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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Hints
Enchanting
1 of 10: The first thing to do is gather a bunch of cheap magic items that you can disenchant.
2 of 10: If you don't feel like getting them from combat and dungeon looting, use the carriages at stables to travel around to all the cities and check the inventories of merchants who sell weapons and armor. Also, check everyone's pickpocketable inventories to see if you can pickpocket any magic items. (See the Pickpocket practice tips.)
3 of 10: One of your first goals is to disenchant enough items to learn all of the effects that you can enchant with. Use the list below as a checklist to be sure you get everything.
4 of 10: While looking for items to disenchant, also be on the lookout for cheap soul gems and unenchanted equipment. Stockpile that somewhere so you can get more Enchanting practice by using cheap souls to enchant equipment.
5 of 10: Empty soul gems are useless until you trap a soul in them, so getting a Soul Trap spell or weapon to do that with is an early priority.
6 of 10: The best thing to do is make a soul-trapping weapon after disenchanting one that you find or buy. Get a powerful unenchanted weapon and a soul gem with a greater or grand soul in it, then enchant the weapon to hit targets with a 1-second Soul Trap effect. That way, it'll have a huge number of charges. Just remember that you'll have to strike the killing blow with your soul-trapping weapon for it to work.
7 of 10: Once you have that, go around and find creatures (not NPCs) to soul-trap in order to fill all the empty soul gems you have. Most types of creature will give some sort of soul, even chickens and rabbits. One exception is creatures you summon with Conjuration spells -- the designers decided to deprive us of the ability to use them as an easy soul-trapping gimmick in this game. Also, undead (such as skeletons and draugr), Daedra, and dwarven automatons (such as spheres and centurions) can't be soul-trapped.
8 of 10: Most merchants will sell petty soul gems on a regular basis. The quickest way to practice up your Enchanting skill is to buy all the petty soul gems you can, then use your soul-trapping weapon to fill the empty ones. Once you have a bunch, use them to put cheap effects on unenchanted equipment items. If the items aren't stolen (or if you have a way to sell stolen items), you can sell them after enchanting them.
9 of 10: If you don't want to mess with dozens of petty soul gems, you can instead get the game's one reusable soul gem. Do the "The Black Star" Daedric quest to get it, then go around whacking weak creatures with your soul-trapping weapon. Use their souls to recharge that weapon or some other in order to quickly empty the soul gem out for the next victim. (That would be more convenient than going to an Arcane Enchanter table after every soul capture, though you won't be getting new enchanted equipment to sell. Also, you get considerably less practice from recharging items than from enchanting items.)
10 of 10: After you get your Enchanting skill up to 100, you'll want to find ways to maximize the effects that you put on enchanted items. See the Item-Crafting Tips.
