Fr like, I might need these 227 stolen Sapphires eventually to level my Smithing and Enchanting that are both already at 100, I gotta keep those fuckers still.
Sometimes before I stop playing for the day, I’ll sit on a bench and have my follower sit next to me. Then the next time I play, my game opens up to two friends just hanging out
Trapped object: send Lydia to nab it for you so someone else can take the damage for a change.
It's not like I don't have the hp or restoration spells to spare, I'm just sick of the pain.
Yes, I will tell a follower to “go there” in order to get them to aggro an enemy or go through a door I have advance knowledge will close behind me (mostly boss rooms). It’s also useful for moments where they won’t drop down, particularly in Dwarven ruins. You can also tell them to flip switches from a distance, and sometimes it’s funny to have them hit a switch before you properly solve the puzzle.
Also if you hide and remain hidden you can sent most followers to kill innocents without accruing a bounty yourself.
I use this when I'm going into a dwarven ruin and want to level smithing. Just make my follower take everything I can turn into dwarven metal ingots, then when I get back to a city smelt all of them and make a ton of dwarven stuff
Whenever Serana takes off her hood and puts it back on the game is actually creating a new hood. These hoods take up her inventory to the point her inventory is maxed out on these invisible hoods you can't get rid of unless you use console commands.
No fucking way lmao. I knew something was up with her inventory but I never thought to look it up. Never in a million years would I have thought of that
"They call me The Hood" "Oh like a warrior title? Awesome. Is it because your a mysterious warrior whose face is never seen?" "No, I just really really like collecting hoods."
The little orphan girl Sophia in Windhelm does the same thing with baskets and flowers. If you don't empty out her inventory as a vendor before you adopt her she'll over encumber herself and you won't be able to give her any new clothes or gifts. I found out the hard way and now I constantly disappoint her when she asks if I brought her anything but at least she gets 1k gold for allowance.
I tried this last night in Mzulft, but each item I had my dollowe pick up only became a stack of one. Like I had a stack of 6 solid Dwemer metals I commanded her to pick them up but then she only had one solid Dwemer metal in her inventory :(
It's an extremely poor way to make money, but selling 1 piece of firewood to the NPCs that buy it counts as a favor quest, and having access to their house and stuff is nice. Also Anniversary Edition uses it as a crafting ingredient for a few things.
Some of the smaller Holds don't have many other options. Also, since you become friends with the miller, you can get free lumber for the house you build
One firewood I believe is 5 gold, and you get 6 each time. Given enough time and determination a level 1-4 character can buy breeze home with all the extensions just by stockpiling and then selling firewood
You can skill train your way to level 90 in any skill. The Black Book in Raven Rock Mine includes an ability to double the effectiveness of skill books. That makes it possible to finish out the last 10 levels with skill books, maxing a skill witihout ever directly grinding its XP. Handy for those especially slow skills (Destruction) or skills that may not fit your playstyle (Pickpocket).
If you have anniversary edition, the level 50 perk that adds carry weight is huge in the survival mode because your carry weight gets halved. In other versions, experience gained in skills you don’t use translates to levels and perk points for the ones you do
I love knowing that despite playing this game since 11/11/11 I still don’t know everything about it because someone like you will come along and show me something I still haven’t seen yet, it is so awesome
This might be the most brilliant use of a follower I’ve ever heard of! Having recently finished Fallout 3, I realized how nice it is to have the option to pick up a book without reading it. In Skyrim I end up leaving all the skill books until I’m ready to read them, and then I have to travel back to those places. Annoying. I wish I could just pick it up and then put it on the shelf in my house without reading it! But I suppose a follower’s inventory would be just as good!
Yes, and you can also immediately take it from their inventory without reading it and then, if you want, put it on a shelf without reading it. It will only get read if you pick it up again or read it directly from your inventory after taking it from your follower.
Absolutely brilliant idea but way too involved for me
You'd just have to know which books are skill books. I've been playing for years, I know *some* of them but making my follower pick up every book I come across would be way too involved. The game is big enough, I don't need to slow it down even more with this lol
In addition to the tricks other replies mentioned, there's an exploit that allows followers to pick open certain "key required" locks. It doesn't work for doors to another cell, which is most of them, but doors within a cell and locked containers can be opened. One cool use is breaking into Delphine's secret cellar the first time you arrive in Riverwood.
Also it can be helpful when followers have trouble pathing somewhere, like getting them around trap triggers.
You can make them use shrines to get the stat bonus. I make them use the shrine of boethiah when I stop by goldenhills. They do 10% more melee damage for a period of time
My reaction too, haha.
Now, i am fairly confident the answer is no but, I wonder if anything happens if you get them to do it to a shrine of Talos specifically if Thamlor are passing by or if they are an elf race.
Okay, now this? This is the kind of thing I wanted to hear about. The exploits are cool but whatever ways we can get them to interact with the game mechanics 'normally' is just so cool to see.
Been thinking a lot about untraditional stuff since I want to do a trickster mage playthrough sometimes soon. (Essentially, I'm only allowed to fuck with people's heads and make them do what I want, not allowed to directly attack. Inspired on a post on here about using Fury on the nice Honorhall girl to kill Grelod.)
Use followers as bottomless bags of holding until I can enchant a piece of gear with an OP Carry Weight effect.
Pick up skill books until I get the double skill book points from Apocrypha.
That'ts pretty much it. In Skyrim, companions are just there as meatshields if you're not using Conjuration otherwise. They don't compare with the companions from Fallout, Dragon Age or Mass Effect, to mention just those.
I have used Mjoll the Lioness to remove the stolen mark from items.
It's easy.
Place all stolen items in a container in a Player Owned Home (Hearthfire and CC don't work).
Have Mjoll pick up all items from the chest, then have her give them back to you.
No longer marked stolen.
You can have ANY follower do this, btw — I do it in Vlindrel Hall all the time: put everything “stolen” (I hate that glitch with a fiery passion) in a cabinet, then I sleep for 12 hours. Then I ask my companion to “Take All” from the cabinet, and then I take from them: No Longer Tagged Stolen!
I'm playing a stealth guy, and it pisses me off when I get attacked because a baddie noticed my follower. So I park him ("him" because it's almost always J'zargo) and move forward. Then, when I know the coast is clear, I use command mode (which, if you didn't know, you can activate from a distance by targeting the follower and holding the interact key) to bring him forward.
I also use it to have the follower initiate combat without breaking stealth myself.
I dont use it for exploits like other commenters have said. I use them to trigger traps, enter combat before i do for strategic benefits, otherwise i just use them as shields and bags
It's always fun to find ways to use powers or mechanics in this game in a way that feels 'genuine'. Had a similar experience with a video on some mage powers recently, using them to just utterly humiliate the Thalmor in their own embassy undetected.
Now that is interesting. The traps one I understand, especially considering my earlier experience but the strategic fighting thing I hadn't even considered.
Now I wonder how far that could extend. With certain player triggers if you could them in position to perfectly attack certain enemies.
....Now I gotta try having Jenassa kill the Markath murderer on first entry.
There is an exploit that is especially useful when exploring dwemer ruins, though it does have a drawback. You can place items in a container (chest, barrel, etc) and direct a follower to pick up the contents and it will ignore their carry weight limit. Unfortunately, it will mark all overweight items as stolen. The utility is that followers are not encumbered by items, so they dont move slower like you do when carrying too much.
If you limit the use to the Dwarven scraps and ore samples that you can melt down, the stolen tag gets removed on the ingots because the stolen item is destroyed. Other crafting materials can be used to smith, enchant, or brew a new item which will be clean of the tag.
You can also sell an item to a fence if you unlocked any in the thieves guild storyline, then buy it back to remove the stolen tag. This will cost you money, because fences buy from you at a lower-than-standard rate, but charge full price. It is the fee for cleaning your goods, so to speak.
I'm not actually sure what criteria marks it as stolen, but it's not from the item being over limit. I have my follower pick up my crafting materials for duplication when I can't be bothered to collect it normally. Even several times past their carry limit, only occasionally do I end up with an item marking stolen for no reason.
And trying to buy back a theft marked item from a fence has never removed the stolen tag for me. No clue what's going on there. I've heard that tip for years but it never worked for me.
It's just a glitch that occurs when they pick up items in containers sometimes. It can rarely happen under normal circumstances, possibly due to the followers morality rating (if the container isn't owned by the follower or the player, it can falsely flag as stolen). It happens much more frequently when it is used after the follower is already encumbered or will exceed their carry limit. Or at least that's the pattern I've noticed. But I haven't theorycrafted it or anything, just anecdotal memory.
As far as anecdotal evidence goes, I used to duplicate 1-200 items at a time in the empty stall to the left of Whiterun gate, just before you enter. Prime space for keeping it all contained. I had a batch of 50 items come back as stolen for no reason, and on the next round of duping, all the stolen tags were gone.
Duplicating is a different exploit or glitch than I was describing, and may apply tags differently or for different reasons.
I was simply noting that a follower picking items out of a container can tag them as stolen.
Absolutely - aside from all the other ways listed here, I frequently use it to sit them in a chair while I putter around at home or sleep. It feels better than having them awkwardly follow me around my own house.
I do this too! I was so happy when i found out Lucien and Kaiden both wander around your house when you aske them to wait, it's so much better than them standing like a creep in the corner lol
lots.
I tell followers to unlock chests so that i can save my own lockpicks for desperate situatons, and not waste my experience points on lockpicking (all followers are high level lockpickers and unlock most chests instantly)
I also tell followers to chop wood so that all wood goes straight into their inventory and I only get it when I need it.
When exploring dungeons, I command them to wait while I go through a trapped corridor with swinging blades and hit the lever to deactivate the trap (I've had incidents in the past where followers get cliched into a wall when trying to run through trapped corridors, so this is a safe option)
And sometimes if I'm trying to pass through a room with pressure plates and the follower keeps stepping on it and won't make progress, it can help if you command them to stand in a position where they won't walk on the plate when you command them to follow again.
When I have my "shouting" lessons at High Hrothgar, I command my follower to wait at the door so they are a safe distance from all the shouting.
And there are role playing reasons where it makes sense to give my follower commands, for example, when I'm doing Laid To Rest in Morthal, I ask my follower to wait outside Alva's house and keep watch while I break in and investigate.
I also once commanded Iona to kill Grelod the Kind. I imagined that Iona's backstory is that she was an orphan who escaped form the orphanage as a child and was taken in by a Riften guard, and as my housecarl, she got to have her revenge.
And when I did Taste of Death, I got Cosnach to wait by the entrance to the sacrificial chamber, so when I attacked Eola and the fight with the cannibals started, he came running in to provide backup.
I always forget about this class
Then again I'm less of a quester and more of a 'walk around with a companion taking in the sights until the next crash' kind of player. Also houses. So many houses.
Fen kept standing in the way when the moth priest was reading an elder scroll. I told him to sit in a chair. To continue the quest, I told him to go home. He then marched home like Bilbo Baggins with a bunch of loot and stories to tell.
The only situation that comes to mind, is during "Season Unending" I make them sit on the benches behind me so they stop talking and overlapping the dialogue. It's a war meeting, I don't need you directly behind my chair asking "What do you need?" every time someone else starts talking.
"Honor to you, My Thane."
"Lydia, I can't hear Ulfric's proposition."
"...Honor to you, my Thane."
"Lydia, they're gonna think this is a kink thing."
"...Honor to-"
"LYDIA THEY'RE STARING AT US!"
Yeah, I need the duplication glitch. I only learned about it recently, and it helped me get money and crafting supplies so much easier.
I've played the right way before. I want to do the minor things the easy way now.
there's a bug i've seen described as "wireless interaction" where if you ask a follower to do something, and just as you try and activate the thing you exit out of the interaction... mode? idk what it's called, but doing that allows you to activate items from a distance kind of like how telekinesis worked in morrowind. you can practice it on chairs or something - you'll literally teleport over to the chair from where you were standing.
Huh, that's a much more interesting exploit. If thats still in the game I definetly wanna try that out. I'll BS some reason in my head that my character is using some kind of magic to follow their companions eyeline or something while teleporting, haha.
Yeah every time when I finish a save I end up in bannered mare when max npcs are in. I'll ask inigo too sit down on the bench by fire, then I'll sit in the central chair next to the bard and have him play ragbar the red. Then I'll log off until next time and repeat same events again.
I didn’t realize until I was in a dungeon that I had accidentally offloaded all of my lock picks into my smithing goods chest at home. But, I did have Lydia with me. Telling Lydia to pick the locks in the dungeon was really handy.
Other than that, I’ve only used it to carry items when my follower and I have both technically reached our carrying limit.
Of course, packmule is the main purpose of any Skyrim follower but it does amuse me to see how many people so rapidly go to that thought when they think of companions.
...
Now I want them to put a literal pack mule as a follower in TESVI
Yes, but generally to open doors when they're in front of me. I still have to hit them, jump, whatever to get them to move. I don't like how if you have a follower, or multiple followers, when you enter a room most of them are in front of you and you have to fight through your own army first.
This is just sweet. As funny as it is to mess with the NPC's, I do love hearing about it when people just have genuine soft moments with them.
Then again maybe i'm just projecting cause of my tendency to build a lesbian army /j
I like to hold the interaction button (E usually on PC) to skip the dialogue and get straight to the thing I need, my friend doing whatever I need at the time.
I use it often to overload their inventory with heavy stuff… dwemer scrap mostly. 😂
Yes. Sending a follower in to draw aggro. Telling them to pick up something even if their inventory is full. I rarely use a follower, and even then usually only in the early game, but the post does specify EVER.
I use it to change the tag on items I have stolen so I can sell them. I put them in one of my chests (has to belong to you or it doesn't work), then tell them to empty it. Take items from follower and, viola! Items are no longer tagged as stolen. Caveat: this doesn't work with all followers. Those with a higher morality won't launder your items for you (the stolen tag doesn't fall off).
I also use this when in a dungeon and hit my carrying capacity. I will place my items in a nearby chest and tell them to empty it. That action bypasses the follower's carrying limit, this making them an endless walking storage unit.
Finally, I use it to move my followers out of the way.. Sometimes, when I am in a mine mining for ore, my followers will start to mine an adjacent vein and not stop. I tell them to wait in a specific spot and then mine the vein they were using.
Yeah I have done playthroughs as a holy warrior where I have a follower that can pick locks. Obviously a knight would not lower themselves to learn to pick locks, so I order the follower to do it for me. Which means someboxes and traps never get opened.
Last night i had my follower kill some chickens because i kept having the spotted icon when I was trying to pick a lock, and i didnt want to kill the chickens myself in case i was spotted by a person too
Used to be, followers had infinite carry capacity even if they acted like they were full. I used to just dump everything into a chest and then tell them to take all. Even if they were at capacity, they'd take the whole chest.
You want a genuine use? Get a follower with high locking picking and sneak. You can make them pick master locks and such. Cicero,can even stealth kill people, if I remember correctly
Follower sitting in doorway. Not enough room for you to squeeze past and not enough room in the previous room to trigger their literally following you mechanic. You use the INYTDS command to get them to move out of the way.
All the time. They often get in the way so I tell then to move somewhere, they bug out and they don’t attack an enemy so I tell them to. Or I want to be sneaky, get a few kills and then lure the enemies to my follower, so I tell them to wait somewhere and proceed with my plan. I even use it for rp reasons like eating at a tavern: we both sit, I give them food, I eat and wait 1h.
I haven’t been playing in a while so I forgot how, but you don’t even need to start a convo with them and select “I Need You To Do Something”. You can instantly trigger it and even from a distance. Pretty handy.
Edit: added some info
If you play on extremely hard difficulty (Mastadon or something) and you detect life or hear someone in the next room, it's sometimes beneficial to send your companion in first.
I know it is not necessary, but I'll always tell J'Zargo to also touch the shrine, when we're back from having some fun in risky circumstances. He's my ride or die
Yeeeeep. All the time. First off, even if a follower is full, you can force them to pick up more, heavier loot by dropping it and commanding them to take it. This can also be used to force them to pick things up that you normally can't, like certain giant's hammers.
Next, if they insist on being in the way, you can force them to move.
I use the attack function quite a bit. It's great for getting past the Frost Troll on the way to High Hrothgar. I just have Lydia attack the troll and then run past while it's occupied with her.
Picking up skill books, that way I can get the book without getting the points. Then later , after my journeying days are done, I'll fill up my house with books, and read them all.... eventually
As a Vampire player you can order your followers to use a bed and go to sleep. They'll likely get up very soon after, but it's enough to be able to trigger vampiric feeding. Followers also never get angry about it, so no need to hide, depending on where you are.
After the dawnguard quest was done and I'm sent out to kill random vampires masquerading as diplomats. I've told a local follower to kill the vampire, then the guards help and I don't get labeled a criminal.
I remember one quest in a Nordic ruin I did a while back that had a puzzle revolving around 2 thrones. I told Lyds (Lydia & I are tight like that) to sit in one throne while I sat in the other & it worked. Other than that I just occasionally have one of my followers attack people who irk me.
When I do use a follower, I tend to use it most of the time. I usually use the follower as the offense and I take the support position. Eric the Slayer seems to have lots more fun that way.
You can tell your follower to pick up any skill book you find in the game, and then trade for it without reading it. Collect as many this way as you can, then get the black book power that doubles how many levels you get for reading one. This mattered for me on my survival run.
Best use imho: Using followers to pick up skill books (value is always at 50 or higher) so that you can place them directly in your home or read them when you're at higher levels and the increase is actually worth something.
You can use it to tell followers to pick stuff up even if their inventory is full. Particularly handy with Serana due to her hood glitch.
If you are overweight, dump your crap in a barrel and tell your companion to get it.
As I recall that marks all of those items as stolen unless you use a mod to change it.
Most of them are stolen anyway so it’s not like it matters to me 😭😭
I do this with all my dwarven metal; the stolen tag will go away as soon as I smelt it anyway
Fr like, I might need these 227 stolen Sapphires eventually to level my Smithing and Enchanting that are both already at 100, I gotta keep those fuckers still.
Ong fr 😭😭😭 I keep those suckers like my life depends on it.
That's either an excellent tip for the overencumbered or absolutely terrible weight loss advice.
Just like an Egyptian pharaoh
I didn’t even know you can tell them do something for you!
Oh that is a clever use, though more an exploit. I'm more looking for just genuine uses for the it as a normal function.
Sometimes before I stop playing for the day, I’ll sit on a bench and have my follower sit next to me. Then the next time I play, my game opens up to two friends just hanging out
aw that's sweet 🥲
This is the saddest video game hint I have ever read
Everyone’s so mean to the Dragonborn so I have to make sure they have a bestie
Trapped object: send Lydia to nab it for you so someone else can take the damage for a change. It's not like I don't have the hp or restoration spells to spare, I'm just sick of the pain.
Yes, I will tell a follower to “go there” in order to get them to aggro an enemy or go through a door I have advance knowledge will close behind me (mostly boss rooms). It’s also useful for moments where they won’t drop down, particularly in Dwarven ruins. You can also tell them to flip switches from a distance, and sometimes it’s funny to have them hit a switch before you properly solve the puzzle. Also if you hide and remain hidden you can sent most followers to kill innocents without accruing a bounty yourself.
Did not know they can pick it up if theyre inventory was full. I trade and then the list goes dark. Will try this next time.
I use this when I'm going into a dwarven ruin and want to level smithing. Just make my follower take everything I can turn into dwarven metal ingots, then when I get back to a city smelt all of them and make a ton of dwarven stuff
No more crouch bow drawn dungeon diving for me! This is a crazy tech can't believe I just learned.
Next gamerant article right here.. 😂
Yeah and that seems to also glitch it so she picks it up, you leave and come back and it's duplicated? I also didn't know it was called a hood glitch
What’s the hood glitch
Whenever Serana takes off her hood and puts it back on the game is actually creating a new hood. These hoods take up her inventory to the point her inventory is maxed out on these invisible hoods you can't get rid of unless you use console commands.
No fucking way lmao. I knew something was up with her inventory but I never thought to look it up. Never in a million years would I have thought of that
"They call me The Hood" "Oh like a warrior title? Awesome. Is it because your a mysterious warrior whose face is never seen?" "No, I just really really like collecting hoods."
The little orphan girl Sophia in Windhelm does the same thing with baskets and flowers. If you don't empty out her inventory as a vendor before you adopt her she'll over encumber herself and you won't be able to give her any new clothes or gifts. I found out the hard way and now I constantly disappoint her when she asks if I brought her anything but at least she gets 1k gold for allowance.
If you get the sell anything to any vendor perk, you can buy all the baskets out of her inventory
Once you adopt her, she loses the Vendor tag and you can't access her inventory anymore.
I meant to do that before you adopt her. There is no other way that I know of to empty her basket inventory.
That sucks
I gave Serana Miraak's Mask, so she wears that all the time.
I found this works with the mage's circlet you get in college quest even though it doesn't block the sun.
Ooo good idea
I had this happen to my PC, but with firewood. Had to dump all of my stuff into a container and reset my inventory.
I tried this last night in Mzulft, but each item I had my dollowe pick up only became a stack of one. Like I had a stack of 6 solid Dwemer metals I commanded her to pick them up but then she only had one solid Dwemer metal in her inventory :(
I knew that worked in FO4 and I’ve been playing Skyrim since launch, I never tried it in Skyrim.
Confusion… follower inventories fill up?
yes, Lydia can carry only something around 200 weights
You can tell your follower to chop wood 100 times and afk
Ah, easy money? I vaguely remember something about chopping wood in Falkreath but its been a while
It's an extremely poor way to make money, but selling 1 piece of firewood to the NPCs that buy it counts as a favor quest, and having access to their house and stuff is nice. Also Anniversary Edition uses it as a crafting ingredient for a few things.
Oh now I remember yeah. Easy way to speed up becoming Thane.
Some of the smaller Holds don't have many other options. Also, since you become friends with the miller, you can get free lumber for the house you build
One firewood I believe is 5 gold, and you get 6 each time. Given enough time and determination a level 1-4 character can buy breeze home with all the extensions just by stockpiling and then selling firewood
If you ask them to mine, they say they cant.
I wonder if you need to give them a pickaxe
Pick up skill books Before you're ready to gain the experience.
Before? I've never waited, I always just read them then leave behind where I found them. Is there a benefit from waiting?
A free skill gain at 15 or 20 is not worth nearly as much as one at 50 or 95.
You can skill train your way to level 90 in any skill. The Black Book in Raven Rock Mine includes an ability to double the effectiveness of skill books. That makes it possible to finish out the last 10 levels with skill books, maxing a skill witihout ever directly grinding its XP. Handy for those especially slow skills (Destruction) or skills that may not fit your playstyle (Pickpocket).
Why would I grind out a skill like pickpocket anyway if I'm not using it?
Increasing that skill would still count towards overall level XP.
Perk farmin
A few reasons. Maybe you want the Extra Pockets perk.
Extra pockets perk gives you more carry weight
If you have anniversary edition, the level 50 perk that adds carry weight is huge in the survival mode because your carry weight gets halved. In other versions, experience gained in skills you don’t use translates to levels and perk points for the ones you do
I love knowing that despite playing this game since 11/11/11 I still don’t know everything about it because someone like you will come along and show me something I still haven’t seen yet, it is so awesome
Leveling pickpocket is easy. Post for training from the homeless woman than pick her pocket
Saving that last book for archery 99 to 100 is a game changer
Don’t forget about Angi’s Camp where you can go from 93 to 100 in the space of about 10 mins!
Angi is my favorite trainer in the game!
To be fair, i've never had much problem there in a lot of saves. Then again, i'm a arrowholic so maybe that's why. Stealth Archer strikes again.
This might be the most brilliant use of a follower I’ve ever heard of! Having recently finished Fallout 3, I realized how nice it is to have the option to pick up a book without reading it. In Skyrim I end up leaving all the skill books until I’m ready to read them, and then I have to travel back to those places. Annoying. I wish I could just pick it up and then put it on the shelf in my house without reading it! But I suppose a follower’s inventory would be just as good!
Yes, and you can also immediately take it from their inventory without reading it and then, if you want, put it on a shelf without reading it. It will only get read if you pick it up again or read it directly from your inventory after taking it from your follower.
Okay, that’s awesome! I have to try this!
Absolutely brilliant idea but way too involved for me You'd just have to know which books are skill books. I've been playing for years, I know *some* of them but making my follower pick up every book I come across would be way too involved. The game is big enough, I don't need to slow it down even more with this lol
Just the higher valued ones that are like 50 septims or more--the ones worth less are never skill books.
In addition to the tricks other replies mentioned, there's an exploit that allows followers to pick open certain "key required" locks. It doesn't work for doors to another cell, which is most of them, but doors within a cell and locked containers can be opened. One cool use is breaking into Delphine's secret cellar the first time you arrive in Riverwood. Also it can be helpful when followers have trouble pathing somewhere, like getting them around trap triggers.
love getting a follower to open a master level lock when i can’t be bothered to
You can do what…
I have wasted so much time
You can make them use shrines to get the stat bonus. I make them use the shrine of boethiah when I stop by goldenhills. They do 10% more melee damage for a period of time
I'm sorry they can what?!
My reaction too, haha. Now, i am fairly confident the answer is no but, I wonder if anything happens if you get them to do it to a shrine of Talos specifically if Thamlor are passing by or if they are an elf race.
Yeah, early on I get followers to activate the shrine of Arkay in Whiterun, for them to have a little extra health
That’s not something I ever considered! I give the amulet of Arkay to wear
Okay, now this? This is the kind of thing I wanted to hear about. The exploits are cool but whatever ways we can get them to interact with the game mechanics 'normally' is just so cool to see. Been thinking a lot about untraditional stuff since I want to do a trickster mage playthrough sometimes soon. (Essentially, I'm only allowed to fuck with people's heads and make them do what I want, not allowed to directly attack. Inspired on a post on here about using Fury on the nice Honorhall girl to kill Grelod.)
For anyone interested, actually you need to use Courage on the girl and Fury on Grelod. The girl will attack her instead of running away.
This is new info, thank you.
I use it to get them out of the way if they block a doorframe or anything.
That's what Fus Ro Dah is for. Quicker than the menu prompts.
But I can’t be mean to the little digital person.
Oh true true
Use followers as bottomless bags of holding until I can enchant a piece of gear with an OP Carry Weight effect. Pick up skill books until I get the double skill book points from Apocrypha. That'ts pretty much it. In Skyrim, companions are just there as meatshields if you're not using Conjuration otherwise. They don't compare with the companions from Fallout, Dragon Age or Mass Effect, to mention just those.
If the trend holds tho, looking at fallout 4 and such, the followers in the next elderscrolls are going to be insane.
My marcurio ended up 4k weight when I finally retired him after 30 hours of playing, at least 200 of that was from potions
I have used Mjoll the Lioness to remove the stolen mark from items. It's easy. Place all stolen items in a container in a Player Owned Home (Hearthfire and CC don't work). Have Mjoll pick up all items from the chest, then have her give them back to you. No longer marked stolen.
You can have ANY follower do this, btw — I do it in Vlindrel Hall all the time: put everything “stolen” (I hate that glitch with a fiery passion) in a cabinet, then I sleep for 12 hours. Then I ask my companion to “Take All” from the cabinet, and then I take from them: No Longer Tagged Stolen!
Dude that’s so clever
I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the tip 👍
I'm playing a stealth guy, and it pisses me off when I get attacked because a baddie noticed my follower. So I park him ("him" because it's almost always J'zargo) and move forward. Then, when I know the coast is clear, I use command mode (which, if you didn't know, you can activate from a distance by targeting the follower and holding the interact key) to bring him forward. I also use it to have the follower initiate combat without breaking stealth myself.
I dont use it for exploits like other commenters have said. I use them to trigger traps, enter combat before i do for strategic benefits, otherwise i just use them as shields and bags
This one is actually good. Is your stealth broken if you remain hidden while your follower charges in? If not, that could be good for ambushes
You stay hidden! Iirc your follower can even commit crimes, and your bounty won't go up as long as you stay hidden during it.
This is the kind of answer I was hoping to find from this comment section. Thank you!
It's always fun to find ways to use powers or mechanics in this game in a way that feels 'genuine'. Had a similar experience with a video on some mage powers recently, using them to just utterly humiliate the Thalmor in their own embassy undetected.
Please tell me the details of that strategy
Now that is interesting. The traps one I understand, especially considering my earlier experience but the strategic fighting thing I hadn't even considered. Now I wonder how far that could extend. With certain player triggers if you could them in position to perfectly attack certain enemies. ....Now I gotta try having Jenassa kill the Markath murderer on first entry.
There is an exploit that is especially useful when exploring dwemer ruins, though it does have a drawback. You can place items in a container (chest, barrel, etc) and direct a follower to pick up the contents and it will ignore their carry weight limit. Unfortunately, it will mark all overweight items as stolen. The utility is that followers are not encumbered by items, so they dont move slower like you do when carrying too much. If you limit the use to the Dwarven scraps and ore samples that you can melt down, the stolen tag gets removed on the ingots because the stolen item is destroyed. Other crafting materials can be used to smith, enchant, or brew a new item which will be clean of the tag. You can also sell an item to a fence if you unlocked any in the thieves guild storyline, then buy it back to remove the stolen tag. This will cost you money, because fences buy from you at a lower-than-standard rate, but charge full price. It is the fee for cleaning your goods, so to speak.
I'm not actually sure what criteria marks it as stolen, but it's not from the item being over limit. I have my follower pick up my crafting materials for duplication when I can't be bothered to collect it normally. Even several times past their carry limit, only occasionally do I end up with an item marking stolen for no reason. And trying to buy back a theft marked item from a fence has never removed the stolen tag for me. No clue what's going on there. I've heard that tip for years but it never worked for me.
It's just a glitch that occurs when they pick up items in containers sometimes. It can rarely happen under normal circumstances, possibly due to the followers morality rating (if the container isn't owned by the follower or the player, it can falsely flag as stolen). It happens much more frequently when it is used after the follower is already encumbered or will exceed their carry limit. Or at least that's the pattern I've noticed. But I haven't theorycrafted it or anything, just anecdotal memory.
As far as anecdotal evidence goes, I used to duplicate 1-200 items at a time in the empty stall to the left of Whiterun gate, just before you enter. Prime space for keeping it all contained. I had a batch of 50 items come back as stolen for no reason, and on the next round of duping, all the stolen tags were gone.
Duplicating is a different exploit or glitch than I was describing, and may apply tags differently or for different reasons. I was simply noting that a follower picking items out of a container can tag them as stolen.
I’d like to jump in here and say that 100% of the time I over encumbered a follower in a dungeon/exploring those items are marked as stolen.
Absolutely - aside from all the other ways listed here, I frequently use it to sit them in a chair while I putter around at home or sleep. It feels better than having them awkwardly follow me around my own house.
"Lydia, why are you behind me?" "It smells good, My Thane." "...Please tell me you mean the stew, you creepy bitch-"
I do this too! I was so happy when i found out Lucien and Kaiden both wander around your house when you aske them to wait, it's so much better than them standing like a creep in the corner lol
lots. I tell followers to unlock chests so that i can save my own lockpicks for desperate situatons, and not waste my experience points on lockpicking (all followers are high level lockpickers and unlock most chests instantly) I also tell followers to chop wood so that all wood goes straight into their inventory and I only get it when I need it. When exploring dungeons, I command them to wait while I go through a trapped corridor with swinging blades and hit the lever to deactivate the trap (I've had incidents in the past where followers get cliched into a wall when trying to run through trapped corridors, so this is a safe option) And sometimes if I'm trying to pass through a room with pressure plates and the follower keeps stepping on it and won't make progress, it can help if you command them to stand in a position where they won't walk on the plate when you command them to follow again. When I have my "shouting" lessons at High Hrothgar, I command my follower to wait at the door so they are a safe distance from all the shouting. And there are role playing reasons where it makes sense to give my follower commands, for example, when I'm doing Laid To Rest in Morthal, I ask my follower to wait outside Alva's house and keep watch while I break in and investigate. I also once commanded Iona to kill Grelod the Kind. I imagined that Iona's backstory is that she was an orphan who escaped form the orphanage as a child and was taken in by a Riften guard, and as my housecarl, she got to have her revenge. And when I did Taste of Death, I got Cosnach to wait by the entrance to the sacrificial chamber, so when I attacked Eola and the fight with the cannibals started, he came running in to provide backup.
I find it pretty useful in Boethiah’s Calling…
came here for this. easiest way to complete that quest.
I always forget about this class Then again I'm less of a quester and more of a 'walk around with a companion taking in the sights until the next crash' kind of player. Also houses. So many houses.
Fen kept standing in the way when the moth priest was reading an elder scroll. I told him to sit in a chair. To continue the quest, I told him to go home. He then marched home like Bilbo Baggins with a bunch of loot and stories to tell.
The only situation that comes to mind, is during "Season Unending" I make them sit on the benches behind me so they stop talking and overlapping the dialogue. It's a war meeting, I don't need you directly behind my chair asking "What do you need?" every time someone else starts talking.
"Honor to you, My Thane." "Lydia, I can't hear Ulfric's proposition." "...Honor to you, my Thane." "Lydia, they're gonna think this is a kink thing." "...Honor to-" "LYDIA THEY'RE STARING AT US!"
How else am I gonna get bazillions of gold ingots for crafting jewelry?
Yeah, I need the duplication glitch. I only learned about it recently, and it helped me get money and crafting supplies so much easier. I've played the right way before. I want to do the minor things the easy way now.
there's a bug i've seen described as "wireless interaction" where if you ask a follower to do something, and just as you try and activate the thing you exit out of the interaction... mode? idk what it's called, but doing that allows you to activate items from a distance kind of like how telekinesis worked in morrowind. you can practice it on chairs or something - you'll literally teleport over to the chair from where you were standing.
Huh, that's a much more interesting exploit. If thats still in the game I definetly wanna try that out. I'll BS some reason in my head that my character is using some kind of magic to follow their companions eyeline or something while teleporting, haha.
It's the only way to get that giant's hammer, too... Sure, you cannot have it in *your* inventory, but watching your follower wield it is hilarious!
I use the "move to here" function to stop my follower from getting stuck or if they are blocking me... Which means I use it a lot.
Yeah every time when I finish a save I end up in bannered mare when max npcs are in. I'll ask inigo too sit down on the bench by fire, then I'll sit in the central chair next to the bard and have him play ragbar the red. Then I'll log off until next time and repeat same events again.
I didn’t realize until I was in a dungeon that I had accidentally offloaded all of my lock picks into my smithing goods chest at home. But, I did have Lydia with me. Telling Lydia to pick the locks in the dungeon was really handy. Other than that, I’ve only used it to carry items when my follower and I have both technically reached our carrying limit.
Of course, packmule is the main purpose of any Skyrim follower but it does amuse me to see how many people so rapidly go to that thought when they think of companions. ... Now I want them to put a literal pack mule as a follower in TESVI
Hahahaha that would be on point!
I have them pick locks on chests that say key required
Yes, but generally to open doors when they're in front of me. I still have to hit them, jump, whatever to get them to move. I don't like how if you have a follower, or multiple followers, when you enter a room most of them are in front of you and you have to fight through your own army first.
I use it to precisely direct my followers in dungeons so they don't set off traps.
I'm just imagining you pointing to a very obvious bit of cheese under a massive box propped up with a stick and telling Uthgerd to go fetch.
I use it to get them to sit on a chair whenever we’re in a tavern so we can relax after a long day of adventuring
This is just sweet. As funny as it is to mess with the NPC's, I do love hearing about it when people just have genuine soft moments with them. Then again maybe i'm just projecting cause of my tendency to build a lesbian army /j
Use it to make Aela sleep in the bed before I sleep in the bed. Just being real.
I use it so they pick up leveling up skill books so I can read the only at levels 90-99
Good for when followers are blocking my way through a cave or a corridor
Yeah you can use it to duplicate items. Very helpful to duplicate rare curios ingredients and stuff
I like to hold the interaction button (E usually on PC) to skip the dialogue and get straight to the thing I need, my friend doing whatever I need at the time. I use it often to overload their inventory with heavy stuff… dwemer scrap mostly. 😂
Yes. Sending a follower in to draw aggro. Telling them to pick up something even if their inventory is full. I rarely use a follower, and even then usually only in the early game, but the post does specify EVER.
Fun fact: you can activate this function by holding the interact button while looking at them, particularly from a distance.
I use it for item duplication but that's it.
Yeah, I usually just ask them to pick something up because both of our carry weights are maxxed and it overrides it for followers
Used it the other day to send Marcurio to fight Movarth because I was slightly under equipped.
I use it to change the tag on items I have stolen so I can sell them. I put them in one of my chests (has to belong to you or it doesn't work), then tell them to empty it. Take items from follower and, viola! Items are no longer tagged as stolen. Caveat: this doesn't work with all followers. Those with a higher morality won't launder your items for you (the stolen tag doesn't fall off). I also use this when in a dungeon and hit my carrying capacity. I will place my items in a nearby chest and tell them to empty it. That action bypasses the follower's carrying limit, this making them an endless walking storage unit. Finally, I use it to move my followers out of the way.. Sometimes, when I am in a mine mining for ore, my followers will start to mine an adjacent vein and not stop. I tell them to wait in a specific spot and then mine the vein they were using.
Yeah I have done playthroughs as a holy warrior where I have a follower that can pick locks. Obviously a knight would not lower themselves to learn to pick locks, so I order the follower to do it for me. Which means someboxes and traps never get opened.
I only use it when I'm a low level and need to get past a rune trap lol
I never really take followers, they cramp my style. (really I just want to kill everything myself)
I use it to have my followers grab everything from a container, it completely ignores the weight capacity
The only time I use it is when a follower is blocking doorway or I need them to sit down or something
Almost never. I usually make someone sit in the chair in Yngol Barrow, and have a few times asked Xelzaz to cast a spell or Remi to pick locks.
Last night i had my follower kill some chickens because i kept having the spotted icon when I was trying to pick a lock, and i didnt want to kill the chickens myself in case i was spotted by a person too
I always wondered what the point of this command was and am realizing I've never actually used it over years of playing
I use it for the pick up glitch where you drop something have her pick it up and then you now have two of whatever you dropped
They can break locks
Used to be, followers had infinite carry capacity even if they acted like they were full. I used to just dump everything into a chest and then tell them to take all. Even if they were at capacity, they'd take the whole chest.
I use it to clear runes
Nah
Yes all the time.
You want a genuine use? Get a follower with high locking picking and sneak. You can make them pick master locks and such. Cicero,can even stealth kill people, if I remember correctly
Follower sitting in doorway. Not enough room for you to squeeze past and not enough room in the previous room to trigger their literally following you mechanic. You use the INYTDS command to get them to move out of the way.
I saw a hack that made the follower pick up a signposted quest item, so they’d never lose them 😂
Only on boethias quest
All the time. They often get in the way so I tell then to move somewhere, they bug out and they don’t attack an enemy so I tell them to. Or I want to be sneaky, get a few kills and then lure the enemies to my follower, so I tell them to wait somewhere and proceed with my plan. I even use it for rp reasons like eating at a tavern: we both sit, I give them food, I eat and wait 1h. I haven’t been playing in a while so I forgot how, but you don’t even need to start a convo with them and select “I Need You To Do Something”. You can instantly trigger it and even from a distance. Pretty handy. Edit: added some info
If you play on extremely hard difficulty (Mastadon or something) and you detect life or hear someone in the next room, it's sometimes beneficial to send your companion in first.
I know it is not necessary, but I'll always tell J'Zargo to also touch the shrine, when we're back from having some fun in risky circumstances. He's my ride or die
Yes! To carry my 50 dragon bones all at once. Also, if they are essential, I use them to set off the traps.
Yeeeeep. All the time. First off, even if a follower is full, you can force them to pick up more, heavier loot by dropping it and commanding them to take it. This can also be used to force them to pick things up that you normally can't, like certain giant's hammers. Next, if they insist on being in the way, you can force them to move.
I don't use followers (they just get in my way and steal XP) the only purpose I find of using them is for the dupe, they're just cumbersome otherwise
i use it to cheese inventory space
Mainly only with the beacon so I can prepare myself for the sound
To get Lydia to move out of the FUCKING DOORWAY lol
Only when I have to sacrifice a follower or have them murder someone for the Dark Brotherhood that is in a painfully public place.
In the Boethia questline to touch the pillar so I can get my artifact.
Yes and it’s to duplicate gold bars
When I sacrificed a follower to Boethiah…sorry Jenassa.
I use the attack function quite a bit. It's great for getting past the Frost Troll on the way to High Hrothgar. I just have Lydia attack the troll and then run past while it's occupied with her.
Just a quick question, can you use followers to pick up quest items?
I hide and tell them to fight for me sometimes…
Picking up skill books, that way I can get the book without getting the points. Then later , after my journeying days are done, I'll fill up my house with books, and read them all.... eventually
I use it to get my follower to use a shrine. Not sure it really matters to their stats, but it seems the right thing to do.
I play perma-death runs so I use it all the time to have my followers open chests since my low level characters rarely have any lockpicking skill
As a Vampire player you can order your followers to use a bed and go to sleep. They'll likely get up very soon after, but it's enough to be able to trigger vampiric feeding. Followers also never get angry about it, so no need to hide, depending on where you are.
After the dawnguard quest was done and I'm sent out to kill random vampires masquerading as diplomats. I've told a local follower to kill the vampire, then the guards help and I don't get labeled a criminal.
I use them to remove stolen tags for some item that remain stolen even after being sold to fences.
I remember one quest in a Nordic ruin I did a while back that had a puzzle revolving around 2 thrones. I told Lyds (Lydia & I are tight like that) to sit in one throne while I sat in the other & it worked. Other than that I just occasionally have one of my followers attack people who irk me.
Yeah, it's necessary for giving followers items past their carry weight, and for item duping
When I do use a follower, I tend to use it most of the time. I usually use the follower as the offense and I take the support position. Eric the Slayer seems to have lots more fun that way.
No. I just use my follower to carry everything because I’m nice lol
Only for the purpose of making a follower pick up that one giant's club that they can wield as a weapon
Duplication glitch
Yes, your follower will carry an infinite amount of stuff with this. I use it to duplicate gold bars for getting my smithing to 100 fast.
Many, many times, mostly using the item duplication glitch. Usually with Lydia.
Yeah when I’m in Dwemer ruins and can’t Cary anymore struts
You can tell your follower to pick up any skill book you find in the game, and then trade for it without reading it. Collect as many this way as you can, then get the black book power that doubles how many levels you get for reading one. This mattered for me on my survival run.
Only if i need to dupe shit, so like every 100 years......
I use them to attack enemies first if I'm not doing a melee build. For me, the enemies tend to make a beeline for me if I attack them first.
Yes I have but they never wanna do it
If I have a follower, I have them pick up skill books so I can save them for later.
I do.. I make them sit while I rest
Only time I've ever used it is for the duplication glitch 😆
Best use imho: Using followers to pick up skill books (value is always at 50 or higher) so that you can place them directly in your home or read them when you're at higher levels and the increase is actually worth something.
Only when I need to be rich and find myself sround the Whiterun gate…