How to enchant weapons and armor in Skyrim: soul gems and learned effects
Create your first Skyrim enchantment, understand soul size and recharge enchanted weapons without wasting favorite gear.
Original 2011 PC base game with official patches. Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn, Special Edition, Anniversary Edition, Creation Club content and mods are outside this guide. Pictures come from the original Skyrim Steam listing.
What do you need to enchant an item?
Use an Arcane Enchanter with an unenchanted weapon or wearable item, a learned compatible enchantment and a filled soul gem. Select the item, effect and gem in the crafting menu, then confirm the result. Dragonsreach provides an early enchanter once you can use its facilities; the crafting station does not itself supply the ingredients.
Learn an effect by disenchanting
Disenchant an unwanted enchanted item to learn its effect. The original item is destroyed, so use spare gear and inspect the warning before confirming. Some special items cannot be disenchanted. Once an ordinary effect is learned, it stays known: finding another stronger example does not teach a separate higher-rank version of the same effect.
Use a soul that fits the job
A soul gem must contain a soul before crafting. Soul Trap captures a dying target’s soul when you have a suitable empty gem; buying filled gems is another option. Larger souls produce better results for many enchantments. For enchanted weapons, the strength slider trades effect power against the number of uses available before recharging becomes necessary.
Improve, recharge and plan perks
Enchanting improves as you perform related crafting actions, while perks strengthen results and eventually allow additional options. Armor enchantments remain active while worn; weapon enchantments consume charge when they activate. Recharge weapons with filled soul gems through the inventory interface. Save valuable gems for equipment you intend to use, and preview the actual result before committing a rare resource.
A large empty soul gem is not equivalent to a filled one: inspect the stored soul, not just the gem’s name.
Picture details
Game artwork belongs to its respective rights holders.
References
Covered edition: Original 2011 PC base game with official patches. Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn, Special Edition, Anniversary Edition, Creation Club content and mods are outside this wiki. Pictures come from the original Skyrim Steam listing.