Skyrim Fortify Enchanting: Alchemy and Process [Our Opinion] (2024)

One of the best methods of acquiring Skyrim’s most powerful gear is crafting it yourself. But there’s only so much a simple piece of equipment can do before it reaches its limit. That’s where the Fortify Enchanting effect comes into play in Skyrim.

It’s a buff that boosts the power of your Enchanting skill. This allows you to imbue your weapons and armor with Enchantments more powerful than your skill level would otherwise allow.

But getting buff and learning how to use it properly can be confusing. After all, the game has no proper tutorials for most of its core skills.

Fortify Enchanting In Skyrim

Before we begin, it should be noted that the Fortify Enchanting effect is only acquired through Potions. You cannot apply this buff to a piece of gear because the developers were aware that this would create a self-sufficient enchanting loop that could upset the game’s balance.

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We’ll go over all the alchemy ingredients that can be used to create this below:

• Ancestor Moth Wing (Dawnguard DLC): Get these by catching Ancestor Moths in the Ancestor Glade.
• Blue Butterfly Wing: Players receive two wings for each Blue Butterfly they manage to catch in the wild.
• Chaurus Hunter Antennae (Dawnguard DLC): You get these as drops by killing Chaurus Hunters and Chaurus Hunter Fledglings.
• Hagraven Claw: There is a chance that Hagravens will have these on their corpses.
• Snowberries: These can be harvested from the snowberry plant, which can be found near snowy regions.
• Spawn Ash (Dragonborn DLC): Dropped by the Ash Spawn enemies on the island of Solstheim.
• Spriggan Sap. Does not drop from Spriggan enemies. Instead, it is found randomly in satchels and can be bought from apothecary merchants.

Combining any two of these items in an Alchemy Lab will give you a Fortify Enchanting potion. There are no other requirements for this process; you simply have to find the ingredients.

How Does The Process Work?

Once you acquire the potion and consume it, the Fortify Enchanting effect is activated for a limited amount of time. From here, any enchantment you apply to an item will be more powerful as a result.

Additionally, it bears mentioning that this potion works by modifying the player’s already existing Enchanting skill level. Whatever level you use it at, the resulting enchantment will build upon that as a basis.

So if you use the potion with a max levelEnchanting skill, the effects will still be stronger regardless. This also creates an unexpected loop with another skill that can allow you to create some truly powerful gear.

The Fortify Alchemy/ Fortify Enchanting Loop

The game has an Enchantment known as Fortify Alchemy. It works almost exactly like the Fortify Enchanting effect in Skyrim, except it can actually be applied to armour.

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And bonuses to the Alchemy skill increase the power of any potions you craft in the game, so this buff lets players craft more powerful creations.

I know this is getting a bit too confusing, but stay with me here:

1. Starting from zero, you can apply the Fortify Alchemy enchantment to a few different pieces of clothing. Their stats combine to add to your overall Alchemy skill.
2. With your Alchemy boosted, you can create more powerful Fortify Enchanting potions. These can then be used to increase the Enchanting skill further and apply more powerful Enchantments to other pieces of gear.
3. Consume this potion, and then apply a more powerful Fortify Alchemy enchantment to a completely different set of equipment.
4. Now craft even stronger Fortify Enchanting potions with the new gear equipped in Skyrim.
5. Repeat this loop until you’re satisfied.
6. Use the final set of Fortify Alchemy gear to apply any enchantment you want to an already existing armour set.

This entire process can take a lot of time and money. Not to mention a ton of Soul Gems. But your reward is the ability to apply enchantments more powerful than anything available in the game without this method.

A word of warning however. This exploit can break the game and make it highly unchallenging if you’re not careful.

So use this crafting loop at your own discretion. Be aware of how far you want to take this, and stop before things get out of hand. This won’t really crash the game per say, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.