Given the sheer amount of content there is out there covering Skyrim, it’s hard to imagine that any stone could be left unturned. Yet, for even the most seasoned players, there are some things so obscure that they can miss them even after 10 playthroughs. It makes sense, it’s an enormous game, and even the experts can’t name absolutely everything there is to find.
While all sorts of items and lines or dialogue can be rare, a lot of them get discussed widely in Skyrim’s community, meaning players who haven’t encountered them can still speculate. But not in the case of these six things, as it would take a truly persistent player to go through the game acquiring all of them.
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Helgen Contains Two Events Most Skyrim Players Have Never Seen
No Lollygagging
Skyrim’s intro is iconic: from waking in the cart, to the first sight of Alduin leaving the Time Wound, it’s easily one of the most memorable openings to a video game ever. It’s been completed so many times that the mod Alternate Start was created in part to make it so players weren’t forced to sit through it time and again. So it might be surprising to learn that the one part of Skyrim everyone has been to has one of the rarest encounters.
Given the rushed nature of the introduction, the choice between Ralof or Hadvar is usually made pretty quickly, and many returning players will already know which one they want to follow for the sake of the Skyrim Civil War. But there’s a reason the Whiterun Guards have a law against lollygagging, because indecision in this moment turns the choice from Imperial or Stormcloak to life or death. Alduin may not care which side the Dragonborn picks, but when he sees the prophesied hero standing alone, the World Eater will swoop in to snack on the doom-driven hero.
Helgen’s Strongest Soldier
Assuming the player does not become breakfast for the world’s hungriest dragon, they can return to Helgen later in their playthrough. It’s in a pretty sorry state. The town ravaged by Alduin is now inhabited by scavenging bandits, and they don’t take kindly to strangers. What many players don’t expect to see when returning, then, is an act of pure bravery and defiance by a lone Imperial soldier. Through some quirk of his actor’s placement, he can spawn in Helgen after the attack, fiercely defending the ruin to his last. Even if a player notices him, though, he’s still likely to end up dead before he can be saved, but that shouldn’t put off anyone from trying.
Skyrim’s Food Can Come From Some Unlikely Places
Put the Crab in the Bag
Most Skyrim players have seen a mudcrab during their day; horrible creatures, but many might not be aware that they can come in different sizes. As a chief cause of “you cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby,” mudcrabs have inadvertently earned the enmity of Dragonborns everywhere, but they aren’t all so threatening.
In fact, the smallest mudcrab is incapable of threat, as it isn’t even a creature at all, but rather one of Skyrim’s most unusual items. Found by the corpse of its much larger kin west of Whiterun, the Juvenile Mudcrab can be pocketed by a curious traveller. Just be wary when taking it out of the inventory, though, as it can easily double as a quick little snack.
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A Three Corpse Meal
Role-playing opportunities have made Skyrim one of the most enduring RPGs ever, despite being older than a decade, and the sheer variety of builds and backstories that can be made is quite staggering. What’s also staggering is being invited to dinner and walking in mid-feast to discover it’s full of cannibals, but Namira’s Daedric quest is one such awkward occasion. The Dragonborn then has the option to roleplay a twisted cannibal and eat a priest of Arkay, or take the reasonable option and politely kill all of them.
But things might not be so clear-cut, as a lot of players don’t realize that when they eat a corpse with Namira’s Ring, it removes hunger in Skyrim’s survival mode. Disgusting as it may be, it shows an attention to detail that could come in handy in a pinch, or maybe a bite. It also has an under-the-radar roleplaying benefit, as Wood Elf players can respect the Green pact by only eating the corpses of enemies, avoiding the need to eat plants in survival mode.
Only the Most Desperate Will Have Found These Secrets
One Butterfly Wings, Hold the Flies
Alchemy is broken in Skyrim. That’s no secret, but sometimes getting the right ingredients can be an absolute pain. Creep clusters and mountain flowers are all fairly plentiful, but it feels pretty bad to accost Giants just for their singular toe. Naturally, the hardest ingredients to obtain often make Skyrim’s strongest potions, though some are hard to get through simple, futile button mashing to grab those pesky butterfly wings.
What a lot of players have never realized though, is that combat actually is the answer, as one swipe of a sword at a butterfly will cause the wings to fall out of the sky, avoiding the embarrassment of the conquering hero not having the dexterity to grab them. Think slashier, not harder.
Trout Dracula
Fishing is one of the more relaxing add-ons in Anniversary Edition, giving players a chance to handily unwind by Skyrim’s peaceful rivers. There might be a few bears nearby, but they’re nothing that can’t be handled. That doesn’t apply to one of Skyrim’s rarest creatures, which definitely shouldn’t be handled.
It would seem that the vampire menace has gotten out of hand, and someone has been putting vampire dust in the water to make the fish undead. As fishing can be a bit monotonous, the vampire fish remains an incredibly obscure catch, and it is hands down one of the strangest little Easter eggs that Bethesda has ever concocted.
