If you are on PC, you can use the console to add and remove perks.

Finding a perk

id:

help [name of perk] 4 help Armsman 4 Removing a perk player.removeperk

[perk

id]

player.removeperk 00079342

Adding a perk

player.addperk

[perk

id]

player.addperk 00079342 Notes:

You can use the PageUp/PageDown keys to scroll the console.

Use double quotes when searching for a perk with a space: "Steel Smithing" -yx

The UESP has the perk id for all the skills.

-Mark

Trapp

You can remove perks you currently have by using: player.removeperk perkid To find out the id of the perk, type this in: help "perk name here" 0

This will bring up a list of all items matching your query (hopefully it contains the perk in that list).

To add a perk: player.addperk

perkid Note: for perks that have multiple levels, you will have to remove all the perks for those skills to clear it out.

i.e. one handed has 5 levels, the way skyrim tracks that is to add a perk for each level, so there are 5 different perks for one handed.

To redistribute your stats, you can use: player.setav stat value

However this will not persist across saves, to do that use: player.modav stat amount_to_modify_by That can be used to set all skills and stats.

There is no way to reset your perks on the Xbox 360 without the Dragonborn DLC, and no way to do it on the PlayStation 3 until Bethesda releases Dragonborn for that console, but you can redo your perks in the PC version of the game by using the console commands : player.removeperk <perk ID>

player.addperk

<perk ID>

Where <perk

ID> is replaced with the code for the perk you want to change.

The UESP Wiki contains a list of these codes.

Careful with these: they have been reports that they will brand you a cheater and prevent you from gaining any achievements, but this is disputed.

If you have the Dragonborn DLC, play through the main DLC questline.

One of the rewards of completing

the At the Summit of Apocrypha quest is: A book that transports you to Hermaeus Mora's realm, and allows you to reset perks at the cost of one Dragon Soul per tree.

You can get the skill up to 100, make it legendary to make the skill 15 again.

The perks you dumped into it will be removed and you can reuse them

Alternatively to cheating, there are other options:

Get yourself killed, your perk won't be saved.

Quit the game abruptly without saving, your perk won't be saved.

Although not really fair, you could return to a previous save game.

For PC.

An easy solution related to all perks, so you can basically recreate your char:

This mod will remove all perks and add the right ammount removed as perk points:

Ishs Respec Mod

If there remain any perks after the above mod being used, use the console to remove them (as explained by Arkive post , you can even create a bat file to make it easier later on) and use this mod: Perk Point Potion to get the right ammount of perk points back.

Question: While leveling in Skyrim I put a perk in a tree, but now I feel like it is wasted, since I've found blowing things up with spells is much more fun than stabbing things with a giant sword.   Is there anyway for me to recover the wasted perk? I'm on the PC so I was guessing console commands could help.

Can I refund a perk point?

You can use the console to add and remove perks on a PC. Also, if you get yourself killed, your perk won't be saved.

Console commands, Mods, and some in-game strategies could serve as a solution.

Console commands can be used to redistribute perks. However, this method is only applicable on PC.

Completing certain campaings or avoiding saving.


If you're on windows 7 (I think Vista as well?), try the following: While Skyrim is running, alt-tab back to your desktop.

Click the volume icon in the system tray, then click "mixer".

In there, there are separate settings for each application currentlyrunning.

Move Skyrim's slider higher, and it should raise the volume relativeto your other applications

Likely your volume on the mixer is already at max, so the best way to do this is go to 'playback devices', click the one you're using, head to enhancements and turn on 'loudness equalization'.

Was having the same problem

but this fixed it instantly.

Loudness Equalization is bad, as it negatively affect the full experience of the audio by limiting the range.

Now probably if you're using a laptop or some cheap speakers it won't make much difference but otherwise another solution is preferable.

There is another solution here .

(...) if you have Realtek onboard sound and are using stereo speakers or headphones, switch the speaker configuration to 5.1 and uncheck the center channel / sub / rear speaker options.

This worked for me.

The reason, according to that forum post, is because The game was designed to support 2.1, 5.1, and 7.1 sound.

You can change it in under SkyrimPrefs.ini Audio section.

fAudioMasterVolume

.The

in-game slider only takes it up to 1.000 but you can enter a higher value in the .ini.

I have mine at 1.5.

whoa...

this this is pretty old...

anyway, there's mod to fix this problemi

don't know if this is gonna work for everyone http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/41982/ ?

Question: Compared to every other program on my PC, Skyrim is nearly deathly quiet by comparison. I looked into the in-game sound menu, but it's already cranked to max!  Is there anything I can do to avoid having to double my system volume settings each time I want to play Skyrim?

How can I increase Skyrim's Volume?

Within the volume icon you can find separate settings for each application. Move Skyrim's slider higher.

The customisation of Windows or game audio settings is suggested.


Dragons are vulnerable to fire: well, at least some of them.

There are many types of dragons, but they fall into two major archetypes: fire dragons and frost dragons.

Fire dragons are vulnerable to frost (25% weakness) but resistant to fire (50% resistance).

Frost dragons are vulnerable to fire (25% weakness) but resistant to frost (50% resistance).

So if you're trying fire and it's not doing a lot of damage, switch to frost.

But you should be able to tell what type of dragon it is by the type of breath attack it has.

Yes, all dragons can be hurt by fire.

After all, if think about it, they are magical creatures and

well, it's destructive magic.

Not to mention, some dragons can be more hurt by fire than others.

It's just common sense that a dragon with ice breath wouldn't like fire, whereas a fire dragon would dislike the cold.

So the above answer is pretty good and does outline which magics work hurt what types of dragons.

However, there is a second part to this question that I don't feel got answered.

"What magic is most effective against dragons?

While fire and ice magic does have hit power, it's not always the best approach.

Dragons can show up without notice, and skyrim has a diverse climate.

There are times where both a fire and ice dragon can appear.

At such times, it's not always practical to cast the typical fire/ice magic.

This is why I go for shock magic.

It works the same against each type, allowing me to more fully prepare for sudden attacks.

I like to temper this with healing magic, so that I don't have to pop potions every time I get low.

That way, I'm self sustaining.

Dragon shows up?

I'm ready.

Even if my magic regen is low, as long as I can get cover, I can keep healing.

It works wonders, even at lower levels.

The other answers are all great, but it still takes too long to kill them that way.

What I use is the first level Marked for Death shout found in the dark brotherhood sancurary.

Since its recharge time is short, you can use it 3-4 times and their heal drop by a lot.

Even works on Elder and Ancient dragons.

By using a 105 bow, I was only able to take out 1mm of health, but using the shout a few times, my bow can take out an ancient dragon with only 5-6+ hits with a 105 ebony bow.

Definitely use Shock against dragons.

A flying creature that gets struck with lightning either dies or stops flying; then I can just start use poisons to weaken them even further (for example, weakness to fire... or shock) plus enchanted daggers and shouts (try the ice shout).

(Note Class: "Sneaky Gandalf").

Shock plus posion (weakness, Parylisis, Ebonyskin & Dragonhide) plus magicka immunity plus magicka regeneration at 250% gives you a dead Alduin on expert.

i think that the most powerful spell against a dragon is the oppisite of what type the dragon is for example: fire dragon is most vulnerable to ice and frost

spells frost dragon is most vulnerable to fire and flames

Of note is that dragons use their Magicka pool for shouts(all dragons have 150 Magicka).

If you can manage to keep their pool of Magicka continually depleted through the use of shock spells, they cannot shout at your or anyone else.

Dual Casting and Impact help with this.

Before you have damaged their pool enough to prevent them from shouting, the stagger effect from Dual Casting can also prevent them from managing to get out a shout.

Another plus for shock based spells compared to the other elements is that it hits your target instantly.

It can be very hard to hit flying dragons with fire or ice spells, but it is relatively very easy to hit them with shock spells.

I found having a daedria lord that you can conjure can do very well when they hit the ground.

there damage is very effective, and if you have a high enough lv in conjuring you can summon 2 of them.

summoning 2 of these guys will draw the dragons attention and you just sit back with a bow and shot them... or having a 2 storm atronach for long range is also affective..

Question: In Skyrim, What type of magic are Dragons most vulnerable. I know it's not fire. Is it more effective to use frost, spark, or a power other than destruction when battling Dragons?

What are Dragons most vulnerable to?

Fire dragons are vulnerable to frost but not fire. You can use Shock against dragons.

Shock, Fire and Ice seem to be the most prominent options depending on the type of dragon.


You can indeed unlock any chest regardless of your lockpicking mastery.

Despite having no proficiency in lockpicking I was able to unlock a master chest that I found, albeit with great difficulty.

As far as I can tell, your proficiency affects the speed at which your lockpick breaks, and perhaps the accuracy of where you have to slide your lockpick.

When you hit on the wrong position, the game makes a distinctive resisting sound and your lockpick shakes.

As a result, the easiest way to succeed at lockpicking is to adjust your position a few spaces over to the right or left, make a very brief unlocking motion to see if the lockpick shakes or not, and if it doesn't continue sliding it in.

If the lockpick shakes during the middle of twisting it in, don't change your starting position but instead just test going either right or left from the shaking position to see which direction is the correct one.

The correct movement will not change in-between successive failed attempts at picking the lock(but will change if you exit the lockpicking screen or reload your game), so even if your lock breaks, use the information you gathered from your last attempt to try and succeed with your next one.

First off you can increase your chances with a Potion of Fortify Lockpicking .

The Spider Eggs and Namira's Rot ingredients in particular are not too hard to come accross as they tend to be both in caves.

I haven't placed any skill points into Lockpicking yet.

What I do when I come accross a Master or Expert locked chest is: Drink a Potion of Fortify Lockpicking.

This makes it just doable rather than extremely frustrating (imho).

Since you don't come accross these chests so often, you can always keep one potion handy on you.

Use a divide and conquer approach (I'm sure there is a good term for this

but I can't remember...)

: I try left, right, and middle.

Then I try halfway here and there.

Having a good framerate and thus smooth input definitely helps here, as it gives you a small chance to release the key before the lockpick breaks.

Once I get closer (the lockpick shakes only after a quarter of a second or so, again I think you need a good framerate for this...)

then I will make note of some texture detail in the background, on the left or right edge of the lockpick.

I think Bethesda artists purposely put a lot of texture there, as well as the rivets on the side, to help you remember the lockpick position.

Use that point of reference and inch a few pixels left and right.

You will always break lockpicks.

Using a potion and the approach above I generally open Expert and Master chests in less than 10 lockpicks.

Since all other chests are fairly easy, and the merchants appear to restock lockpicks every now and then, you shouldn't run out of lockpicks.

I always have 99

+ on my level 30 ish character.

Good luck!

You can also heat the lock with a torch to make it easier to pick.

Just equip it and pick.

Source:

One of the books in Skyrim said so.

(Forget which one) Edit: Apparently the author is a liar so disregard the above.

If you want lockpicking experience the ragged flagon cistern has locks that respawn at every difficulty.

Is it possible to remove any lock regardless of your lockpicking abilities?

There is, indeed.

The mod, Lockpick Pro , allows you to see the "sweet spots" of a lock, allowing you to easily unlock any lock regardless of lockpicking abilities.

The mod in action: Another option is to give yourself the Skeleton Key (an unbreakable lockpick) by entering player.additem 3a070 1 in the console and giving yourself the Skeleton Key perk (required to make sure the Skeleton Key works properly) by entering player.addperk 10F13F in the console.

Question: I saw there are multiple types of locks. Is it possible to remove any lock regardless of your lockpicking abilities? How can I improve my keyboard/mouse dexterity to have better success?  Does the game leaks information on the right position, such as through a sound or visual clue? If I make little tries, so as not to break the pick, is it possible to find the solution?

How do I succeed at lockpicking?

Adjust your positions a few spaces right or left and make a lockpicking motion to see if it shakes. You can increase your chances with a Potion of Fortify Lockpicking.

It is suggested that a particular strategy along with certain items or mods could improve lockpicking abilities.

Certain items or potions will be helpful.

Lockpicking abilites could be improved using a specific mod.


You can also put it on any weapon display if you own a home and don't feel like doing quest yet.

He is in MerryFair Farm directly west from riften stables, However if he is already dead (like it was for me)

Then you can just place the bow on his body and take whatever you want as a reward from his corpse - I only took half his gold, im not greedy you know :)

What you picked up was a miscellaneous objective, Bow to the Master when you were in the Ratway Warrens.

To complete it, return the bow to Dravin.

You can find him at the Merryfair Farm.

You can give it back to Dravin, a guy in a farm near the Goldenglow Estate (an island where you have to go for a quest for the Guild of Thieves)

Actually I'm not sure if the guy is called Dravin.

It is an elf working in a farm in front of the island where Goldenglow is.

This bow is part of the quest Bow to the Master .

Take the bow to Dravin Llanith at Merryfair Farm to trade it for some gems.

If Draven's dead, you're stuck with the bow unless you're playing on the PC and can remove it via the console command: player.removeitem 0006b9ad 1 Bug - PC-

Completing the quest removes the bow but not it's weight.

PC users can do this anyway after completing the quest (successfully or not) to solve the problem.

Question: So apparently I've found a quest item  Dravin's Bow  somewhere in my travels. Anyone found this quest, since I can't drop the item, I'd like to complete it quick-fastly, as I subscribe to the 'pick up everything that's not nailed down' school of thought.

What quest is the object Dravin's Bow from?

This bow is part of the quest Bow to the Master? You can take it to Dravin at Merryfair Farm.

Apparently it is part of the quest Bow to the Master.

The quest name is Bow to the Master and the bow must be returned to Dravin.


I'm surprised nobody else has said it yet

but, BLACKREACH!

The area of the dwarven ruins Alfrand with the crazy giant glowing mushrooms.

The main quest line brings you here to get the elder scroll.

There are a million dwarven machines that drop them, the falmer carry them sometimes, and finally, and the best part, you can mine them .

Bring your pickaxe.

Look for "Geode Veins.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else

but a geode vein is where soul gems come from.

You mine it like just like iron or ebony ore.

I suggest using a weapon enchanted with soul trap also because every falmer you kill will go right into filling an empty gem.

When I got done I had about 60 or so filled soul gems and leveled from enchanting 50 to 100 with the one trip!

Do the quest to find 30 crimson ninroots while you're at it

and you'll run into all the geode veins.

When I wanted gems for enchanting

I just went back and forth between Calcelmo in Understone Keep(Markarth) and the Wizard in Dragonsreach.

It's a roundabout way to solve this: Complete The Black Star quest for Azura.

You can either get a reusable black soul gem or a reusable grand soul gem (which you can then fill with petty souls to your heart's content).

Complete the black star quest (research it).

Make sure you have no soul gems in your inventory.

Learn soul trap enchant (buy a weapon from a merchant and disenchant it).

Enchant soul trap on your weapon, then kill something to refill the black star quest reward.

Recharge your weapon, rinse and repeat.

Using this method I reached 100 Enchanting in an hour.

If you hop between Calcelmo in Understone Keep (Markarth) and Wylandriah in Mistveil Keep (Riften)

they will always have restocked since round-trip is about 54 hours (42 to restock).

Wyldanriah is also a short distance from entrance.

(I should mention Understone<->Mistveil is also very useful when seeking the Banish enchantment as the blacksmiths are near as well.

Oh and remember if you're married these time elapses can be profitable.)

If you're fast on your feet (high stamina, no armor or penalty, Whirlwind Sprint) the jaunt from Mage to General Store in both towns may be worth it.

For my test character (starting stamina, no armor, no shouts) from conversation-tree to conversation-tree: Mage->Mage, 1 minute Mage->General Store, Riften, 30 seconds Mage->General Store, Markarth, 45 seconds (for both running & fast travel to entrance)

I used set timescale to 150000 for instant vendor re-stocks, and the mages do carry on average more empty Petty Soul Gems than the general store, just enough that I think my Level 1 is too slow for the complex routes.

I just figured this out and I wish I had sooner:

There are about 30 filled soul gems available for the taking in the College of Winterhold

(check both the Arch-Mage's Quarters and all the dorm rooms).

Once you take them all, simply wait two weeks (takes about ten minutes real time) and then all of the gems will have respawned.

For me, this has been the easiest way to get soul gems yet.

Go to Dawnstar, wait until the khajiit caravan is in town, and then go to the chest take all the soul gems.

Go back to the khakiit camp, talk to the trader, wait 49 hours while looking at the trader (They wont leave town if you're watching them).

I find it helps a lot to wait the extra hour, then go back to the chest, take gems.

Rinse, repeat, be happy.

The Riverwood Trader in Riverwood has a lot of soul gems for me usually.

If not, I go to Calcelmo in Understone Keep.

I go to dragonreach buy all his gems.

Savegame, kill wizard, reload.

Buy more gems etc., rinse and repeat.

Works with all NPCs as well and is way quicker than waiting 48 hours for them to replenish stock and gold

In the dawnguard dlc the soul Carn just about every skeleton has soul gems on them filled like black or grand

such and such I got

so many last time I went and it was so easy.

So much better than wasting your money on buying them.

And if you wanted to soul trap just for conjuration exp then just spam cast soul trap on a dead body.

Goes by fast if you make 4 items with 25% less cost magica on each of them

so your conj spells cost no magic and just span soul trap.

It gets to 100 so fast

What I do is buy from the jarls wizard in Dragonreach then save the game, kill him, load save, buy more, save and kill him again, then load again and keep repeating the process.

He restocks every time you reload. :)

Tolfodir sells them in the College of Winterhold.

Wait 48 hours and he replenishes (requires 2 wait periods).

But you can sit there in one place which is nice.

Just about to hit 100 enchanting and put double enchantments on all my gear :-)

Soul Cairn from the Dawnguard DLC is a great place to farm soul gems - every enemy will drop either an empty or filled soul gem of random size, including black soul gems.

You will unlock this area as you play through the plot of the DLC.

Question: I would like to buy lots and lots of Soul Gems. Petties etc. It's to train Enchanting.   I can't find a reliable source that constantly has a good supply.   (Aside from Collette at the Mages College, and the Wizard in Dragons Reach, I can't find anyone else?)

Where can you acquire massive amounts of Soul Gems?

You can mine for them or you can hop between Calcelmo and Wylandriah as it will have restocked in between. You can also go to dragonreach and buy all his gems.

This goal could be achieved through a variety of described processes or quest completion.

Soul gems could be acquired by completing quests or exploring certain locations.

There are several ways to acquire Soul Gems involving waiting, fast travelling and saving/loading game.


There is one worthwhile cooking/food item:

Elsweyr Fondue provides a massive Magicka boost with an absurdly long duration.

Other cooking items are primarily just low level health and stamina consumables and can easily be ignored unless you're serious about role playing.

Other than that, it's just another crafting mechanic that DLC and modders can easily hook into, so we might see more useful stuff in the future.

Quoting Cooking is Overpowered on YouTube: Cooking in Skyrim is not at all the worthless skill it is made out to be.

The benefits of stamina regeneration are huge, while the value of fondue to a caster is more than you might realize.

Summary:

Apparently power attacks only require one point to be activated, which makes the long lasting Stamina Soups more useful than they appear to be.

While under the effect of the soup, you can chain power attacks for twelve minutes.

Eslweyr Fondue increases your Magicka by 100 points, also for a duration of 720 seconds (12 minutes).

This "saves you 10 levels worth of points that you do not have to invest in Magicka".

Well, that is if you can be bothered making the food in the first place.

Personally I couldn't be bothered hunting for Eldar Cheese Wheels when I am already overwhelmed with Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy.

But when those skills are maxed this could be fun to play with :)

There is no cooking skill, however there are a few benefits of cooking over Alchemy: ingredients are more plentiful, and there are less options

the ingredients by themselves will heal you (for a much smaller amount) even without cooking several foods (my favorite being Apple Cabbage Stew)

restores both health and stamina still with the same simple ingredients

the effects of food and ingredients don't have to be discovered, they are always known cooking can't fail and cause you to lose ingredients

Food helps restore your stats like life, stamina, or magicka.

Cooked food provides more substantial benefit compared to raw ingredients.

For example vegetable soup helps restore health and stamina 1 point for 720 seconds.

Home cooked meal helps restore all three stats health, stamina and magicka for a certain amount of time.

Earlier in the game I was relying on home cooked meal, but as my character progressed I rely mostly on potions, spells or enchanted gear.

There is no skill tied into cooking.

It is helpful in the beginning when the player may not have many health potions as it upgrades food quality.

At later levels, though, potions are very affordable and cooking is not required.

It is not possible to add poison to food.

Beef stew, venison stew, vegetable soup (which is particularly handy as it requires only cabbage potato leek tomato, no salt or garlic).

The the health benefit doesn't stack, but the stamina does.

That's Huge for stuff you can make by picking up super common items while you're looting, stopping for 2 seconds at a cook pot... AND neither the ingredients or final products have any substantial weight.

All benefits last 12 minutes.

Cooking is great when you're at low levels!

At the beginning of the game, you won't have many potions available and just going to your local alchemist and buying all their healing potions is too expensive when you start out.

Food items, though, can be picked up for free in every barrel or bag in every house, giving you a much cheaper alternative.

Question: The amount of health restored is quite low compared to the hassle of getting the ingredients.  Is cooking tied in any way to a skill so the health benefits become better later on?  Finally, is it possible to add poison to cooked food?

What is the point of cooking food?

Cooking is great when you're at low levels. Food helps restore your stats and cooking gives more substantial benefits than raw ingredients.

Cooked food cannot be poisonous, affects several attributes and seems to be useful at a lower level.

It is suggested that cooking could be useful at lower levels.

Cooked food benefits several attributes more effectively, compared to raw ingredients.


For built-in software, they're used in: Streetpass Quest

I and II: Two coins apiece for a "wanderer", random color, level 1 or 2, that goes along with miis you've met.

It's usually a good idea to max out to have 10 characters in the party whenever you "venture forth".

In quest 2 you can also spend 2+level coins to have previously met miis rejoin even without meeting them again.

Streetpass Puzzle:

2 coins get you a random blue piece of any panel that you've started but not yet finished.

Note that this may be a piece you already have.

AR Games: Unlock game modes and other extras.

Swapnote / Nintendo Letter Box: Pay 5 coins for stationery.

(No longer available) Additionally, any game can use play coins for in-game unlocks.

For example, in Street Fighter IV you can use them to get a random figurine; in Kid Icarus: Uprising you can use them for idol toss eggs.

In shovel knight, you can pay 1 coin for 100 in-game gold.

Ok, so here are all of the possible ways of using Play Coins on the 3DS (That I know of):

Find Mii I and II.

Play Coins are used to hire random heroes and "Old Allies" (enables you to hire people you have tagged before.)

Puzzle Swap.

Play Coins can be used to buy puzzle pieces.

You cannot buy a pink piece (puzzle pieces that can only be obtained through streetpass) with Play Coins.

Mii Force.

Play Coins can be used to hire troops for your missions through the galaxy.

You can buy a troop with a random-colored shirt for 2 Play Coins, or you can buy a troop that you have played with for 3 Play Coins each .

Flower Town.

Play Coins can be used to invite guests to help your plants grow.

Warrior's Way.

Play Coins can be spent hiring an army.

The number of troops in an army increases as you fortify your castle.

You can fortify your castle by defeating another army with building supplies. Monster Manor.

Play Coins can be used to hire investigators .

Each investigator costs 2 Play Coins.

Pokémon Dream Radar.

Play Coins can be used to get Dream Clouds .

Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

A player can buy a fortune cookie from the Nookling Junction (or all its other upgraded forms) for a "modest" 2 Play Coins.

Swapnote/Nintendo Letter Box.

You can use Play Coins to buy unlocked stationary and unlock certain features (such as the ability to attach recordings or photos to your notes).

( EDIT:

As of Thursday, October 31, 2013, Swapnote will no longer be in service.

It will not be in service due to inappropriate notes being sent to minors.

So, buying stationary would be useless, because you cannot send any notes via Spotpass no more.)

I hope this information helped!

Additionally to MaHuJa's usages I could use play coins to buy weapons in Raid-mode in Resident Evil: Revelations .

I think they were usable in Street Fighter too, but I can't remember properly (and sold the game).

Seems that any 3DS game can use play coins, so it's up to the game-makers to include them.

For Swapnote / Nintendo Letter Box , you can buy a background for five Play Coins and save a photo for ten (a bit expensive).

Two popular but unmentioned games that use play coins are Shin Megami Tensei 4 and Animal Crossing.

In SMT4 you can use them to pay for resurrections instead of using macca (saves a lot of grinding) and in Animal Crossing you can buy fortune cookies.

Another use I know of is to unlock additional features and stationery in the Message Box/Swapnote application

There are a lot of uses for them, as others have detailed above.

I think many (though not all)

3DS games utilize them in some way as well.

I know with Pokemon Rumble Blast you can pay to have visitors to your shop (basically earn extra in-game money) in lieu of waiting to streetpass with someone with the game.

I think you will continue to see more and more games using them.

I think its in particular games that also use Streetpass/Spotpass (although Mario Kart 7 does not use coins).I most often use them for the Streetpass Mii Plaza games and stationary in Swap Note.

Question: I noticed that I get Play Coins when I walk around with my 3DS on.   What are they good for? I know that Nintendo mentioned you would be able to possibly use them in games to unlock things - are there any games out now that use them? What sort of things do they do?

What do you do with Play Coins?

You can use them to unlock game modes and extras like stationery, figurines, in-game gold and to pay for resurrections.

Play Coins is a currency that can be exchanged in games and services to unlock extra features and powers.

Listed games and services that use the Play Coins.


You can teach your followers new spells via console commands on the PC version.

To do so, you will first need a hexcode for the spell you want to add.

To find out the hexcode, open up the console (by hitting the ~ key) and type in: help "SPELL NAME" 4 Where SPELL NAME is the name of the spell you want your follower to have.

For example, if you want your follower to be able to summon a Frost Atronach, type: help "conjure frost

atronach"

4 This will return several hexcode values.

The ones you're looking for start with the 4-letter string "SPEL".

In this specific case, there are 3 spells for Conjure Frost Atronach.

I'm pretty sure (but not 100% sure) that the spells are listed from least to most powerful.

The first hexcode listed for Conjure Frost Atronach is 000204C4 .

To give your follower this spell, target the follower with your mouse cursor while the console is open and type: addspell

And voila, your follower now has the ability to summon a Frost Atronach.

I have done a lot of testing on this and have yet to find a way for a companion to actually learn a spell.

If you give them staves that have spells on them they will spam them.

As long as they are not conjuration spells.

I used Lydia and when given conjuration staves she will revert to her bow and will not even equip the stave that summons.

I am also unable to unequip her bow and arrows.

They seem to be "Basic" companion items they always have.

So in short: No they cannot learn spells.

Although: If your companion is a spell caster they will cast the spells they already had but will not learn more.

If playing on the PC, installing the mod, Ultimate Follower Overhaul , will allow you to get followers to learn new spells.

One of its features is: [To] make a follower use a spell tome from inventory to learn

a spell It also allows followers to "forget" their learned spells.

Lydia will use magic staffs, although I've yet to teach any of my companions spells from a book.

You can add a spell to a NPC's spell arsenal, but your NPC will not use it, unless the specified NPC is programmed to.

It depents if your NPC really is a spellcaster.

If you teach a spell to a companion warrior, it will not equip/use it.

And equipping spells with equipitem is impossible.

I haven't gotten it to work myself on a console yet either

(I play on ps3), though I've read elsewhere that on the Steam version they have filled their Hireling's inventory, then when telling them to interact with the book, the only option they have is read.

Lydia is not a spell caster.

You should try the 3 students at the Mage College.

I'm not sure if the actual companions can conjure with battle staves, but i know that one of the girls in the College of Winterhold can summon both fire and ice atronaches.

Also, if you have at least 90 Conjuration, you could put a Conjuration staff onto a body (preferably one with all the armour still on) and then use Dead Thrall on it.

They can summon out of that staff as long as it is in inventory but if it is not, just kill it and then put staff in and then resummon.

They will use whatever is in their inventory so you can make it if you want

so they are just spellcasters with staves

and I really recommend this since if you do this, you can have 4 summons for the price of two.

Question: More  than  once , I've seen it mentioned that followers can be taught new spells by commanding them to interact with a spellbook.  I've tried teaching a few spells to  ol' Lydders , but she simply picks the books up and places them in her inventory.  What am I doing wrong?

How can I teach new spells to a follower?

You can teach followers new spells via console commands. Try installing Ultimate Follower Overhaul.

It seems that it is impossible to teach new spells to companions, without using exploits.

The community stresses out the requirement of mods and commands.


Well, your best bet if you're having issues with fighting mages is using a ward.

Wards protect from magic completely as long as the ward is greater than the magic being shot at you.

With regards to armour, there are no downsides in Skyrim to wearing armour on a mage.

It will not effect your spells effectiveness.

I am a pure mage and I wear full daedric Armour.

Basically with regards to alteration magic(oak flesh etc)

it is specifically geared towards Protection from melee damage

so yes

to answer you question wards are the only kind of magic that can be used to protect from magic.

you can also enchant armor with resistance to magicka/elemental

but i personally prefer wards due to the fact that i use different enchantments on all of my armor and its easier to use a wards because not every enemy is magic related.

wards are also really useful for protecting against dragon fire.

If this doesn't answer you question fully feel free to leave a comment and I will try to elaborate.

I would recommend: Carry some nice armour for these fights or Have your companion carry some backup armour for you that you can switch into before a fight.

Regarding wards look at this question .

It looks at the advantages of oakflesh over wards.

If you are being targeted by means of magic or weapons, than something is wrong.

Mages are no tanks - they cannot sustain direct hits more frequently than now and then.

If you are being surrounded or plain outnumbered, then use distraction and/or chaos to your advantage: Use illusion spells: Rage, Calm and similar spells will shift the centre of attention from you to (multiple) other targets or completely disable them.

Use your companion as a meat shield.

Let him/

her take the hurt and flank or just step aside and wreak havoc among the ranks.

Use your horse.

Well, it usually goes into fights itself, but does back away if the enemy is too strong, or just drops unconscious.

Be careful not to hit it instead.

Always have your shields up (watch for the effect, go in third person to see it better).

A couple of unlucky hits might bring you down quickly.

my tip: frost atronarch.

just place it next to the enemy, start to heal urself and wait for the win =P

There is a quest where you can get a daedric shield, which blocks most spells.

Also I use atronarchs ( fire, frost, storm ect) to soften enemy's in huge numbers.

When in battle with tuff mages, I use the spells like shock, frost, fire,.

But the spells ( sorry cant recall there names) that you can cast on the ground, and whatever enemy walks on them or hangs around gets cooked, shocked, or frosted.

So with flames burning on the ground continuously, you can vanquish any strong undead enemy.

I use the same spells for mages like shock.

I place the shock spell everywhere

then the Mage will either walk around over the areas you have placed the spells, or hang back, where I just sap there Heath with long range attack spells, or send in a atronarch.

Also I'm a powerful archer.

So if all else fails I shoot, and run, shoot and run.

I can bring down a powerful dragon priest with my bow alone ( I did last night against a very powerful dragon priest on the dragon born DLC).

So I think it doesn't hurt to branch out in other skills besides magic.

I did and my Orc is one tuff Mage/warrior/archer hehehe.

Also save, save, save.

Before any battle with powerful mages.

Sometimes I have to die a few times, trying different tactics, before my opponent is finally crushed.

I have had this same problem when fighting mages.

It was not until recently that I started leveling up alteration, and I noticed a pretty cool perk.

If you are willing to get to Master Alteration, spare a point for the Antronach Perk - it absorbs 30% of the enemy's magic attack into your magic.

Combine that with a ward, and you can both be countering damage and regenerating magicka at the same time, a useful tactic when fighting electromancers especially, but it works with them all.

There is also a level 60 Restoration perk which allows you to regenerate stamina when using healing spells, useful for ice mages that drain your stamina and cause slow movement, meaning it will be incredibly hard to dodge incoming spells.

I hope I was able to help.

If you can't find a way to level up Alteration quickly enough, standing in water and casting Waterbreathing over and over seems to work, that's how I gained the last 30 or so levels.

Question: I'm playing in a mostly mage style (though I have decent One-handed skill).  Lately, I've been encountering more and more mages who are proving very difficult because of my low health.  I have the Mage Armor perk and I just need to know whether that and/or armor are actually worth anything against a mage. And if not, what are my best alternatives?

What strategies are there for fighting mages as a mage?

Try using a ward, they can protect you from magic. You can also enchant armor with resistance and look for a daedric shield which blocks most spells.

It seems that there is not a specific way of dealing with mages. It all comes down to specific gear and tactics.

Different ways to tackle mages, are listed.


I have been attacked by stalkers in crowds, on rooftops, and in deserted corners of the city.

I have been attacked by stalkers with an empty Templar awareness meter, and a full one.

I have gone hours and hours without seeing one, and then gotten several almost back to back to back.

As far as I can tell, it's either totally random, or it's planned to look like it's totally random.

You mostly just have to pay attention - your Templar Awareness doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.

There's usually dramatic music right before they hit you, though, so

if you hear music while you're just wandering around that's your hint to take notice.

If you unlock the Mercenary faction ability, when you have mercenaries with you they will intercept any stalkers that might show up.

EDIT: I'm really not sure about this, but I have the subjective sense that they do seem to show up more often when you're in thick crowds.

I don't recall seeing one show up when I was on an empty street...

I'm really not sure about this, though.

I've certainly been attacked when I'm not blending and not anywhere near a clump of NPCs.

The only other thing I can really say is that I've never seen them attack when I'm on a rooftop, but then of course you're risking the attention of rooftop sentries anyway.

When there is one close, you'll hear whispers all around.

Just go to multiplayer, it's the same sound when a pursuer is near.

And the timing is random.

You can have none for 3 hours then 2 in 10 minutes.

EDIT: Just a theory like that

, I think they might appear more often if you stand for a long time in the same part of the city.

I remember when I was just waiting close to a bank for my income to cash in (so a few hours in the same part of the city, just waiting) and by the end, it was one each 10 to 15 minutes.

Just a theory, that should be tested.

I always go to the Grand Bazaar.

Go to the Tailor shop that is just near one of the exits and just wait for less than 5 minutes.

I just tested it

and I got one in 2 minutes, but I am suggesting 5 minutes just in case it may be longer for some other players.

I hope this info will help.

I also did this especially because I had 1 very tiny bit of red on my Templar Awareness meter

and i wanted to get rid of it.

Now I have.

Of course The Grand Bazaar is a huge place, lots of people, some guards and a lot of shops, Almost every time I have gone inside the Bazaar I have been attacked by these guys, but what annoys me, is even though i kill them every time before getting stabbed, my stats show no kills on stalkers.

That's weird.

Just like in the online mode you hear whispering when they are near.

The closer you are, the louder the whisper.

They also show up as a dagger on the mini map.

Sometimes, when you think one is near (by hearing distinct whispers), you should scan the area with eagle vision and you might spot a red civilian.

After you exit eagle vision it should be marked on your map as the dagger.

If you walk near them they will attack.

I've also noticed a civilian acting unusual by either holding something behind his back or constantly adjusting his clothing.

It's pretty obvious once you notice this.

I also seem to come in contact with stalkers right after or during a mission.

You'll see an icon of a white knife on your minimap when a Stalker is near you.

Question: Every once in a while, a templar stalker will come and attempt to take my life (and will always be unsuccessful ;).  Are there any conditions for when they do attack me?  Is it completely random?  Is there any way for me to see them nearby so I can attack first?  The last time I was attacked, I noticed that I'm still completely  secret  from the templars.  I don't remember how aware they were of me the other times.

How can I tell if a stalker is going to kill me?

It's totally random. When there is one close, you'll hear whispers around you. They show up as a dagger on the mini map.

While attacks from stalkers seem to be a mechanic of the game, the player can detect them through some audio and visual indications.

It is implied that attacks are more or less random.

The community pinpoints few indications as to when a stalker is about to attack.


There are no unique items that can be disenchanted for the muffle enchant.

I'm afraid you're going to have to luck out and find a set of "[Any boots] of Muffling" to disenchant, which I will tell you now, is not easy.

I easily reset a shopkeeper's inventory 500+ times with no luck before I finally used the console to spawn myself a set of steel boots of muffling and took 100,000 gold out of my inventory.

player.additem 92a75 1

if you want to do that yourself.

Source

You have to buy it or loot it, then disenchant it in order to learn it.

You might have a better chance of finding one in the Thieves Guild.

My fist time through the game I found a pair of leather boots with the muffle enchant on them and that is how I got it.

You cannot disenchant an piece of special equipment with the enchant on it how ever.

Its not a bug, for example the boots you get for joining the Dark Brotherhood have the enchant with muffle on it

but you cant disenchant those.

Its all prety much random and requires a rather large amount of luck.

Considerations about the Muffle :

50% Muffle is also available via the Muffled Movement perk.

100% Muffle is also available via the Silence perk.

The magnitude of the Muffle effect is significant.

However, the magnitude of enchantments and spells is not displayed in-game.

Most built-in enchanted items have a magnitude of 0.5, meaning they are only 50% effective.

The actual effectiveness of the Muffle effect for magnitudes below 1.0 depends on armor weight, i.e. 50% of the noise of Daedric is still much higher than 100% of the noise of Elven.

All custom-enchanted Muffle effects have a magnitude of 1.0, regardless of skill level or soul gem used, making them greatly superior to most built-in enchanted Muffle items.

Muffle also seems to affect the sounds of your weapons (excluding bows) and not just your footsteps.

The best way, still, trying to drop, find in shop or via console a pair of Steel boots of Muffling

After about 200 hours of playing, with 3 different characters I bought ebony boots with the muffle enchantment on them in whiterun.

It's the only time I've ever seen boots with this enchantment on them that you could disenchant, so good luck

Muffled boots are easier to get around level 11.

The higher you get in level the less chance they have of appearing.

Planning to get it ahead of using it is most effective.

Muffle is superior to sneak enchantments because even with 100 sneak, vampirism (25% sneak bonus), muffled movement and invisibility will still allow you to be "sensed" due to the noise heavy armor makes.

With muffled movement and muffle though light is the only weakness to stealth.

Though muffled movement works well with the vampire bonus unless you try to kill an enemy standing in the same room as another one.

Without muffle many enemies will draw their weapons and move around as if searching for you even though the eye is fully closed.

Muffled movement, muffle (custom enchant, not unique), muffle (spell) and invisibility will get you through any area undetected though.

Another advantage of invisibilty over normal stealth mechanics is you can steal in bright light by grabbing the item (hold A on the xbox) and drag it into shadows before taking it and then recast invisibility to enter the light again.

Grabbing does not break invisibility so even bodies can be looted safely this way.

Stealth and illusion magic with quiet casting is the best form of stealth because invisibility removes lighting from the equation entirely.

A little bit of light is all it takes to be seen from significant distances regardless of your skill and enchantments.

As an example line the steps to Vlindrel Hall in Markarth with a few torches after reaching 100 skill, plus enchantments and then try to sneak from the bottom to the top unseen by the guard at the guard tower behind the temple of Dibella.

It is impossible without invisibility (even with shadow warrior).

Finally preparing invisibility prior to walking through a transition and then releasing it during the loading screen will immediately cast it before anyone on the other side can usually fully detect you (even in daylight).

I'm with Steve on this one, I got a pair early on in the game.

I'm actually on my 4th character (all over level 40) and have found a pair of steel boots with muffle on them that could be disenchanted 1 time...out of four playthroughs!

Bought em from Adriana in Whitrun.

They're incredibly rare.

Question: How do I get the muffle enchant, so I can enchant boots with it?I already have some quest boots, with it on, but I can't seem to disenchant them.

How do I get muffle enchant?

You have to buy it or loot it. You might have a better chance at the Thieves Guild. Try to find a pair of Steel boots of Muffling.

It seems that the muffle enchant can be found on items sold by merchants or given as reward, more or less, based on RNG.

The community suggests few locations to find the specific enchant.


I'm no expert at Java, so this isn't a decisive answer, but I figure it can't hurt to post the code here anyway for others to decipher.

From SpawnerAnimals.java : (Comments mine) private static boolean canCreatureTypeSpawnAtLocation(EnumCreatureType enumcreaturetype, World world, int i, int j, int k) { if(enumcreaturetype.getCreatureMaterial() == Material.water) //

If it's a water creature... { return world.getBlockMaterial(i, j, k).getIsLiquid() && !

world.isBlockNormalCube(i, j + 1, k); //

Make sure it spawns in water } else { return world.isBlockNormalCube(i, j - 1, k) && !

world.isBlockNormalCube(i, j, k) && !

world.getBlockMaterial(i, j, k).getIsLiquid() && !

world.isBlockNormalCube(i, j + 1, k); //

Makes sure the block it's spawning on is opaque, that it's not water, and that there are at least 2 blocks of air overhead. } } It does not appear that it checks whether the mob is spawning underground or not.

Anecdotally, wandering around for a while with an Xray texture pack produced only surface mobs, so I'm not sure what other guards might be put in place to prevent underground spawns.

Passive mobs will spawn if the following conditions are met:

There is a grass block

There is 2x2x2 empty space

There is a light level above 7

No, they can definitely spawn underground.

I had a world where I had dug out a massive cavern, encasing all the lava in glass, then placed grass on top of the lava to create big underground islands.

I had animals spawning on the grass, at level 13.

Edit: This was, however, in an older version of minecraft.

I won't be able to check to see if that's still true until I get home.

Before they only spawned on chunk generation, I would have them spawn in my grass filled cave all the time, I think they still can, but grass is needed for them to spawn.

According to the Minecraft wiki : no, animals cannot spawn underground.

newly generated chunks will contain mobs...

They will always spawn on the highest available block in a column i.e. the one that can see the sky.

For an animal to spawn on it, this block must be opaque and the two blocks above it must be transparent.

The block does not need to be grass nor does it need to be illuminated (as it does with [Monster] Spawning).

gaming.stackexchange.com/users/64041/The Guy with The Hat

Yes, the passive mobs just need the right conditions.

For Pigs, Cows and Chickens you will need light and grass.

Getting grass deep underground with out an item hack can be a little difficult.

One way would be to dig a hole up to the surface and let natural light strike a block of dirt.

From that block you can then grow more grass and from your field of grass you will get passive mobs.

I beleive they can.

I am playing in 1.7 and I found 3 chickens in my mineshaft.

At first I started to look for a way to get to the over world.

After an hour or so of searching, I gave up and decided to google to see if they could spawn there.

I just found a chicken in my mine, around level 15.

I searched and searched, and there are no entrances to the outside.

The only possibility that I can think of is that there was a 3x3 patch of dirt in the mine, and a nearby lava source which may have exceeded the light requirement.

However, there is obviously no grass around...

I found out that the only passive mob that spawns underground is the bat .

I found this out while reading my Minecraft Essential Handbook , page 38.

Chickens, pigs, cows, and sheep spawn on grass.

Question: There's a rumour that passive mobs (pigs, cows, sheep) can only spawn on the highest solid block. In other words, they won't spawn on grass with a solid block roof over it, such as in an underground cave, a player-built barn, or a glass dome.  Is this true, as of Minecraft 1.0?

Can passive mobs spawn underground?

They can definitely spawn underground, they just need the right conditions.

While a vague topic, it seems that there need to be special conditions in order to make passive mobs to spawn underground.

The community believes that passive mobs can spawn under certain conditions.

It is implied that passive mobs can't spawn underground.


The video game rule of vulnerability comes into play here: Hit 'em in the glowy bits .

You can never go wrong hitting anything that glows.

In this case that means slashing horizontally to cut the blue lines between the "blocks" that make up the body then stabbing the glowing eye.

Or just arrow the eye if you have the bow.

The same rule of thumb applies to Armos and Bombos as well.

If you can break enough of its segments to bring it down to ground level, you can kill it by stabbing it in the eye.

(ow!)

Otherwise, you can put an arrow in its eye (Oblig.

"I used to be a Beamos, until I took an arrow to my eye" joke) if you've already found the Bow.

From IGN's Wiki guide : Slicing the Beamos's different sections vertically (separated by the blue running line across) will bring its head to the ground.

A thrust into the eye will finish it off.

You can also keep out of its reach and then shoot it in the "eye" with an arrow once the Bow is obtained.

You can also dizzy them first by blowing on their head with your blow gun

I always took them out with horizontal slashes, or spins.2x, then stab the eye.

If he's on you, run a fair distance away then try again.

Strangely enough, you can stun them with a perfect shield bash if you have a wooden shield or sacred shield.

Once you have the bow , you can kill them from a distance with a single shot to the "eye".

This is especially helpful on the Sandship when trying to defeat the two Beamos in the big key room .

Question: I'm wandering around, lost, in Lanayru Mining Facility.  As I was blundering about, I took a (horizontal) swipe at a Beamos and surprisingly, did some damage.  I've also noticed that a targeting arrow appears when I get close.   Can I kill these guys?   If so, how?

How do I defeat Beamos?

You can put an arrow in its eye or break enough segments to bring it down to eye level. Slicing its sections vertically will bring its head to the ground.

It seems that there are two common ways to deal with Beamos. There is a one shot strategy and a more time consuming one.

The required strategy to defeat Beamos is detailed.


The easiest way is to build a portal nearby, travel to the normal world, fill your glass vials with water there and bring those back to the Nether.

You can fill as many vials as you can fit in your inventory and it won't take much time out of your brewing schedule.

You could also keep water in the Nether in a cauldron, but as that only holds 3 vials worth, it's slower than simply bringing the water to the Nether in vials.

In versions of Minecraft before the current 1.0.0 release, you could use the Silk Touch enchantment to get Ice blocks, and break them in the Nether to produce water source blocks.

However, this was patched, and they won't create water in the Nether anymore.

The only way to place water in the Nether, currently, is to place a Cauldron and fill it with water.

Sadly, it isn't as good as an infinite source, as it can only fill 3 Glass Bottles before needing to be refilled, but it's the only option for brewing in the Nether at the moment.

Create two ender chests, keep one and one world and the other in the nether fill it with buckets of water you can keep up to 27 buckets in an ender chest

it's the easiest way to get water in the nether.

You really can't have a source of water legitimately in the nether, you can only put it from a bucket to a cauldron in vanilla.

You would need to use mods such as TooManyItems to spawn pure water that's not in a bucket.

It looks like vertically flowing water in the GUI.

This is the only way to get placeable water in the nether.

It won't sizzle, but be placed instead and flow.

One way to kind of keep the vanilla feel would be to make a bucket, find a water source, and "scoop up" the water by just giving yourself a water block and having the bucket empty.

Only raw water can be placed in the Nether.

If your single-player world has cheats enabled or you are an op on a multiplayer server, use /give <your name> <8 or 9> <amount> to get that.

8 is source water, whereas 9 is stationary water.

Question: Just exploring the nether, found my first nether fortress, and lots of netherwart.  Wanting to start brewing potions in the nether fortress, but getting a source of water is problematic.  Is there a way to get water into the nether in vanilla minecraft (i.e. no mods)?  I'd like an unlimited water source if possible.

Is there a way to get water into the nether?

You can either place a cauldron and fill it with water, or travel to the normal world and fill your glass vials there. You could also use a mod like TooManyItems to spawn pure water.

While carrying water in the Nether is a time consuming task, players detail plenty ways of doing so, including the use of modifications and commands.

The community describes what items can carry water into the nether.

Usage of mods or admin commands is recommended.


It's important to realize that mushroom biomes only spawn as islands in the middle of oceans.

So, if you want to look for one in a world that doesn't spawn you in one, you can't go walking to find one, you need to find an ocean, make a boat, and search the ocean for a mushroom island.

I can't offer any personal experience of how easy it is to find one by that approach

(I've no idea whether most oceans contain one, more than one, or just have a chance of containing one).

I'm afraid you have to get lucky.

Your best bet is to start a world with a seed that spawns in a mushroom biome, e.g. lost . ...or swim for a long time until you find one.

Install the planes mod, build a p-51 with a radial engine, and have fun exploring almost faster than the map can load/generate.

This should make locating mushroom biomes a lot faster.

Well, I'm not bragging, I was really lucky.

In my Legit survival world I found a mushroom biome.

And here are some of my tips to find them: Scout the Ocean.

Make sure that the ocean is big and don't go next to the coast line, just keep the coastline visible in the corner of your eye.

Scout all coast lines of your map.

Since oceans are pretty much endless, you can walk on the beaches until you find one that is connected to your beach (worked for me) Use a seed with one either near, or in the map near spawn.

Mobs cannot spawn on mycelium and the best way to find one is to make a boat and explore out in the middle of nowhere, kind of like finding diamonds.

The best "out of game" means I've found for identifying mushroom islands (and any other feature for that matter) is to use the third party tool AMIDST .

Before version 1.7.2 mushroom islands were extremely rare.

(I haven't explored much in 1.7.2 yet, to know how that has changed.)

Not actually a biome location answer:

Mycelium spreads on dirt much like grass; if you're playing in SMP with the /give command (or other some other use of a inventory editor), you could give yourself Mycelium and simulate your own biome that way.

It wouldn't be a perfect recreation of Mushroom Biome (if you built over a Desert biome, you may not be able to raise huge mushrooms); Mycelium only allows spawning of Mooshrooms, whereas the Biome itself is what causes anti-mob and natural giant mushrooms.

Question: Minecraft's mushroom biome sounds like a pleasant place: Food in abundant supply, and zero hostile mob spawns.  However, in all my time playing, I've never ever found one. Is there a trick to finding them, or do you just have to get lucky?

How do I find mushroom biomes?

Make a boat and scout the ocean for a mushroom island.

Detailed explanation as to how to find the location in question, is offered. Also, there are different recommendations, regarding that matter, such as third party softwares.

Usage of a third party software is suggested.


If you mean hawk, yes you can.

You have to be within range, but if you do shoot one, you'll be able to collect the hawk feathers and hawk beak for alchemy as they're fairly hard to obtain.

Is it possible to hit a bird?

Yes.

Is it incredibly difficult ?

YES.

The best place to try is Solitude - you can use the bridges between the towers to get to a decent altitude, the birds fly relatively low, and you're in a separate zone from the main game world, so range is less likely to be an issue.

Having a full complement of Archery perks makes an enormous difference as well, for obvious reasons.

With a full compliment of archery, you can use the right click of the mouse to zoom.

Your sightvisor doesn't move everywhere.

It's really easy to kill an eagle in Solitude, Eagles which are flying over the port.

go to the archery menu and get the zoom with the bow ability and the extra damage and range.

As well as get the one where when you hold your breath you can slow down time to get a better aim, if your stamina is high.

You can hold down your breath for a solid 30+ seconds.

also you can earn a shout which nearly freezes time.

The 2 together can make them really slow.

Solitude is a good place.

But you can also use lightning.

You can kill them, by they're not actually entities as far as the game engine is concerned.

They're just static models that are animated to fly around and occasionally nest, but if it detects an arrow or projectile near enough (it doesn't have to be a perfect hit), the game despawns the static model and replaces it with a havoked lootable corpse, which then falls to the ground.

The more you know.

And as far as I can tell, they drop 1 hawk beak and 3 hawk feathers 100% of the time.

They also respawn after a few days.

Good source of ingredients.

Also, I find it pretty easy to free-aim them in Solitude, down the main street.

(By free-aim I mean with the crosshair turned off in the settings.)

Just remember to shoot slightly ahead of them, and it helps if you also wait till they're above the main street so the body lands in an accessible place.

Question: Can an eagle take an arrow in the knee?  Just kidding. But seriously, is it possible to actually land an arrow in a flying eagle?I´ve tried with about 200 arrows without any success.

Can I shoot an eagle?

They are not actually entities as far as the game is concerned, but you can kill them in Solitude.

The community offers details as to how it is indeed possible to complete such a feat.

The players tend to agree that it is possible to kill an flying object.


I like to use the arcane enchanter in Drelas' Cottage .

Its easy to fast travel to and has both an enchanter and alchemy station.

The only draw back is that you do need to cross a loading boundary and that the owner is a rather high level mage that does not take kindly to strangers.

Here is the location on the map: update

If you are playing Skyrim on steam, there is a nice mod in the workshop that adds a fast travel icon on the world map for every player owned house.

The fastest one to travel to that I know of is in Mistveil Keep , in Riften.

There is an arcane enchanter just inside, in the first room on the left.

Perhaps not the fastest, but very convenient because it's very close to a marketplace and some player-owned storage containers, is the one in Honeyside after you've bought the upgrade .

The house is just a short walk from the entrance to Riften , and the Enchanter is just downstairs.

If you're Thane of the Rift , you've also got your handy-dandy Housecarl , Iona , available if you need help carrying stuff.

And, if you're also inclined to do some Alchemy , you can buy another upgrade for the house that puts an Alchemy Lab right in the next room.

Like I said, it may not be the absolute fastest

but, I find it fairly convenient.

It's the one I personally prefer to use. NOTE:

The link for "Enchanter" above has a list of all the Arcane Enchanters in Skyrim.

Found one really close to fast travel point, no fight and no loading screen.

It's a place called Sacellum of Boethiah (got there following quest lead actually)

here it is on world map: (click for full image)

Here is the enchanter in a tent up some stairs: (click for full image)

And here is the enchanter location in local map: (click for full image)

gaming.stackexchange.com/users/7652/Shadow Wizard is Ear For You

I find Orphan Rock just southeast of Riverwood is the fastest Arcane Enchanter.

It's out in the open, and there's no loading required to reach it or tough characters surrounding it.

In Windhelm.

There is an Arcane Enchanter outside behind Niranye near the Blacksmith forge on the west side of the city.

Question: I find myself using Azura's Star every time it is full to level up enchanting. Currently, I am using the arcane enchanter in Dragonsreach which is quite a walk. What is the closest arcane enchanter to a fast travel drop point? Are there any in the open world so I don't need to enter/exit the area every time?

Which arcane enchanter is closest to a fast travel point?

You can try the arcane enchanter in Drelas' Cottage, Mistveil Keep, Sacellum, Orphan Rock and Windhelm.

While players can't find a common ground regarding the answer, they are offering their knowledge on few locations that fit the description.

The community is pointing different locations, based on personal experience.


You can put a single bucket of water into a dispenser.

When a dispenser "dispenses" an empty bucket, it actually "picks up" a source block in front of it.

By putting a single water bucket in a dispenser, when it's activated once it dispenses the water and when it's activated again it removes the water.

You can use this to make a button- or other restone device-triggered "off switch" for a portal.

This is a complete reference design:

The trench behind the portal is what keeps the water from flowing everywhere: To turn it back on, you can build a dispenser with Fire Charges directly against the frame.

The Fire Charge goes through the frame, lighting it.

The only problem with this is that it consumes a resource that has to be occasionally replenished.

Thanks to Resorath for the tip and the video that demonstrates the technique:

I happened to be in need of shutting a portal down from the Nether side.

I built my project in an Overworld test world and when i finally built it

i realized i couldn't shut the portal off because i was using a dispenser producing a single tick of water, which unfortunately, doesn't work within the Nether!

I happened to find the simplest of the solutions, that im writing down here just to add to the previous ones.

LAVA By dispensing lava into a open portal, we break it.

Nether side fixed.

Yeah.

Here is my portal on/off setup, as compact as possible.

This is the front, in the left dispenser i put Flint & Steel, in the right one bucket of water (if Overworld side) or bucket of lava (if Nether side) Hope is useful!

Minecraft version 1.5 allows flint and steel to be used in a dispenser.

When the dispenser is activated it will light the Nether portal.

From the wiki , the only ways to deactivate a nether portal are explosions or pouring a water bucket directly into the portal.

If you don't want to have anything explode, it looks like you will not be able to deactivate it with redstone.

One option, if you want to try using TNT without destroying anything nearby, you can use obsidian to direct the blast towards the portal and then just make sure that there is nothing important in that direction.

The answer could evolve with time and updates, but: As of 1.1.0, with a Vanilla client, no, it's impossible.

Plenty of mods will allow that however.

You can put a water bucket into a dispenser putting it out.

Question: Since it is no longer possible for flowing water to deactivate a Nether portal, you can't use pistons to push blocks into the nether portal and finally you can't move the obsidian powering the portal with pistons; is it possible to deactivate the portal some other way with redstone?  I'm not too interested in detonating TNT near the portal either, ideally the method needs to be reusable and not destroy the surrounding mechanisms.   Bonus points for activating a Nether portal with redstone as well.

Is there a way to shut down a Nether portal with redstone?

You can break a portal by dispensing lava into it, pouring a bucket of water into it or with an explosion.

While there are few common solutions, there is more context and knowledge that needs to be considered.

The community suggests to use ingame items to tackle that matter.


I just got the Angry Wings achievement.

Here is what I did: Pick these 2 gadgets: Free Ride & X-Ray Specs Try to start the game with Profit Bird Destroy

it asap since the vehicle box will be quickly spawn Use X-Ray Specs to get an early look on vehicle box

If other vehicle shows up, tried to avoid itThis will give you an advantage to have different vehicle as the box will be quickly spawn.

If you accidentally take the box, destroy the vehicle asap If the Profit Bird shows up, take it & finally got the achievement Good Luck!

It all comes down to luck, unfortunately, there's no way to affect what vehicle you get.

The only strategy I can suggest is keep starting a new game until the first vehicle you get is the Profit Bird, destroy it and keep destroying every vehicle you get afterwards.

Eventually you'll get the Bird again.

I would suggest having a second chance stocked just in case.

The reason you should destroy vehicles as soon as you get them, is that the game seems to spawn vehicles only a little while after the last one has been destroyed, and you'll never get the same vehicle twice in a row.

Since you're aiming for maximum vehicle variety, destroying vehicles as soon as possible is the way to go.

Note : This answer was posted before the availability of gadgets.

In later versions of the games where gadgets are available, I would recommend equipping "Free Ride", starting games and dying until you start with the Profit Bird, then destroy it and keep collecting gadgets and destroying until you get another one, if you die, pause and restart the game rather than waiting for the score, this way you'll always start with a bird.

This lowers the "luck" factor of this achievement significantly...

Actually it is very simple when following this steps: Use Free Ride and X-Ray

Start a game with a ride, if the ride is not the Profit Bird lose the game and start again till you get the Profit Bird from the begin Crush the Profit Bird ASAP and look for another one using x-ray

If you loose, pause the game quickly and press restart.

Doing this you will always start with the Profit Bird.

Repeat this process till you find the second Profit Bird.

It is possible to get the same vehicle twice in a row.

I did it with Mr Cuddles, but it wasn't in one game.

If you're someone with the Romeo Alpha Delta achievement you might not have to destroy vehicles ASAP but for normal people you probably will

You're gonna have to hope that the first vehicle you get is the Profit Bird.

Then when you get it and any other vehicles, make them crash ASAP.

If you live long enough, you'll eventually get the Profit Bird again.

Good luck!

gaming.stackexchange.com/users/22841/Gamin' Like A Freak

Use free ride and x-ray spec gadgets, unequip vehicle magnet and always start with profit bird for that make replay.

Wait for luck sometimes two consecutive birds come then angry wings completed, I tried for 3 days and with no technique came success.

This is what I experienced and got angry wings.

Once you get the profit, pause the game and hit retry.

When you get the profit bird again you will get the angry birds acheivement.

I saved up for the Piggy Pack Jet Pack and set the options for Free Ride and Easy Dodge Missile Jammer.

Got the double Profit Bird twice in one session after weeks of trying.

Question: I've been trying so long to get this freaking achievement.  How is it done?

How do you get the Angry Wings achievement in Jetpack Joyride?

Keep starting a new game until you get a Profit Bird. Destroy it and keep destroying it and collecting gadgets.

While luck is mentioned as the main factor, to get the achievement in question, there are few tips that might help.

The community suggests few ways that might help to achieve the goal.


Here are the stats and bonuses provided by each barracks: Melee Barracks: 1500 HP 5.0 HP/sec regen 15 armor 100-150 Gold to the last hitter + 275 reliable gold to the entire team that destroys it When destroyed (boosts opposing creep in that lane by):

Increases Melee Creep damage by 19 points and growth by +1 Increases Melee Creep armour by 1 point Increases Melee Creep health by 150 points and growth by +9 Reduces gold by 21 and experience by 37 for your Melee Creeps Ranged Barracks: 1200 HP 0 HP/sec regen 10 armor 100-150 Gold to the last hitter and 225 reliable gold to the entire team

When Destroyed: Increases Ranged Creep damage by 20 points and growth by +1 Increases Ranged Creep armor by 1 point Increases Ranged Creep health by 175 points and growth by +8 Reduces gold by 26 and experience by 16 for your Ranged Creeps.

At face value, since you typically have way more melee than ranged creeps per lane, killing the melee building provides more benefit for future pushes.

However, the ranged barracks has 5 less armor and will die faster.

When push comes to shove, often you don't really have a choice in which one to take down if most of your creeps are focused on one building over the other you will want to focus fire to take it down faster before the opposing heroes rush to defend.

If you do have a choice, you should take out the melee barracks first to put more pressure on that lane with your creeps.

I've played dota for many years.

Rule of thumb : go for the barrack you already have an ally focusing on.

In case no barrack are targeted, go for the melee barrack, because of the amount of melee creeps per wave.

Later on in the game, you'll spawn 2 ranged units per wave, from this point on, the ranged barrack starts making sense, but not before that

If you don't have time (i.e. the enemy team is respawning soon or something) go for the ranged barracks.

Otherwise go for the melee one.

z' gave a great in depth answer, but is a little out of date.

The ranged barracks doesn't regenerates health.

This means that if you're in a situation where you're chipping away bit by bit at a set of barracks, you probably want to hit the ranged one, as the building won't regenerate the health that you've taken off it.

However, the melee barracks will provide greater pushing power when destroyed, so if possible, you want that one gone first.

As with everything in dota, it's situational.

If you have the time/space/damage to take one down quickly, prefer the melee, but if you're likely to lose a fight and want to withdraw soon, put a bit of damage on the ranged and back out.

In case of "rat" push strategy: if it's mid game(20-40 minute) or even early game you should focus range barracks.

If you took range rax it will provide you with non-stop push to their lane - because your waves already stronger than theirs, so enemy creeps won't go further then your first tower without enemy heroes.

This logic applies to Nature's Prophet, Naga Siren and any other summoners.

if you are playing strong rat pusher (NP with necronomicon, Clinkz, DD NP, Tiny + Io, Broodmother)

you can go for melee barracks but you should think about how reactive your enemies, do they have Glyph, will you end this rax or can you comeback to this rax after they leave it.

For example, if you go on melee rax and they have glyph -

your progress on this rax will be negated, however, your skills will be in cooldown and that's will proceed in your team's disadvantage.

if you just want some push, so that enemies will stay at base - go on range rax.

It's applied to Kunka, Storm Spirit, Puck with dagger - this heroes can give two-three hits to rax and get back without a problem.

Doing so on melee rax is not effective at all, until you have big attack damage.

Question: When attacking the barracks on DotA2, which is the better to focus/destroy first, Melee or Ranged, and why?  I ask as during games I get conflicting views with people I am playing with.

DotA 2 Barracks, Which is better to focus and why?

Take out the melee barracks first. If you don't have time, go for a ranged barracks.

The community states that there are many details to keep in mind before choosing what barrack to destroy first. In the end it comes down to the preferred result, regarding what option you choose.

There are two opinions regarding that matter. Both are valid, but there is more context to be considered before deciding which one is to be used.


You're not supposed to actually fix it.

The point of the broken mirror is it adds a bit of depth to your character - he keeps breaking it because he can't stand to look at himself.

gaming.stackexchange.com/users/2578/BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft

Adam broke the mirror because looking in it reminds him of his augmentations, and looking at his augmentations reminds him of his failure to protect Megan.

He is not going to fix it.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Eidos Montreal deciding not to program in any reflective surfaces and the complexities therein.

You cannot fix the mirror, it simply adds a story element to the game.

Screenshots of the emails for anyone interested: Email on Jensen's computer:

Email on lobby computer:

http://i.imgur.com/Fsk2Q.jpg Mirror with note: http://i.imgur.com/lerp9.jpg

Out of story reason: Showing a mirror in an FPS requires an extremely high quality of animation for the main character to avoid brekaing immersion; these are animations that normally would never be visible in first person.

As such, the dev cost of including a mirror is very high relative to rare occurrences.

This is why the mirror is not reflective, even though it's a mirror.

Not only that, the frequent broken and missing mirrors in the game call back to the orignal DX, which featured really terrible mirrors (unsynced images, bad animation).

By breaking all the mirrors they could avoid the same thing happening again

A far as I can tell from some research, there is no actual way to get the mirror fixed.

Question: I'm going crazy! This mirror has been broken for ages, I've e-mailed the landlord about it multiple times, but they keep telling me off.  However, when I took a quick sneak peak at their reception computer, they have an e-mail sitting in their inbox from the mirror supplier asking them to come pick it up since it's been waiting for over a month.  How do I get them to fix my mirror?

How do I fix my bathroom mirror

You're not supposed to fix it and there is not way in the game to get the mirror fixed.

The broken mirror, beyond the fact that adds up to the narrative, is a common technique by developers to hide the extra costs required to program things that a mirror might reflect.

The community confirms that there is no way of fixing the mirror.


If all else fails, there's only 27 permutations to try.

Brute force it.

Make sure first of all that you are using the correct claw, I know that may seem silly, but there are at least 6 different claws I've found in the game.

Secondly, go into your inventory, examine the claw that is required to open said door and flip around to the palm of the claw.

Put the sequence in from top to bottom and try opening the door, if you are looking at the wrong claw for the sequence

(ex.- your using the ruby claws sequence instead of the ebony claws (for the ebony door)) then that is most likely why you are getting shot by poison darts for inputting the wrong sequence.

IF that is not the case, you may need to reset the game, meaning fully exit the game, restart it and load up your save file again, and proceed to enter the correct sequence again.

It should work.

If that still doesn't work then you are not supposed to be in that dungeon because it's related to a story quest that you haven't gotten to yet.

It is also possible in very rare cases that the game has broken down on a fundamental scale and the only way to fix this problem

is through creating a new game, it sucks, but I have come across several instances where this happened to me.

Mainly walking out of a house and being unable to move... and having a dragon choose that exact moment to attack.

Short story, I died... a lot.

If your character is not too high in level, probably anything before level 15 I would recommend just starting a new game.

Or just don't worry about that dungeon.

I've faced this same bug.

It was definitely the right claw and the right order of symbols, and it triggered the trap.

So it's a slightly different bug than the one where it doesn't do anything, but it definitely exists.

I don't know that brute forcing it would work.

I loaded the autosave from going into the inn where you get the sapphire dragon claw, tried it again, and it worked from there.

Simply put, you have the wrong claw and/or are putting in the wrong combination.

The fact that the trap is triggered pretty much proves this.

If it were the normal bug everyone is having, nothing would happen.

If all else fails, you can do the following to pass through a door: Get a wooden bowl and then drag it to the keyhole (hold activate button to drag).

Make sure the bottom of the bowl is facing you and crouch-walk veeeeery slowly up to it.

For a split-second you should be able to see through to the other room Use your whirlwind shout!

I suggest wearing a amulet of talos, for it may take several tries and can be very frustrating

(it took me an hour and a half, keep trying, there should be videos on how to cross walls with wooden bowls on youtube).

It worked for me, I really do hope this will help you.

The claw you were trying to use is the sapphire claw by your own description, so I'm hoping you were in Shroud Hearth Barrow, as it'll only work there.

Inspecting it in your inventory (examine it further while it's highlighted, press R3 on ps3, hover over the item and mouse wheel up on PC/press the c key) reveals the code for the only door it unlocks.

I know some of the following is just stupid, but I've seen and heard each be the problem for someone:

The codes are read from "claws" to "wrist" on the claws palm, the symbols will appear right side up if you're looking at it correctly.

Make sure you have the right code in, all it takes is one errant press of a button to move the wheels too far.

There is only one claw used in more than one area, the Ivory Claw, and it will open more than just puzzle doors.

The rest only have one door per claw.

If you are triggering dart traps, the door is functional, not glitched.

The reason for it not opening is on your end then, or possibly see below.

Doors sometimes "stick", fix them by using their claw on the the correct code, then trying the claw again each time you move all wheels once forward until the code is correct again, it should open on that attempt.

Sometimes things in Skyrim just break.

Reloading a save may work, reentering an area may as well, clearing your game caches may fix this and other issues, or you may have a game breaking glitch, which requires you to restart the entire game.

Try the first three multiple times before the last.

Reload Leave the cave.

Get back in the cave.

Read this loud and passionately: "Oh my god it worked!"

Most of my issues concerning caves was solved by this simple 'reboot'.

Console Alternative Type the following and hit enter: tcl Cross the stone door like a boss.

From the UESP wiki's " Skyrim Puzzle Totems - Bugs " article: A common bug is that the rings on the dragon claw doors may not rotate, or the door may not open after the correct combination is set.

Possible fixes are: Save and then immediately load that save.

Load either the auto-save from the entrance, or a save from before you entered. Exit

the location, save, and load that save.

"Reset" the door by selecting the right combination and try the claw, then turn each ring once and try the claw again.

Do this until the correct combination re-appears and try again.

(On Xbox 360)

Clear the hard drive cache.

Question: For some reasons I cannot open some dragon claw doors. I have the right dragon claw for the door, and I am putting the right code in but the door does not open, it just shoots poison darts at me.  It happened with the sapphire claw and one other, but I forget the color.

Why some dragon claw doors do not open?

Make sure you are using the right claw as there are at least 6 in the game. You can also try restarting the game. It might also be because you have not completed the quest that goes with that dungeon.

While Skyrim has plenty of bugs, it seems that the problem has to do with in game mechanics.

The community suggests few ways to troubleshoot the problematic door.


A very interesting discussion about this from this Reddit /r/teslore post : In the Azura and the Box story, the sage Nchylbar was not trying to prove whether Azura could determine what was in the box.

He was concerned with whether the divine spirits had mastery over all of the world, or if mortals could create their own destinies.

So he duped Azura.

She saw clearly what was in the box, but he palmed the flower before revealing it.

In the Aldmer version of the tale, a sphere becomes a flat square, but I'd surmise that the gist of the story still hinges on slight of hand trumping divine power.

Source:

Azura and the Box is one of the Tales of the Ancient Dwemer by Marobar Sul.

It is a plagiarisation of a Colovian story adapted to fit a popular conception of the Dwemer.

It is not to be regarded as an historical document.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/rdbxh/azura_and_the_box_and_halfdwemer_people/c44y12r

We might assume that Azura noticed that the flower petal was palmed out of the box, but importantly: the followers in the audience don't know that.

So they are led to believe that Azura guessed wrong.

The deception is so bald-faced that we might expect Azura to retaliate, but she had agreed not to harm anyone in advance.

The trick of the box is that it isn't the box that's the trick, it's the whole setup: if Azura was all-knowing, she wouldn't have agreed to the encounter in the first place.

Nchylbar was skeptical of the extension of divine powers.

"Nothing, however, was a greater question to Nchylbar than the limits of divine power.

Were the Greater Beings the masters of the entire world, or did the humbler creatures have the strength to forge their own destinies?" Being the Dwemer 'secretive' by definition

it is unlikely you'll find any documentation regarding the exact purpose of his experiment.

What we do know, however, is that the 'red flower petal' could have actually been inside the box but removed by sleight of hands.

I think the most important point of the story is the fact that Azura fled after the box was opened.

What seems to be alluded to is that for all their power Daedra can experience the concept of doubt, which for an all knowing, all seeing being, is quite a revealing trait.

This is what I think Nchylbar was trying to prove

, not that Azure WAS wrong but that she could be tricked into displaying that she MAY be wrong.

(It feels wrong to refer to Azure as he or it).

EDIT:

Just to add, there is an ongoing (fan based) theory that the power of divine beings in the TES universe is a direct cause of belief.

For instance, Talos is a divine because people believe Talos is a divine, therefore Talos is a divine.

Of course, I want to make clear this is pretty much an out of universe observation by fans but stories like Azura and the Box do support the theory.

What was it that Azura was afraid of?

If a divine being's power is called into question, even slightly, are they really infallible?

i think it was to show that daedra are capable of being wrong but do not like mortals to know it.

Trying to apply mortal (not only mortal, but human) psychology to such a being is futile, since they are so alien in the way they act and feel.

if she were more human i'd say she were embarassed and angry having just lost face or had known what the dwemer did and couldnt be bothered wasting time on mortals that will troll her.

maybe she went back to moonshadow, to form some vile curse for those involved, as the priest had sensed.

The priest was mortified having seen the daedras face before she left, and both the men had to be "carried" out of the chamber by aids, also the head researcher died that night...

The trick isn't in the box, the trick is in the lose lose situation that was created.

Azura Promised not to Hurt anyone Nchylbar blasphemed

So if she hurt Nchylbar her word is worthless, and if she lets him live, as she did, he got away with doing something that clearly he should be punished for.

The fact that she allowed herself to get into this situation suggests at the least that she cant 100% see into the future or read everyone mind 100% accurately.

If you compare it with the Dunmer version, where she doesn't answer; not answering is the best way to get out of the situation, though allowing herself into it is still a flaw.

Question: In the story, " Azura and the Box ", what exactly did Nchylbar learn about Azura's powers?

What actually happens in "Azura and the Box"?

It's a plagiarisation of a Colovian story. We assume that Azura noticed the flower petal was palmed out of the box, but if Azura was all-knowing, she wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place. It was to show that daedra are capable of being wrong.

The topic, regarding this story, requires further knowledge since the meaning behind this story is a bit vague.

The community speculates about the story.


Your initial thoughts are correct about the armor.

This link describes how to kill a brute and offers a brief video with some general info.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Brute Brute's defenses consist entirely of a yellow Armor bar.

To deplete this you can use fire-based attacks and Powers meant to reduce armor.

The most important thing to remember is to keep your distance.

Stay behind cover and roll out of the way when it nears you.

If it hits you, your shields will evaporate.

Hit it with Grenades and other explosives.

Armor Piercing Rounds and Disrupter Ammo are good to help reduce the armor, but explosives can momentarily pause the creature, giving you valuable time to get away.

The other thing I've been doing a lot is saving my grenades for large enemies and bosses only.

I've really only had to deal with brutes and atlases so far, but having grenades while your other abilities are in cooldown makes a big difference.

As with most creatures, Aim for the Head!

Specifically, you'll want to aim for that Turian head grafted onto the front of the Brute.

Nail it right between the eyes, and it won't last long.

As a Sentinel, I've found that the Lob Grenade power is extremely useful, particularly when you're being surrounded by multiple brutes.

3-4 grenades should drop them to almost 1/4 of their armor strength.

Couple of shots of Warp interspersed with Lob Grenades should make mincemeat of the brutes.

Also, do run away from brutes - climb the ladders, brutes can't climb them.

Close/melee encounters with the brute will leave you in jelly in no time

Vanguard with fast power recharge could easily melee even groups of brutes.

(At least on normal difficulty.)

Just charge, hit, roll side-way and charge again.

Repeat until brute is dead.

One thing: Do not charge while brute is about to pouce.

It will interrupt your melee and drop your shields.

The soft spot is the exposed spine just behind the head.

Not as much armor plating there

so you can knock a good chunk of his armor down.

with the vanguard, you can easily kill numerous brutes using charge and nova.

just make sure you have a fast cool down and you move back or sideways before you nova.

thats if you got the radius for nova.

same tactic with banshee

Question: The Brutes are giant Reaper-Giant hybrids that are very well armored, to the point where I'm sure their entire health bar is their armor.  However, it seems to me that there is a certain point where it is most weak against my shots but I am unable to figure out which part of its body to aim for.    Any suggestions?

How to kill a Brute effectively

Lob Grenade power is very useful and you should aim for the head. The soft spot is the exposed spine just behind the head.

Seems like each player has a different approach to tackle Brutes.

The community is detailing few tactics that work against Brutes.


I believe it is entirely random.

I play Borderlands far too much, and I've never found any pattern to it.

It's definitely worth it to check whenever you're in New Haven, as the hidden vendor has a higher than normal chance of having high quality weapons.

I tend to find a lot of oranges in it.

You must have completed "Hair of the Dog" from Earl.

After that it should be open all the time, the fact that it isn't appears to be a bug .

I found that when playing a multiplayer game the door was always open.

In single player, teleporting to New Haven from Middle of Nowhere seemed to almost always open the door.

If you don't mind a bit of tweaking, you can access the shop through the wall even if its closed as long as you've enabled the vendor by visiting the "Middle of Nowhere" waypoint.

c/p from the video comments: to enable 3rd person view in Borderlands

here's what You have to do:

Go to:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\documents\My

Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config Open:

WillowInput.ini Search for [WillowGame.

WillowPlayerInput] Add the following below other binds: Bindings=(Name="F3",Command="Camera

ThirdPerson",Control=False,Shift=

False,Alt

=False)

Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="Camera FirstPerson",Control=

False,Shift=

False,Alt

=False)

Now If You press F3 You will go to third person view, F4 brings back first person view, You can change the keys to others I simply prefer using this,

From my experience, its only open if you are doing the quest line from Marcus & you are visiting New Haven during the daytime.

I also found this:

This opened once I completed the quest 'IVE GOT A SINKING FEELING' and found the 110101 Eridian Blaster.

It's usually stuck closed if you start off in New Haven that play session.

Meaning, if you log out in New Haven to farm the chests when you get back on, checking the hidden vendor along with it doesn't quite go to plan as the door will usually be closed.

Porting out of town and back should open it back up.

It does only open for the first time after you've reached far enough in the game.

I believe reaching Middle of Nowhere unlocks it as others mentioned.

I found if you log out anywhere BUT new haven and log back in, then FT back to new haven, it will be open.

Tried it 10 times, worked 10 times.

So, don't log out in New Haven or the door will be locked the whole play session.

Did this on PC by the way.

Not sure if it will work on xbox360 or not.

Happy Vault Hunting! EDIT

- I can also confirm this vendor box will only open up when you get to Middle of Nowhere.

Question: In New Haven, there is sometimes a second weapons vendor across the street from the usual one.  However, it isn't  always  open.  Is there anything I can do to ensure it is available?

How do I gain access to the hidden weapons vendor in New Haven?

It's only open if you are doing the quest line from Marcus and visiting New Haven. You must have completed Hair of the Dog.

There are few steps that need to be followed before accessing the vendor in question.

The community is offering some suggestions.