This short guide is all about a little trick in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that allows the player to level-up at the very beginning of the game. This trick is mostly well-known these days, seeing as Skyrim is 13 years old, but I’m still going to throw it out there just incase people did not know about it up until now.
How It Begins:
After the long, boring intro to Skyrim, the player creates their character and heads to get beheaded for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While being placed on the executioners block, Alduin, the main dragon, appears almost out of nowhere, and starts attacking the city of Helgen. During this time, you find yourself running through the ruinous city until you make it to the keep.
Step One:
Important Note: This next part is crucial to do this trick. You MUST go into the keep with Hadvar the Imperial Legion soldier who takes you in through the left doorway to the keep.
After following Hadvar in, and getting your binds cut free, you must search the room for some armor and a weapon. This is where the trick begins. If the player does not open the Warden’s Chest in the room (the one with a place marker on it), then they remain in the room with Hadvar repeating the same 2 or 3 sentences over and over. On the wall by the chest there are 2 swords in two different weapons racks. These are critical to the execution of this trick.
Step Two:
Grab the swords, equip them both, and its time to start leveling up! Hardvar is one of the in-game characters you can not kill no matter how many times you hit him. He won’t move on until the player opens the chest and takes its contents. That means he is trapped there to be your personal training dummy. Repeatedly slash Hadvar until your one-handed weapon skill increases enough to get you some free levels and skill points.
Other Method:
Obviously the longer you do it the harder it will be to level up. Thankfully you have one more option to squeeze out a few more levels. Go into your magic menu and double equip your Flame spell. Each character comes stock with this spell so don’t worry about not having it. Use one of those skill points you got from slashing Hadvar over and over again and put it on the first skill under Destruction magic. Now you’re ready to blast Hadvar with fire repeatedly and increase your Destruction skill the same way as you did the One-handed skill. Note that Destruction will take much longer since you have to wait for your blue magicka bar to fill, and the “wait” button does not work yet at this point.
Conclusion
Its that simple. Get yourself a few extra levels right at the beginning of the game, and give yourself an edge on your next playthrough. I usually go until my Destruction and One-handed skills are both at level 30 or higher. That usually equates to about six levels, which also means six skill points to assign early. Granted, a lot of players might view this as cheating, and in a sense it is, but who cares! It’s a game, do whatever you want!
Did you already know about this trick? Do you use it or think its cheating? Tell us what you think of this trick in the comment section below!
