1941

Key thing here … don’t select “potion effect” on the menu, just select “ingredients,” as though it’s an unknown, then scroll down the huge list and click to add what you want. Chances are that you don’t know or haven’t unlocked the knowledge for what you are trying to do as a listed “effect” on that ingredient, so doing it manually will get you what you need. Side note, don’t forget to taste one of every new ingredient type you get. That will get you started on that ingredient effect data that the game uses for simplified potions.

Once you discover what they do though, all the ingredients will be listed under that potion effect on the simplified menu.

1942

I had this exact same problem. Then I kept track of what I actually use and came up with something like 10 damage health poisons, 2 paralysis poisons, 2 slow poisons, 10-20 health potions, 1 magika potion, 4 stamina potions per every 5 dungeons/quests. More if I run into dragons and such. So I simplified what I carry to just that list. I never used the other situational potions, so why even carry them. It also makes it MUCH easier to know what to sell or put in the chest back at the house. I think I probably dropped 40 weight in just potions by doing that. Those fuckers are heavy.

I’m also slooooowly approaching what I need for the 100K gold achievement, but I can tell you after that it’s spending spree time.

1943

I’m up around 200k gold, but there’s not much to do with it. I’d have more, but dealing with shopkeepers and their 500-1000 gold is tedious and I don’t have any need for more money. On top of the dungeon loot money hose, alchemy and to a lesser extent enchanting are a license to print money. Or, rather, things that you can’t exchange for money because you already have all the money. All the money…

I do have huge piles of ebony ingots, grand soul gems, daedra hearts and ultimate potions, since I mostly take those instead of the money the merchants don’t have.

1944

How the heck do you get a six second soul steal? Black soul?

1945

How the heck do you get a six second soul steal? Black soul?

edit: Wait DUH you found it. Dammit!

1946

I think my main problem with potions was that I would take a bunch to sell, and then not realize that they weren’t showing up in the Sell screen because so many of them were stolen.

So I put ALL of my non-stolen potions into a chest in my house, and for the next couple hours of encounters I would just use potions while being more haphazard getting into battles. I used a Pickpocketing Philter just to level up my pickpocket skill by stealing gold and gems off of people. I used Lockpicking potions for the master locks of a dungeon (Northwatch is good for this) in order to level up that skill.

Poisons are annoying because they are a one-hit use, but if you can stomach the pausing in combat, then using them against something like a dragon or a troll or a two-handed maniac can be useful.

Just USE THEM for fuck’s sake. You people that have digital hoarding complexes need to figure out how to erase this sentimentality you’re getting to digital goods that you never use. The feeling goes away in a couple seconds once you say to yourself “OK, it’s gone.” I know this because I used to be like you.

1947

The best part of potion hoarding is when you’re almost done bankrupting the general goods merchant in alphabetical order and then you get down to “Potion of Haggling” and think “Oh, right. Next time.”

1948

Kerzain I saw a funny way to play on Reddit that you could try:

1949

Fuck, you know you’re right, I keep forgetting about that one too!

1950

I figure between my 25% amulet and 20% mask I’m already breaking the bank on NPCs too quickly ;)

1951

I had two Speechcraft necklaces. I equipped one, and when I clicked to sell the duplicate to the shopkeeper, the fucking universe exploded nah I had to re-equip it.

1952

Quick tip: Brew a stack of poisons, or pick up a stack of the biggest amount you have and put them in your inventory. Now pull up your inventory, find that poison, and “favorite,” it [F]. Now pull up your favorites menu [Q], scroll to that poison, and hit a number key [1-9].

Then go off and fight. Whenever you want to poison a blade or bow, just hit the number key, even mid swing or with the bow drawn.

You can do this with normal potions as well, but I carry more than one type, so I try to min-max how much health/stamina/magika I need versus the potion size.

1953

Too bad about the confirmation dialogue box.

1954

As per previous example with poisons, you can hotkey armor items. :p

1955

<tap enter> done.

1956

That is just too amazing.

1957

Yeah I realize this, but I rarely have “stacks” of poison (except for Frostbite from spiders, which I don’t carry because they’re useless), so keying it up would be annoying.

It’s been a while since my last alchemy session, I’ll brew a fresh batch of poison and do this.

1958

Yeah the tip to stacks, at least from what I’ve found, is using the two ingredients you have the largest number of, and only brewing one large stack using those. They will all be identical.

Mixing in a third ingredient, or even changing to 2 others, frequently makes a potion with the same effect, but one that won’t stack.

It’s borked, but if you just sell off the small stuff and go this way for the future, you’re better off. The same holds true for those poisons you find while adventuring, you’ll rarely have more than 1-3 of them of the same type, just sell them, also Frostbite, Skooma, and crap like that, just ditch it.

1959

So, enchanting: how does it stack? I know in previous TES games everything just stacks up linearly, so four +20% magic resist items gives you 80% magic resist (lulz). Anyone know if it’s the same in Skyrim? The active effects screen is unclear.

On the plus side, I made myself wait until after beating the main questline to really break the game. My newly crafted and enchanted set of Godslayer armor (yes, I am a huge nerd) is going to trivialize the fuck out of everything.

1960

Yup, that’s how enchanting stacks.