Wildest Things You Can Do In Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim might be showing its age, but it's a foundational piece of the open-world RPG genre. One of Bethesda's masterpieces, it boasts an incredible, hand-crafted world brimming with quests, secrets, dungeons, and iconic NPCs. In many ways, Skyrim is more of a sandbox than a great RPG. There's great freedom to explore and to interact with some of the game's unexpected, quirky, and whimsical features.

From funny, magical weapons to peculiar ways of leveling up, beyond the usual cycle of questing and upgrading, you have a ton of weird things you can get up to in Skyrim. Whether you're a veteran who's spent hundreds of hours in the game, thousands even, or a newcomer who's only now discovering the game for the first time, it's a rite of passage to explore some of the wildest things you can do in this game.

Advanced Fishing Tactics

Shout Your Catch Out Of The Water

Yes, yes, fishing is a mechanic in the game in the year 2026 in Skyrim, but why content yourself with using a basic fishing pole when you could use your cool and unique Dragonborn abilities? The answer is obvious. Style over substance, always.

Just equip your usual Unrelenting Force shout, and you can not only kill but send the fish flying out of the water, making them easy for you to pick up and cook as food or sell at the Whiterun marketplace for a coin or two. Perfect way to keep being a hero even when you're not questing and fighting dragons.

Level Up Using A Horse

Smack Your Steed, And Skill Up

If you're struggling to level up fast, especially at higher difficulties, there are a few cool ways to do this. You can cast a few mass Restoration spells in crowded locations in cities, but if you're not into leveling up Restoration and want to boost your raw combat skills, whether they're Archery, Two-Handed, or One-Handed, just find yourself a horse.

Activate the Warrior Stone so you get that additional 20% XP boost, and then go to town and start smacking. Why does this work? Because the horses in Skyrim are built differently, and can take quite a whacking compared to most creatures.

Become A Werewolf

Howl To The Moon In Your Beast Form

Who wants to be in a stinky human form when you could be a massive, hairy beast of a creature? If you agree, you'll want to join the Companions faction, found in Whiterun. It will take a bit of busywork before you can undergo the ritual and turn you into a werewolf.

You can shift once per day, but be very careful and responsible with this newly acquired power of yours, because turning around regular civilians or city guards will have them freaking out and incur a bounty for you. If it's not your jam, you can always cure yourself by the end of the Companions questline, too.

Gather A Collection Of Cheese Wheels

We Love Cheese!

It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without some item physics shenanigans. Console commands will let you spawn in a whole pile of cheese wheels just for the heck of it, or if you're more of a diligent, collectionist type, you could also just loot the world slowly and methodically while adventuring and store your cheeses in your home.

Think about how much food that is! And who doesn't love cheese? Your potential spouse moving in might be concerned by the mountain of cheese wheels, but as the Dragonborn, your will is the law in Skyrim, and if you choose cheese, then cheese it shall be.

Kill Your Companion

The Non-Essential Ones, At Least

We've all experienced this at least once. We recruit a companion, go on a few adventures, and suddenly become aware of the fact that they're gone. Then starts the search. You might find their bodies in the depths of a dungeon, when they tanked ten Falmers for you while you were busy whacking a boss or looting a chest. Or you might never find them anywhere again.

That's because some companions are non-essentials, so when they die, they're gone for good. Thankfully, most of the really interesting ones are unstoppable and will just be downed in a sticky situation.

Climbing A Mountain With A Horse

The Horses Really Are Made Differently In Skyrim

So, we already established that horses make great practice dummies for leveling up your martial skills, but they're also the best vehicle in Skyrim when it comes to getting around, well, pretty much anywhere. Skyrim's horses are not limited by the petty laws of physics.

They can scale some pretty impossible-looking cliffsides, including that huge mountain in the middle of the map, all the way to High Hrothgar. It might take some time and planning, but it's much more interesting than taking the usual path from Ivarstead. Also, it's cooler.

Annoying Essential NPCs

Test The Patience Of These Immortal Characters

As mentioned with companions, some characters in Skyrim are marked as essential. This means that no matter how much you smack them with a sword, they'll stay alive, so that the game's most important quests don't break before you actually complete them.

However, what that also means is you can endlessly annoy these NPCs and bait them into attacking you, leading them into epic fights against enemies far away from their usual location. Why not bait Ulfric into a dragon fight? Or Brynjolf to protect you against guards who are after your bounty?

Getting Sent To The Atmosphere By A Giant

Sign Up For The Skyrim Space Program

Giants are one of the most intimidating enemies in the game. They're large and yield unparalleled power. One smack is pretty much and instakill from them, so it's best to take them out from afar if you're after their loot and the mammoths they herd.

That said, it's practically a rite of passage in this game to run into these guys once and get sent into the atmosphere during the kill cam. Thank Talos, for the kill cam, honestly, because it has resulted in some hilarious moments and screenshots throughout the years.

Using Buckets For Stealth

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Suffering from some monetary problems in Skyrim? Tired of running around doing quests and looting just to afford a few potions or soul gems? I feel you. Luckily, with just a bucket or basket as your tool, you can rob pretty much any vendor in the entire province.

Plop that thing on their head and go to town in their shop. Soon enough, you won't have to worry about affording that nice house in Solitude and Markarth, with all the house upgrades you need. This trick works for any stealth mission, really, so make sure to carry the game's most powerful stealth item in your inventory at all times.

Hardcore Parkour

Markarth Is Your Jumping Playground

Skyrim has some verticality, yes, but nothing like Cyberpunk 2077. Still, if you're a friend of parkour and would like to test your skills, head on over to Markarth and see how high up you can climb without taking the usual path.

It's the best city for this, and you might discover spots you never thought you could reach. Bonus points if you have the Whirlwind Sprint equipped, which lets you move horizontally even further while making your way through the city's stone structure.