Summary
There will come a time when there’s not much left to do inSkyrimapart from replaying the game over and over again. To add more challenge to that, playing the game in Legendary difficulty is recommended. But that mode is hard, and players will need to adjust their playstyles accordingly. Thankfully, a treasure trove of knowledge regardingSkyrim’s most powerful builds is readily available for players who want to waltz through Legendary.
While they’re at it,Skyrimplayers might as well pick the most fun builds that exist in the game right now. After all, nearly everyone is a veteran of Bethesda’s decade-old game. To spice things up while also trivializing some of the game’s content (mods notwithstanding), these tried-and-testedSkyrimbuilds ought to make players worthy ofgoing to the Cloud District often.
Updated Jul 31, 2025, by Hamza Haq:One of Skyrim’s biggest strengths is having enough build options in the game that are viable so that every playthrough can be as different as the player wants it to be. Adventurers looking to pick up and go on another adventure in the snowy lands of Skyrim have the option between magic, melee, and stealth, with enough weapons and armor between the three of them to make your head spin. Of course,all roads lead back to the Stealth Archer, but until then, a new build has been added to the list to give players more options.
14Vegetable Soup Berserker
The Vegetable Soup Berserker relies on one thing and one thing only: Vegetable Soup, anearly-game food itemthat often goes overlooked because of its innocuous nature and ease of access. It only requires four ingredients—cabbage, potato, leeks, and tomatoes—and offers one of the most game-breaking effects in all ofSkyrimfor12 whole minutes.
Upon consuming a Vegetable Soup, the player character will restore 1 health and 1 stamina for 720 seconds. At first glance, the effect seems balanced enough; an average restorative dish that allows for health andstamina recoveryover time doesn’t seem too overpowered. But that is before taking into account how Power Attacks work inSkyrim.
Spells & Shouts
Using a Power Attack is the most damaging move a player can do while wielding any melee weapon, but to balance it, it costs a lot of stamina. However, a curious quirk of Power Attacks is that they can be used with low stamina—they will drain the entire stamina bar when used. Typically, using Power Attacks like this is a bad idea because when stamina drains to zero, it doesn’t start recovering instantly. It takes a few seconds before thenatural stamina recovery starts kicking in. Seconds during which the player cannot do anything and is extremely vulnerable. However, if a Vegetable Soup is in effect, there is no pause in stamina recovery. As soon as the green bar bottoms out, it ticks up to 1 instantly. Since Power Attacks can be used even with 1 stamina, this build allows players to swing with as much force as they can muster without pause for 12 minutes. The great thing about this build is that it takes effect basically as soon as the game starts. The ingredients for Vegetable Soup are easy to source from Whiterun’s food vendors and remain so all the way to the end game.
13Breton Summoner
The Breton Summoner build relies almost exclusively onconjured allies and bound weapons. Investing heavily into the Conjuration School is, of course, the first priority, but investing in crafting skills can go a long way to make the journey much easier. The Breton race gets Conjure Familiar at level 1, which means players will be able to start leveling this skill as soon as they step out of Helgen.
Bretons also have an innately high magic resistance that can come in handy when facing off against enemy spellcasters. Of course, players are free to choose any of the magic-leaning races like Dunmer or Altmer, but Breton gives the best start and the later magicka regen-related issues with equipment pieces.
Conjure Flame Atronach will be the first major milestone of this build, where players will be able to start relying heavily on their familiars to do the heavy lifting. TheBound Bow is going to be crucialfor providing ranged support to summons and for assassinating targets from a distance. Upon leveling up, all stat points should go to Magicka to get it to 200 as quickly as possible before increasing Health or Stamina. A base Magicka of 250 with some Magicka-increasing gear should allow players to comfortably maintain two summons at all times.
Reaching Conjuration skill level 90 is another major milestone, as this unlocks the quest Conjuration Ritual Spell at the College of Winterhold. Completing this quest will allow players to permanently summon any Atronach of their choice or a Dead Thrall.
12Daedric Princess/Princess of Dread
The Princess of Dread from the popularSkyrimbuild creator Fevvy is one of the latest builds in the game that still powers through the content like a Daedric sword through melted butter. For those wondering, Daedric sword substitution was intentional because, first and foremost, this is a dual sword build.
The build mostly prefers to perform dual power attacks to kill enemies in a single move. Sometimes, it results in a kill animation and, given how janky or abrupt those are, it adds a bit of comedic value to the build.
The early part of this build is a little tedious since players will need to max out their smithing and crafting skills. This will allow them to create some busted Daedric weapons and armor. After that, it’s a matter of just cruising through most content, dual slicing heads off with the power attack. The Daedric Bow is mostly used as a ranged backup.
11100% Spell Absorption Mage
Few builds are as fun to play in Skyrim as the 100% Spell Absorption Mage, who can stand and eat an infinite amount of enemy spells without moving an inch, becoming a mage killer who has absolutely no fear of the arcane arts. The path to reaching maximum spell absorption is surprisingly simple.
Perks
Alternatively, players can choose to become a Vampire and level up Restoration up to 70 to obtain the Necromage Perk. Activating the Atronach Perk and the Atronach Stone with this setup will also let the Dragonborn become 100% spell-immune. Note that this build only works if the Necromage Perk is chosen before anything else.
10Arcane Forgemaster
The Arcane Forgemaster build revolves around maxing out Smithing and Enchanting as quickly as possible to gain the ability to craft end-game self-crafted gear incredibly early. Skyrim’s balance is very easy to break, and the fastest way to achieve that result is by investing heavily in crafting skills to become overpowered. Smithing and Enchanting are complementary arts that, when combined on a single character, can allow him to turn just a handful of ingots and a few animal skins into legendary weapons and armor that can stand up to the likes of Vampires, Dragons, and Draugr without an issue.
Gear
Of course, the Arcane Forgemaster will need to choose a warrior skill and an armor skill to complement the end-game gear they obtain. It’s best to focus on one type of weapon to maximize the damage output. Investing in the Two-Handed Skill and specializing in warhammers lets the Dragonborn become a mauling machine, which, combined with Heavy Armor, can become especially powerful.
But first thing’s first, the early levels should be entirely focused on getting Smithing to at least Orcish Smithing (50), but preferably Ebony Smithing (80). Smithing can be leveled up quickly using the dagger crafting method. Enchanting is somewhat more difficult to level up unlessplayers are using exploits, but it’s extremely lucrative to do so. Once both Smithing and Enchanting are at a respectable level, the Arcane Forgemaster is online and ready to rumble, using the power of OP gear to steamroll enemies.
9Punch Cat
As many players will have guessed, Punch Cat is an unarmed Khajiit. It utilizes the Khajiit’s racial perk which increases their unarmed damage due to their paws of power and claws of calamity. The build isn’t as powerful as the more min-maxed standards such as the Stealth Archer, but punching dragons to death as a karate cat is about as broken as it gets inSkyrim.
As always, there are certain items and instructions that enable this build and make it viable at the very least. Players will need to wear either heavy armor gloves or the Gloves of the Pugilist item to make it work.
The thing about Punch Cat builds is that the fists can fall off at high levels. With this in mind, players will need to mix it up with Destruction and Illusion spells. Destruction spells are great for softening up enemies until they get close. Meanwhile, Illusion spells like Mayhem will cause a royal rumble where a Punch Cat can shine as a bar brawler. Other Illusion spells are awesome for crowd control.
8The Immortal Alchemist
The funny thing about builds inSkyrimis that just about any of them can become immortal by dipping into the Alchemist skill tree and abusing the potion-drinking and crafting system. Using the Alchemy skill tree in tandem with the Smithing and Enchanting trees (all maxed out), players can create some busted interactions with armor and potions.
This kind of interaction involves taking advantage of a glitch, so it’s less of a build and more of a way to abuse the system. Here are some basic instructions on how to do it.
Voila, now the player’s alchemist is an immortal being with the best items in the game. Players should note though that as the glitch becomes increasingly popular,Skyrim’s developers might catch wind of it and they could fix it in a future update. Given that someSkyrimbugs and glitches have persisted for more than a decade though, this seems a little unlikely.
7Stealth Archer
Stealth Archer is probably the most common and popular overpoweredSkyrimcharacter build. It revolves around utilizing the broken Sneak skill tree along with Archery in order to take down enemies stealthily.
Most of the time, a Dragonborn using this build can go around one-shotting unaware opponents. It does have one glaring weakness against dragons, but that’s easily fixed with Conjuration summons or companions.
Just about any ofSkyrim’s playable races will do for this build. But for a more thematic gameplay and roleplaying, a Bosmer (Wood Elf) seems apt. The playstyle is simple: crouch and shoot enemies while unseen. Aim for their heads with a bow.
For enemies that can’t be killed by a single stealth arrow, sneak up on them and stab them with a dagger. For dragons and boss fights, use Conjuration summons to tank hits. The Slow Time shout is also great as an emergency backup for combat.
6Illusion Assassin
The Illusion Assassin works similarly to the Stealth Archer, except it’s more melee-focused and utilizes the Illusion tree more liberally. Stealth daggers tend to have ahigher damageoutput compared to bows, after all.
The gameplay is also rather straightforward. Players just need to sneak up on enemies and stab them. It really is that easy, and, in doing so, they can make the Dark Brotherhood proud!
To be fair, any race will do, but the High Elves get an advantage thanks to their Illusion skill bonus. Moreover, High Elves also start with an Illusion spell at the ready. Players will have to wield dual daggers here while backstabbing enemies with a power attack. Since players invest heavily in Illusion, they can cast Frenzy on a whole dungeon or small area and letthe enemieskill one another. This makes sneak-stabbing less tedious.
5Fortified Sword & Board
Sword and board builds look deceptively simple, but with the right enchantments and combinations, they can be devastating while being tanky. It’s perfect for those who are tired of sneaking around.
High Elves are optimal here because they’re the tallest race, meaning their movement speed is second to none. Orcs have a devastating racial skill in Berserker Rage. Meanwhile, Bretons can be nigh-invulnerable to magic thanks to their innate magic resistance, which can be enhanced with other items.
