Do yourself a humongous favor and do one playthrough knowing as little as possible . You get only one chance to do that , and this is that one chance . That said , there are a few things which new players usually don ' t grasp right away . One is that Skyrim is a truly classless game . That is the player character , in normal play , develops a variety of skills in different skill trees . A mix of crafting , armed fighting , and magic skills is normal . Most skill trees do not have to be , nor should be , developed to all the way to the top . Archery ' s highest level skill perk , for example , is Bullseye which has a 15 % chance of paralyzing a target , which I don ' t like because a paralyzed target at distance will fall down and is difficult or impossible to hit . You can spend skill points you get one per level to activate a skill perk , or save them for later . You don ' t have to get all levels of a skill before getting the next . The Enchanter perk has 5 levels , each costing a skill point , but you don ' t have to develop them all before moving up the tree . Your character level is dependent on advancing skills . Advance skills by using them . You want to advance Smithing , use a forge to build or improve . The best weapons and armor in the game are player made with 100 Enchantment with Extra Effect , 100 Smithing , and 100 Alchemy for potions which improve Enchanting and Smithing , and all the right perks . Alchemy , for example , only needs 5 x Alchemist , 1 x Physician , and 1 x Benefactor to be most effective , the other skill perks are unessential or specialized . Soul Gems and Enchanting is the one that gets most new players . To learn enchantments you need to find enchanted items , go to an enchanter , and disenchant them . You do not need to learn higher levels of the same enchantment minor sneaking , major sneaking , peerless sneaking , etc . the power of the enchantment depends on your Enchanting skill , level of Soul Gem , perks , potions , items , and any other bonuses . To enchant an item you need a filled soul gem . Soul gems can be found or bought mages always have them for sale filled or empty . To fill an empty gem it must be in your inventory and you must you a Soul Trap spell or staff , or a weapon with Soul Trapping enchantment . The target must die while under the effect of Soul Trap . Black Soul Gems can capture the souls of humanoids , white souls gems can captures the souls of creatures . The level of soul a gem can capture depends on its size Petty Soul Gems can capture most wild animal souls , Lesser Soul Gems can capture souls of most low level undead , etc . Grand Soul Gems are almost never needed . The strength of enchantment weak fire vs stronger fire is paritally dependent on the level of soul you have in the Soul Gem you are using , Grand or Black Soul Gems being strongest . To enchant you must have , minimally , an unenchanted item you wish to enchant , a filled soul gem , and a known enchantment you learned from disenchanting magic items . You can rename an item while enchanting , but not after . While renaming time stops so you don ' t have to worry about having to name quickly if you ' re using a potion . Enchanted weapons use charges and can be recharged with a filled Soul Gem . Unlike advancing Smithing and Alchemy , Enchanting does not advance with the value of the item created but with the number of items enchanted , disenchanted , or recharged .