dragonsreach. You can use Flames to kill salmon on the way to Riverwood and on towards Whiterun. Collect all the roe from the salmon you kill. Now all you need is a few garlic, and you're set to make a lot of money right off the bat.
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u/Yamcha-is-Life 11h ago
What potion does this make?
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u/GOATBrady4Life 10h ago
Itās a few things like water breathing and magic regeneration but itās the most valuable potion in the game
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u/Wolfhart_Kaine Vampire 11h ago
I always sell dragon parts for money. They're worth a fortune and they're heavy as shit to carry around, even if you're just hoarding them in a faction chest somewhere.
As far as other methods go, alchemy is the most lucrative, but you have to be a high level alchemist to make it worth it. Of course your first potions aren't going to sell for a huge profit. But yes, it's grindy. Same for other methods, like smithing, enchanting, etc.
The "fun" way to make money is to delve into dungeons and bring loot back to sell. It's slow-ish in comparison, but that's just the way the game was intended to be played.
And of course, you can just join the Dark Brotherhood and beat their questline.
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u/Lorelessone 7h ago edited 6h ago
Paralysis potions are very valuable and once you get likewise you can farm the swamp fungal pod and um root thing, can't remember.
Usually though I make most enchanting weapons, max effect minimum charges seems to be the highest value and works even with petty soul gems
Edit: Canis root, Thank you!
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u/Few_West_1608 8h ago
Enchant soul trap on a bow
find and learn either Banish or Paralyze enchantment
soul trap anything and everything
at the LOWEST level of enchanting you will have to use Lesser soul gems at least to enchant, but even then any weapon with either of these enchantments will be worth 1000+. With low Speechcraft you'll only get ~700.
Also as a side note for alchemy:
Blue Mountain Flower + Wheat = Fortify Health + Healing
Imp Stool + Canis Root + Deathbell = Poison + Paralyze (useful for anything that can be paralyzed)
Deathbell + Giant Lichen + Bee/or/Void salts = Poison that is effective against Dragons (Both give Weakness to Poison/Shock, if you use the Bee you get Stamina Drain which can make Dragons fall from the sky if it's strong enough,. Alternatively using Void Salts adds additional Poison damage)
I have a bunch of other potion recipes that I wrote out for myself, I focused on making potions that used easily farmed ingredients, let me know if you want more recipes
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u/Boombastic86 5h ago
The answer wasn't raiding the Skyforge chest with the Whiterun glitch? Dang.
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u/demon9100 7h ago
Alchemy and enchanting are great moneymakers while also boosting your level price depends on your skills in speechcraft
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u/WetKoalaFarts 8h ago
The magic house is a free house, you just have to cast a fire spell at it (the symbol on the floor)
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u/RaykanGhost 8h ago
Ok so the idea you got is correct, mine iron, transmute into gold, make jewelry (Always use gems if available) and then ENCHANT them with all the random enchants and souls you can find, then sell them.
The alchemy one is as you feared, IIRC giant toe, blisterwort and wheat; or some variations of those (Always Giant toe though) makes a really expensive potion, and with some levels on alchemy you will be able to buy all their ingredients, sell two potions and just get all their gold.
Their value increases as you level speech as well, just sell individual items and it will increase, likewise buy individual items. For some odd reason, stacks only counted as 1 instance of XP.
You can and should sell dragon bones/scales for money, unless you're focusing on smithing but even then they're easy enough to get when you actually need them, more than the giant toes honestly.
There's also a few guilds that give you jobs, paying more than 100, and you keep the spoils as well! Check riften for starters. Good luck
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u/charl8_the_harl8 8h ago
I'm too in my 1st play through, here's my strategy:
Sell immediately everything you find, keep only the strongest item per each category (weapon, armour, boots, etc) until you buy a home. Afterwards you sell only the items that have a value inferior of 150gold, enhance the ones you already have (you'll find multiple of them) and sell those. (The 150 threshold will be moved higher when you start to loot better equip)
Never buy potions, craft them and use spells for health restoration.
Never buy equipment, you'll loot something better anyway.
Never. Sell. Food. And. Ingredients. NEVER.
LOOT. EVERYTHING. I usually fight with all of the enemies/complete the mission, then come back multiple times until that dungeon is empty. (When I reached a higher level I stopped looting cutlery and dishware, and everything of lower value that isn't food/ingredients)
Focus on reaching 15K gold to buy+enhance (sorry my English vocabulary fails after 6pm) Breezehome in Whiterun, so you can store your stuff.
Have fun!!
Edit to add that you should keep also a minimum base of all of the potions (I usually want to have at least 10 of everything, and I won't sell that kind of potion until I get at least 11 of one kind)
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u/Baguette1066 7h ago
I've seen a lot of people recommended transmuting iron->silver->gold, but you might find it better to transmute iron to silver, then drop the silver, wait an hour in game for your magicka to replenish and repeat. You'll likely have more gems that can make silver jewelry, and these are worth more (and thus level smithing up better) than gold jewelry with no gems.
When you use up all your gems for silver jewellery, then you can switch to gold. Once your smithing level is high enough, get the dwarven smithing perk and collect dwemer metal items (the bent scrap metal is the most weight efficient) and make a load of improved drawven bows.
Putting soul trap on your main weapon (the firey soul trap enchantment is good) and buying all empty soul gems and filling them up for enchanting all your jewelry and drawven bows will also get you a lot of money when you sell them, and help level up enchanting.
I'd also recommend buying all ingredients except daedra hearts and void salts, and making potions. There's a potion calculator online that tells you the most valuable potions you can make from your ingredients, though this is a bit cheaty. If you want to do alchemy legit, make potions from two ingredients then combine random ingredients as a third and you should gradually unlock the effects of each ingredient.
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u/No_Soil3938 9h ago
As some people have already said; the real money is in Alchemy. Nothing else is as profitable as selling potions. Go out and forage everything you see and go mix and match ingredients. Don't forget to invest in the Alchemy tree to make your potions better (and in doing so more profitable).
You could obviously look online which ingredients work best, but maybe you like to learn by doing.
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u/zodi978 9h ago
And Goldenglow Estate is literally an infinite money/leveling location. You can plant all the ingredients you need for the best potions, craft items, fight dragons when you fast travel back there after selling. I've spent entire hours long sessions just circling around towns selling everything just to go back, harvest all my ingredients and do the same thing again.
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u/Affectionate-Cost525 8h ago
Did you mean "Goldenhills" not "Goldenglow"?Ā Ā
Goldenglow is the beehive location in the thieves guild. Also, OP said they're only on special edition so no Goldenhills availableĀ
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u/Artos9780 8h ago
Using golden glow estate I very quickly reached the point where I have more money than I could ever possibly use
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u/RalonNetaph 7h ago
As a general rule you want to take loot that has a good weight value ratio. An iron sword is barely worth a gold per pound, but an iron helmet is worth more than 5 gold per pound of inventory weight. Armor generally has a better ratio than weapons. Wine and potions have a good ratio. Many ingredients look like they have a good ratio but are actually worth 0 gold when you actually open up a shop. If you're not actively trying to buy all the houses this is usually more than enough money to have on hand for me.
Since you have transmutation, you can turn cheap iron ore into gold jewelry which is an obvious way to get gold. Also good of you kean into enchanting to sell them for even more.
But the alchemy you had the right idea. No need to go searching for specific ingredients, a few perks and a piece of enchanted alchemy gear, you can show up in town, turn all the random stuff you found into potions, buy out the alchemy stores ingredients and get all your money back by selling most lf the potions you made, then make even more potion, netting yourself gold for what you can sell experience and likely still a pile of more potions they didn't have enough money to buy from you. If you don't mind being a little exploitey, you can also quicksave punch the shop owner reload and their inventory and gold will be refreshed to repeat the process and build up more gold.
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u/Buckabuckaw 5h ago
All of the above is true. Also, a good way to increase the value of your jewelry while also increasing your Enchantment skill is to enchant items before sale. This will add small amounts of value at first, but will increase with skill level.
None of this provides quick riches. But it bears fruit over time. There are probably mods or cheats that will increase your wealth rapidly, but that's not what the game is about.
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u/AlexanderMaul 11h ago
You only need one method, but implemented correctly. Transmutation, for example, can be used to earn money endlessly.
1) Visit general merchants and blacksmiths and buy iron ore. 2) Transform it into gold bars. 3) Craft rings, not amulets! 4) Sell them.
This is enough to make money endlessly.
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u/SiriusAF 11h ago
- Collect flowers and butterflies. Sell or make valuable potions
- Chop firewood and sell
- Collect free to take ingredients in towns, sell
- Loot bandit camps/caves and sell loot
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u/Silly_Outside4877 10h ago
Go to Halted Stream Camp near Whiterun, get the Transmute spell from there, turn all the iron ore into silver, then the silver into gold. Make a load of jewellery and sell it...
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u/Delila-Doughnut 10h ago
Enchanting the jewelry with low level stones to make Enchanting, smithing, and speech increase. All while making more money
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u/Unluckymama 9h ago edited 8h ago
Loot everything and do fast traves to sell the loot in Whiterun. Unlock the Dawnguard DLC too at level 10, there is an NPC in the castle that has a lot of money to trade and he buys everything.
Purchase the house in Whiterun asap and store valuable items in your chest for future quests or level up professions (alchemy, forging, etc).
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u/YankinDeeez 8h ago
Iād recommend completing the college of winterhold over buying a house. There is a wardrobe in the arch mages quarters you can store everything and it doesnāt disappear.
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u/Pretend_Composer382 8h ago
As an early game Strat. I stuck to chopping up wood. Once you make it to Whiterun the stay-inn has a wood log outside of it and the lady at the counter buys it from you. Closest distance from buyer in my opinion. I would do chores and chop wood and did this until I got about 10 k in gold. It sucked but was worth it.
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u/TheBiddingOfBobbles 8h ago
sell cabbages and wheat. theres a whole BUNCH of cabbage patches and carted cabbage in places like riverwood, pelagia farm, the area across from the whiterun stables, and falkreath. oh and iverstead if you were willing to make the trek, they have a whole bunch there
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u/RoosterMav 8h ago
Wait til you discover exploits and the save hit load bug š¤£. I wish I could play Skyrim for the first time again
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u/MachinegunNoise 51m ago
Why play it for the first time again when you could play it again for the 163rd time? Only 5 more years or so until the super ultra legendary re-re-re-release (I hear theyāre gonna include the horse armorā¦ for free!)
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u/Goldman250 7h ago
Thereās no point in keeping hold of dragon bones/scales unless youāre planning to get to 100 Smithing. Even then, unless youāre gonna power level to it, you may as well sell them early on. Once you start getting closer to max level, then you should start hoarding dragon bits.
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u/Putrid-Builder-3333 7h ago
I hold em because I feel I truly will do everything but the harsh truth and reality is these games. Specifically Bethesda games turn me into a twisted hoarder. A&E could do a crossover special of me on My Strange Addiction and Hoarders involving Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
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u/AgreeableScheme7159 10h ago
giants toe, wheat, and creep cluster potions are worth around 400 gold each and give a ton of alchemy exp, also max out your pickpocket and you can steal back all the gold you get from training, its free levels (you can train 5 levels of a skill per character level) i can go on and on i have so many methods of collecting mass amounts of gold
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u/DepressterJettster 10h ago
Just do stuff in the game. It makes you rich.
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u/Delila-Doughnut 10h ago
Pretty sure you get 10k and a free house for 10 minutes of gameplay in Falkreath
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u/Conscious_Archer2658 Mage 10h ago
The real quickest way, without exploits, is alchemy
Quick tip, the most insane potion you can make in the game = garlic + salmon roe + nordic barnacle
<insert_sleeping_on_money_meme>
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u/Kaius-Primaris 10h ago
1 - Find ore transmute spell
2 - mine iron ore
3 - Spend magika to transmute iron > silver > gold
4 - smelt gold ore to gold bar
5 ( optional ) - Craft gold bar to gold ring
6 ( optional ) - Enchant gold ring
7 - sell to make profit
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u/Lordof_Change 10h ago
Iāve always found just play the game and loot everything, personally found having 25k plus gold by level 20 isnāt unreasonable
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u/Spongenuts69 9h ago
Make gold rings instead. You get two worth 75 each for 150 in all. Marginally better.
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u/KimJong-quack 8h ago
Selling enchanted iron daggers. You cab also do the dark brotherhood quest for an easy 20000 gold
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u/SpiritualDatabase808 8h ago
Dungeons at a certain level are your best friend especially if you get your lock picking skill high enough to get the find more gold in chests perk
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u/redbull31312 6h ago
I chose the path through the Thieves' Guild (I'm writing this using a translator, so the names might be translated incorrectly, I hope the general idea comes across), basically, itās not a quick path, but itās a good way to gain advantages while playing, for example, by stealing from characters and in houses, then selling everything to dealers. Completing Thievesā Guild quests is also beneficial because you get the chance to steal jewelry and items, and leveling up the guild increases the amount of gold available from dealers. (To avoid constantly teleporting back to the Thievesā Guild, just drop off your goods at home. āGoldenhills Plantationā can serve as a temporary home and storage area, though the downside is that dragons often appear there. To make the dragon disappear for a couple of seconds, you need to go back inside the house and come back out; youāll have time to open the map and teleport wherever you need to go.)
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u/SeanMacLeod1138 PC 4h ago
"Temporary"? Dude, it has a smithy with smelter, a kitchen with oven and butter churn, and Alch/Ench tables. It's the most complete early-game base that's still useful late-game. The biggest problem is its location š
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u/somedudeonachair 11h ago
You can ask jarls for jobs that pay a bit or you can sell stuff you wont need, you can also ask tavern owners if they heard any news and get a wuest from them but im not sure if the prize is gold all the time. Looting dead things might get you some gold or selling stuff you looted from bandits could get you some money.
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u/MoonAttempt 11h ago
If you want to do creative use of game mechanics, there is a chest in Dawnstar where you can just loot everything and sell it back to the Khajiit or other merchants.
Here is a video about it: https://youtu.be/-CmK1jqGgVI?t=30
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u/thingsbetw1xt Falkreath resident 11h ago
Talk to everybody and do stuff for them. Kill every dragon you see. Make rings and sell them.
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u/voodoopeople94 11h ago
Personally...
I do the glitch.
Go to Dawnstar (early game, go to whiterun stables and rent the cart for 50 gold to unlock the location), keep waiting outside the town (where you get dropped off) for the travelling Khajit caravan to park up, then, go to the hidden chest and empty it all out (i tend to go for anything that's over 100 gold in value, 75 at lowest as until you level Speechcraft it will sell for less), then head back to the caravan, save in front of the Khajit, punch them to initiate combat and then reload from the last save, the chest will have restocked and simply keep selling everything back to them (the chest is the inventory of those merchants), repeat process until you have loads of gold!
Keep what you want of the inventory, I always disenchant anything enchanted to learn the enchantment and to level enchantment at the town hall as it has a table to do so in the mages room.
The secret/hidden chest is to the left of the mine on the opposite side of town, between 3 rocks under the map (just look directly down until you see the 'open chest' option).
Hope this helps!
P.S. the chest contains the merchants actual gold too, 750 value each time.
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u/Objective_Oven7673 11h ago
A big part of the game for me is determining my acceptable ratio of loot weight-to-value.
Some items like armor and shields fetch a high price but they're heavy to cary. Others like ingredients and potions and gems have low weight but relatively high value, especially per-pound.
When the inventory is filling up, I make decisions about what to keep for sale VS drop based on its value per pound.
As you explore and do quests, you'll naturally get to come back to town and sell the stuff you picked up.
As for quick gold, the main options are "go find it in a dungeon", "steal it", or "sell something".
Much like life, it ain't gonna magically show up without doing something, and the fun part is figuring out what you enjoy to get it.
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u/RebekkaKat1990 11h ago
If you join the Dark Brotherhood and play it to the end you get a nice 20,000 payout. Great way to get some starter money.
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u/wexman6 10h ago edited 10h ago
Craft rings instead of necklaces since you get 2 per ingot, then use all your petty/lesser soul gems on enchanting them.
Certain enchantments can cause the value of jewelry to skyrocket. Plus, enchanting is an incredibly useful skill later on.
I like to keep a few poorly enchanted gold rings on me, and use them to ābarterā with court wizards for more powerful soul gems or spells.
For more fun ways to earn money, just explore. Bandit camps always have good loot. Crypts often contain some pretty powerful enchanted gear and shouts. Dwemer ruins are tough, but they may be the best bang for your buck, since every construct has a chance to drop a soul gem, and their scraps can be worth a bit of gold.
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u/MoreTHCplz 10h ago
I would add on to this picking up every alchemy ingredient you can find and just mish mashing them. You can end up making some pretty expensive potions and poisons with cheap ingredients in a random combo
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u/MadHatter_1391 10h ago edited 10h ago
Sell the bones and scales for now. By the time theyāre useful, youāll have tons of money (and more bones and scales anyway).
I also always rush into the Companions questline to become a werewolf asap, then all the cure disease potions and stuff the Silver Hand drop are not needed and easy to carry and sell (on top of all the other loot).
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u/KowaiSentaiYokaiger 10h ago
If you're playing AE, head towards Rorikstead. There's a haunted farm just outside the village. Clear a couple ghosts, do micro-quest, and you'll get access to the best money-maker in the game.
Passive income, lots of garden plots to grow Wheat and Blisterwort for Restore Health Potions, and a free house in the middle of the map
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u/Wizard_of_Wyrmsbane 10h ago
Low effort method:
- Blue Mountain Flowers
- Blue Butterfly wings
Collect them whenever you see some and when visting alchemist buy theirs and turn them into potions. Sell for more than you purchasesed.
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u/TowelFine6933 10h ago
The money system in Skyrim is completely out of whack. Easy to get rich. Too easy.
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u/TheDrunkenQ 10h ago
This may be a bit more tedious but the silver jewelry has more variety of gems that it can be made with so often I will double cast transmute with just iron in the inventory and drop the silver ore to keep for crafting higher value gemmed jewelry (that is when you have those gems in inventory already.)
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u/Technical-Potato-829 10h ago
first of all dont ruin the experience of skyrim by going to goldenhill plantation. ruins the fun imo. Amulet of Zenithar just north of Riften. Shrine of Zenithar in solitude. one eyes beggar in solitude for bonus to speechcraft. Potion of haggling for better prices. And lastly some potions are easy to get ingredients for and sell very well.
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u/Positive_Protonic 10h ago
Transmutation spell to turn iron ore into silver and then silver into gold. Then forge them into bars and make jewelry šÆš¤. Levelling up alteration via spell and smithing via crafting jewellery, selling boosts speech craft adding to your work as a trader š Soul capture spell, capture souls in soul gems, levelling Conjuration, and then enchant items boost selling price. Addimg to speech, getting richer.
Is that a fair route?
Any tips to improve that system?
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u/Blazing_Swayze 10h ago
Drop the silver so it doesn't turn to gold and use the low level gems to make mid tier jewelry. Sell items one by one not by stacks to get a ton more speech XP
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Bard 2h ago
I really, truly, deeply wish that āTransmute Iron into Silverā and āTransmute Silver into Goldā were two completely different spells.
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u/stakekake 10h ago
If you have anniversary edition, Goldenhills Plantation is a total passive cash cow. The quest to get access takes basically no time.
Then you just put a bunch of ingredients in the ground, hire a farmland, and play the game normally. Every few in-game days when you come back there will be like 5k waiting for you.
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u/0260n4s 9h ago
I've always been money hoarding, but I've never really needed it.
You can usually find, craft or enchant better gear than you can buy.
Houses are kind of an unnecessary luxury.
If you amp up your pickpocket, you just need the initial investment capital and then grab it back (unless this exploit got patched; I don't like using trainers personally).
You will need money for your primary spells if you're impatient about finding them, and of course, soul gems. You can pretty much find those if you're patient enough, but if you're farming enchanted gear to sell, then you can never have too many soul gems.
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u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum 6h ago
go to the town in the north east. There is a boy. Take his quest and you start the dark Brotherhood. You get a free horse through them. an immortal horse
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u/Grim-Art 6h ago
Honestly your best bet is just playing the game as normal. Spending extra time trying to do transmute or money making methods is unlikely to earn you much more than just clearing dungeons and doing quests.
A good tip is to also not pick up any armor and low value items unless you want to wear said armor or it has an enchantment. You make more money faster by only focusing on bringing the low weight high value items and it lets you do more quests and gather more loot before your carry weight forces you to sell.
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u/melancholy-doll- Vampire 11h ago
Creep Cluster + Mora Tapinella + Scaly Pholiota makes one of the most profitable potions for selling
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u/niketxx 11h ago
I know you said you donāt want to go find specific ingredients but at low level, this is genuinely the best way to make money fast. Triple effect potions sell for a ridiculously good price even at low Speech.
The other method I can think of is, be on the lookout for the Banish enchantment. Learn the effect, then just spam iron daggers and enchant them with Banish. Even the crappy ones made with petty soul gems sell for a good price. Unfortunately, this method is RNG since it requires you to get that enchantment by chance.
Oh, and do the quest for the general goods merchant in the Grey Quarters in Windhelm. He asks that you sneak into a womanās house and plant a ring in her drawer right by the door. In doing so, he agrees to become a Speech trainer, so you can quickly level up Speech (up to 50 I believe), then get your money back by selling your stuff to him. The higher your Speech, the better prices you get on buying and selling. You also unlock the ability to sell any item categories to any merchant, making it less of a hassle for the whole game.
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u/OilLiver 11h ago
I think you only got 40 for something that is worth 120 because merchants won't ever give you the full value for things, you have to level up your Speech skill and I think there are perks in the Speech tree that allow you to get better prices
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u/StoneLung2423 11h ago
You like exploits? Look up the whiterun smithing chest and khajiit caravan chests
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u/doublestitch 11h ago
Kill a few giants. They've got pretty good loot and their toes add mad value to potions.
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u/Phillip67549 11h ago
go to the Hall of the Vigilant before lvl 10 and murder everyone there. that's 6 novice robes, 1 apprentice robe, 7 Stendarr amulets, 2 random enchanted weapons, and you get no bounty doing it
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u/MrUncleFudge 11h ago
Literally just play the game and youāll have too much to know what to do with
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u/gogus2003 11h ago
When taking loot to sell, grab anything with a 1/10 weight/gold ratio or better. Potions are frankly the best way though. Someone mentioned butterflies and flowers, they are right. Both are super easy to find around Whiterun/Riverwood area
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rice-13 11h ago
Waterbreathing potion was always my go to. Salmon roe, Nordic barnacle and Garlic if you've got hearthfire DLC
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u/ijudgeyourroom 11h ago
Alchemy. Just fuckin go nuts. Make an expedition out of Whiterun and gather EVERYTHING. Go back to town when you have a few hundred ingredients and get crafting. Sell all your potions.
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u/Savious-Faythe 10h ago
if not modded canis root and swamp fungal pod makes paralysis poisons which sell well at any point
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u/Mxhmoud 10h ago
Get the farmhouse near rorikstead (free) and start mass producing "mora tapinella", "scaly pholiota", and "creep cluster"
To find them:
- mora tapinella is found inside old tree trunks.
- scaly pholiota grows around birch trees near riften.
- creep cluster can be bought for dirt cheap at any alchemist shop, or you can look for it in the hotsprings found on the way from riften to windhelm.
These ingredients can be used to make fairly expensive potions that you can repeatedly sell to vendors.
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u/TerraFie 10h ago
Lockpicking, silent casting invisibility, and raiding every house. Also the Crown those collectable gems should be priority number one and all quests attached to it. It makes loot tables slant insanely, multiple flawless gems in like ordinary urns or on dragur corpses in barrows. As people are saying, crime pays.
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u/Superb_Tailor_4007 10h ago
If you are SUPER early game, like killing one dragon, then you should use transmute mineral ore, there is a bandit camp just north of whiterun with a spellbook called 'transmute mineral ore' the camp is home to many iron ore veins which you ca use the spell on to make silver, and turn silver to gold, there is a second bandit camp/mine near the guardian standing stones which has more iron. Turn all the iron to gold, make bars, and craft golden rings. Enchant them if you like for some experience. Each gold bar makes 2 rings, each ring usually sells for around 75 gold.
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u/working-through-13 10h ago
Max out your carry limit after every battle and sell everything. Iron armor has one of the worst weight:price ratio.
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u/jade_skye15 10h ago
Except for super early game, dragon bones and scales are not worth picking up. They take up too much space, are too heavy, getting over encumbered is annoying, and theyāre not that worth it imo. Thereās way better loot that isnāt super heavy and worth far more. And looting chests and urns usually have decent gold. Within a few dungeons and selling off the loot from within, you end up having more than enough money for whatever you need.
Alchemy and selling potions is easy gold, since ingredients are just everywhere and you typically end up with a bunch after quests or dungeons. But tbh I only use alchemy to make potions to sell for gold in the beginning of the game, so I can get better equipment etc. further in the game itās not as worth it and unless alchemy is an integral part of my characters lore, I donāt bother and donāt pick ingredients up unless I need specific ones for a quest.
Thereās multiple ways to get a free house. I typically donāt bother buying a house until late game when I have more money than I know what to do with.
Thereās a few exploits. But thereās also quest homes that donāt technically cost anything if you just do the quest you end up taking ownership of the home. My go to home is always hendraheim.
Thereās also a couple of free horses in the game. If you join the dark brotherhood and progress part of the storyline, astrid gives you her horse, and itās an immortal horse so thatās always nice.
Thereās also a few horse quests. You can buy a wild horse map and find and tame horses and then take them to any stable and register them and then theyāre yours. I believe buying the wild horse map is waaaay cheaper than buying a horse straight from a stable. But, you do have to then track down the horse on foot and catch it and then tame it by riding it a bit, likely getting bucked off and getting back on and keep going until the horse it tamed. Itās not that hard though. Or. You can just steal horses aswell if youāre a thief. If you ride away far enough, guards eventually stop pursuing you. Boom free horse š
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u/wexman6 10h ago
The Thieves Guild has repeatable quests that can be used to make some quick money. Theyāre not super interesting, but theyāre quick to do, safe, and pay well. Heist and Bedlam jobs will be the most rewarding. Numbers jobs arenāt as rewarding but are super fast and easy.
Itās a bit of a grind, but if you do enough of those repeatable quests in each city, you can unlock āspecial clientā quests that will open up a fence merchant in their respective city. The more of those you do, the more gold each fence will hold (up to 4000 gold, more than any other merchant in the game)
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u/Superb_Tailor_4007 10h ago
Make paralysis potions. Swamp fungal pods and canis root can be found in the frozen swamps of morthal, each potion sells for quite a bit
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u/NegativeExcuse6129 10h ago
Banish daedra enchantment buy a weapon that has that enchantment disenchant that weapon to learn it. And then craft iron daggers in bulk, and iron dagger of value with 10
After putting banish daedra enchantment on it with a petty soul gem makes it value 600 that's 60 times the base value.
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u/Afraid-Health-8612 10h ago
1. Kill things. Loot them. Sell loot to vendors.
2. Run dungeons. Loot things, especially potions. Sell loot to vendors.
3. Pick up all ammunition always. Sell loot to vendors.
This will make you rich without even trying. Now, if you want to break the game:
1. Spam crafting. That's it. If you really want to make all progression meaningless, just go ahead and reso-loop while you're doing this, and within a couple of hours you can make the entire game pointless.
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u/TheManWithAPlan__ 10h ago
Don't make necklaces, makes rings. If you're willing to clear out the forsworn in the mine (I forgot its name but the guy in the mine outside markarth tells you to go there) mine all the gold there but leave ONE ore vein unmined, smelt the ore, turn into rings, sell, wait 10 in game days, go to the kine, repeatĀ
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u/Dry-Camel-811 10h ago
If you sneak into any mine you'll likely get a pick for free or from any enemy's corpse. There's also usually be at least one axe for the taking there as well, or, failing that, any lumber mill. Both are indispensable....
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u/Deathangle75 9h ago
Just keep playing the game and youāll make money. If you donāt want to look up exploits thatās the best you can do.
In general crafting skills make good money. Transmuting iron to gold, smithing gold into rings, and enchanting every ring with the most expensive enchantment you can. Then alchemy lets you just turn random shit you pick off the ground into potions. That 50 gold might not seem like much, but invest some perks and time into it and youāll be making loads of money. Not to mention making potions that heal you, let you resist the damage of mages and dragons, and can even fortify your damage skills to do wombo damage.
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u/Alt-AccountIg 9h ago
The actual answer to this is the dark brotherhood quest line.
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u/Gondryc 9h ago
Transmute is good for making money but, I wouldn't transmute iron straight to gold right away. If you save all the gems you find for making jewelery you'll find that almost all of the gems you find slot into silver jewelery not gold. With this in mind...
Step 1: Gather iron ore.
Step 2: check the forge to see how many silver/gold ingots you actually need based on which gems you have
Step 3: cast transmute once to turn iron to silver
Step 4: drop the silver ore on the ground
Step 5: repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have enough silver ore to use up your lower quality gems. Hit the wait button and wait for 1 hour to regen your mana near instantly.
Step 6 : transmute the rest of your Iron into gold
Step 7: pick up your ore. Do not pick up your silver ore until after you're done making gold.
Step 8: forge jewelery starting with the pieces which require gems. If you got the number of ingots right the only gem free pieces available should be gold. When in doubt transmute a bit of extra silver ore.
Sorry if this seems complicated but you'd do it this way because silver jewelery with gems sells for higher prices than gold jewelery without gems. It also nets you more smithing XP since that skill tree is based on the price of the item you craft.
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u/capiggybara Skyrim Grandma Fan 9h ago
be a loot goblin and exploit your followers to take everything from you
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u/Erecto____Patronum XBOX 9h ago
Visit Dawnstar, Solitude and Markarth. They each have a merchant chest hidden near the Khajiit caravan.
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u/Ok_Experience_6877 8h ago
Making and leveling potions and leveling speech are some of the fastest ways ive learned
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u/pspooks_ 8h ago
I transmute gold and make rings and necklaces to level smithing, enchant the jewelry to level enchanting, then sell the jewelry
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u/Due_Speed2734 6h ago
Nordic Barnacles (west of the Guardian stones is a submerged Nordic ruin with 8ish and over by the standing stone in the same lake is a sunken boat with like a dozen, AND Dragonsreach moat has like 7), Salmon Roe (kill the salmon jumping in the rivers near Riverwood/whiterun to get 2 per fish), and Garlic. Waterbreathing pot with some other effects that, at BASE alchemy, sell for around 500. By 30 with no perks you're making almost 650 per pop... fair warning you'll go from lvl 1 to like lvl 10 doing this if you use all the barnacles I listed.
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u/Revolutionary-Play79 7h ago
I immediately chop wood when i get in riverwood. I don't leave till i have 5k septims. That way i can afford weapons and armor from Adrianne in whiterun
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u/DreadFilledHug 7h ago
That seems like a lot of time wasted since at that point she will only have a few items that you couldn't just scavange or craft yourself immediately.
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u/StandardTime3865 11h ago
If you have the Anniversary Edition, you can make insane amounts of money by getting Goldenhills Plantation and farming Mora Tapinella, Scaly Pholiota, and Creep Cluster, then using them to brew potions. If you just need some quick cash though, go to Left Hand Mine (near the Markarth Stables) and talk to Pavo.
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u/chunder_monkey 11h ago
Goldenhills is definitely the way to go. Do the quest, fill all your plots with Blisterwort and rake in 1,000 gold per day šš»
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u/NetflixWasTaken 11h ago
Just loot every single body and every nook and cranny and sell all of it, youāll get rich eventually
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u/Firedragon118 11h ago
Chop firewood as much as you're willing to chop then sell to Hod or any other npc that buys only firewood
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u/Zealousideal_Mango70 11h ago
There are dozens of low level bandit camps, open treasure sites, ore locations, etc. just wander around and look
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u/Zestyclose-Mix-6418 11h ago
Exploring caves and dungeons should give you decent money, khajiit caravan chest on Dawnstar and Markarth is also good source of early money, also in Markarth, go to left hand mine to speak with Pavo about his mine getting overrun by Forsworn, if you manage to clear out the mine and mine all of the gold ore, immidiately go to Pavo and sell the ore to him, there is also Gloombound mine in an orc stronghold near Windhelm, same thing with Kolskeggr mine but instead of gold this one is Ebony.Ā
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u/Mexican_JohnTremblay 11h ago
I went treasure hunting for a good while in between jobs for the companions. So most of my wealth in my last run through was just hoarding from dungeons
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u/fiero-fire 10h ago
If you can get the transmute mineral ore spell making enchanted jewelry is the play. Mine iron > transmute to silver to gold this levels alterations > make jewelry with gold and gems from mining this levels smithing> enchant that shit for enchantment levels > sell and be flush with cash. You'll quickly get to a level you don't really need to mine you can buy ore or just mine when your out adventuring. It's a slight more engaging loop than just grinding levels IMO. You can also start crafting the weapons you truly want so it's a win all around
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u/shadow88warrior 10h ago
In my opinion if you want money early game without looting the khajti caravans chests or even other hidden vendor chests, you'll just have to kill bandits, take all their stuff and sell it. Focus on the speech tree getting barter up and getting the merchant perk at speech level 50. I would say getting over 5000 gold would be the first checkpoint because you can buy several properties to then store your ore, ingots, gems and shit to make stuff and sell.
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u/ShitassAintOverYet Assassin 10h ago
Sell the bones and scales, dragons will be in abundance at all times so they aren't rare items for their price tag.
Also complete some questlines. After all the most reliable and popular way to actually save money and make a living is labour...and your job is being and adventurer.
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u/ChinChins3rdHenchman 10h ago
Idk alchemy has always worked for me without searching specific ingredients. Sure some potions come out cheap, but if i mix ingredients and discover the potion they make and its low value i won't craft anymore and try different combinations instead, ingredients are everywhere and its easy to pickba ton between quests. Potion value also relfects how much alchemy xp you get, very important skill for smithing and enchanting so either way should be done of not for the money
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u/TheDungeonCrawler 10h ago
If you can find a place to reliably farm petty soul gems and have a soul trap enchantment, you can go hunting to fill the gems then enchant the rings and necklaces you make from the Gold from Transmute. Then you're leveling whatever attack skill you hunt with, Alteration, Smithing, Enchanting, and Speech and you're making plenty of money. You also get the added benefit of being able to buy more empty petty gems since they tend to be cheap as hell compared to the value of the jewelry you make.
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u/Bad-Briar 10h ago edited 10h ago
On the alchemy: if you take an enhance restoration potion before making a potion, that potion you make will be stronger - and worth more.
Edit: It's been a year since I played. I seem to recall, when you sell, if you can stand it, sell separate items instead of a bunch of stuff. I think I recall that this makes you rise in stats so you get more money for the same thing?
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u/Tensa_Zangetsa 10h ago
Sell sell sell all the lot and shit you get from looting.
Another, but its a LOOOOOONG quest... go after the stone of Barenziah, use a guide we wont judge, and do that mission... it will let you get gems from containers.
Its kinda a long as quest, for something small... but those gems add up, and you can use them for jewlery.
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u/KupferTitan PC 10h ago
Creep Cluster + Mora Tapinella + Scaly Pholiota is the best way to level up Alchemy and make shit loads of money quick.
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u/Cynfreh 10h ago
Mine iron turn it into gold ingot with the transmute spell if you don't have it make them into iron daggers then enchant them and sell.
Once you have a couple thousand gold buy iron ingots, petty/lesser soul gems and all the ingredients from alchemy shops then make daggers enchant them and make potions sell the lot rinse and repeat.
After a couple of time of doing that money is no longer a problem as you'll make more and more each time as your levels increase in those skills.
The downside is you'll level up fast and if you don't upgrade your gear and perks you'll suddenly get rag dolled by everything.
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u/DrCleanz 10h ago
These comments show so many different ways lol. My go to is abusing the chest under whiterun. You get 1000 gold everytime, you can snag ingots to smith with, and then sell the smithed items at warmaidens
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u/Educational-Rule1635 11h ago
Yes, sell your dragon bones and scales until you have high enough smithing to use them in the late/mid game.
Also just hit caves and dungeons and bandit camps and bring their stuff back to sell to Belethor.