THE ELDER SCROLLS III MORROWIND [XBOX Game of the Year Edition] Exploit Easy Startup Guide V1.0.2 Feb 11, 2004 Copyright 2004 By Wolfie This guide is configured for 79 character plain text lines. The following line should appear completely on a single line: 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 =============================================================================== *G00000* CONTENTS =============================================================================== Using the "G" numbers below, you can use CTL-F (assuming a windows platform) in your text viewer to locate the sections listed in the contents. 1. Introduction G01000 2. Getting Started G02000 Character Creation G02100 Alternate Exit G02120 Census and Excise Office G02150 Seyda Neen G02200 Balmora G02300 Caldera and "Creeper" G02400 3. Ramping up Stats G03000 Getting Spells G03100 The Snowball G03200 Speed & Strength G03300 Summary G03400 4. Initial Cash Income G04000 Getting Spells G04100 Making Cash, Quick G04200 Summary G04300 5. A place to stay G05000 Decisions, Decisions G05100 Homes in Balmora G05200 Unlimited Storage G05300 6. Early Enchantments G06000 Getting what you need G06100 Your first Enchantment G06200 Taking a trip G06300 More handy Enchantments G06400 7. Ramping up your Skills G07000 Getting what you need G07100 Boosting your skills G07200 8. Additional Vendors G08000 Mudcrab G08100 Mournhold Vendors G08200 Great Bazar G08210 Craftsman Hall G08220 9. Closing and Contacts G09000 10. Reader's Tips G10000 11. Version Info G20000 =============================================================================== *G01000* INTRODUCTION =============================================================================== Welcome to my first FAQ for Morrowind. I had looked at other guides but most were written for the PC version of Morrowind and didn't apply to the XBOX version or didn't apply to the Game of the Year Edition (GOTYE) on the XBOX. Much of what is in this guide is from notes I made playing the game both on the PC and the XBOX (prior to the MW:GOTYE edition) and then reviewing that information to see what still worked in MW:GOTYE on the XBOX. All of this content comes from my personal experience actually playing the Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition on the XBOX. I don't have that version for the PC but do have the original as well as Bloodmoon for the PC but this guide is expressly for the XBOX version and I can't guarantee any of this will work on the PC version. With that out of the way...what's this guide for? Well, there are many exploits in Morrowind that you can use to make your game play quite a bit easier allowing you to focus on missions/quests. This guide represents a compilation of these exploits organized and presented for the player just starting the game with a new character. It's not really organized for those who have established characters, that's not this guide's purpose but you can use many of the tips/exploits on established characters. =============================================================================== *G02000* GETTING STARTED =============================================================================== *G02100* CHARACTER CREATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Create your character using any method you prefer. I usually create a custom character but that's your choice. Once finished with the character creation, pick up your orders off the table and STOP! Don't do anything else until you read the rest of this section. EXPLOIT: Any item you steal is marked as stolen FOREVER (there is 1 exception, if you enchant it the item is no longer marked "stolen"). If you are caught with it in your possession, it will be taken from you, even if you are wearing it. Once an item has been stolen you can put it down, it's still marked as stolen but you can pick it up again without alerting guards. EXPLOIT: At the beginning of the game, it's impossible to get sent to jail! Once you exit to town for the first time, the grace period is OVER and you can be caught and sent to jail or fined. Now armed with those two exploits, let's get some starting cash. Walk around the table to the bookshelf that has the platter on it. Now, timing is important and you MUST be fast with the (B) button. Pick up the platter and IMMEDIATELY hit your inventory (B) button. Drop the platter on the ground. In seconds a guard will talk to you and tell you not to do that again. If you hadn't dropped the platter on the ground, it would have been taken from you. DO NOT PICK IT UP. Leave EVERYTHING you are stealing laying on the ground. This is very important because when the guard comes to reprimand you ALL stolen items are removed, not just the one you just stole. Now steal the other items on the shelf and drop them to the floor. Stick with the higher value ones unless you have a strong character and can carry a decent load. You have only ONE chance to do this, you can't come back from town and you don't have the option to save your game. Now check the baskets in the corners and then approach the shelf with the books to the right of the locked door you initially entered from the ship. These books are a little harder than the other items because the guard is closer and you have to read and then take the book adding another button press to the routine. The books are worth 50g so the effort is well worth it. Remember, leave EVERYTHING on the floor while stealing more items. Once you are done cleaning out the room, head down the hall and into the room on the right leaving everything on the ground. Pick up the lockpick off the table. Pick the locked boxes on the shelf but don't loot the contents yet. Leave the rest of the room alone for now as well. Head back to the first room and stand between the table and the bookcase that had the platter. Now use the lockpick to open the locked box on the table. Odds are this will take a few tries to get open but stick with it. Loot the money and immediately drop the gold before the guard visits you again. NOW you can pick everything up off the floor. If you can't carry it all, pick up stuff that has the highest value per pound of weight. Head into the room where you got the pick and loot everything there too. This room is easy to loot since there is nobody there to see you. Leave the candles for last unless you like groping in the dark. Head down the hall and outside. Loot the lanterns hanging around. Loot the barrel. If you don't want to use the "Alternate Exit" in G02120, skip to G02150 section. *G02120* ALTERNATE EXIT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Nick" emailed me an exploit I didn't know about and I have confirmed it does work in GOTYE XBOX version. Using this exploit/glitch, you can get to one of my favorite thieving spots in the game very early...Suran. Once you loot the barrel, head to your left around the side of the building. Stand in the corner where the wall meets the building wall. Hold forward down and jump. It may take a couple times but you will glitch through the wall into Seyda Neen. At this point you have no save ability nor can you sleep. You can also steal, get caught but not go to jail. At this point, head to the trade house, sell everything there and get a couple hundred in your pocket (you will need 20-50g for stilt riders depending on your personality, more if you need to make several trips). Keep the 650g platter. Head to the stilt rider and drop the platter on the stilt rider platform. Also drop your cloths, pick and dagger. You should be carrying NOTHING. Travel to Suran. Suran has some of the best low risk, high value thieving anywhere! When you get to Suran, head for the pawnbroker. Stand near the corner of the room and you should be able to steal the restore health potion from the shelf (you may need this in a bit if you get hit). Now head around the counter and stand on/near the sacks against the far wall. Steal 2 of the ebony darts and run outside. I dropped them near the forge along with the potion. Then head up the stairs to find a guard. DO NOT TALK TO THE GUARD, LET HIM TALK TO YOU. Apparently if YOU talk to him, you CAN go to jail. You might have to run around the guard a bit until he notices you. Once he does, you can head back to the pawn broker, and steal a couple more items. Don't get too greedy at once, you don't want anyone to attack you, you are still quite weak and can't sleep to recover the HP (which is why you stole the potion). The pawnbroker has 5 darts (2k ea), Glass Dagger (4k), and an ebony bracer (5k) all worth 19000. One you clean out the pawnbroker, you can head next door to the armorer. He has 2 Orcish (960 ea) Pauldrons and an Orcish Helm (1200) on the floor behind the counter. Only steal one thing at a time and head to the guard away from the armorer (he hits pretty hard). There is also a crate behind the guard that has 1010g worth of Bonemold armor but it all weighs 101lb. Depending on your character's ability to carry weight, you might want to hold off on the bonemold stuff but it's a nice one shot steal since you can loot the whole crate with the (X). The stuff at the armorer is worth 4550g, and combined with the loot from the pawnbroker, that's a hefty 23,550g take in one convenient take. One last stop here, the Trader. He has some soul gems (empty) on a table you might be able to sneak/steal and a limeware pot (350g), Blue Book of Riddles (250g) & The Wolf Queen, Book VII (250g) upstairs unguarded. If you leave the counter door closed, the shopkeep can't get to you when you steal stuff. The real prizes here is the Drewgh Curisass (5250g) and Dreugh Helm (2250g) for another 7500g worth of goodies. There are some enchanted weapons on the counter too but they aren't that great but if you can carry them, its extra gold in your pocket. Odds are you are not going to be able to haul all this loot at once so for now get it to the stilt rider (make several trips to the platform). Load up to your max of the stolen loot before leaving Suran. Once you got the loot, head back to the stilt rider and take it to Balmora. Drop all your loot on top of the platform. No since in heading to creeper yet, you can't sleep so had back to Seyda Neen (leave platter until you are leaving for Balmora below) and enter the "Census and Excise Office". Continue to G02150 section. *G02150* CENSUS AND EXCISE OFFICE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Head into the building. DO NOT talk to the man inside until you are all done. Go to the far corner and DROP ALL STOLEN GOODS you are carrying. Now proceed to loot and drop everything in this room as well as you did in the first room, saving the lights for last. Once you have cleaned this room, talk to the gentleman and present your orders and talk about DUTIES. Now scoop up all your loot, again choosing the highest value per pound items if you can't carry it all. Head through the door to Seyda Neen. *G02200* SEYDA NEEN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you have entered town, the no-jail grace period is over. Permanently. You can now save, so do so. Talk to Fargoth about his ring. Give it to him then head to the trade house. Sell the lower value stuff (1-10 gold ea) but keep the higher value stuff. Books, lamps and paper are OK to sell here so do so. Buy the Jack-Of-All-Trades Spell for 278g (324g if you didn't give Fargoth his ring back) then head upstairs and talk to Hrisskar Flat-Foot and accept the mission to find Fargoth's hiding place. Head back to town and south to the light house (jumping, sneaking and stealing all lamps you can). Enter the light house and head upstairs. Grab the book under the bench and the other goodies as well and exit onto the terrace and climb the stairs to the top. Look back toward town at the swamp near the huge tree. Press (BLACK) and sleep/rest until 11PM. When Faragoth comes out and places stuff in the stump, head back down to the ground (you can jump into the tree above the boardwalk instead of going through the lighthouse) and loot the stump. Head into the tradehouse and talk to Hrisskar Flat-Foot to complete the mission. Giving you 100g, ring and pick. Talk to Vodunius Nuccius and ask about LITTLE ADVICE. Then talk to the stilt rider attendant and then back to Vodunius Nuccius and talk again about himself. Buy his ring for 100g. Loot the Bungler's Bane, Hypha Facia, Violet Coprinus and Luminous Russula mushrooms. The first three are on the tree near the swamp with Faragoh'ts stash, the last one is the glowing blue ones you can find near the lighthouse, around town or at its edge on your way to the stilt rider. Now head out of town across the bridge to the north, across the second little bridge and on until the road turns NW. Head off the road to the East and then follow up the hill and around behind a swamp area until you are able to slide down onto the exposed rocks at the back edge of the swamp area. In the top of one if the hollow logs, you will find 2 stacks of 25g and a Firebight Dagger. Loot the Draggle-Tail while you are there. Head west back to the road and then continue northwest until a guy named Tarhiel falls out of the sky (don't ask, just enjoy the extreme humor). Loot his body and grab the journal on the ground. Head back to town and hock all the books and such. Head for the stilt walker again. You should have a couple hundred gold in your pocket which is plenty for now. (* If you used G02120, pick up the platter on the platform) Take the stilt rider to Balmora. *G02300* BALMORA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As soon as you arrive in Balmora, head down to ground level and head right across the river, through the first archway and into the South Wall Corner Club. Talk to Sugar-Lips Habasi and join the Thief's Guild. This will allow you to have your bounty removed if you are caught stealing or killing by Phane Rielle downstairs (NOTE: They fixed the no gold cheat to have bounty removed for free in MW:GOTYE, it actually costs now). Head back past the stilt rider, to the courtyard and north to the Mage's Guild looting crates as you go. (* if you used G02120 section, pick up a load of loot at the stilt rider instead of looting crates in Balmora) Talk to Ranis Athrys and join the guild. Go downstairs and talk to Ajira about duties. Give her the mushrooms you collected in Seyda Neen. Then talk to her about duties and the bet mission. Go upstairs to place the fake soul gem into the desk. Loot everything else there. Be warned, if you do steel the soul gems, you can NEVER use Galbedir to enchant ANYTHING. That won't be a problem, but just be warned. Go back downstairs and complete the mission. You can wait for the other missions later(or never, your choice). Talk to Masalinine Merian and transport to Caldera. *G02400* CALDERA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Head out into town and straight down main street to the Ghorak manor (big house to the south of the armorer at the end of the street). Enter and go upstairs to find a scamp named "Creeper". He isn't a hostile! In fact he will be your best buddy for awhile! Creeper buys stuff at FACE VALUE unlike all other vendors but one (Mudcrab, see section G08100) who buy at reduced prices based on your personality, mercantile etc. which is why I said don't sell the high value items at Seyda Neen trade house. Sell everything you stole EXCEPT for alchemy ingredients and clothing (explained later). He has 5000g to spend every 24hrs so use him well :) You can sleep in the beds in the corner if you hide from the wondering woman there. Sell all the soul gems you stole from the mage's guild, you won't need them. You won't be able to sell the Grand Soul Gem (60,000) yet but you will eventually so you can lay it down on the crates behind Creeper until time to sell it. This should give you plenty of starting cash, 10k-15k (45k+ if you did section G02120) depending on what you stole/sold earlier. For additional cash, see Kevin R's tip and Demon Phoenix's tip in G10000 section. Head back to the Mage's Guild. Downstairs, enter the wood door near Ernand Thierry and close it again. Loot all the chests and head upstairs and loot the Master Alchemy equipment. Depending on what you looted, you can return to Creeper to empty your inventory, otherwise teleport back to Balmora. =============================================================================== *G03000* RAMPING UP STATS =============================================================================== *G03100* GETTING SPELLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Head to Balmora Mage's Guild if you aren't there already. Loot the guild supply chest in the hall as you enter. Its ok, its there for you since you are in the guild now. Head downstairs and buy the spell SoulTrap from Masalinine Merian (teleporter). Look at your character's stats and make a note of your max manna. Since this differs based on your character creation choices, you will have to make some reactive decisions shortly. Talk to Estirdalin and select Spellmaking. Read the rest of this section before continuing... EXPLOIT: Some spells when grouped with SoulTrap become permanent. This gives you the ability to apply spells to yourself and have them stackable and permanent. Now since you purchased the Jack-Of-All-Trades spell in Seyda Neen, you have access to the Fortify: Attribute spell tree. You will need to make a Fortify Willpower spell. Depending on your max mana right now, you will have to watch the mana cost for spells you are about to make. For example, my test character has 50 mana max and fortify 10 costs 1 to cast while fortify 20 costs 3. So add Fortify: Willpower 10 to 10 on SELF for 1sec (adjusting for your mana). Then add SoulTrap on TARGET 1sec. Give the spell a name and buy. Now buy a similar spell with Fortify: Intelligence 100 to 100 on SELF and SoulTrap on TARGET 1sec. Yea, you won't be able to cast the intelligence YET but the willpower boosting will fix that. Why willpower? Willpower is the primary attribute for the restoration class of spells which the fortify spell is. This makes it easer and easier to cast these as you ramp up. Why Intelligence? It controls your max mana and the higher it gets the more mana you have to cast spells. Ok, head over to the bunks area and aim straight down at where your feet should be. Cue up the fortify willpower spell. Fire a few off and drink the restore mana potions you looted from the guild chest if you need to. The spells will probably fail a lot at first but you will continually get higher and higher success rate. By the time your Willpower is up to around 200 or so, you will be getting 100% success rate. Continue firing it off until you get your willpower up to around 500. Now cue up the fortify intelligence spell and use it until your intelligence is up around 500 also. You can sleep in the beds until healed (X) (restoring mana too) since you are a guild member. *G03200* THE SNOWBALL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you should be able to cast Fortify Intelligence and Fortify Willpower at 100-100 so go buy fortify willpower 100 spell. Return to the bed area and ramp up willpower and intelligence to around 10,000 or so. Personally, 10k is an ideal area and I will explain why later. Now to ramp up the other attributes OTHER than Speed and Strength, go buy a spell that looks like this: Fortify Agility 100 on Self Soultrap 1sec on TARGET Fortify Personality 100 on Self Fortify Endurance 100 on Self Fortify Luck 100 on Self Remember that's ONE spell, not several. And make sure Soultrap is the second entry. Now return to the bed area and ramp up the other stats to around 10k as well. Remember do NOT include speed and strength YET. *G03300* SPEED & STRENGTH ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You need to make a rather hard decision at this point. How much do you want to ruin the game. No, really. If you are so strong that you can kill anything at any time, why are you playing? Your choices at this point affect how the entire rest of the game goes..or doesn't go. I will give the information to you, how and whether you use it is totally your choice. Return and buy a Fortify Speed 25/Soultrap (yes 25 not 100 for speed) and a Fortify Strength 100/Soultrap pair of spells (2 different ones). Return to the bed area. SAVE your game. Yea, do it now, trust me here. Cue up the speed spell. Fire it off once and test things out. Move around, go outside, pick stuff up, etc. Fire again and test. When it gets too fast to control, look at your speed attribute and load the save game back. Fortify it to one LESS than you thought you wanted (trust me!). For me, I settled on 150 fortification so it will max out at 250. Anything higher makes it hard to control and pick up small stuff (arrows, darts etc.). Make a NEW save, keeping your pre-speed one. Ok, on to strength. This is another touchy one. If you get it too high, you will destroy your weapon in one swing, not fun. A 1000 fortification for a max of 1100 gives pretty nice results. That gives you +5000lb carrying capacity, more than you will ever use and will most likely kill any monster in the game with 1-2 hits with almost any weapon. You can stop around 500 and fortify it higher later IF you wish. That will lower your carrying capacity but isn't 2500lb still enough? *G03400* SUMMARY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At this point, you should have all attributes except speed & strength at around 10,000, Speed probably around 150 or so and Strength between 500 and 1,000 if you decided to go all the way. Why stop at 10k? Well, you don't really have to but anything above that seems to be overkill in the extreme. With an intelligence of 10k, potions you make (covered next) will be worth about 2300- 2400g each. Selling 2 to creeper for 5k, 1 to Nalcarya (Balmora) per day, 6700g per 24hr game day. If your intelligence is higher then you can't sell to Nalcya who only has 3000g and can't sell 2 to creeper and later mudcrab (see G08100). These potions you are selling now will be used as "change" for sales later of higher value items later. Although your health is quite low still, you are virtually untouchable for quite some time but you will level up by then anyway. BTW, with the ramped up luck skill, you will be able to sneak right in front of everyone. You should also be able to open nearly all locks using just an apprentice lockpick though you might want to purchase an Open 100-100 on touch spell so you don't have to carry picks anymore. =============================================================================== *G04000* INITIAL CASH INCOME =============================================================================== *G04100* GETTING SPELLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Head to Balmora Temple. You don't need to join the temple right now and it might be better not to yet. Purchase the Mark and Recall spells from the two guys downstairs. Also purchase Almsivi Intervention, it won't be used right now but you will want it soon anyway. *G04200* MAKING CASH, QUICK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember that alchemy equipment you looted in Caldera? Time to use it to make some fast cash. Equip it and use the Kwama Eggs (Small and Large) to produce some restore fatigue potions. Also use crabmeat and bread. With an intelligence of 10,050 and alchemy skill of 21, my test character produced potions worth about 2400g each and made 15 from the little bit of ingredients I looted. That's a fast 36,000g Get the picture :) While you are there at Creeper, use the Mark spell. Sell 2 potions to creeper for around 5k, 1 to Nalcarya (Balmora) per day, 6700g per 24hr game day. Granted Nalcarya will only give you around 1700 per potion but hell they were nearly free to make anyway so stop griping. Use the Mage Guild to travel to Balmora and Recall spell to return to Creeper with a 24hr rest per round trip. Once you get 200k- 400k you can stop for a while. Store the potions somewhere, near Creeper if you wish. *G04300* SUMARY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Use non-valuable ingredients to make potions you will never use, such as fortify or restore fatigue etc. Creeper should be the main place you sell at, especially high value items since he pays full face value. For armor and weapons, a quick visit to any armorer to repair them will pay off when you sell the fully repaired items to Creeper. I will lead you to another vendor with 10k cash to spend per day later in this guide. A personal decision, I chose to store my alchemy set in Balmora (crates right outside mage guild). Balmora will be an easy center for you to get to for the foreseeable future. While you are making potions, you might want to whip up some telekinesis potions using Alit Hide and Scuttle. With my test character, he produced Telekinesis 816ft for 2441 seconds, basically loot anything you can see, even across town :) Also, with the cash you earned, buy some training in weapons and armor or whatever skills you chose for primary/secondary skills for your character. Just a few levels in them and your character should be ready to level up gaining additional health. =============================================================================== *G05000* A PLACE TO STAY =============================================================================== *G05100* DECISIONS, DECISIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A decision is at hand. Where to call home? You can't store much in the thieves guild or in the Mage's Guild. Boxes in the street? Yea but not classy. You need a place to call home. Depending on what town you want to call home, you will have several houses to choose from. I always use Balmora. Don't know why..just because. It's centrally located, on both mage and stilt rider routes and the center of the story line for a while so that's where this guide will focus on. *G05200* HOMES IN BALMORA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, the heading says HOMES, plural. One is easily available the other requires someone to, um, "disappear". The first one, Hlaao Manor is up on the hill next to the Western Guard Tower and diagonally across the plaza from the Hlaalu Council Manor. Head for the front door which is lock level 30 (piece of cake). Head into the house. There is only one living person in the entire house and she is upstairs behind a closed wood door, her name is Uryne Nirith. Talk to her about the murder and murder's description. Then you can either kill her right then or simply exit her room and shut the door behind you, closing her inside and she will never bother you again. On the third floor is a bed to sleep in, if you don't mind the mess. On the main floor is an alcove with lots of boxes, sacks and barrels to store stuff in. Clear them out, clear off the dining tables and shelves and you have tons of storage and presentation areas for your loot. On the floor is the REAL reason you want this house, Ralen Hlaao's body! It is a bottomless container, at least I haven't managed to ever fill it up. That means you have a bottomless pit to store stuff in, assuming you don't mind having a dead body on the floor :) Loot the body for the clothing. You ARE still keeping all those cloths I told you to hold onto RIGHT? I will explain the cloths later. The second house requires you to murder someone and if you chose not to beef up your strength, he can be a bit of a fight early in the game. That's Ra'Virr's shop. It's the first building in the square from the stilt rider and right next to the Mage's Guild. That's nice and close. It's got a bed and a few containers and shelves. Problem is, it's inhabited. Ra'Virr isn't required for any missions, quests and is just a so-so vendor. He has 2 nice swords. Kill him. Loot the 12k worth of weapons and stuff and hock what you don't want at Creeper. You got yourself a second home in Balmora. This is where I tend to store magic goods, spell scrolls, potions and ingredients since its real close to the stilt rider and next to the Mage's Guild. But, again, its use is completely your choice. *G05300* UNLIMITED STORAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, so you got (or will get) loads of stuff. Where to put it all? Crates? Chests? Shelves? Yea, those are options but they have limits. Each container can only hold so much weight of goods. So now what? You can force some bottomless containers to "appear". EXPLOIT: Overflow Loot Bag. Overflow bags will hold unlimited amounts of stuff. You can take stuff out but you can't manually put stuff in, but there are ways to get around that. They are used by the game to clean up areas you have dropped too much stuff into. Dropping too much stuff in a small area affects game performance during loading and rendering so the game cleans up the area and shoves it into a bag. Handy actually. You can force overflow loot bags to appear in specific spots but be careful with your choices. You want to create them in corners or near walls so you aren't tripping over them. These containers also "scoop up" stuff a good distance from them. That means anything you drop on the ground will be put into the container if you leave the area and then return. This is good AND bad. If you create one inside, like in Ra'Virr's you can't then use the shelves to hold stuff since the bag will scoop it up. Like I said, good and bad. I usually make 3 containers outside in Balmora. One next to the urns in front of the stairs leading up to the Lucky Lockup in front of the stilt rider. A second bag I create on top of the crates between Ra'Virr's place and the entrance to the Mage's Guild, and the third up by the Hlaao Manor. These 3 locations cover the southwestern quadrant of Balmora. And since bags scoop up stuff from quite a rage, you can't get them any closer together than this nor would you really want to. To create an Overflow container, you have to drop so much stuff AT ONCE that the game triggers the creation. Remember all those cloths you been hauling around because I said hold onto them? Yep, those, you didn't sell them right? Go north in Balmora and buy everything that Milie Hastien has for sale except for the jewelry to augment your clothing collection. You want LOTS of cloths. Lots! Once you buy her out, put on the exquisite Amulet, Ring, Robe and one of the skirts (yea, yea, even for a male character) so you don't accidentally get them lost. You want ALL the EXQUISITE stuff for yourself. If need be, drop them into a box somewhere in one of your homes but its easier just to wear the stuff. You can also hit all the other shops and buy up all the shirts/pants/robes etc around town, the cheap stuff. Quantity not quality at this point. Now head for the urns near the stilt rider I mentioned above. Stand near the urns in front of the stairs. Here is the trick, jump up onto one of the urns, turn around and face back toward the plaza. Jump up again and move toward the plaza in mid air. At the height of your jump, hit your inventory (B) button. This freezes you in mid air..exactly what you want. Start dropping belts first (because they are small). Then drop shirts, robes and pants. Drop them ALL. You should have LOTS of them by now. By lots I mean 100 or more items. If you have stacks of stuff, drop small groups not the whole stack at once since you want quantities of items and stacks count as only 1 even if there are 20 in the stack. When you exit out of the inventory, you will land. Turn around and you should have a tower of cloths with the top being a collage of items in one spot. This is your goal. The bag will appear at the largest concentration of stuff and up in the air is what you want. Huh you say? Yep. If the bag forms on the ground, you can't pick up stuff it formed on top of. The items are lost forever. By making the bag appear in the air, you can crouch down and grab the stuff under it to make more bags with, another reason you are using cheap junk to do this. Now with your nice pile of stuff created, head for the stilt rider. Go somewhere, doesn't matter where, just go. Then come right back. If you dropped enough stuff, a cloth bag will have appeared called "Overflow Loot Bag". It will remain there for the rest of the game. It's unmovable and bottomless. You can take everything out but you can't put anything in using the inventory screen. To get stuff in it, simply drop them on the ground, anywhere near the bag will do..several feet away even. Then leave and come back as you did to create the bag. Everything you put on the ground, on something or simply left out in the open will now be inside the overflow bag. Nice. A Self cleaning game. It will NOT, however, scoop anything up until you leave and return, nor will it scoop anything up that was there before its creation. I use this container to dump off stuff I intend to sell at Creeper or Mudcrab. Next container to create is the one by the mage's guild. My choice for a location is above the highest crate right next to the Mage's Guild sign. Repeat the method above by climbing onto the box and jumping straight up and entering inventory in mid air. This bag I use to collect and hold alchemy ingredients. The crates here are handy for stuffing the potions and alchemy equipment into when done. The third place I like to create a loot bag is outside the Hlaalo Manor though this one I usually wait until I get a levitation spell or item because jumping doesn't get you high enough. You can't put it near the door, too close to the bag at the Mage's Guild. It has to be just around the corner in the street. This one is where I drop all these cloths and general garbage I may want access to easily but don't want to sell. After creating it, pick up all the cloths under it, and then re- drop them to make them move into the bag. Use this same method to create bags anywhere, even inside. In the short alcove next to Creeper in Caldera, or inside the book seller in Balmora for example. =============================================================================== *G06000* EARLY ENCHANTMENTS =============================================================================== *G06100* GETTING WHAT YOU NEED ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you have your homes secure, your attributes set and tons of cash, it's time to make some killer items and take a little trip. You need 4 things to get started, the Summon Golden Saint spell, Levitate spell, Bound Longbow spell and an empty Grand Soul Gem. One Grand Soul Gem is in Sadrith Mora and the Golden Saint spell is in Tel Branora. Pick up the levitation spell and the bound longbow spells before heading to Sadrith Mora. Head outside to town and enter and enter Tel Naga Great Hall. After you enter, go down the stairs to your left. When you reach the floor, turn around and go behind the stairs to the small alcove under the stairs you came down. There is a Grand Soul Gem sitting right on the table in the open. Sneak and then steal it. There are a few other goodies but you got what you came for. Now for the Golden Saint spell, head for the boat and take it to Tel Branora. Once you get to Tel Branora, head for the big tower and work your way up to the "Upper Tower" entrance up the long spiral trail. Go straight through the first room and follow the hallway to a second room. There enter Therana's Chamber using either door. At this point you WILL need several seconds of levitation, either by potion or by spell you purchased. Levitate all the way up and then head northwest to Felen Maryon. Buy Summon Golden Saint spell. Also grab the Summon Dremora spell while you are here as well. Now have Felen make you a spell that uses the Soultrap exploit, Summon Golden Saint 1s on Self, Soultrap 1s on Target. This makes a permanent Golden Saint that you can soultrap, kill AND loot the body of. Also purchase a similar spell for Summon Dremora. Now head out of town away from everyone. If you chose not to ramp up your strength, you are in for quite a fight so bring restore health potions. Save your game now, just in case. Aim at the ground again and summon a golden saint. She's your pal and will follow and defend you but that's NOT why she's here. Cast soultrap on her and kill her while the spell is still active. If soultrap wears off before she dies, cast it again and finish her off. On her death, you should get the message "You have trapped a soul". Check the grand soul gem and it should have the golden saint in it. If not, summon another and try again. *G06200* YOUR FIRST ENCHANTMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have the soul gem with the golden saint, now you will make a ring to long trips way easier. Make a save game. Select the soul gem and select the option to enchant a new item. Select that exquisite ring (remember the one you bought and I told you to put on?) you are wearing. Select CONSTANT EFFFECT. The golden saint and ascended sleeper are the only two souls that allow constant effect. Add Bound Longbow on Self. Add Levitate 6 on self. That should almost fill the ring's enchantment. I called my ring "Sky Warrior". Press (X) to make the ring. If all went well you will have a ring that you can travel everywhere with. As long as you are wearing the ring, you will levitate and have a longbow that weighs nothing. You only need to supply arrows. *G06300* TAKING A TRIP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next on your to-do list is to acquire Azura's Star. This is the ONLY re-usable soul gem in the game. You are heading for a small island off the small peninsula to the far southeast. Azura's Shrine is marked on your printed map. Put on the ring you just created and levitate northeast from Tel Branora. You will be going a long way, mostly over water. Look for a huge statue of Azura on top of a hill. If you find Aharnabi, you are close. Head about 2/3 of a screen (local map) NNE from Aharnabi to find the Shrine of Azura. Enter the chamber through the door at the foot of the statue. There were no hostiles in here anytime I went in. Go to the statue inside and press (A), listen to the speech. Use your Mark spell here in the shrine. Now use Almsivi Intervention to return to Molog Mar. Use the boat to head to Tel Branora, then to Sadrith Mora, and finally to Dagon Fel. Still in levitation, head west northwest. On the world map you are headed for the large island off the shore, NNW of the large island that Dagon Fel is on. On the printed map, look closely and you will see a small shack with one road that goes east-west. The shack is under some of the giant mushroom trees, DO NOT ENTER IT. There are several daedroths including a Golden Saint. Kill them. Once you get a "Journal Update", use your recall spell to return Azura's Shrine. Talk to the statue again to complete the quest. Azura's Star will be placed into your inventory. You need NO other soul gems anymore, they are nothing but common loot now. The Azura's Star is refillable unlike all other soul gems. The soul is used up but the gem is not. Summon a Golden Saint and fill the gem. Always keep the star full with a golden saint, always. *G06400* MORE HANDY ENCHANTMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summon a few Dremora and kill them. Keep doing that until you get some nice swords. Katanas and Di-Katanas are what you are looking for. Once you get some, time for more enchantments. Using the Azura's Star with a Golden Saint in it, enchant a Katana (don't waste a Di-Katana on this) with SoulTrap for 10- 30s and change the mode to "When Strikes". I called my sword "Soul Thief". You now have an awesome sword that you can use to refill your Star. It casts soul trap every time you hit the golden saint. Be SURE you refill the star IMMEDIATELY after using it so you don't accidentally trap a rat in it. You can't empty it without enchanting something. Next item to create is a Shirt of Vision. Enchant the exquisite shirt you are wearing with 15 points of light on self, and Night Eye 30 points on self with constant effect. Remember to refill the star with a golden saint. Up next is an invisibility locket. Enchant an exquisite locket with constant effect Invisibility on self. The spell will be broken if you attack, open doors, trunks etc but throw it on for travel so you aren't pestered by those damn cliff racers and such. For your next project, you will need to find another exquisite ring. Enchant it with constant effect restore health 4-5 points on self. Ring of regeneration for you Diablo fans. Other items you might want to make: Shield or belt with bound longsword & axe (or your character's chosen weapon class), pants with resist paralyze 60%, Putting sanctuary, shield and reflect on various items, enchant a Di-Katana with 19pts Shock damage and Paralyze for 4 sec on strike (good if you didn't suberboost your strength). The options are limitless and really depend on how beefed up you made your character and what class it is. =============================================================================== *G07000* RAMPING UP SKILLS =============================================================================== *G07100* GETTING WHAT YOU NEED ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you really need is a Fortify Skill spell. Well, guess what? Its available in only two places in the game. One requires a lot of effort the second requires beginning of a quest thread. If you are beefed up from using this guide, not a problem for either option. You have two options, one is to join the Morag Tong, do some quests and kill a lot of people to collect the needed 26 Sanguine items or two, join the Temple & start the Tribunal main thread to get to Mournhold. There are enough good quest guides for either option so I won't go into detail for either. The result of the Morag Tong option is Mephalas Skill. This spell opens up the Fortify Skill and Fortify Attack spells for spellmaking and it's the only spell in the game with both of these and as far as I know the only place to get Fortify Attack. At least no other place I have found has it available but I have not completed the Tribunal expansion yet and it's not in Bloodmoon expansion which I completed on the PC. My personal choice is to begin the Tribunal quest. You should have by now either been attacked by an assassin after sleeping or had the dreams, either way, talk to a guard, any guard anywhere. They will send you to Apelles Matus in Ebonheart. Finding him is a little of a chore but if you have your levitation ring, its easier. Fly to the Six Fishes, then turn north and fly up to the top of the tower right next to it. Turn west on top of the tower and look down on the battlement wall heading to the next tower to the west, you should see Apelles in steel armor walking the wall. Talk to him about the mainland and then head inside to see Asciene Rane for transport to Mournhold. She is in the Grand Council Chambers building due west from where you found Apelles. When you enter the Grand Council Chamber, she is on your right, brown/orange robe. Speak to her about transport and she will tell you to talk to Effe-Tei in the Royal Palace to return to Vvanderfell and she will teleport you to Mournhold. BTW, upon arriving in Mournhold, might as well take the levitiation ring off, all levitation is non-functional in Mournhold. Use Almsivi Intervention to get right to the temple and enter. Either go through the Archcanon area or the Infermery area to get to the Hall of Ministry. Head downstairs in the Hall of Ministry and speak with Nerile Andaren to purchase any of the fortify skill spells, Masterful Green Wisdom for example. Be warned, she will not talk to you unless you have joined the Temple and completed the Pilgrimage quest. Speak to the Temple patron at any temple about Advancement several times after completing the Pilgrimage quest. That should give you the rank needed for her services. The Pilgrimage quest is FAR easier than doing the Morag Tong quests. Use recall (to a previous mark) or transport back to Vvanderfall or use Almsivi Intervention to be teleported to the Temple in Morunhold (thanks to Sean G). *G07200* BOOSTING YOUR SKILLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you have the Fortify Skill tree of spells available by doing either of the two options above, you can return to any spellmaker and using the soultrap exploit, built fortify skill spells. As with attributes, build one spell that boosts multiple skills (up to 7 per spell since max is 8 and you need 1 for soultrap). Don't boost Alchemy, Athletics or Acrobatics above 100. Athletics and Acrobatics are like speed, too high and remember the guy that fell from the sky near Seyda Neen(?), well that's you if you boost yours. Boosting Alchemy unreasonably high makes the potions you produce awesome but also unsellable because of their value. For your magic skills (Alteration, Illusion etc) I suggest boosting to around 10k. For armor skills, 2000 is fine (wearing NO armor and an unarmored skill of 2011, my test character has an armor class of 26,286). If you boost your unarmored skill, putting on armor will actually LOWER your armor class. For Merchantile, anything over about 100 doesn't affect the purchase price at all. For example, with a Merc of 7, I bought a Master Mortar valued at 2400 for 1695. With a Merc of 107, that same Mortar cost only 300g. That's with NO bartering. I boosted my Merc up to 1007 and can buy that same Mortar for 0 using the (BLACK),(WHITE) to set the price. I also sold back a 10g potion for 3000g (the vendors max cash). So as you can see, going any higher is a waste of time. Sneak and Security are about the same as Merchantile, anything over 1000 is useless. I can open a 100 lock using an apprentice's lockpick. I can double click (R-THUMB) to enter sneak right in front of a guard and immediately see the sneak icon. I also (as a test) pickpocketed EVERYTHING from Nalcarya while standing right in front of her and didn't get caught. If you boosted your strength attribute then boosting your weapon skills is a waste of time as well but if you didn't jack up your strength you might want to kick up weapons. Again, as with strength, going too far simply removes all challenge from the game. A modest 100 or 200 boost makes it easier but you still have to work at some things. =============================================================================== *G08000* ADDITIONAL VENDORS =============================================================================== *G08100* MUDCRAB ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mudcrab is another special vendor that is located in southern Vvanderfal. Like Creeper, he buys at face value but has 10k in gold each 24hr game day. Since mudcrab is unaffected by your personality attribute, he is a very good choice to kick up the cash income early in the game, provided you can survive the swim/levitation to get to him. Slaughterfish and cliff racers are your only real threat to getting to mudcrab but if you are low level and weak, they can b formidable. You CAN swim to mudcrab but it takes forever, levitation is a far better alternative. To find Mudcrab, head to Vivic and then to Ald Sotha. From there, head due east looking for Mzahnch ruins. On the printed map, you are headed about to where the "h" is at the end of the word "Mzahnch". You can also head WSW from Molag Mar which is slightly closer. He is on an island SW of the Releth Ancestral Tomb, a little more than a screen worth on the game map. He is also just barely within sight of the Mzahnch Ruin, about 1/4 map screen ESE on a medium sized island. If you find Mzahnch, look for the giant sized crossbow launcher pointed SE (not the one facing NE). Line up with the arrow on it and head out to the water. Only a short distance offshore, you get to 3 small mounds sticking above the water surface, stop, turn to your left and look on the island and you should see mudcrab. Once you find him, I suggest placing lanterns on top of the mounds on the island as well as torches/lanterns on the ground around mudcrab. These lights will make it easier to find the island again. You will also want to bring along that pile of cloths to make a overflow loot bag here. I also placed a trail of lanterns/torches to form a path from mudcrab to Molag Mar. Using Mark spell is a good thing here but you may need mark in your travels/quests so making a light trail to mudcrab is a reasonable backup. From mudcrab, Almsivi Intervention will put you at Molag Mar and a stilt rider is just outside the city. Divine Intervention will place you in Ebonheart, boat travel from there. *G08200* MOURNHOLD VENDORS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The vendors/shopkeeps in Mournhold are standard vendors but if you have boosted your merchantile skill, you can sell for full or above face value. *G08210* Vendors in the Great Bazzar (buildings, not the street vendors): Name, Location Gold ------------------------------------ ------ Belwen, Clothier 5000 Ten-Toungues Weerhat, Pawnbroker 1000 Sunel Hlas, Trader 8000 Sanaso Sarothran, Bookseller 5000 Catia Sosia, Armory 10000, Repair Ungeleb, Magic Shop 9000 Jeanne Andre, Magic Shop 0,Spells, Spellmaking *G08220* Vendors in the Craftsman Hall in Godsreach district: Name, Location Gold ------------------------------------ ------ Elbert Nermarc, Upstairs 6000,Enchanting, Replenishing Soul Gems: Grand, Greater,Common Bols Indalen, Main floor 8000, Repair =============================================================================== *G09000* CLOSING AND CONTACTS =============================================================================== Using this FAQ, you can easily build up a character that's basically invincible in the game. Should you? That's your choice. It's easy to get hooked by the uberness at first but in my opinion, it ruins the game for me. You can use the techniques I laid out here to beef up your character only a little. Again, the point at which you stop must be your decision. I want to thank Bethesda for making a game that has kept me interested in it for so long. I also want to thank all those others that have put work into the other FAQs I have read and used especially the UESP (http://uesp.net/). If you have questions, comments or corrections, you can email me at mwfaq@allmyspam.com This FAQ is available on my website's game resources area: http://www.wolfiesden.com/games =============================================================================== *G10000* READER'S TIPS =============================================================================== First, I would like to thank all of you that wrote in with additional tips and tricks for this FAQ as well as those of you with corrections. I have been sent some good suggestions and tips that don't quite integrate directly into what I already have written, some of them are listed below: Kevin R on Vivic and Ordinators: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Vivec, Foreign Quarter, there are flower boxes that seperate a smill bit off from everywhere else, you can jump behind this. When you're behind it, get out a bow or spell and shoot the ordinator with it. He'll run up to where you are, but he cant get close enough to cast his spell! Now you can draw out a melee weapon and kill him. Before you grab his 33k worth of equipment, report yourself to a guard for a fine of a measly 36 gold. Now bring your set of indoril armor AND the ebony mace to creeper, and sell it off. WARNING Do not let him cast his spell! If he does, he'll draw a weapon and can hit you. Also, sometimes he can get through due to a clipping glitch, just save before you do this. Note: The area he refers to is on the north wall almost exactly center -Wolfie Demon Phoenix on Creeper: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I was exploring the area around Caldera as a part of some lady's quest for her family rings, I came across Indalen Ancestral Tomb. This place usually has four Daedra in it that replenish every 24 hours. At levels 10 and up, these Daedra are very valuable, as then you will start to see Dremora among their ranks, Dremora which carry Dwemer, Daedric, and Ebony weaponry. It is located not far from Ghorak Manor, north northeast of it. Asd you can imagine, I've made a ton of cash by frequenting this spot. Have fun making money by the million. Note: Either exit the Ghorak Manor from the back or go between the manor and the armorer to the small courtyard. Then exit through the broken portion of the wall near the armorer entrance. Head North-NorthEast along the base of the mountains. You will come to two small patches of Stoneflowers (purple flowers). You should be able to see the entrance in the cliff face. -Wolfie Brian on Alchemy: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (was 2 long emails, edited down to basics -Wolfie) First off, your guide was great. Funny that I haven't tried to make myself godlike through spells, only through alchemy. Not quite as versatile as spells, but adds some nuances that make games interesting. If you use alchemy only, you end up with a sick intelligence that lets you make superhuman potions, often with multiple effects. I haven't played for a bit, but last time I played, all my primary attributes were way up there, and I had fire, lightning and other shields. Pots of fortify speed are useless, as I fly everywhere. It makes travel easier, and is incredibly fast. You have to use slow movements most of the time, but this isn't a bad thing. Fast flight allows you to move quickly and also to "accidentally" warp through walls. If your flight is fast enough, and you rattle your left thumbstick around enough, you'll often find yourself outside the walls of an interior, looking in. The wall between you and the inside is transparent, and you can see what's happening. This lets you basically warp to other parts of the level and avoid useless encounters. It also gives you a quick and dirty layout of the level. Coupled with a high telekinesis, you can sit out in fairyville and steal anything you want, damn the consequences. It's cheap, but then again it adds a whole nother element to play. There's a small farming town in the middle of Vvardenfell, I think it's Maar Gan, where the temple sells two of the ingredients used to make intelligence potions. Instead of looking all over for them, you can just travel to Maar Gan and begin your work. Ramping up your Intel is relatively easy, and once you make the potions, all you have to do is keep a couple on hand for later. Intels are the most useful, but you end up making everything else. You can only fortify attributes, not skills, so that kinda sucks. But, alchemy quickly maxes out, and you are left with an easy game. One last thing unrelated to alchemy. One of my first attempts at quick travel was to make a ring of leaping. Basically, a ring to mimic the scroll of Icarus. Jump 100/1s, Slowfall 3/3s (or something like that. I forget). Basically, you fire off the ring and jump immediately afterward. Kinda funny to watch the world pass by as you bound over it like a giant frog. The slowfall at the end keeps you from dieing. I still enjoy using it, every once in a while. Oh, and if you wear items of chameleon, but don't want to devote an entire set to the invisibility, make a set that is almost complete. Then, enchant a weapon with the remaining % needed to get 100% chameleon and set it to cast on strike. Bingo -- invisibility when you need it. Kinda funny, too. Must be real annoying to be just about to hit someone, and then they disappear. Backstabs are a breeze. =============================================================================== *G20000* VERSIONS =============================================================================== Current version: v1.0.2 02/11/2004 History: v1.0.2 02/11/2004 Added new Reader's Tips section G10000. Minor spelling & grammatical corrections. v1.0.1 01/30/2004 Corrections to location of Azura (From DeadKennny56) Added "Alternate Exit" section G02120 (Glitch info from "Nick") v1.0.0 01/26/2004 Initial release