Legendary Difficulty and Skills

Game Difficulty

Skyrim has six difficulty settings: Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master, and Legendary. The default difficulty is Adept. The difficulty level modifies how damage is dealt in the game, as shown in the following table:

Skyrim Table of Difficulty

What does this mean exactly? Well, think of the following example: While playing on Novice difficulty, you take only half damage from enemy attacks, and your attacks do double damage to your foes. This compares to Adept (the default difficulty).

The difficulty level affects only those two statistics. It doesn’t affect the difficulty of any other challenges you may face (speech challenges, locks, etc.), and it doesn’t affect the rewards you receive (such as perks or loot).

You can change the difficulty at any time in the Gameplay Settings menu (even during combat!). If you feel that the game is becoming too easy (or difficult) for you, don’t hesitate to make the switch.

Legendary Survivor

Here are some plans for surviving on Skyrim’s hardest difficulty setting: Legendary. These strategies apply to Master and Expert difficulty as well, though they may be less critical there.

For about the first ten levels, many foes will be able to kill you in a single hit. Even getting near them is dangerous, since they may perform a kill move you can’t dodge. Keep your distance and used ranged attacks to wear them down.

Followers are critical to your survival. Because your Followers are actually taking less damage than normal on Legendary, they can withstand a barrage of attacks that would easily fell you. During the initial events in Helgen, stay behind your ally (Hadvar or Ralof). After making your escape, recruit a defensive, melee-focused Follower, like Vorstag, Lydia, or Farkas, and let them hold the enemy’s attention while you strike from range.

Seek out additional companions whenever the opportunity presents itself. Recruit a dog, like Vigilance in Markarth or one of the Dawnguard huskies. Pick up the Conjure Familiar or Conjure Flame Atronach spells for a summoned ally. Quests that give you short-term or long-term Followers, like the Dawnguard Main Quest (Serana) or Daedric Quest: A Daedra’s Best Friend (Barbas), are also worth doing early.

Defense is the best offense. Decide which armor skill you plan to use and stick to it. Focus on raising that skill, taking perks in it as soon as they become available (especially perks that increase your Armor Rating) and augmenting it with enchantments and potions. Look for other opportunities to increase your defense as well. The Lord Stone’s Damage Reduction and Magic Resistance bonuses are a great asset, as are potions or enchantments that increase your other resistances.

Crowd-control abilities are much more valuable in Legendary—you simply can’t survive being attacked by multiple foes at once. The Nord racial power Battle Cry is ideal for this purpose, especially early in your adventure. Illusion spells like Fear and Calm can remove a single enemy from the fight, while Shouts like Animal Allegiance, Kyne’s Peace, Dismaying Shout, and Slow Time will help fend off larger groups. In Beast Form, the werewolf’s Fear Howl is also very effective.

Survey the battlefield and use the terrain to your advantage. Snipe your enemies from a distance or a different elevation and force them to come to you. Maintain that distance by backing away as you continue your assault.

Early on, you may be tempted to focus on noncombat or crafting skills in order to gain some quick levels. Resist that temptation. As your level increases, the foes you face become stronger as well. If you neglect your combat skills, you may fall even further behind.

That said, don’t neglect your support skills forever. If you can survive the first few levels, gradually investing in skills like Smithing, Enchanting, and Alchemy can help you gain an edge later on.

Scour the Training section of this guide for tips and advice, and take it to heart. Many tips that are only useful on a lower difficulty level—like getting “free” healing by leveling up when your health is low—are absolutely essential to your survival.

Legendary Skills

Once one of your skills reaches 100, it cannot increase any further. You can continue to use it, taking advantage of your mastery of the skill (and its high-level perks, if you choose to acquire them). However, because you gain levels based on skill increases, continuing to use this skill will not help you progress toward the next level. Eventually, once all of your skills reach 100, you will no longer be able to gain levels at all.

When one of your skills reaches 100, a new option will appear when you highlight its constellation on the Skills menu: Legendary. To make that skill Legendary, press the Legendary button and confirm your choice. Several things will then happen:

• The skill will be marked as Legendary (an icon appears below the skill).
• The skill will be reset from 100 to 15.
• Any perks that you had in the skill will be refunded.

In effect, the Legendary skill system allows you to start over again with a skill. You can continue using it, work your way back up to 100, and gain levels as you do so (because the skill is increasing). If you reach 100, you can choose to roll it over again. This allows you to continue gaining levels and amassing perk points indefinitely!

If you reset a skill multiple times, a number will appear next to the Legendary icon below that skill, recording how many times you have reached 100 with it.

Each new level is increasingly difficult to attain, so even with multiple Legendary skills, you shouldn’t expect to acquire every possible perk. Note that Legendary skills are not better than non-Legendary skills—the Legendary designation simply recognizes that you had mastered the skill and chose to start over with it again.

Legendary Skills: General Advice

Legendary skills are not for everyone. The Skill 100 perks are entertaining and powerful and reward you for the effort it took to master their skill in the first place. Try them out. Don’t be too quick to throw away the chance to forge Dragonbone Armor, craft the perfect potion, or call upon a Blizzard to devastate your foes. Even without Legendary skills, you can still reach a very high level (80+), and you can always choose to make a skill Legendary later on.

While you can make a skill Legendary at any time, if you’re sure you want to reset a particular skill, it’s generally best to do so as soon as it reaches 100. Otherwise, you may be throwing away skill uses that could have counted toward your next level.

There is one exception to that rule: If a skill can provide you with an ongoing benefit even after you’ve reset it, make sure to take advantage of it. For example, use your Smithing skill to forge and improve a complete set (or two) of Dragonbone or Daedric weapons and armor. Once you reset your Smithing skill, you’ll be back to working with iron weapons and armor again—but you can continue to use anything you previously crafted.

Similarly, use your Enchanting skill to enchant your best gear before you reset it, and use Alchemy to stockpile a collection of powerful potions or poisons. While you won’t lose any enchantments or recipes you’ve learned when you reset a skill, it will be a while before you can make anything as powerful again.

The Master-level Conjuration spells allow you to permanently summon (or create) Thralls. These spells are powerful but are prohibitively costly without the Skill 100 Master Conjuration perk. Before you reset your Conjuration skill, make sure to summon a Thrall (or two, if you have the Twin Souls perk). They’ll continue to follow you even after you’ve reset your Conjuration skill.

Some skills, especially crafting skills, can be relatively easy to build up again...if you’re prepared. If your skill is approaching 100 and you plan to reset it, take some time to collect low-level raw materials like Iron Ore, Dwarven Scrap, Petty and Lesser Soul Gems, unenchanted weapons and armor, and loose ingredients you can craft with after the reset. If you plan to reset Speech, this is a great time to do it, since these crafting sessions will produce a large number of low-level items to sell.

Don’t reset too many skills at once—make sure you still have enough high-level skills to be successful in combat. Otherwise, you may find yourself lowering the difficulty just to survive.

When you reset a skill, it helps to have a high-level skill of a similar type that you can fall back on while you work your old skill back up to 100. For example, before resetting an offensive skill (One Handed, Two Handed, Archery, Destruction, Conjuration), make sure you have another offensive skill at 50+ in case you find yourself in need of more attack power. Similarly, before resetting a defensive skill (Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Alteration, Restoration), make sure you have a second defensive skill ready to help you mitigate or recover from damage.

Save first. When you reset a skill, your character will suddenly become much less powerful. You may find it surprisingly difficult to cope with the loss of a combat, armor, or support skill you’ve come to rely on, especially if you don’t have an appropriate backup skill. Since this is one choice you can’t undo, make sure you have a save you can fall back on, just in case.