Skyrim players come across a variety of different monsters when questing throughout the game. These range from monsters iconic to the series, such as Falmer and Draugr, to more traditional enemies like vampires and dragons. Vampires in particular have a long history in the Elder Scrolls series, and they were taken to all new heights in Skyrim, especially with the addition of the Dawnguard DLC. Vampires in Skyrim can open up an entirely new way to play the game, with many benefits for them to take advantage of and challenges to overcome.
This can make vampires a bit overwhelming for new Skyrim players. Survival in Skyrim can be hard enough on its own, and fighting or playing as a vampire makes it even harder to do so. Luckily, this is much easier to get the hang of once players know what to expect from vampires in Skyrim. Learning about vampires can help players fight them effectively when they come across one and avoid being turned into a vampire if they don't want to be one. If they do, some extra knowledge will allow to them to take full advantage of being a vampire after their transformation.
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Vampires were originally created in the Elder Scrolls series by the Daedric Prince Molag Bal, also known as the Lord of Domination. Molag Bal created the very first pureblood vampire, which allowed the disease known as Sanguinare Vampiris to spread across the land, creating lesser vampires that can be controlled by the pure-blooded ones. However, vampires were quickly feared and considered innately evil beings thanks to their predatory nature and desire for blood. This led to groups like Skyrim's Dawnguard and Vigilants of Stendarr to hunt down vampires, with city guards also attacking vampires on sight. Luckily, vampires can be easily noticed by their paleness, protruding fangs, and reddish eyes. Some vampires also get more distorted facial features that make their true nature even more obvious to onlookers.
Throughout Skyrim, vampires come in various types split across regular and master types. However, vampires that the player comes across throughout the game typically favor one-handed weapons and magic, and either wear just a few pieces of armor or mage robes. The vampires also have a strengthened version of the Vampiric Drain spell that, at higher levels, can drain a player's health, Magicka, and stamina all at once. Vampire enemies in Skyrim also have a 50% resistance to frost damage, a 50% weakness to fire damage, and are damaged by sunlight. Despite their typically obvious appearance, however, there are still some hidden vampires throughout Skyrim for players to uncover.
Becoming a vampire in Skyrim is not always a choice. When fighting vampires, players can contract the disease, which then slowly begins the process of turning them into full-fledged vampires. The only way to prevent the transformation is curing the disease with either a Potion of Cure Disease or by praying at a shrine in a temple in one of the game's cities. Once the disease has set in, the only way for players to cure themselves of it is by talking to Falion in Morthal, who requires a very rare Black Soul Gem to complete the Skyrim's vampirism curing ritual. However, some players may want to play as vampires throughout the game, whether it be because they think the benefits outweigh the costs or for the extra challenge.
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For Skyrim players who do want to stay as a vampire, there is quite a lot to know about what it is like. Firstly, players should know that they can manage what stage of vampirism they are stuck in by going days without feeding. There are four stages of vampirism, each strengthening and weakening the vampire in different ways. At stage four the player has a 50% resistance to frost damage as well as a 50% weakness to fire damage. They also get access to the spells Vampiric Drain, Vampire's Servant, Vampire's Sight, Vampire's Seduction, and Embrace of Shadows.
The player also gets the abilities Champion of the Night and Nightstalker's Footsteps, while getting 20 points added to their strength and having 60 points of weakness to sunlight. Although players cannot be killed by sunlight in Skyrim, and the negative effects of the sun can be avoided with Auriel's Bow in Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC. Vampire players also get a complete immunity to both diseases and poisons, which can be very beneficial when adventuring throughout the game.
Skyrim's first DLC, Dawnguard, greatly expanded upon vampirism in the game. Not only does it include a main questline completely revolving around stopping a vampiric apocalypse, but it also gives players a lot more abilities if they catch vampirism, making it much more appealing. The DLC introduced two unique skill trees to the game, one for players with vampirism and another for players with lycanthropy. Both skill trees allow players to transform into either a full-on werewolf or a vampire lord. Getting kills in either form grants the player the ability to unlock certain perks across the skill trees to strengthen their alternative forms. Of course, that requires Skyrim players to do some dark things, but the rewards are pretty worthwhile in the long run.
For vampire lords, in particular, there are 11 perks for players to unlock. These have a variety of different benefits like increased health, healing when killing enemies with a power attack, and even unlocking new spells that pull enemies towards you, summon a gargoyle, or paralyze targets. The DLC also included some new weaponry for players who prefer to kill vampires, such as the crossbow that keeps them at a distance and staggers them so that they can't hit and infect the player character. Of course, to balance this, the Dawnguard DLC also added plenty of new lethal creatures to Skyrim for vampire lords and other players to battle against with these new arsenals. With so much depth to the enemy type, it will be very interesting to see how The Elder Scrolls 6 handles its vampires.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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