The True Dovakhiin: Skyrim Trophy Guide

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Arron is a featured team writer and lifelong gamer. Ever since he started playing games on his old SNES, he's been hooked. Once the Xbox 360 was released he quickly found himself hunting down achievements and trophies as fast as he could. There are plenty of games that he has only played for the achievements or trophies, but he also plays a little bit of everything, with a particular love for deep RPGs and skillful shooters. Currently, he is working to 100% both Pillars of Eternity games while he waits for the biggest upcoming releases and some standout indies.

Key Info Up Front

Genre: First-Person RPG
Playthroughs: 1
Difficulty: 5/10
Number of Trophies: 75
Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 100 hours

Skyrim Trophy Walkthrough

Skyrim is a very long game. If players want to, it is easy to spend hundreds of hours on a single playthrough, which is the hardest part of chasing its platinum trophy.

So, before looking at each of the individual trophies you’ll be picking up throughout your playthrough, I want to discuss the most effective way to tackle them. It is possible to take your approach instead if you prefer, but if you want to be as efficient as possible, this is how to do it.

Step One: Become the Dragonborn

Skyrim‘s opening has become iconic thanks to being turned into a meme that spread all across the internet. You will make your legacy as the last Dragonborn from these humble beginnings.

You can make any character that interests you since none of them have any significant advantage over the others when it comes to achieving 100%. You can also side with the Imperials or the Stormcloaks during the tutorial, as you can change later on.

Once you’ve passed through the tutorial, follow the main questline until you get access to dragon shouts and talk to the Greybeards atop the Throat of the World.

This will make dragons start spawning throughout the game and give you access to a compelling mechanic. Once you’re done with the Greybeards, you should stop progressing in the main questline.

Trophies in this Step

Unbound
Bleak Falls Barrow
The Way of the Voice
Blessed
Dragon Soul
Apprentice

Step Two: Faction Questlines

Once you’re done with the Greybeards, it’s time to start the four faction questlines in Skyrim. These can be done in any order, but you’ll need to complete them. You can tackle them in any order, but I recommend starting with the Companions so that you can become a werewolf as early as possible.

Getting access to Werewolf powers early will give you plenty of time to get all 11 werewolf perks for the Werewolf Mastered trophy from Dawnguard. To do so, switch to a Werewolf whenever you face human enemies and eat all of their hearts after you kill them.

However, this will be annoying as you’ll need to go back through the dungeon to grab any loot.

Once you’re done with the Companions in Whiterun, you can head to either Riften to start the Thieves Guild, Winterhold to do the Mages College or the Dark Brotherhood in Windhelm.

Each faction in the game highlights a different playstyle, but you don’t have to follow it. So, if you aren’t a magic user or don’t like using stealth, don’t worry about it or feel like you need to change your playstyle.

While going through these questlines, you should also do some things to expedite your completion. The first is to save as much money as possible, as you’ll need to hoard 100,000 gold eventually.

Secondly, try to get as many side quests as you can find. You’ll eventually need to complete 50 miscellaneous objectives, which getting quests will help. You should also quickly travel as little as possible to discover locations and clear dungeons as you come across them.

Also, make sure to kill any dragons that you find during your travels. Finally, make sure to use the Bribe, Persuade, and Intimidate speech options until you successfully do each one time, and pick as many locks and pockets as you can until you do 50 of each.

Trophies in this Step

Take Up Arms
Blood Oath
Glory of the Dead
Gatekeeper
Revealing the Unseen
The Eye of Magnus
Taking Care of Business
Darkness Returns
One with the Shadows
With Friends Like These…
Bound Until Death
Hail Sithis!
Thief
Adept
Expert
Werewolf Mastered

Step Three: Daedric Quests

Once you’ve completed the four faction questlines, you should be high enough to tackle all the Daedric Quests in the game. You’ll be rewarded with a Daedric Artifact for each quest you complete.

These are unique pieces of gear, and you’ll need to collect 15 of them for completion. However, some are missable, so check the description for the Oblivion Walker trophy below before starting this step.

Trophies in this Step

Oblivion Walker
Daedric Influence

Step Four: Main Questlines

Now that you’re done with the faction and daedric quests, you can complete Skyrim‘s two main questlines. I highly recommend waiting until now to complete them because there are still numerous glitches tied to the questlines that can get in the way of completing the quests you’ve done up to this point.

The first main questline is the Dragonborn questline which sees the player defeating the dragon Alduin. This questline is relatively straightforward. The second is the civil war between the Stormcloaks and the Imperials.

Both sides of the questline mirror one another, so players can pick whichever side catches their fancy and get essentially the same experience and all of the same trophies.

Trophies in this Step

Diplomatic Immunity
Alduin’s Wall
Elder Knowledge
The Fallen
Dragonslayer
Taking Sides
War Hero
Hero of Skyrim
Words of Power

Step Five: Hearthfire

At this point in Skyrim, you should have gotten the trophy for a collection of 100,000 gold and are wondering what to do with all of it. This is where the Hearthfire expansion comes into play. This expansion allows players to customize and build three houses on plots across the province.

So, purchase a house in one of the other cities to get the Citizen trophy out of the way, and then it is time to move on to building your own. Making your own house is a lot of fun, but it does take a lot of time and resources. And you will have to build all three.

For this reason, I recommend only making one of the three houses your main house and ultimately building it. Having a complete home is very handy, and once you decide which one you want to be your primary residence, you can get married, adopt a child, and use it for its facilities and storage.

Then, for the other two houses, you only have to build their shell of them without worrying about the interior. This drastically reduces how much time you’ll need to spend on them.

Trophies in this Step

Hard Worker
Citizen
Married
Golden Touch
Proud Parent
Landowner
Architect
Land Baron
Master Architect

Step Six: Dawnguard

Now that you’ve set down some roots in the province, you’re ready to defend it from an imminent vampire threat. This requires you to play through the Dawnguard expansion.

As you play through it, you can support either side, but you must accept the transformation into a vampire lord. This will replace your werewolf power but will give you access to the more powerful vampire lord form.

You can then use this form to clean up some of the remaining trophies. Like the Werewolf, you’ll need to eat from many people to fully evolve the form. To do this, go to each hold in the province and start killing guards until you reach a bounty of at least 1,000 gold.

It would be best if you were at a high enough level that it is easy, and once you get the Master Criminal trophy, you can let yourself get arrested and escape jail. Beyond that choice, play through the expansion usually, and you’ll get through it quickly.

Trophies in this Step

Wanted
Master Criminal
Awakening
Beyond Death
Kindred Judgement
Lost to the Ages
Soul Tear
Auriel’s Bow
Vampire Mastered
A New You
Legend
Master

Step Seven: Skyrim Clean Up

Before moving on to the game’s final expansion, you should wrap up all of the trophies you can unlock in the main province. You will likely have gotten most of these naturally at this point already, but just in case you didn’t, now is the time to get them out of the way.

Trophies in this Step

Sideways
Hero of the People
Snake Tongue
Thief
Standing Stones
Artificer
Delver
Skill master
Explorer
Reader
Dragon Hunter
Thu’um Master

Step Eight: Dragonborn

With the province of Skyrim out of the way, you’re ready to move on to the game’s final expansion, Dragonborn. This expansion takes you to the island of Solstheim in the province of Morrowind and sees you fighting a sinister figure known as Miraak, the First Dragonborn.

Completing this expansion is very straightforward. When you first arrive, you can progress through the main quest and explore as you travel to find locations. That will get most of the trophies out of the way, with the rest being cleaned up by completing a few dungeons, crafting an item, and riding some dragons.

Solstheim Explorer
Dragonrider
Raven Rock owner
Hidden Knowledge
Stalhrim Crafter
Outlander
Dragon Aspect
The Temple of Miraak
At the Summit of Apocrypha
The Path of Knowledge

Skyrim Trophies

These trophies are all for completing quests in the main questline or faction questlines:

Unbound
Bleak Falls Barrow
The Way of the Voice
Diplomatic Immunity
Alduin’s Wall
Elder Knowledge
The Fallen
Dragonslayer
Take Up Arms
Blood Oath
Glory of the Dead
Gatekeeper
Revealing the Unseen
The Eye of Magnus
Taking Care of Business
Darkness Returns
With Friends Like These…
Bound Until Death
Hail Sithis!
Taking Sides
War Hero
Hero of Skyrim

One with the Shadows

Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is unlocked by completing the Thieves Guild questlines and restoring it to its full power.

Tips: This trophy isn’t included in the above list of faction quests because it isn’t as straightforward as those. After completing the Thieves Guild questline, players will be made its leader. However, they still need to complete miscellaneous objectives to restore the guild’s power.

You’ll need to complete a special job in Markarth, Solitude, Whiterun, and Windhelm. Before you gain access to that special job, however, you’ll need to complete four minor jobs in the hold that are randomly generated.

You can get these jobs by talking to Delvin Mallory or Vex, and if you aren’t getting the one you are looking for, you can reload a save from right before you speak to them and try again.

Sideways

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Sideways is awarded to players that finish ten side quests.

Hero of the People

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for finishing 50 miscellaneous objectives.

Tips: Miscellaneous objectives are small quests generated through the game’s Radiant Quest system. They are usually small narratives that send the player to a dungeon to retrieve an item and little else. You can get them quickly from either talking to innkeepers about rumors or doing jobs for the Thieves Guild.

Hard Worker

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Hard Worker is for mining ore, making food, and chopping wood at least once.

Thief

Rarity: Silver
Description: Thief is for picking 50 pockets and 50 locks throughout your playthrough.

Snake Tongue

Rarity: Bronze
Description: The Snake Tongue trophy is for successfully attempting to persuade, bribe, and intimidate an NPC once each.

Blessed

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Blessed is for selecting your first standing stone after finishing the game’s tutorial.

Standing Stones

Rarity: Silver
Description: The Standing Stones trophy is for locating all 13 Standing Stones in Skyrim.

Tips: The Standing Stones are:

The Apprentice – On an island to the northwest of Morthal.
The Atronach – In the southern region of the hot springs in Eastmarch.
The Lady – On an island in a lake north of Falkreath.
The Lord – To the east of Morthal, at the end of a path to the north of the Hall of the Vigilant.
The Lover – To the east of Markarth, near Kolskeggr Mine.
The Mage – One of the first three stones shown to the player on their way to Whiterun.
The Ritual – To the east of Whiterun, near Graywinter Watch.
The Serpent – To the east of the College of Winterhold.
The Shadow – To the south of Riften, by Nightingale Hall.
The Steed – To the northwest of Solitude, near Ironback Hideout.
The Thief – One of the first stones shown to the player on the path to Whiterun.
The Tower – On a cliff between Dawnstar and Winterhold.
The Warrior – Shown to the player as one of the first three Sigil Stones on their way to Whiterun from Riverrun.

Citizen

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is rewarded to the player when they first buy a house.

Wanted

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Wanted is unlocked by successfully escaping from jail.

Married

Rarity: Bronze
Description: As the name suggests, this trophy requires the player to get married.

Tips: Before players can get married, they need a house for their spouse to stay at. Then, players need to head to Riften and talk to Maramal to get an Amulet of Mara, which unlocks marriage dialogue options when worn.

Artificer

Rarity: Bronze
Description: The Artificer trophy is for crafting an item through alchemy, enchanting, and smithy once each.

Master Criminal

Rarity: Bronze
Description: A player is considered a master criminal once they have a bounty of at least 1,000 gold in all nine holds at once.

Golden Touch

Rarity: Silver
Description: Golden Touch is for amassing a fortune of at least 100,000 gold.

Delver

Rarity: Silver
Description: Delver is for completing 50 dungeons.

Skill Master

Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is for having a skill reach level 100, which is done naturally while playing.

Explorer

Rarity: Silver
Description: Explorer is for finding 100 unique locations throughout your playthrough.

Reader

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for reading 50 skill books randomly found while playing.

Daedric Influence

Rarity: Bronze
Description: The Daedric Influence trophy is for getting your first Daedric Artifact.

Oblivion Walker

Rarity: Silver
Description: Oblivion Walker is for collecting 15 unique Daedric Artifacts.

Tips: To make sure you can get this trophy to make sure to make the following decisions in some Daedric Quests:

Keep the innkeeper Hulda alive at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun, as she can only give the Daedric Quest The Whispering Door.
Spare Barbas at the end of the quest A Daedra’s Best Friend.
Kill Silus Vesuius at the end of Pieces of the Past.
Kill Verulus at the end of the quest, The Taste of Death.
Kill Erandur at the end of Waking Nightmare.

Dragon Soul

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Dragon Soul is awarded for absorbing the player’s first dragon soul.

Dragon Hunter

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for absorbing at least 20 dragon souls.

Words of Power

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Words of Power is unlocked by finding all three words to a dragon shout. This is accomplished during the game’s main questline.

Thu’um Master

Rarity: Silver
Description: Thu’um Master is for unlocking 20 shouts by spending dragon souls on them.

Apprentice

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for reaching level five.

Adept

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for reaching level ten.

Expert

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for reaching level 25.

Master

Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is for reaching level 50.

Dawnguard Trophies

The trophies unlocked by playing through Dawnguard’s quest line are:

Awakening
Beyond Death
Kindred Judgement
Lost to the Ages
Soul Tear

Auriel’s Bow

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for using the special ability of the powerful weapon Auriel’s Bow.

Tips: Depending on your choices during the questline, you will gain access to one of two unique arrows that can be used with Auriel’s Bow to activate its power. Regardless of which type you get, the power is used by shooting one of the arrows at the sun.

Werewolf Mastered

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for eating enough human hearts while in werewolf form to unlock all 11 werewolf perks.

Vampire Mastered

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for feeding on enough humans while in your vampire lord form to unlock all 11 vampire lord perks.

A New You

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is unlocked by the player changing their character’s appearance.

Tips: Players can change their character’s appearance by paying 1,000 gold to Galathil at the Thieves Guild.

Legend

Rarity: Silver
Description: Legend is for the player killing their first Legendary Dragon, which begin appearing when they reach level 65.

Hearthfire Trophies

Proud Parent

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Proud Parent is awarded when the player adopts their first child.

Tips: Once a player is married, they can find orphaned children throughout Skyrim that they can adopt. The easiest way to do so is to go to the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften, but they can also be found in the world elsewhere.

Landowner

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Landowner is for purchasing one of the plots of land added in Hearthfire. Once the player is a thane of the hold, these are purchased from the Jarls of Falkreath, Morthal, or Dawnstar.

Architect

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Architect is for building a house with all three wings.

Land Baron

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for purchasing all three plots of land added in Hearthfire.

Master Architect

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Master Architect is for building three houses with three wings. They do not all need to have furnished interiors.

Dragonborn Trophies

The following trophies are all unlocked by the player completing the main questline of Dragonborn:

Outlander
The Temple of Miraak
The Path of Knowledge
At the Summit of Apocrypha
Dragon Aspect

Hidden Knowledge

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Hidden Knowledge is unlocked when the player finds five Black Books.

Tips: There are seven black books in Solstheim. You will read two of them during the main questline and can find the others here:

At the end of the Unearthed sidequest.
In Tel Mithryn, after finishing sidequests for Neloth.
In White Ridge Barrow.
In Raven Rock Mine.
In Benkongerike.

Stalhrim Crafter

Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is for crafting a piece of equipment using the new material, Stalhrim.

Tips: Crafting something out of Stalhrim is a multi-step process. The fastest way to do so is by following these steps:

Talk to the blacksmith Glover Mallory and complete his quest to get an Ancient Nord Pickaxe.
Travel to the Skaal Village and talk to the residents to hear about the town’s blacksmith being abducted. Complete the sidequest this gives you, called A New Source of Stalhrim.
Use the map you’re rewarded with to find a deposit of Stalhrim and go mine some.
You can then craft a piece of equipment using Stalhrim as long as you have Smithing Level 80 and have the Ebony Smithing perk unlocked.

Dragonrider

Rarity: Bronze
Description: Dragonrider is for using the new Dragon Aspect shout to ride five wild dragons.

Raven Rock Owner

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for purchasing a house in Raven Rock.

Tips: Players must complete a few tasks to purchase a house in Raven Rock. These are:

Go south of Raven Rock and assist in the battle at Old Attius Farm. Afterward, talk to Captain Veleth to get the March of the Dead quest.
After completing March of the Dead, talk to Veleth to get the quest Served Cold and complete it.
Once you finish Served Cold, you will be gifted the house in Raven Rock.

Solstheim Explorer

Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is unlocked by finding 30 unique locations in Solstheim.

FAQs

Question: Is Skyrim Hard to Platinum?

Answer: Skyrim is a relatively easy game to unlock trophies in. The hardest part is the sheer amount of time that players have to dedicate to doing so.

Question: How Long does it Take to Get the Platinum Trophy in Skyrim?

Answer: Getting the platinum trophy in Skyrim takes around 100 hours of playtime.

Question: Are there any Missable Trophies in Skyrim?

Answer: The only truly missable trophy in Skyrim is Oblivion Walker since players can miss out on some of the Daedric Artifacts depending on their choices during their associated quests.

Conclusion

Despite Skyrim‘s age, it is still a magnificent RPG that is well worth the time it takes to play through. If you end up deciding to tackle its platinum trophy, you will be treated to an unforgettable experience.

Hopefully, this guide helps make doing so just a bit more manageable and less overwhelming.