There will come a time when there's not much left to do in Skyrim apart from replaying the game over and over again. To add more challenge to that, playing the game in Legendary difficulty is recommended. But that mode is hard, and players will need to adjust their playstyles accordingly. Thankfully, a treasure trove of knowledge regarding Skyrim's most powerful builds is readily available for players who want to waltz through Legendary.
While they're at it, Skyrim players might as well pick the most fun builds that exist in the game right now. After all, nearly everyone is a veteran of Bethesda's decade-old game. To spice things up while also trivializing some of the game's content (mods notwithstanding), these tried-and-tested Skyrim builds ought to make players worthy of going to the Cloud District often.
Updated November 2, 2022, by Sid Natividad: Skyrim remains as popular as ever despite now being more than a decade old. As a testament to its gameplay strength, there are countless builds in the game that offer players a myriad of ways to play as the Dragonborn. Skyrim builds are all varied and fun and even if some of these Skyrim builds are overpowered or broken, they can still be enjoyable due to their quirks and peculiar gameplay style. Unlike with other RPGs where overpowered builds are all about dealing godlike amounts of damage, some overpowered Skyrim character builds are still thematic and goofy.
9 Daedric Princess/Princess of Dread
The Princess of Dread from the popular Skyrim build creator Fevvy is one of the latest builds in the game that still powers through the content like a Daedric sword through melted butter. For those wondering, Daedric sword substitution was intentional because, first and foremost, this is a dual sword build.
The build mostly prefers to perform dual power attacks to kill enemies in a single move. Sometimes, it results in a kill animation and, given how janky or abrupt those are, it adds a bit of comedic value to the build.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
The early part of this build is a little tedious since players will need to max out their smithing and crafting skills. This will allow them to create some busted Daedric weapons and armor. After that, it's a matter of just cruising through most content, dual slicing heads off with the power attack. The Daedric Bow is mostly used as a ranged backup.
8 Punch Cat
As many players will have guessed, Punch Cat is an unarmed Khajiit. It utilizes the Khajiit's racial perk which increases their unarmed damage due to their paws of power and claws of calamity. The build isn't as powerful as the more min-maxed standards such as the Stealth Archer, but punching dragons to death as a karate cat is about as broken as it gets in Skyrim.
As always, there are certain items and instructions that enable this build and make it viable at the very least. Players will need to wear either heavy armor gloves or the Gloves of the Pugilist item to make it work.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
The thing about Punch Cat builds is that the fists can fall off at high levels. With this in mind, players will need to mix it up with Destruction and Illusion spells. Destruction spells are great for softening up enemies until they get close. Meanwhile, Illusion spells like Mayhem will cause a royal rumble where a Punch Cat can shine as a bar brawler. Other Illusion spells are awesome for crowd control.
7 The Immortal Alchemist
The funny thing about builds in Skyrim is that just about any of them can become immortal by dipping into the Alchemist skill tree and abusing the potion-drinking and crafting system. Using the Alchemy skill tree in tandem with the Smithing and Enchanting trees (all maxed out), players can create some busted interactions with armor and potions.
This kind of interaction involves taking advantage of a glitch, so it's less of a build and more of a way to abuse the system. Here are some basic instructions on how to do it.
- Have an Alchemy level of at least 40 (grab Alchemist level 3, Physician, and Benefactor).
- High Enchanting and Smithing skills are also advised.
- Start the quest "Ring of Pure Mixtures" from Frida in Mortar and Pestle (Dawnstar).
- Pickpocket Frida for the Ring of Mixtures.
- Remove the Fortify Alchemy enchantment and place it on a helmet, bracer, necklace, and ring.
- Equip the crafted Fortify Alchemy armor set.
- Go to an Alchemy Lab then craft Fortify Restoration.
- Drink the potion, then unequip the Fortify Alchemy armor set while staying on the menu screen.
- Equip the Fortify Alchemy armor set again while still on the menu.
- Craft another Fortify Restoration potion again, then unequip the Fortify Alchemy armor set.
- Re-equip the Fortify Alchemy armor set without closing the inventory menu.
- Repeat steps 9 and 10 around 10 more times.
- The glitch should take effect after that.
- Craft a Fortify Smithing potion, it should show a smithing percentage increase of more than five million.
- Drink the Fortify Smithing potion.
- With the Smithing skill marked up at more than five million percent, players can now craft the best armor and weapons in the game.
- This could also work with other Fortify potions.
Voila, now the player's alchemist is an immortal being with the best items in the game. Players should note though that as the glitch becomes increasingly popular, Skyrim's developers might catch wind of it and they could fix it in a future update. Given that some Skyrim bugs and glitches have persisted for more than a decade though, this seems a little unlikely.
6 Stealth Archer
Stealth Archer is probably the most common and popular overpowered Skyrim character build. It revolves around utilizing the broken Sneak skill tree along with Archery in order to take down enemies stealthily.
Most of the time, a Dragonborn using this build can go around one-shotting unaware opponents. It does have one glaring weakness against dragons, but that's easily fixed with Conjuration summons or companions.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
Just about any of Skyrim's playable races will do for this build. But for a more thematic gameplay and roleplaying, a Bosmer (Wood Elf) seems apt. The playstyle is simple: crouch and shoot enemies while unseen. Aim for their heads with a bow. For enemies that can't be killed by a single stealth arrow, sneak up on them and stab them with a dagger. For dragons and boss fights, use Conjuration summons to tank hits. The Slow Time shout is also great as an emergency backup for combat.
5 Illusion Assassin
The Illusion Assassin works similarly to the Stealth Archer, except it's more melee-focused and utilizes the Illusion tree more liberally. Stealth daggers tend to have a higher damage output compared to bows, after all.
The gameplay is also rather straightforward. Players just need to sneak up on enemies and stab them. It really is that easy, and, in doing so, they can make the Dark Brotherhood proud!
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
To be fair, any race will do, but the High Elves get an advantage thanks to their Illusion skill bonus. Moreover, High Elves also start with an Illusion spell at the ready. Players will have to wield dual daggers here while backstabbing enemies with a power attack. Since players invest heavily in Illusion, they can cast Frenzy on a whole dungeon or small area and let the enemies kill one another. This makes sneak-stabbing less tedious.
4 Fortified Sword & Board
Sword and board builds look deceptively simple, but with the right enchantments and combinations, they can be devastating while being tanky. It's perfect for those who are tired of sneaking around.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
High Elves are optimal here because they're the tallest race, meaning their movement speed is second to none. Orcs have a devastating racial skill in Berserker Rage. Meanwhile, Bretons can be nigh-invulnerable to magic thanks to their innate magic resistance, which can be enhanced with other items.
3 Dunmer Warmage
For pure magical destruction, not many other builds can match the ferocity of a Dunmer mage. They have a racial ability that gives them a massive damage boost, perfect for Destruction spells.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
As stated before, Dark Elves deal more damage if they reach a certain health threshold (50% or below). For maximum damage, players will want to keep their health at the 50% threshold so that the Dark Elf racial skill will activate. In order to offset the dangers of having such a state of health, they can fortify their health using enchantments on gear.
2 Vampire Necromancer
The Vampire Necromancer is pretty self-explanatory. Players walk around at night preying on mere mortals and enthralling their own followers to fight for them.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
High Elves tend to be great at magic, and Bretons get a boost to Conjuration.
Other requirements
Players can just keep summoning and letting their temporary summons do the work for them. If they want quality summons, however, these corpses deal good damage under the effect of Dead Thrall:
- Forsworn Ravager
- Arch-Curate Vyrthur
- Master Vampire
- Bandit Marauder
1 Orc Werewolf
The Orc werewolf is all about savagery and mauling everything to death, including dragons. It gains health as it attacks and is nigh-unstoppable under the right conditions.
|
Race |
|
|
Mandatory Skills |
|
|
Gear |
|
|
Spells & Shouts |
|
Orcs have a massive melee damage boost thanks to their racial skill. With Berserker Rage, they take half damage and deal double damage for a minute. Using it in conjunction with the werewolf transformation produces some brutal results.
Other requirements
Players mustn't forget to activate Dragon Aspect and drink some damage potions before transforming into a werewolf. Also, they'll need to activate Berserker Rage before mauling Whiterun guards and Nazeem.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch, and Xbox One and Series X|S.