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Skill Master achievement in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skill Master

Get a skill to 100

Skill Master0
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How to unlock the Skill Master achievement

  • Iam918Iam918
    15 Nov 2011 15 Nov 2011 12 Apr 2013
    ****It has been reported that this has been fixed since patch 1.9 (April 8, 2013).

    This should still work if you remove the patch and start a new character playing offline.

    However, Removing the patch and trying to play offline with Old Saves from any patched version will give you an error about them being created with a newer version and not let you run them.****
    ---Many Thanks to Jyejitsu and AmazingBong4eva for the updates.

    This will get your speech skill to 100 in approximately 30 min.

    Credit for this goes to AzureVesper over on x360a.
    www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=342453
    Video attached.

    To start getting free skill-ups you need 25 speech, until then you can pay 39g for each bribe. I was already speech 22 when I started this so it only took a few bribes to get to 25 speech. Afterwards I was able to steal back my bribe money.

    1) Head to Riften
    * If you haven’t been previously, go outside a major city and take the wagon to Riften for 20g.
    2) Intimidate, Persuade or Bribe the Guard to let you in
    3) Go to Black-Briar Meadery
    4) Talk to Ungrien
    * If not there wait outside until after 7 or 8am and go back in.
    5) Select Tell me about option

    6a) If not skill 25, Select Bribe option
    * Keep doing this until skill 25
    6b) After skill 25, Select Persuade option

    Repeat steps 5 & 6b (choosing Persuade) untill speech skill 100.

    If you have a Turbo controller just set A to turbo. The game remembers the last option you chose when re-selecting conversation items so it will auto select 'Tell me about' and 'Persuade' along with speeding up the dialog for you.

    Guide not helping? View 20 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    Iam918Thanks for the update, I'll add that to the OP.
    Posted by Iam918 on 10 Apr 13 at 12:45
    AmazingBong4evaThis no longer works. All my old gamesaves say they were created using a newer version and won't play unless I update. My oldest gamesave dates back to 1/7/2012. I guess I could start a new game.
    Posted by AmazingBong4eva on 12 Apr 13 at 07:25
    Platypus OwlIf you start a new game this still works as long as you delete the update before hand (I played it offline as well).

    Once you make it out of the first cave in the beginning, head to Winterhold and take a Carriage to Riften. Follow this guide and about 30 minutes later after pushing A A A A A over and over again, you'll be at Speech 100 and about level 13-18.

    Works 4-24-2013 if you start a new game without the update installed.
    Posted by Platypus Owl on 24 Apr 13 at 13:03
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  • Tho RadiaTho Radia
    12 Nov 2011 12 Nov 2011
    For a less Grindy way than X1ooobirds guide, i found one of the simplest skills to raise to 100 was Smithing.

    Instead of sitting back and doing a boring grind all you need to do is keep an eye on animals when your out and about, kill them and collect their Hides.

    You can tan the hides (For free!) at most Smithies in the bigger towns (Your looking to interact with a rack with a stretched hide across it) then just make leather strips out of the leather (you want to have a 2:1 Ratio of Strips:Leather).

    Go over to the forge and make loads of Leather Braces (1 Leather, 2 Strips) go and sell the product and carry on your adventure.

    If you like you can use the money you get from selling the Leather bracers on (as well as your own) to buy more Leather and Straps from the Blacksmith, but really this method makes sure its going up constantly and not in a boring way.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    iBrotherVonDoomBefore utilising the smithing grind... I would advise travelling to a large dwemer dungeon.
    They are all over the map. the 2 best ones i found are in the keep in Markarth. Either turn left before you get to the jarl or turn right and head through the back of the museum.
    Pick up all dwemer metel you can carry. (use the STEED stone to gain extra 100 carry weight)
    Use the smelter to turn the dwemer metel into Dwarven ingots.
    I made 3 trips and produced well over 300 dwarven ingots. Now choose the dwarf armor perk and make dwarven BOWS (1 iron ingot + 2 Dwarven ingots) no leather required.
    If you improve these before selling you can make a lot more money than making iron daggers.

    SUMMARY: I produced close to 100 dwarven bows in WHITERUN.
    I stored them in my house BREEZEHOME (which is right next door to the blacksmith)
    After improving them they sold for between 300 - 600 coins each.

    This not only gets you the level 100 achievement but also gets you much closer to the
    100,000 gold achievement.
    Posted by iBrotherVonDoom on 23 Nov 11 at 03:29
    Tho RadiaFair enough, I'll add that in. It's not all the dwarven stuff that can be smelted down mind.
    Posted by Tho Radia on 23 Nov 11 at 08:04
    Red GhidorahJust wanted to add that if you wait two days you can buy and sell materials from the same smith again as that seems to be the replenishment schedule.
    Posted by Red Ghidorah on 29 Nov 11 at 22:44
  • Demonex MachinaDemonex Machina
    24 Feb 2012 15 Mar 2012 11 May 2012
    For this achievement you're only required to level a single skill to 100. Which sounds more time-consuming than it actually is, considering how quickly most skills level and all the glitches, exploits, and boosting and grinding techniques there are in the game, some of which I've included in this guide.

    In Skyrim, the player has a level for each individual skill along with a character level that increases after a set number of skills increase. You can level a skill by preforming an action related to that skill (e.g. killing enemies with a bow to increase the Archery skill), spending gold to train with an NPC, reading skill books, or gaining skill increases as a quest reward.

    Attached to this guide, are various videos showing the techniques described. If you decide to skip to the videos, I'd recommend you at least read General Leveling Tips.

    If any of the below methods stop working due to a patch or something, leave a comment. I'll alter the solution.

    Complete list of Skills:
    There are 18 skills in all. They are split up into there categories: magic, combat, and stealth.

    This is the complete list of skills:

    Magic:
    Alteration
    Conjuration
    Destruction
    Enchanting
    Illusion
    Restoration

    Combat:
    Archery
    Block
    Heavy Armor
    One-handed
    Smithing
    Two-handed

    Stealth
    Alchemy
    Light Armor
    Lockpicking
    Pickpocket
    Sneak
    Speech

    General Leveling Tips:
    A good way to make leveling go by faster, is to activate one of the three standing stones located at The Guardian Stones, which is Southwest of Riverwood and Northwest of Helgen. There are three standing stones here, the Mage, Warrior, and Thief stones. Each stone multiplies your skill gain from one of the three different skill categories by 20%. You can only have one stone active at a time, but can travel here to change to a different stone any time you want.

    Sleeping provides resting bonuses that improve skill gain for 8 in-game hours. The sleeping bonuses you receive depend on where you sleep, such as:

    • Sleeping in a bed you don't own grants you the Rested bonus, which multiplies all skill increases by 5%.

    • Sleeping in a bed that you do own grants you the Well Rested bonus, which multiplies all skill increases by 10%. This applies to beds in player-owned houses and to beds that you have rented in an inn.

    • Sleeping in a bed in the same building as your spouse grants you the Lover's Comfort bonus, which multiplies all skill increases by 15%.

    Enemies level as the player levels, so leveling too many non-combative skills too quickly can lead to a character weaker than his character level.

    The Legit Way:
    Skyrim is a good game. If you just play it, sooner or later, this'll pop. You're going to have to play it a lot anyways, if you plan on completing it, so it's not really necessary to grind.

    I'm not gonna get all preachy and tell you that boosting is wrong and you shouldn't do it, though. There's nothing wrong with boosting and this is a boosting site. Besides, I've boosted lots of games myself. It's your choice how you choose to game.

    Oghma Infinium Book Exploit:
    With this you can level any or all skills to 100 with minimal effort.

    For this, you need to be a level 15 or higher and own the house in Whiterun with the living room decorations purchased.

    Travel to the secluded cave Septimus Signus's Outpost, north of the College of Winterhold, to meet a recluse named Septimus Signus. He'll give the Daedric quest "Discerning the Transmundane."

    Note: This quest is concurrent with the main quest "Elder Knowledge." Completing it before "Elder Knowledge" will glitch this main quest mission. The main quest can still be completed, though, but you'll be forced to skip some minor dialogue.

    Completing this mission will give you the Daedric artifact, Oghma Infinium.

    This is a book that levels all the skills in one skill category of your choosing. If you use it, though, it will vanish. This exploit will let you use it infinitely without it vanishing.

    If you don't own the house in Whiterun, play the main quest until you complete at least "Dragon Rising", then talk to the court mage, Farengar Secret-Fire to recieve the quest "Bleak Falls Barrow", which after completion will allow you the purchase of the house, Breezehome, located next to the blacksmith.

    Purchase the house, buy the living room upgrade, and enter Breezehome. Now, complete these steps:

    1. Activate one of the bookcase shelves.

    2. Select the Oghma Infinium in your inventory and press either RT or LT to read it.

    3. Select the skill category you will to level and press back once.

    4. Place the book on the shelf and exit.

    5. Activate the book, select "(Do not read)" and take the book.

    6. Repeat all steps until skill(s) is/are maxed.

    Black-Briar Meadery Speech Exploit:
    While talking to a specific vendor in Riften, you'll have the option of persuading him into giving you a little insight. Do to a little error in programming, you can persuade this character multiple times, with each persuasion granting Speech experience.

    Travel to Riften and enter Black-Briar Meadery, then follow these steps:

    1. Speak with Ungrien, the man standing behind the counter. If he's not there, wait an hour or two.

    2. Select "Tell me about Maven Black-Briar."

    3. Select "Come on, get the truth off your chest. (Persuade)" or if your Speech is lower than 25, select "Here, now tell me the truth. ([small amount of] gold)".

    3. Repeat all steps until the Speech skill is maxed.

    Note: After completing the Thieves Guild quest line, Ungrien may disappear, and be replaced by Romlyn Dreth.

    Smithing Daggers:
    By accumulating leather strips and iron ingots, you can smith lots of daggers, quickly increasing the Smithing skill.

    A good place to do this is Whiterun. Travel there and speak with Eorlund Gray-Mane at the Skyforge outside of Jorrvaskr (the Companions headquarters), and buy all the iron ingot, iron ore, leather, and leather strips that he has.

    Then go to Warmaiden's and speak with Adrianne Avenicci. She's the blacksmith in front of the shop between 12pm and 2pm. Make sure to buy from her when she's outside, as her inventory will be different from the shop's. Buy all the same items from her, then, enter the shop and buy the same from her husband, Ulfberth War-Bear.

    Now, exit the shop and get started making dagger. You can use Warmaiden's forge. Use the smelter to smelt as many iron ingots as you can, and the tanner to tan any hides you may have, then turn all leather into leather strips.

    Activate the forge, select iron, then highlight iron daggers. Rapidly click A to continuously smith until your resources are depleted.

    Rinse, repeat.

    Again, those steps are:

    1. Buy all the iron ingot, iron ore, leather, and leather strips that you can.

    2. Smelt iron ore into iron ingot, tan any hides you may have into leather, and turn all leather into leather strips.

    3. Smith iron dagger repeatedly until resources are depleted.

    4. Repeat all steps until the Smithing skill is maxed.

    After smithing the daggers, you can sell them if you'd like, or you can enchant them (preferably with the Banish enchantment), then sell them.

    Muffle Boosting:
    Some spells can be cast on yourself at anytime. Muffle is one of these. It gives large quantities of experience for Illusion.

    You'll need to be at least a level 25, and have purchased the Muffle spell. If you can't find someone to sell you the spell, try one of the court wizards, such as Farengar Secret-Fire in Whiterun's Dragonsreach.

    You can improve your Magicka regeneration, increase your Magicka, and decrease Magicka usage by equipping enchanted items and using spells.

    Pickpocket Boosting:
    The more expensive an item you pickpocket is, the more experience you'll gain. To make pickpocketing easier, fish for items that weigh less. Jewels and Jewelry are easy and net lots of experience.

    This exploit will let you pickpocket the items off of a specific NPC, then reverse-pickpocket the items back onto him, and if he catches you it won't summon the guards.

    Travel to Riften, then commit a small crime. Pickpocketing a guard is a good option. Choose to do jail-time, then while in jail, lockpick the door. Now, sneak to the cell across from yours. Inside it is Sibbi Black-Briar. Complete these steps:

    1a. Pickpock Sibbi. Take the most expensive items he has.

    1b. If you get caught repeat step 1a.

    2a. Reverse pickpocket Sibbi. Put the most expensive items you have on him.

    2b. If you get caught repeat step 2a.

    3. Repeat all steps until the Pickpocketing skill is maxed.

    Keep a lookout for guards. They may not be alerted to you when you get caught, but they still wander around. And, if they catch you, they'll kill you. Be sure to save every now and again to be safe.

    Videos:
    The below Youtube videos are shown in an order compared to the order of the above sections respectively. There not my videos and I don't take credit for them.

    The "Oghma Infinium Book Glitch/Exploit" and "Max Speech Glitch" videos were posted by Gametastik.

    "Tutorial to Easy 100 Smithing" was posted by stevenwg19.

    "Level Up Illusion to 100 fast" was posted by VesperAzure.

    "How to Level Pickpocketing to 100 Fast! " was posted by Wiggmuzzle.
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