Skyrim Weapon Recharging: Master the Art of Power Renewal

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Step 2: Fill Soul Gems

Step 3: Recharging Weapons

Enchantments and soul gems function differently in each installment of The Elder Scrolls series. In The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, weapons (excluding apparel) utilize their charge to activate their enchanted abilities, necessitating players to actively recharge this charge in order to continue utilizing these abilities.

The process of recharging weapons in Skyrim requires players to collect, fill, and spend soul gems. This comprehensive guide will detail each step to prevent players from encountering a fire sword that fails to inflict any fire damage.

Step 1: Collect Soul Gems

Crafting soul gems is not possible. Instead, players must obtain them through exploration or purchase them from merchants, primarily mages. Rogue mage strongholds provide the most promising locations for discovering soul gems during exploration. Additionally, soul gems can be occasionally obtained from defeated Dwarven automatons.

Soul gems are available in six different sizes: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, Grand, and Black. Out of these, only Black soul gems have the ability to imprison the souls of humanoid Non-Player Characters (NPCs), with NPC souls always being considered Grand in size.

Step 2: Fill Soul Gems

Upon discovery, the majority of soul gems in the possession of players are found empty, but there are a select few that come pre-filled. Recognizing a filled soul gem is fairly straightforward as the extracted soul's magnitude is indicated within the item's name, enclosed in parentheses. As an example, a fully occupied common soul gem will manifest in the inventory as "Common Soul Gem (Common)" or "Common Soul Gem (Lesser)."

To fill a soul gem, players must employ the spell or ability known as "Soul Trap" on an enemy. The primary spell, Soul Trap, falls under the Apprentice level and requires a Conjuration skill of 25. This spell is widely available among spell merchants across Skyrim. Once cast on an enemy, if the enemy perishes within 60 seconds, their soul will be captured in a soul gem possessed by the player.

Alternatively, players may encounter weapons, staffs, and scrolls that possess the Soul Trap effect, and they can also create their own soul-trapping weapons by disenchanting one. The advantage of a soul-trapping weapon is that it enables players to inflict damage while simultaneously applying the effect. However, the drawback is that they may opt for a more potent or debilitating weapon instead. Additionally, players with a Conjuration skill of 30 can acquire the Soul Stealer perk, granting them the ability to apply Soul Trap to all Bound weapons.

However, souls, similar to soul gems, come in different sizes. In order to capture a soul effectively, players need to have a soul gem of sufficient size in their inventory. Peaceful animals and common draugr are considered to have Petty souls, while aggressive animals and unique draugr possess Lesser souls, and so forth. A larger soul gem can contain a smaller soul, but not vice versa. If players attempt to trap the soul of a mammoth but lack an empty grand soul gem, the trapping endeavor will be unsuccessful.

Certain adversaries exhibit distinct responses to soul trapping:

Dwarven automatons lack souls, rendering Soul Trap ineffective on them. Nevertheless, players can often discover soul gems within the remnants of these automatons, as they are powered by them.

Dragon souls are assimilated directly by the Dragonborn, without the use of soul gems.

Step 3: Recharge Weapons

Humanoid creatures such as humans, elves, khajiit, and others cannot be soul-trapped using conventional means. While regular spells and effects can be employed, players are required to possess a black soul gem to successfully capture a humanoid soul. It is important to note that humanoid souls are always deemed Grand. Furthermore, black soul gems are exclusively capable of capturing humanoid souls and are unable to contain the essence of monsters.

In the inventory screen, players have the option to check the level of charge on their magic weapons, as well as replenish their weapons' power. To recharge a weapon, simply select it and press the "Recharge" button. On PC, this button is the Wait button, typically mapped to T. For PlayStation systems, it is the R1 button, for Xbox controllers, it is RB, and for the Switch, it is R.

Players now have the option to select which filled soul gem they would like to utilize in order to replenish the charge of their weapon. The game interface displays a maximum of four soul gems simultaneously, but players can navigate through the complete list by utilizing the arrow buttons. While larger souls replenish more charge in one go, they also have a higher value when sold for gold. Additionally, soul gems are also needed for enchanting items, and larger soul gems yield more powerful effects and increased charge power for enchanted weapons. Therefore, it is advisable for players to utilize their smaller soul gems for recharging weapons and save the larger ones for other purposes.

One significant drawback is that using soul gems to recharge weapons results in their destruction. This highlights the importance of filling soul gems with the largest souls possible, as utilizing a greater soul gem filled with a trivial soul would be an excessive waste of resources. However, there is one notable exception - Azura's Star, a reward from a quest, has the ability to contain souls of any size and will never break, irrespective of frequency of use. Players can even utilize Azura's Star to enchant a limitless number of magic items.

To maximize damage output, players must recharge their weapons periodically, though it may prove bothersome. To mitigate this, it is imperative to possess a Soul Trap weapon or spell at all times and carry an ample supply of soul gems in various sizes. This precaution prevents squandering valuable resources on insignificant souls. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is presently accessible across multiple platforms including PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.