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You don't need to be a high level dragonslayer to get Skyrim's best armour. Just a patience, gold and a couple of hours to spare. But that's just one piece of the game's immense jigsaw puzzle.
Skyrim is one of the most staggeringly deep RPGs ever made, and seeing everything it has to offer will take more hours than we dare estimate. Between us, the CVG team have clocked up well over 200 hours, and the following tips are some of the most useful lessons we've learned along the way.
1. How to craft Daedric armour
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Daedric armour might look like something you get at the end of the game, but any character at any level can craft their own full set with only two hours and a few thousand gold to spare. Follow the step-by-step process below and you'll never have to worry about armour ever again.
- Visit the blacksmith in Windhelm and buy up all of his iron ingots and leather strips. Wait 48 hours for his inventory to refresh and repeat.
- When you have a decent amount of iron, go to a forge and start crafting iron daggers. As you create them, you'll notice your smithing rapidly gaining levels. Your character should also go up a few levels. If you have any gear that boosts smithing, like an amulet or gauntlets, wear them. If you have any smithing potions, drink them.
- Keep smithing daggers until your smithing reaches 100. This will take around 500-600 daggers. If you run out of ingots or leather strips, get more from the blacksmith.
- Every time your character levels up as a result of smithing, use the perk points to upgrade your smithing skill tree. Go from steel to Dwarven to Orcish to Daedric.
- If, after reaching 100 smithing, you don't have enough perk points to reach the Daedric crafting skill, continue playing the game until you level up naturally.
- First you'll need some Daedra hearts. Each piece of the armour - helmet, gauntlets, boots and chest plate - need one heart each. Head to the College of Winterhold and find an elf called Enthir. He's usually found in the Hall of Attainment. Talk to him and buy two Daedra hearts (that's all he has on him at any one time). Wait 48 hours for him to restock, and then buy two more.
- Now you'll need some ebony. Go to Gloombound Mine (see the attached video). To get inside you'll either have to help the Orcs in the stronghold with a super easy quest, or just fight your way in. It's quicker to do the quest.
- Once the Orcs let you through the gate, head towards the mine entrance. Handily, there's a full set of blacksmith tools outside. We'll need them later.
- There are no enemies in the mine - just lots and /lots/ of ebony. Make sure you have a pickaxe (there are a few lying around inside) and start mining the ebony veins. Clear the place out, and ignore the aggressive-sounding Orcs; they won't attack you unless provoked.
- Outside, use the nearby smelter to turn the ebony ore into ebony ingots. You should now have more than enough to craft the full set of Daedric armour.
