Skyrim – HundoDex

Skyrim Quest Order Guide – What to Do First and What to Leave

Which Skyrim quests to grab early, which to hurry or hold back, which to leave half done, and the pairs that lock each other out if done in the wrong order.

Grab Early

Short, safe jobs that hand over gear, services or helpers from the first hour. None needs a high level or changes the world.

  • Borrow the Jarl's greatsword: Balgruuf's Greatsword, which outclasses anything you can make or buy in the first hours. Nothing forces you to hand it over to the Jarl, so swing it for as long as it is useful. Delivering it only pays 20 gold.
  • Carry Vilkas's sword to Eorlund: A sword as good as Skyforge steel, long before the Companions would normally arm you that well. Vilkas asks you to take it up to the Skyforge to be sharpened. Use it on the way for as long as you like.
  • Wear Andurs' amulet before returning it: An Amulet of Arkay for 10 extra health, plus an Unusual Gem in the catacombs that starts No Stone Unturned. Little fighting, and a follower can handle what there is. There is no time limit on the amulet, and the delivery only pays 15 gold.
  • Fetch the Argonian Ale for Brenuin: A Potion of Vigorous Healing that restores 100 health. Sell Hulda some chopped firewood first: once she likes you, taking the ale from the Bannered Mare no longer counts as theft.
  • Carry Alessandra's dagger, but deliver it late: A light dagger to fight with while it is in your pack. Start it at once and use the dagger, but hand it to Andurs only once your Restoration is 40 or more. Below that a fault withholds the reward.
  • Begin The Taste of Death: An Amulet of Arkay from the first part of the quest. Needs one successful Speech check. See Start, Don’t Finish for why you may want to stop partway.
  • Explore the abandoned house in Markarth: Apprentice restoration robes, a hood for 40 extra magicka and an Amulet of Stendarr, all lying in the house. Only the first part: little fighting, and a follower can deal with it.
  • Help Salma and Beem-Ja in Ironbind Barrow: The Steel Battleaxe of Fiery Souls, a strong early enchantment, and a word of Become Ethereal. Earlier is easier: at low levels Beem-Ja casts no magic. Let the two of them fight each other, and beware that Salma may grab the axe first.
  • Join the Thieves Guild: Thieves Guild armor, whose hood improves prices, and a fence who buys stolen goods. The first jobs never leave Riften. They need a little lockpicking, one pickpocket and a few bandit fights, all easy with some preparation.
  • Answer the Dark Brotherhood: The Shrouded Armor, strong at low level once you wear all four pieces, plus the Marked for Death shout later on. No skill checks needed. Joining the Brotherhood here rules out Destroy the Dark Brotherhood!, so decide which path you want first.
  • Enrol at the College of Winterhold: An apprentice spell, Lesser Ward, the Atronach Forge, enchanted rings and a word of Ice Form. Faralda wants to see one spell cast at the gate, which takes about 135 magicka; potions or gear can make up the difference.
  • Recover King Olaf's verse for the Bards College: A place at the Bards College and the Gift of Gab bonus, which makes Speech improve 15% faster. A medium dungeon run through Dead Men’s Respite. See Hold Off for when to hand in the teachers’ errands.
  • Settle the Riverwood love triangle: A little gold and a follower: Sven or Faendal. Faendal also trains Archery. Never leaves Riverwood and needs no skills.
  • Run The Book of Love for Dinya Balu: An Amulet of Mara, which lets you marry, and the Agent of Mara blessing against magic. The four couples are spread out and two of them are far from any carriage, so pick it up early and finish it as you travel.
  • Do the Riften stable jobs: Gold, a potion and a horse to ride, without paying for one. Both stay inside Riften and need next to no skill.
  • Pick Ingun Black-Briar's ingredients: Afterwards Ingun lets you take the potions and poisons in her room every few days. Ten to fifteen minutes of flower picking, no fighting.
  • Visit Pelagius’s mind: The Wabbajack, a Daedric artifact, at any level. One Speech check or one pickpocket, and it never leaves Solitude.
  • Do favours for the apothecaries: Each shopkeeper lets you take the cheaper items in their shop without it counting as theft. Lami's shop in Morthal is the best of them. Two more apothecaries offer the same, but only after a dungeon run.
  • Plant Viola's ring for Revyn Sadri: Revyn will train Speech up to 50, which is enough to reach the Merchant perk. Needs one lockpick or one pickpocket.

Worth Doing Soon

Harder or level gated, but each pays off for the rest of the game, and some get worse the longer they wait.

  • Become Thane of Falkreath: The Thane title, a housecarl and the chance to buy land for a Hearthfire house. Siddgeir's Rare Gift is only offered before level 10, when his bandit job replaces it. A bottle of Black-Briar Mead from the Helgen dungeon finishes it in a moment.
  • Open Glover Mallory's back room: A hidden room in Raven Rock with gear that refills, and the Blackguard’s Armor. Starts once Taking Care of Business is done. The boat to Solstheim costs 250 gold and can be taken at level 1.
  • Burn down Sarethi Farm for Louis Letrush: Frost, a fast horse of your own. About twenty minutes, but you need some combat or stealth to get through.
  • Catch the Butcher of Windhelm: The Necromancer's Amulet, strong at low level and worth a lot when sold. Starts when you walk into Windhelm in the evening. Finish it in one go: leaving it half done is known to stall it.
  • Out-drink Sam Guevenne: Sanguine Rose, a Daedric staff. Starts in any inn from level 14. Its last stretch is easier with Speech 50 and a couple of invisibility potions than by fighting.
  • Cleanse Meridia's temple: Dawnbreaker, a sword that burns undead. Opens at level 12, but Kilkreath Ruins only become fair around level 24 and its last foe is very tough until about 40.
  • Look into the Markarth murders: The Armor of the Old Gods, the Silver-Blood Family Ring, and some Forsworn camps that stop attacking. Only the first investigation steps are worth rushing. Siding in the Civil War or signing the peace treaty first can close Cidhna Mine for good: see Order Matters.
  • Prove yourself to the Companions: A Skyforge steel weapon, and more to buy from Eorlund. Farkas is known to misbehave in Proving Honor, and it gets much harder the longer you leave it.
  • Collect the Stones of Barenziah: The Crown of Barenziah and the Prowler's Profit perk, which turns up extra gems. Twenty four gems are spread across Skyrim, so pick them up as you go rather than hunting them at the end.
  • Follow the trail from Frostflow Lighthouse: A permanent 10% boost to healing spells. Falmer and chaurus fill the abyss, so wait until about level 20. Of little use if you heal only with potions.
  • Find Dibella's new Sybil: More melee damage against the opposite sex, and a master Enchanting trainer in Markarth. Medium difficulty, with a known fault that can stop it. Do it once you are comfortable fighting.
  • Carry From-Deepest-Fathoms' cargo: Ancient Knowledge: faster Smithing and better armor in Dwemer gear. Level 15 or so. Worth little to characters who never wear armor or use a forge.
  • Settle Sinding's curse before becoming a werewolf: Saviour's Hide or the Ring of Hircine, and no risk from the cursed ring later. Quick and easy. The cursed ring only troubles werewolves, so finish this before you join the Circle.
  • Rebuild the Aetherial Crown: An Aetherial item from the Dwemer forge, such as the Crown that holds two Standing Stone blessings at once, and Zephyr, a fast bow, on the way. A long trip through four Dwemer ruins with plenty of fighting. Mind Alain Dufont in Raldbthar: see Order Matters.

Hold Off

Quests that change Skyrim for good, or whose rewards are worth more once you are stronger. Start them when you are ready.

  • Kill the first dragon when you are ready for more: Dragon souls for shouts, which also means dragons all over Skyrim from then on. Starting the quest is harmless; the dragons only begin once Mirmulnir dies. While A Blade in the Dark is open they only appear at word walls.
  • Pick a side in the Civil War late: Joining closes the other side's camps to you and brings their soldiers down on you on the road. Taking a hold replaces its Jarl, and several quests break when that happens. Leave the war until the rest of a hold is done.
  • Think twice before taking the blood of the Circle: Beast Form, which also stops you ever getting the Rested bonus from sleep. A cure exists later in the questline, but each one uses up a scarce unique item.
  • Leave The Rising Dead until level 11: Zombie conjuration spells and the only source of Mort Flesh, but hordes of zombies roam Skyrim afterwards. It opens from level 5, yet the hordes are lethal that low and the Conjure Foul Zombie tome only sells from level 11.
  • Hand in skill rewards in the late 80s: The Bards College teachers and other quest givers raise a skill as their reward. A skill of 90 or more is not raised, so turn them in when the skill sits in the late 80s. Some errands disappear if you move to another city first.
  • Deliver Alessandra’s dagger at Restoration 40: The blessing at the end of the trip. A known fault holds the reward back if your Restoration is under 40, so keep the dagger until then.

Start, Don't Finish

Quests whose middle is better than their end: an unkillable companion or a handy tool that you lose once the quest is closed.

  • Keep Barbas by your side: Barbas cannot be harmed at all, not just knocked down. His wandering can be trying, and the reward at the end, the Rueful Axe, is mostly worth its sale price.
  • Bring Brother Verulus along: Verulus follows you on top of your usual follower. He leaves once the quest moves on, so stop before the end if you want to keep him.
  • Fight beside Mercer Frey: Mercer is fast, cannot die and fights with two blades. He cannot be told to wait, and he can give you away when you sneak.
  • Keep Brynjolf and Karliah with you: Brynjolf fights as well as Mercer, and in Irkngthand Karliah comes too, even outside. Neither can be told to wait, so two of them double the risk to a sneaking character.
  • Travel with Serana: Serana follows on top of your usual follower. Unlike the others she can be told to wait.
  • Hold on to the Skeleton Key: A lockpick that never breaks. Finishing Darkness Returns gives the key back to Nocturnal. The Nightingale powers it brings can be had otherwise.
  • Keep Glover's pickaxe: A pickaxe that weighs nothing and still mines ore. Returning it ends the loan.

Order Matters

Pairs of quests where doing the wrong one first locks the other out or costs part of its reward.

  • Delayed Burial before the Sanctuary: Help Cicero's cart or betray him before stepping into the Sanctuary. Once you enter the Sanctuary or start Destroy the Dark Brotherhood!, Delayed Burial can no longer start or finish.
  • The Spiced Wine before Bound Until Death: Evette San's errand in Solitude. Starting Bound Until Death takes The Spiced Wine off the table.
  • The Straw that Broke before the Narfi contract: Narfi's own errand in Ivarstead. Taking the contract on Narfi means his errand can never start or finish.
  • Buy land in Falkreath before the Helvard contract: Lakeview Manor and the house achievements that go with it. Killing Helvard can sour Siddgeir so he will not sell you land. A new Jarl after the Civil War also fixes it.
  • Shatter-Shield quests before Mourning Never Comes: Both the murder case and Torbjorn’s errand. If you take the bonus of killing Nilsine, her grieving mother dies, which can stall Blood on the Ice, and Torbjorn no longer needs the amulet for his wife.
  • Mourning Never Comes before Lost to the Ages: The bonus for killing Alain Dufont in Raldbthar. Lost to the Ages takes you through Raldbthar. Alain only turns on you if you attack him or get too close, so you can slip past.
  • The Forgemaster's Fingers before any Blood-Kin job: The Gauntlets of the Forgemaster: 12 extra Smithing. Starting a Blood-Kin of Malacath errand first means the gauntlets can no longer be earned.
  • Ahtar's bandit job before Lights Out!: A bounty job from the headsman, and Ahtar as a follower. Lights Out! sends you into Broken Oar Grotto. Kill its captain there first and Ahtar never offers the job.
  • Harsh Master before Summerset Shadows: Kjar's bounty in Windhelm. If Summerset Shadows picks Uttering Hills Cave, Linwe takes the bandit chief’s place for good and Harsh Master can never finish.
  • Search and Seizure before the Reach changes hands: Ondolemar's errand in Markarth. Ondolemar does not appear in a Stormcloak Reach, so finish it before the Stormcloaks take the hold or the treaty hands it over.
  • Siddgeir's Rare Gift while he is still Jarl: The first step to Thane of Falkreath. He stops offering it once he loses his seat, and also once the courier brings his bandit job at level 10.
  • The Forsworn quests before the war reaches the Reach: Every reward of the Markarth Forsworn story. Finishing The Forsworn Conspiracy, then Compelling Tribute for the Stormcloaks, before starting Cidhna Mine closes the mine for good. Season Unending can do the same.