Keep in mind that some skills are much easier to level up than others. In this instance, your Block skill would level up faster if you blocked an attack from a giant. This is why blocking a few attacks from an ice wolf may level up your Block skill at the beginning of the game when your skill level is low, but when your Block skill is higher later in the game, it will take a lot more attacks to level it up. However, as you increase in skill level, the amount of skill XP required for the next skill level up increases. The amount of skill XP you receive from using a skill in a specific way is constant. See the Leveling Decisions section below for details. However, if you have installed the Dragonborn add-on, you can expend dragon souls to reset perks. Most content is still leveled (primarily enemy gear), and some players may choose their perks and attribute increases unwisely, so it is still possible to create a character too weak to keep up. Unlike in Morrowind and Oblivion, attribute bonuses gained at level-up have been simplified, eliminating the need to "budget" one's skillups in effort to achieve maximum attribute increase. The required amount of character XP needed to gain a character level-up increases as your character level increases. However, leveling up low-level skills offers only a low amount of character XP toward your next level, while leveling up high-level skills offers more. Furthermore, increasing the levels of your skills is the only way you are able to increase your character XP. Every time you level up a skill, you also gain experience toward a character level-up (which we will call "Character XP", or simply "XP"). Skill level-ups can also be acquired instantly from training or by reading skill books.
Leveling your character is not the same as it was in Oblivion - instead, it is based on an experience system related to skills.Īs you use a skill, you automatically gain a small amount of experience in that skill (which we will call "Skill XP"), eventually causing that skill to level up. This increases the general effectiveness of that skill, while a minimum skill level is required for most perks to become obtainable. Each time you increase any skill's level, you make progress towards gaining a character level.
This means you may choose to increase either Health, Magicka or Stamina by 10 points, and you are also given one new perk point to invest in one of 18 different skills (listed below). There are two types of leveling in Skyrim: character leveling and skill leveling.Įach time your character level increases, you are provided the opportunity to make key choices about your abilities.