All skills start off at level 5. Once you've made your choice for Major Skills, these will be referred to as Minor Skills. Major Skills start off at level 25. Further skill bonuses can be received through your Birth-sign and Race selection, which will be added on top of the Major and Minor Skills. There are many books & scrolls throughout Cyrodill you can read which will increase a skill by one level. Simply open the book and you will receive a skill increase.
Acrobatics[edit]
Governing Attribute: Agility
The simple act of jumping, combined with other actions. Anybody can jump, naturally, but skilled Acrobats can jump higher, take less damage when falling from high places, attack in mid-air, and even dodge enemies' attacks with ease.
Leveling Acrobatics
Jump all the time, the longer you are in the air the more experience. Falling from high distances works too, just don't kill yourself.
Acrobatics Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | Can't attack in mid-air. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | Can perform regular attacks in mid-air, Power attacks are not possible. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | You gain Dodge, a quick roll in the forward, left or right directions to avoid a foes attacks.
|
| Expert | 75-99 | When you jump, you are fatigued 50% less. |
| Master | 100 | You can now jump from the surface of water. |
Light Armor[edit]
Governing Attribute: Agility
Characters skilled in Light armor can make better use of Fur, Leather, Chainmail, Mithril, Elven, and Glass Armors. the higher level you are the more protection it offers, the less it weighs, and the slower it decays
Leveling Light Armor
To level Light Armor just let a weak enemy hit you and don't block. This will cause your health to fall much faster so it is best if you have a lot of potions or are skilled in restoration.
Light Armor Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | Light Armor becomes damaged at 150% the normal rate. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | Light Armor becomes damaged at the normal rate. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | Light Armor becomes damaged at 50% the normal rate. |
| Expert | 75-99 | Any Light Armor equipped does not count towards your encumbrance. |
| Master | 100 | When only wearing light armor you gain a 50% bonus to that armors rating. |
Marksman[edit]
Governing Attribute: Agility
The use of a bow and arrows to attack from a distance. Skilled Marksmen can do more damage, and truly gifted Marksmen also have the ability to zoom in while using a bow.
Leveling Marksman
Using targets that you can find around the world you can train your Marksman skill as well as your ability to hit a target you can even get your arrows back.
Marksman Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | Fatigue from holding a drawn bow. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | No fatigue from holding a drawn bow. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | Holding block button with a drawn bow allows you to zoom. |
| Expert | 75-99 | Your shots harness the possibility to knock down foes. |
| Master | 100 | Your shots harness the possibility to paralyze foes. |
Mercantile[edit]
Governing Attribute: Personality
The mercantile skill is primarily used for getting better deals when buying and selling items.
Leveling Mercantile This is a pretty self explanatory one, what ever you find that you don't want to keep and don't need, well go ahead and sell it. If you really want to level this up fast, you can raid some ruins or level practice Alchemy and sell the results, (lots of potions). Bartering will help you gain experience quicker so long as you can sell the items at the percentage you have chosen.
Mercantile Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | The condition of an item will play into the final value of it. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | The condition of an item does not play into the final value of it. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | Can buy and sell any object to fellow merchants, even if they don't generally deal with those wares. |
| Expert | 75-99 | Able to invest in shops, allowing the merchant to have an extra 500 gold when buying from you. |
| Master | 100 | All shops have an extra 500 gold when buying from you. This does not include your investments. |
Security[edit]
Governing Attribute: Agility
When one is trained in Security, they understand all kinds of mechanical locks and traps. The higher your Security skill, the slower the pins will move in the lockpicking interface (or the better chance you will have of opening a lock using Auto Attempt).
Leveling Security
You can power level security by buying a large amount of lockpicks, find a very hard lock, and then auto attempting until you get it.
*Note: This skill is made completely obsolete by the reward from the Nocturnal Daedric Shrine Quest.
Security Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | When you break a pick all the tumblers will fall as well. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | When you break a pick one tumbler will stay up. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | When you break a pick two tumblers will stay up. |
| Expert | 75-99 | When you break a pick three tumblers will stay up. |
| Master | 100 | When you break a pick all tumblers will stay up. |
Sneak[edit]
Governing Attribute: Agility
The talent of disappearing into the shadows without aid of magic, to pass behind foes without making a noise, and to deal insane amounts of damage by attacking an opponent unaware of your presence. As your Sneak skill increases, the volume of your footsteps is dramatically lowered, your critical damage multiplier is increased, and sneak attacks will eventually completely ignore whatever armor your opponent is wearing.
Leveling Sneak For people at lower levels a great way to train is to go walk behind a guard standing in front of one of the city gates(doesn't matter which city or Guard) Now, auto-walk (tape down the left analog stick or forward movement key) into the wall behind them, ensuring that you are not going to eventually come off the wall.
Sneak Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | One-Handed weapons receive a 4x sneak attack damage multiplier. |
| Marksmanship weapons receive a 2x sneak attack damage multiplier. | ||
| Apprentice | 25-49 | One-Handed weapons receive a 6x sneak attack damage multiplier. |
| Marksmanship weapons receive a 3x sneak attack damage multiplier. | ||
| Journeyman | 50-74 | Your boots no longer effect the volume of your foot steps. |
| Expert | 75-99 | No longer a chance of detection while moving. |
| Master | 100 | Your sneak attacks now ignore your foes armor all together. |
Speechcraft[edit]
Governing Attribute: Personality
The use of words to convince others to aid you. As your skill increases, people will have a better initial reaction to you, and be more likely to respond positively when persuaded. The higher your Speechcraft skill, the less bribes cost as well.
Leveling Speechcraft
This is a slow skill, play the persuasion mini-game a lot. It will help you out in most quests anyways when disposition comes into play.
Speechcraft Mastery Perks[edit]
| Skill Mastery Level | Skill Score | Perk |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0-24 | Can offer bribes to some people in order to increase disposition. |
| Apprentice | 25-49 | On the mini-game wheel, you have the option now to rotate the circle one quarter turn. |
| Journeyman | 50-74 | The mini-game timer is 50% slower. |
| Expert | 75-99 | Amount of disposition lost from the response of Hate is lowered from 150% to 100%. |
| Master | 100 | Bribes are 50% cheaper. |