Skyrim enchanting is an important mechanic in this massive RPG, allowing you to imbue your weapons and equipment with powerful buffs to help you in battle. In this guide, we teach you how to learn enchanting, how to acquire and fill soul gems, what enchantments you can unlock, and more.
If you’re after a more romantic form of enchantment, check out our Skyrim marriage guide. Alternatively, if it’s cartography you love, check out our favorite Skyrim maps. Or, if you got that wedding sorted and know your way around already, be sure to browse through our Skyrim houses guide to find somewhere to settle down.
Here’s everthing in our Skyrim enchanting guide:
How do I enchant items in Skyrim?
First off, in order to enchant an item in Skyrim, you need to make sure you have the following:
- A piece of armor or a weapon with no enchantment
- A filled soul gem
- At least one known enchantment
- An arcane enchanter
When you’ve got all of that, you can enchant an item by following these steps:
- Interact with an arcane enchanter
- Choose the weapon or armor you want to enchant
- Choose the enchantment you want to add
- Choose the soul gem you want to fill it with
- Finalize the enchantment
How do I learn an enchantment in Skyrim?
As you explore, you may find enchanted weapons, armor, and more. These can fetch a high price from time to time, so it’s easy to sell them. But, if you want to learn some enchantments, you should disenchant these items instead.
To learn an enchantment in Skyrim, you need the following:
- An enchanted weapon or piece of armor
- An arcane enchanter
Then, all you need to do is use the arcane enchanter to disenchant the weapon, and you’ll learn the associated enchantment. However, be warned, disenchanting an item also destroys it.
How do I fill Skyrim soul gems?
Soul gems are a necessity when enchanting an item in Skyrim, but the ones you find are often empty. You can fill them with a soul by doing the following:
- Learn the spell Soul Trap (or have a weapon enchanted with it)
- Have an empty soul gem in your inventory
- Cast the spell on an enemy before killing them (or just kill them with the enchanted weapon)
- Voila! Their soul is now in your gem
Weird, I know, but now that you’ve trapped their immortal soul, it’s all yours to use. Lovely.
Skyrim enchanting skill tree
In order to improve your enchants, you need to level up your Skyrim enchanting skill. You do this by simply enchanting more, as each enchant gives you a set amount of EXP.
Here are all of the Skyrim enchanting levels and the perks they give:
| Perk | Level | Description |
| Enchanter (1) | 0 | New enchantments are 20% stronger |
| Enchanter (2) | 20 | New enchantments are 40% stronger |
| Soul Squeezer | 20 | Soul gems provide extra magicka for recharging |
| Fire Enchanter | 30 | Fire enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger |
| Enchanter (3) | 40 | New enchantments are 60% stronger |
| Soul Siphon | 40 | Death blows to creatures, but not people, trap 5% of the victim’s soul, recharging the weapon |
| Frost Enchanter | 40 | Frost enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger |
| Insightful Enchanter | 50 | Skill enchantments on armor are 25% stronger |
| Storm Enchanter | 50 | Shock enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger |
| Enchanter (4) | 60 | New enchantments are 80% stronger |
| Corpus Enchanter | 70 | Health, magicka and stamina enchantments on armor are 25% stronger |
| Enchanter (5) | 80 | New enchantments are 100% stronger |
| Extra Effect | 100 | Can put two enchantments on the same item |
How to level up enchanting fast
Here are the best ways to level up your Skyrim enchanting skill fast:
- Disenchant – this gives you a bunch of XP
- Use larger soul gems – the bigger the soul, the bigger XP
- Enchant items with Fortify Sneak, Fortify Carry Weight, Paralyze, and Banish – these offer more XP than others
To maximize your XP gain, activate the Mage stone and gain the Well Rested perk prior to leveling by going to sleep. Better yet, if you’re married, sleep in the same house as your partner to gain the Lover’s Comfort perk which pushes this boost further.
All Skyrim enchantments
Here are all the Skyrim enchantments. Any values like level or time period increase as you move up the enchantment skill tree.
Weapon enchantments
| Enchantment | Description |
| Absorb Health | Absorb health from target enemy |
| Absorb Magicka | Absorbs ten points of magicka |
| Absorb Stamina | Absorb ten points of stamina |
| Banish | Summoned Daedra are sent back to Oblivion |
| Chaos Damage | 50% chance for each element of Fire Damage, Frost Damage and Shock Damage to do 25 points of damage |
| Fear | Creatures and people up to level nine flee from combat for 30 seconds |
| Fiery Soul Trap | If the target dies within five seconds, fills a soul gem, and burns the target for ten points. Targets on fire take extra damage. |
| Fire Damage | Burns the target for ten points. Targets on fire take extra damage. |
| Frost Damage | Target takes ten points of frost damage to health and stamina |
| Huntsman’s Prowess | Three points of extra damage to animals |
| Magicka Damage | Does ten points of magicka damage |
| Notched Pickaxe | Raises the wielder’s Smithing abilities, and does five shock damage to enemies on hit |
| Paralyze | Targets that fail to resist are paralyzed for ten seconds |
| Shock Damage | Target takes ten points of shock damage, and half as much magicka damage |
| Silent Moons Enchant | While the moons are out, burn the target for ten points |
| Soul Trap | If the target dies within five seconds, fills a soul gem |
| Stamina Damage | Does ten points of stamina damage |
| Turn Undead | Undead up to level ten flee |
Armor enchantments
| Enchantment | Description | Equipment |
| Fortify Alchemy | Increases the potency of created potions and poisons | Head, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Alteration | Alteration spells cost less to cast | Head, chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Alteration and Magicka Regen | Alteration spells cost less to cast. Magicka regenerates faster. | Chest |
| Fortify Archery | Bows do more damage | Head, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Barter | Prices are better | Amulet |
| Fortify Block | Block more damage with your shield | Hands, shield, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Carry Weight | Carrying capacity increased | Hands, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Conjuration | Conjuration spells cost less to cast | Head, chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Conjuration and Magicka Regen | Conjuration spells cost less to cast. Magicka regenerates faster. | Chest |
| Fortify Destruction | Destruction spells cost less to cast | Head, chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Destruction and Magicka Regen | Destruction spells cost less to cast. Magica regenerates faster. | Chest |
| Fortify Healing Rate | Health regenerates faster | Chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Health | Increases your health | Chest, shield, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Heavy Armor | Increases Heavy Armor skill | Chest, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Illusion | Illusion spells cost less to cast | Head, chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Illusion and Magicka Regen | Illusion spells cost less to cast. Magicka regenerates faster. | Chest |
| Fortify Light Armor | Increases Light Armor skill | Chest, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Lockpicking | Increases Lockpicking skill | Head, hands, amulet ring |
| Fortify Magicka | Increases your magicka | Head, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Magicka Regen | Magicka regenerates faster | Head, chest, ring |
| Fortify One-Handed | Increases One-Handed skill | Hands, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Pickpocket | Increases Pickpocket skill | Hands, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Restoration | Restoration spells cost less to cast | Head, chest, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Restoration and Magicka Regen | Restoration spells cost less to cast. Magicka regenerates faster. | Chest |
| Fortify Smithing | Increases your Smithing skill | Chest, hands, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Sneak | Increases Sneak skill | Hands, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Stamina | Increases your stamina | Chest, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Stamina Regen | Stamina regenerates faster | Chest, feet, amulet |
| Fortify Two-Handed | Increases Two-Handed skill | Hands, feet, amulet, ring |
| Fortify Unarmed | Unarmed strikes do additional damage / Hands, ring | |
| Muffle | The wearer is muffled and moves silently | Feet |
| Resist Disease | Increases disease resistance | Chest, shield, amulet, ring |
| Resist Fire | Increases Fire resistance | Feet, shield, amulet, ring |
| Resist Frost | Increases Frost resistance | Feet, shield, amulet, ring |
| Resist Magic | Increases Magic resistance | Shield, amulet, ring |
| Resist Poison | Increases Poison resistance | Chest, shield, amulet, ring |
| Resist Shock | Increases Shock resistance | Feet, shield, amulet, ring |
| Water Breathing | Can swim underwater without drowning | Head, amulet, ring |
There it is, folks, an exhaustive and exhausting guide to Skyrim enchanting. But wait, there’s more! Check out our Skyrim Lydia, Skyrim Serana, Skyrim cure vampirism, Skyrim logo, Skyrim wallpaper, and Skyrim memes. More than enough for an adventurer like you.