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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Hints
Alchemy
1 of 7: The first thing to do is gather a whole lot of ingredient items. You can steal them, buy them from merchants, and look around near towns to find lots of harvestable plants.
2 of 7: Once you have a lot, go to any alchemy lab (usually in inns and alchemy shops) and use it, then bring up the list of all the ingredients you currently have in inventory.
3 of 7: Select an ingredient that you want to discover an effect for, then check its info in the Alchemical Ingredients list to see what its four effects are. Pick an effect, then look at the compatible ingredients listed for that effect. If you have any of those, select one of them, then make a potion. That'll "discover" the effect for both ingredients.
4 of 7: Once you've done all the effect-discovering that you can, close the ingredients list and look through the list of all the effects you've discovered. Click on one that isn't grayed out, then use the ingredients that are listed for it to make some potions. You won't discover any new effects that way, but you'll get Alchemy practice for each potion made.
5 of 7: Keep that up until you can't make any more potions, then quit and come back when you have a bunch more ingredients. You shouldn't care what types of potions you're making yet -- you should only care about discovering ingredient effects and getting Alchemy skill practice. You'll probably want to sell most of the potions you make so you can afford to buy more ingredients.
6 of 7: After you discover most or all ingredient effects, start saving the ingredients that you'll want to make potions to use from, and use all the other ingredients you get to quickly make bunches of potions to sell. Remember that the higher your Alchemy skill is, the stronger the effects of your potions will be. See the Item-Crafting Tips.
7 of 7: Even after you're able to make max-strength potions, there'll still be premade potions for some effects that'll be even more powerful and/or longer-lasting. Below is a list of them so you can see what you'll need to save from treasure (and buy from merchants) if you insist on always having the best potions.
