The Elder Scrolls series has always posed a quandary for busy gamers. On the one hand, you can save virtually anywhere, which places these among the easiest games to shut down without losing progress.
On the other, they are so deep and immersive that unplugging from the virtual world of sorcery and steel can become the real challenge.
In this regard, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is both the best and worst of the series. Many of the activities in the game have been streamlined, so you no longer need to put in as much work to, say, mix up some potions or win a speech challenge. But the dungeons are so deep and your need to quest may become so great that playing Skyrim can become like a second job - one that you toil at well into the wee hours while the rest of your household slumbers and you sacrifice sleep for adventure and digital loot.
At this writing I'm about 135 hours in (which is where I checked out on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion!), and I've made a nice dent in the main story and side quests but still only somewhat scratched the surface of Skyrim. I'm still enjoying the game immensely, and I realized that sharing some of my hard-earned lessons could make it less frustrating and more rewarding for busy gamers.
Here are some tips to help Skyrim questers become successful faster, without resorting to cheats or exploits:
Get a house and companion. Very early in the game, you get the opportunity to buy a house in town and then furnish it. Do so as soon as you can afford it. You'll have unlimited storage (the cabinet just inside the front door has seemingly limitless capacity) and access to alchemy equipment (more on that in a bit).
Even better, your first partner in the game. Lydia, is "sworn to carry your burdens." Which means, she's basically your pack mule. But she's also a decent fighter who seems to favor heavy armor and two-handed weapons - which worked great for me, since I mostly use light armor and one-handed weapons paired with one of the several destruction spells at my disposal.
Just be careful to protect your companion, who likes to dive into battle with little or no provocation. If she says "I have a bad feeling about this," that's your cue that the dungeon baddies will probably get the better of her. Tell her to stay put safely away from any foes, and then go in and dispatch the big bads yourself. She should still be waiting for you to load her up with her share of the haul after the enemies are naught but stains on your sword or mace. If you do bring her along, be careful not to shoot anywhere near her when she's at her weakest and draw magical enemies away so their spells - aimed at you - don't inadvertantly finish her off. Left alone, she'll eventually regain her health and rejoin the battle.
I usually sell most of what I give my companion. She'll put on whatever she wants from what I make her carry, and I also let her keep arrows and haul around a pickaxe just in case there's some nice ore to mine along the way. I keep her load light at the start of a dungeon crawl so I don't have to pass up any heavy high-end loot.
If your companion dies, you'll need to reload. If he or she is just lost (and you haven’t said to wait somewhere), simply stay put or fast travel and your companion should catch up sooner or later.
Collect flora and make potions. Potion making is very simple - just taste ingredients to learn their first effect, and then start mixing and matching. Other effects will become known through trial and error until you have a bunch of useful recipes at your disposal. Two matching ingredients are all you need, unless you're trying for multiple effects. If a health potion develops a poisonous side effect (or vice versa), sell them - they're usually worth a lot, even if they're not very practical. There is a perk at the top of the Alchemy tree that lets you remove undesirable side effects, but you'll need to max out the skill first.
Carry a small array of key ingredients with you - most large dungeons have an alchemy rig about halfway through - and then store excess and heavy materials in the apothecary satchel in your most central home (I keep mine in Whiterun). Don't waste time on cooking food - you get such a small health boost from most dishes, and they weigh a bit more than potions. Since health respawns quickly in Skyrim, your best boosts during combat come from potions and restorative spells or scrolls.
Invest in stealth and archery. I traditionally play Elder Scroll games as a Khajit, who has built in stealth benefits. This time, I chose a Dark Elf to mix things up. I resisted the path of stealth for much longer than I should have. When you get to a certain level, you can be almost invisible in broad daylight even when moving. This is a great skill to have when paired with a distance attack that provides a weighty stealth damage bonus.
Speaking of which, archery may seem to be a weak skill in a game where enemies rush in and can quickly overpower you. But it can be immensely valuable for thinning the herd from a distance and weakening powerful foes before they get into melee range. When facing a truly overwhelming adversary (this happened to me for the first time near the end of the mage college quest line), you should hide, take potshots, and then save into a NEW SLOT whenever you do a significant amount of damage. You'll want a new slot just in case you get backed into a losing battle that you can't seem to escape - that way, you can load back to a time before you were trapped.
Keep an eye out for enchanted items that provide archery bonuses and wear them whenever you're on the hunt to maximize damage.
Work the merchants. Merchants replenish their supply of gold about every 2-3 days, so check back often. They'll hang on to any extra cash you leave them, but this is wasted since you could run them down to zero and then they'll get back their typical balance (and possibly add some new or replenished items) for your next visit.
Another great benefit of taking up archery: Arrows weigh nothing, so you can carry as many as you can find or buy without worrying about the burden. I'll purchase as many high-end glass and elven arrows as I can get from merchants in the game, using the excess gold to sell them all of the heavy armor and weapons that I don't need in exchange for the money I just gave them.
Hang on to weapons that serve you well. Sell or store those that don't. I have a cabinet full of items I might want to enchant later in the game, but honestly I haven't had the time or need. (Likewise, I don't bother with filling soul gems since there are more than enough preloaded ones in the game.) I'm still using a mace that does frost damage that I found during the first few hours of gameplay paired with a destruction spell (usually flame) in my other hand. I keep a special dragon-damaging blade handy in case any of the flying beasts drop in unexpectedly, as they frequently do. Those two weapons and my trusty bow are all I need to carry.
Entertain yourself during the load screens. Sure, you could check Twitter or play a mobile game while Skyrim is loading, but did you know that the load screens are interactive? I stumbled on this after about 80 hours of play. Use the thumbsticks on the console versions (there may be some keys that do the same thing on PC) to rotate and zoom the character and item models on display. Some of them are very cool when viewed from different angles.
Have your own favorite tips or techniques? Share 'em with the busy gamer community!
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