Improving Your Standing in Skyrim

Quests

Quests are a series of related objectives that make up a single mission or story. These range from the simple to the epic, and a large amount of this guide is spent detailing every one of them! In game, the Quest Journal tracks all of your current and former quests, while the General Stats page keeps track of how many quests you’ve completed. Remember that there are dozens of Miscellaneous Objectives, Favor Quests, and World Encounters and Interactions to discover as well. Every quest is documented later in this guide.

Favors and Friendship

When visiting a city, town, or settlement, take a moment to speak with everyone you meet. In addition to learning more about the area, they often have a Favor or other task they could use your help with. Complete it, and they react to you much more favorably. Keep this up among folks in the same settlement, and you’ll soon hear the guards mention your pleasant reputation. Consult the Miscellaneous Objectives and Favor Quest chapters, for a list of the huge number of favors you can perform.

Making friends has several useful benefits:

• Your friends will often be willing to help you in return.
• They will occasionally give you gifts.
• They may allow you to take items from their house, shop, or market stall without paying for them (you’ll notice that many items are no longer marked “steal,” so help yourself!).
• They’re willing to put you up for the night. When in their home, you are no longer trespassing, and you can sleep in any bed they own. An unscrupulous “friend” could take advantage of this hospitality to rob them blind...
• Some may even be willing to join you on your adventure if you ask! Consult the Followers list later in this section for details.

Houses

Buying a House

When the time comes to establish yourself as more than just a wandering dragon-slayer, you can put down roots in any (or all) of Skyrim’s major capitals by purchasing a House. You can’t just saunter into town with a hefty bag of gold and demand a dwelling, though: You must first win the Jarl’s trust. Speak to them and complete the quests or Favors they assign until you earn their friendship and permission to buy a house in the city. For more details on what you need to do, see the appropriate Thane task in the Favors section.

With the Jarl’s approval, you can now approach the steward (who is usually nearby) and ask about purchasing a home. The price is displayed and is not negotiable. Pay the steward, and you receive the key to the dwelling.

Decorating Your Property

Once you’ve purchased a house, you can leave it in its current (usually sparse and cobwebbed) state or speak to the steward again to begin decorating it. Each house comes with a Home Decorating Guide that describes the options available to you, so you can make an informed decision about which furnishings to purchase. In addition to purely cosmetic items like chairs or cupboards, decorations also include such useful things as crafting stations, weapon racks, mannequins, and bookshelves. Simply return to the steward and buy the decorations you want; when you return to your house, they have been installed.

Benefits of Home Ownership

Owning a house gives you a variety of useful benefits:

• You have a convenient base of operations in the city, with several easily accessible crafting stations and a bed you own (for the Well Rested or Lover’s Comfort bonuses).
• You can store any weapons, armor, crafting materials, or other items you have in your house, knowing they will always be there when you return.
• You can prominently display the weapons, artifacts, and items that you’ve collected on a variety of weapon racks, weapon plaques, mannequins, and bookshelves.
• If you’ve been named Thane of the Hold, you can find your housecarl in your house, ready to join you at a moment’s notice.
• If you’re married (see Side Quest: The Bonds of Matrimony), you can also ask your spouse to move in with you, instead of meeting them in the inn or bedding down in their (often rudimentary) place!

Available Properties

Proudspire Manor, Solitude (Haafingar Hold)

• Bedroom (2,000)
• Living Room (2,000)
• Alchemy Laboratory (2,500)
• Enchanting Laboratory (2,500)
• Patio Decorations (500)
• Kitchen (1,500)
• Windstad Manor (Hjaalmarch Hold)

• See the Hearthfire section of Training

Heljarchen Hall (The Pale)

• See Hearthfire section of Training

Vlindrel Hall, Markarth (The Reach)

• Bedroom (800)
• Living Room (900)
• Alchemy Laboratory (1,000)
• Enchanting Laboratory (1,000)
• Entrance Hall (500)
• Breezehome, Whiterun (Whiterun Hold)

• Alchemy Laboratory (500)
• Bedroom (300)
• Loft (200)
• Dining Room (250)
• Hjerim, Windhelm (Eastmarch)

• Kitchen (1,000)
• Bedroom (1,000)
• Living Room (1,500)
• Alchemy Laboratory (1,500)
• Enchanting Laboratory (1,500)
• Armory (2,000)
• Clean up that murderer’s mess (500)
• To purchase Hjerim, you must complete the first part of Side Quest: Blood on the Ice.

Lakeview Manor (Falkreath Hold)

• See Hearthfire section of Training.

Honeyside, Riften (The Rift)

• Bedroom (600)
• Kitchen (500)
• Alchemy Laboratory (1,000)
• Enchanting Laboratory (1,000)
• Garden (800)
• Porch (400)
• Severin Manor (Raven Rock, Solstheim)

• None. It comes fully furnished and cannot be decorated.
• Your spouse and children cannot live here either.