Xbox 360 Cheats - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide - IGN (2024)

This page contains a list of cheats, codes, Easter eggs, tips, and other secrets for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for Xbox 360. If you've discovered a cheat you'd like to add to the page, or have a correction, please click EDIT and add it.

Vendors Never Run Out of Money

This trick is similar to the get a free house trick. First you must have the Investor perk in the speech branch of the skill tree and at least 500 gold can do this trick. When you go to a vendor you also need a storage container near the vendor. Warmaiden's in Whiterun is perfect for this trick. It's next to your home if you bought the Breezehome (not a requirement but for pack rats like me its a short distance to walk while encumbered if you want to sell all your old junk) and there is a large cabinet next to the vendor. Stand between the vendor and the cabinet. Choose the option to invest in his business and then the select "lets see what you can do with 500 gold...". Quickly cancel out of the window and click on the cabinet before the gold is taken out of your inventory. Put all your gold in the cabinet and close the cabinet. Now the vendor will have an additional 500 gold. You can rinse and repeat as much as you like. No gold will be taken out of your inventory and the vendor will never run out of gold to buy your goods.

Now you can save that perk that you were going to put in Master Trader and use it in something more combustible like Master Destruction.

Submitted by: bobartdefuego

Strange Teleporter

In Dragons Reach if you go to the Jarl's quarters and walk up the stairs into the room with the dining table in it, there will be one guard in front of a door on the other side of the room. Behind him is a pillar, walk behind the pillar (Right up against the wall) and you will be teleported outside the Dining Hall. Yes, it's useless.

Submitted by: epic_pizza

Pac-Man Easter Egg

In Markarth enter Endon's House. Look at the book case -- on the bottom shelf is a cheese wheel missing a wedge with an olive on top of it. In front of the cheese is a line of three garlic cloves resembling the dots Pac-Man eats.

Submitted by: epic_pizza

Easy Hands-Off Kills with Ebony Mail

After completing Boethiah's daedric quest, you are rewarded with the Ebony Mail artifact. In addition to being to move more silently, the armor gives you a constant 5 point poison damage effect for enemies that get too close.

While traversing any dungeon, or any areas with doors for that matter, instead of sneaking around and silently taking out opponents, get their attention and run into any room that has a door. In their pursuit of you, your opponent will give chase all the way up to the door, and will remain on the other side.

It might take a minute or so, but the 5 points of poison damage will wear your enemy down through the door and kill them. They might open the door once or twice themselves, but just shut it again and stand close to the door.

Submitted by: 80cama

The Legend of Zelda Reference

During the Companion Quest "Proving Honor" if you talk to Farkas after finging out that he and the other members of The Circle are Werewolves he tells you "It's a secret to everybody." This is what the guys that give you rupees say in the original Legend of Zelda.

Submitted by: zimmerremmiz

Move Faster while Sneaking

If you start sneaking and then draw a bow while moving, you will move as fast as you would running (not sprinting), without affecting your detection level. If you stop moving and then start again, you will move at regular sneak speed.

Submitted by: joshwei

Easy 100 Block Skill

Find a Giant (look for the mammoth symbols on your map), equip your shield (make sure you have a good one). When he starts attacking you, block his attacks; because he does so much damage your block will go up really fast. Make sure you have lots of healing potions and a good restoration spell, dismiss your follower for this one because he might kill the giant over time.

Submitted by: mcjumbolino

Sweetroll References

The Guards in various cities will sometimes say "Let me guess... Someone stole your sweetroll." This is referring to the first Elder Scrolls game "Arena" where it is asked as a class-determining question. The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall also uses a sweetroll question as a class-determining question. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind allows you the option of picking your class, or answering a series of questions to determine your class: if you choose to answer the questions, this will be one of them. Also references are to be found in the Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, where some NPC's may relate a story of a stolen sweetroll to you. This story is acted out in Fallout 3 when you are given a sweetroll by a lady, and then a bully proceeds to demand the sweetroll. Finally, the sweetroll reference appears in Skyrim. I have personally played all of these sequences and seen these references in each according game.

Submitted by: linkclonesizzles

Unbreakable Lockpick (Skeleton Key)

During the quest "Darkness Returns," part of the Thieves Guild quests in Riften you'll get a quest item called the Skeleton Key, a lockpick that cant be broken. Instead of finishing the quest you can just keep and use it to open any door or chest without worrying about running out of lockpicks.

Submitted by: pfc_shadow

Easy 100 Restoration Skill

You need 2 spells for this: Equilibrium and any healing spell (preferably Fast Healing or better). Cast Equilibrium which drains health for magic and keep healing yourself. You will constantly lose health and never run out of magic so you can heal yourself forever.

Submitted by: g-rayted

Faster Mining

Instead of pressing a to mine ore just, equip the pick axelike any other weapon to mine faster. It even works with dual wielding!

Submitted by: 112spiders

Find a Complete Fork and Knife Set

Skyrim does not have interactive forks and knives, aside from special ones, such as Ysgramor's Soup Spoon. A special fork/knife combo is on the mountain near High Hrothgar.Make sure you have a full health bar before attempting this. To get the fork/knife combo, enter High Hrothgar, then go to the courtyard. Walk up the stairs with the fire pit, and near the top of the stairs, hop over the railing on the left. run diagonally in to the wall to stop yourself from falling, and continue on across the mountain. You will run into 2 barirs. The first one is small. The second one is very long, and comes out several feet from the mountain, so you will want to have a full health bar for the fall, as previously stated. Once you fall, look out for an area with trees in it. Continue on until you reach the trees, then work your way to the top of the tree area. You will find your fork/knife combo there.

Submitted by: leland_sailor

Easy 100 Block, Armor and Restoration Skills

You should ditch your follower(s) for this exploit. Find a lone low level enemy to attack you. All you do is stand there or block if you want to level that skill and let them attack you. If it is of sufficiently low level, you hardly have to use healing spells.

Submitted by: zxylon

Free Training from Companion Guild Members

After you finish the main Companion quest line, you can ask anyone in the guild to become your follower (companion). Some of them offer training. You can approach any of them and request that they follow you. Then you can purchase training (you need enough gold for one level so if you want to do this at higher levels you need several thousand gold). Simply access their inventory to trade items and take your gold back. If you don't want them to follow you, just part ways and come back later. Rinse and repeat for five times each level.

Submitted by: zxylon

The Ultimate XP Exploit (and a Free House!)

You can use a certain book to level up all of your skills to 100. Here's how (along with a tip about how to get a free, fully loaded house):

Here's an update from wickedistoph: After your free to look at the book go to any Treasure Chest or Barrel. Click on the object to store/take items. Empty the barrel first to make it easier, then go to the book section of your inventory follow steps.

1) Read book choose skill to learn and back out of the book.

2) Still in the barrel/chest screen store the book.

3) Without leaving the barrel/chest menu go up to the objects inventory and take the book back. NOTE: do not press "take all" as it exits the screen you will loose the book.

4) Go back to book portion of inventory and repeat steps 1-3.

This works much faster then storing the book and then taking it back off the shelf plus you don't need a house or furnishings to make it work.

And another update fromseanzilla91: It should be noted that if you do this, your bookshelf will break and you will be unable to do it again if you have Update 1.2.11.0. However if you use the bookshelves in the Arcanaeum, you can still do this. The bookshelves work like chests, so just store it in there, back out of your menus and then reopen the bookshelf and take it. Follow all other steps the same way.

Submitted by: samuel-ign

Unlimited Dragon Bones and Scales

Talk to Jarl's steward in Riften and ask for jobs. They will alternate RANDOMLY between killing bandits and Dragons.

Once you've cleared out all the Dragon Holds in the Areayou can be sent back to ones you've already cleared to fight a dragon again. Kill it and Harvest the bones.

The only negative to this is that you don't get the soul. But since you need Scales or Bones forcrafting its a great way to get stocked up. Just be sure to have a house to store them in.

Submitted by: wickedistoph

How to Get a Free Horse

As well, there's a horse near Whiterun that you can get without stealing and without paying 1,000 Gold. Once you ride the horse it becomes yours and will even follow you around when you fast travel.

Submitted by: ign_cheats

Easy 100 Speech Skill

Travel to Riften and go to the Black Brier Meadery. Talk to Ungrien at the front desk and ask him about Maven Black-Brier. He'll say something nice. You now have the option of persuading him, bribing him, or just accepting what he said. The persuade has a Speech check of 25 (must have 25 Speech to get it). If you don't have 25 Speech, try the bribe. It will up your speech rather quickly to 25. Once there, you can use the persuade repeatedly to get to 100 Speech (or however high you want it).

Just keep asking about Maven and persuading. It took me about half an hour tapping the A button while I watched TV to get to 100.

Submitted by: rbradner

Easy 100 Enchanting Skill

This goes hand-in-hand with duplicating iron daggers for the maxing out of smithing skills.

After making as many iron daggers as you can at a forge, instead of selling them or dropping them, take them to an Altar of Enchanting. Enchant as many of the iron daggers as your soul gems will allow. It doesn't matter what you enchant them with. Each dagger created will raise your enchanting skill by one until skill level 45-50. After that it takes two daggers to raise a level and so on. Extreme efficiency.

Submitted by: 80cama

Easy Ore

When using your pickaxe to mine for ore, most times you only get 2 ore at most and no hidden Garnets. Here is a tip to get 3 ore each time with a higher Garnet chance. when you activate the mining process, let your pickaxe hit the section 3 times then stop it, usually X will back you out. Boom... You got one ore. You can repeat this 2 more times for a total of 3 ore instead of the usual 2.

Submitted by: warbird88

Kill Draugrs In Their Coffins

When in an area that has Draugrs you will notice their coffins standing vertical against the walls. Equip a rune and stand in front of a coffin. Cast the rune directly in front of the coffin so that it lies partially in front of the coffin and partially in it/under it. If a Draugr is in the coffin the rune will explode instantly killing the Draugr before it ever leaves its coffin. Also, for extra damage against the Draugr (this only works if you have unlocked the destruction skill "destruction dual casting"), equip the rune with both hands and cast both hands simultaneously.

Submitted by: david_howell

Infinite Torches

In Embershed mine (the first you encounter after leaving Helgen) grab all the torches off of their mounts then leave. When you re-enter the mine, the torches will have been replaced. Stock up and keep them in your house for easy access.

Submitted by: kcrobxer

Walk Faster While Over-Encumbered

When you are over-encumbered, you can move fasterby equipping a bow and drawing an arrow back.

Combine this with the perk to walk at normal speed with an arrow co*cked and you can move about like normal.

Submitted by: kcrobxer

Easy 100 Restoration Skill

You need TWO skills for this to work. First skill is an easy one. Healing, basic Restoration skill. It heals you 10 HP per second. Easy enough to find. I'm not sure but I believe you start with it. The next skill is a Alteration skill called Equilibrium. This drains 25 HP per second and restores 25 MP per second as a result. Once you get both of these you can start. Go to your game settings and change the difficulty to Novice. This difficulty gives you the most HP/MP regeneration. Start out by casting Equilibrium for a few seconds and then cast heal. Dual cast them, that way you are losing HP and gaining it at the same time.) You can then just use a rubber band to hold down the buttons so that you continue to gain Restoration exp. Enjoy your easy 100 Restoraion! (Every few minutes you have to let Equilibrium drain a good chunk of your HP bar.)

Submitted by: dregoness

Apparel and Armor Duplication

Buy the Proudspire Manor in Solitude for 25,000 gold. Find the 2 Mannequins in the house. Put any armor on the mannequin then immediately take it off. Then leave your house, and then come back in. When you see the mannequins they should still be wearing the armor.

Note: This exploit works in any purchased house, not just the one in Solitude. So this can be exploited for far less than the 25,000 needed for the house in Solitude. Just thought you should know.

Submitted by: deathknight179

Infinite XP (Max Out Skills)

1. Get the Oghma Infinium book by completing the Hermaeus Mora daedric quest. 2. Go to your bookshelf, and with the book in your possession, activate the shelf. 3. Instead of storing the book, press the triggers to read it from your menu screen. Choose any of the three paths. 4. Back out one screen (to your book inventory), then store the book on the shelf. 5. Back out of the menu completely, and target the book on the shelf. Confirm the "Read Oghma Infinium" option. 6. Don't actually read it here! when it brings up the paths again, just choose "do not read." Then, just take the book off the shelf. 7. Go back to step 2 and repeat as often as desired.

Submitted by: thedarqness

Unlimited Arrows

1) To get unlimited arrows join the Thieves Guild. Once you join go to The Ragged Flagon - Cistern, and look for Cynric Endell. He will be shooting arrows into a dummy target in front of him. Simply stand near the dummy and pick up the arrows.

2) In Solitude, near the Castle Door there will be an archer continually shooting Steel Arrows into a target. Stand out of his way but close to the target and grab them after he shoots them. This is not considered stealing.

3) Join the Stormcloaks or the imperials and begin doing the questline. During the battles for the holds, don't advance immediately; instead keep killing the opposing forces. If you loot them fast enough, you'll recieve a quiver of steel arrows. They keep getting replaced so you can recieve as many arrows as you want. ( I got over 1000 this way).

Submitted by: alek_2011

Notch/Minecraft Reference

At the throat of the world, if you climb to the very top of the mountain (even higher than the word wall at the peak) you will find a unique pickaxe named "Notched Pickaxe"

This could be a reference to the popular indie game "Minecraft" and its creator "Notch".

This is very likely considering the recent legal battle between Bethesda Softworks and Notch's Company: Mojang.

Submitted by: elirenick

(Slow) Infinite Money

Grab any Horse and Carriage to Winterhold. Once at Winterhold, turn right immediately. Travel Southwest from Winterhold to a location called "Sightless Pit". Just above Slightless Pit a little higher on the mountain (not much higher) you will see an alter with a skeleton on it, beside the skeleton is a book called "The Doors to Oblivion". Pick up the book, and kill the skeleton on the table, Two other skeletons will rise around the alter, kill these as well. Return to the Skeleton near where you picked up the book, and loot its body, take everything, and loot again, you'll notice the book on this skeleton continually re-appears, giving you an unlimited supply of "The Doors of Oblivion" worth 50 gold each. Every time you view the Skeletons inventory, even if you do not remove the book, adds 1 book to the skeletons inventory. Slow but it works.

Submitted by: miribunda2

Make Steel Daggers and enchant them with absorb health. Sell for 250 gold each.

Submitted by: Jayhigs1984

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Prevent Fall Damage

For those who don't know, fall damage can be avoided when sliding down mountains or "near vertical" surfaces if one quickly toggles sneak mode on and off multiple times while sticking to the surface you are descending. This will nullify any damages caused by gravity, and can be very useful if you discover yourself at the top of a dangerous looking mountain without any roads to go down.

Submitted by: derelictsandwich

Beat a Giant Easily ... and Slowly

After you get the angry attention of a giant let him chase you to a nearby river (it's good to have one already picked out) go under water and the giant will immediately turn and walk away. When he does, sneak out and shoot an arrow into him. When he turns to attack go back under the water and he will again turn and walk away. Repeat as needed.

Submitted by: murderinthebarn

Free Training

There is a way to get costly (especially on later levels) training for free. To do so you have to enter any guild where there are trainers in what you need and gain their trust. Take a whatever training you need from a guild guy and then pickpocket him (your money for the training will be in his pocket). Usually it will be considered a crime, but a guild guy will look away and won't report.

Submitted by: dkthulhu

Dragon Claw Chamber Codes

If you go into your items and look at the dragon claws you have and rotate them so you see the bottom, it will show you the code for the door that it unlocks.

Submitted by: bansheebomb1

Oblivion Reference: The Adoring Cicero

After joining up with the Dark Brotherhood, you will soon encounter a fellow named Cicero. After he gets settled into the sanctuary you can go to his room.

There you will find a series of journals, and inside one of the journals Cicero talks of once upon a time killing the "Arena Champion" by posing as a crazed fan and leading him to the woods to kill him.

This could be a possible reference to "The Adoring Fan" of TES: Oblivion.

Submitted by: koshidomo

Fallout 3 Sweet Roll Reference

While walking around guards there is a chance they will say "Let me guess, someone stole your Sweet Roll?"

This may be a reference to the beginning of Fallout 3 where you have your birthday sweet roll stolen from you by Butch.

Submitted by: theshiny1

Oblivion Reference

Through the mountain passage that leads from Riverwood towards Riften, you'll find a Khajiit that many of you know. It's M'aiq the Liar, the fast Khajiit you find outside of Bravil and Leyawinn in Oblivion.

Submitted by: spiffywiffysayshey

Easy 100 Archery Skill

Go to Riverwood. Find an elf named Faendal, and deliver the note to Camilla. Then find Faendal and ask him to follow you. Make sure you have at least least 200 gold. Ask him to train you. When he does, go ask him to trade with you. Go into his inventory and take your money back. You can do this 5 times a level, and it really helps at an early time. You can do this an unlimited amount of times, as long as you have the gold.

Submitted by: spiffywiffysayshey

Over-Encumbered Fast Travel

In Skyrim, it isn't possible to fast travel when you're over-encumbered. Why? The Fast Travel option is only available when your character can travel at normal speed or faster, which it doesn't when over-encumbered. But that one rule is the actual loop-hole in the system.

All you need to exploit it is 1000 Gold, enough to buy yourself a horse. The horse isn't affected by your encumbrance, so it moves at normal speed and faster, therefore you can Fast-Travel to any location, even after pillaging the entirety of a Dwemer ruin. And since you bought the horse, it will not run away, but stay put after you get off.

Submitted by: aeroqc

Faster Horse Swimming

If you're going through water deep enough that your horse can swim, dismount and mount the horse to go faster -- you'll actually "run" in deep water. Here's a video showing the glitch and what it looks like:

Submitted by: ranger137

Invincible Dog Companion

Go to Falkreath and find the smith called Lod. He will ask you to find his dog. You can find the dog Barbas outside of the village and it will take you to the Shrine of Clavicus Vile. Once you speak with the Daedra Lord, the dog will accompany you until you finish the A Daedra's Best Friend quest. The dog is technically a quest item and so can't be destroyed. It will automatically attack enemies who approach you and since he can't lose any health, he is THE BEST TANK EVER. Note: you may take another companion in addition to the dog.

Submitted by: ign_cheats

Easy 100 Destruction Skill

When you join the Fighter's Guild, you will be prompted to go outside and duel with one of the members. When you are outside, switch over to destruction magic and use it against that person repeatedly. He will keep telling you to use a sword, but you WILL gain experience -- and he won't die. You can do this for as long as you wish to rake up easy XP for magic.

Submitted by: osbornelv

Easy 100 Sneak Skill

There's a couple ways of doing this and they're essentially the same.

1. Right after the "prologue" part of the game there's a mine called Embershard Mine and it's filled with bandits. Dispatch the two in the first chamber of the mine and move on into a short tunnel. Lower the bridge by pulling a nearby switch (explore along the tunnel on the far wall from the entrance). Continue through the next few rooms until you come to an area with a bandit in a sort of pit, the pit has a forge in it so look for that if you're confused. Destroy the bandit in the pit and you should attract the attention of the guard on the bridge, she'll start shooting arrows at you. Hide about half way down the bridge in the shadows and just keep walking into the wall (while sneaking of course). You're skill will level as you go.

2. Make it to Whiterun and turn east. Head toward the mountain until you find White River Watch, kill the two bandits outside and enter. The blind guy inside will ask if you're Ralph, just say yes, and proceed like before, walking into the wall in the shadows.

3. The important part about this is that these guys don't move or move very little so you can do it forever. You can even rubber band your controller.

NOTE: can only be done if you haven't tried to join the DarkBrotherhood yet.

Head over to Windhelm and find Aventus Aretino who should be in his house. Just search for "Arentino" on all of the doors in Windhelm. You'll eventually find it. Immidiately when you walk through the door, you should hear Aventus praying to the Night Mother. Keep walking through the house and you'll eventually see him in a room hitting the floor. He's facing the wall, so if you sneak into the corner his back is facing, he won't notice you. Rubber band your controller walking backwards into the corner and you'll have 100 sneak in a few hours. Aventus shouldn't notice you, but if he does, just walk out of the room and back in again.

Submitted by: burntadmiral-piett

Quick Smithing and Speech Levels

Whenever you stop at a forge be sure to talk to the person in charge of it and buy all the iron ingot and leather or leather strips off of them. Then make as many leather strips as it takes for each iron ingot. Take it to the forge and make an iron dagger than only take 1 of each ingredient to make one. If you sell it back to the merchant, sell it one by one so you create more transactions to level up the speech ability.

Submitted by: omnislash652

Rotate Models on Load Screen

On load screens you can rotate the models displayed with the analog sticks.

Submitted by: ign_cheats

Quick Experience and Illusion Skill Gain

While most spells require you to actively use them in combat situations or on specific objects to progress, there is at least one spell that doesn't: Muffle. Muffle is an Illusion spell that quiets your movements. Continually casting Muffle while you're walking around the land will not only boost your Illusion skill, but will also increase your overall experience.

Submitted by: ign_cheats

How to Climb Mountains (aka Backwards Butt Shimmy)

Invariably you get to a point when you're climbing a mountain off set paths where you can't progress forward any longer because the grade is too steep. If you hit that point, simply face backwards and start jumping. Just point your butt toward the peak and continually hit the jump button. It also helps to move slightly from side-to-side as you try this. You can often snag a rock along the way and shimmy up a mountain without having to use a set path. Sometimes facing forward at a 45-degree angle helps, as well.

Submitted by: ign_cheats

Infinite Weight Limit

Like in Fallout, containers are persistent and items do not disappear. So any barrel or box or chest of some sort can be used to store your items. Best to use containers near a quick travel loading location. Be careful, though. Skyrim is buggy, so while your items shouldn't disappear when placed in a random barrel or chest, there's no guarantee unless you purchase a house and store your items there.

Submitted by: ign_cheats