Skyrim: Fortify Restoration Exploit Explained (2024)

Bethesda’s games are famous for being buggy on release and for the remainder of time unless the community of modders patches things up. But not all bugs and glitches are detrimental to the player. Sometimes, they can be useful. One such useful exploit is the Fortify Restoration glitch in Skyrim that allows you to increase other Fortify skill enchantments, and in today’s guide, we are going to tell you how to do it.

How does fortify restoration exploit work in the first place?

The Fortify Restoration exploit takes advantage of the way Skyrim calculates the effects of certain potions and enchantments, leading to a loop of ever-increasing benefits. This is why you need to unequip and re-quip gear multiple times throughout the process. Essentially, the exploit tricks the game into applying the Fortify Restoration bonus not just once but multiple times, leading to an ever-growing amplification of effects.

Some skills and attributes that can be affected are Fortify Smithing, Fortify Health, Fortify Carry Weight, Fortify Barter, and Fortify Unarmed Damage.

Collecting the ingredients for fortify restoration exploit

Now, if you’re at the early levels of the game before you can trick the game successfully, you will need quite a few ingredients. You should start by getting your hand on the most powerful fortify alchemy enchantments that you possibly can. Some of the items that spawn by default in chests in various forts and ruins are all varieties of bracers/gauntlets, helmets, and necklacesofAlchemy.

Fortify Alchemy also comes with several unique items, such as Muiri’s Ring, Ring of Pure Mixtures, and Dragon Priest Mask Krosis. Those unique items, however, require you to either deal with difficult opponents or solve a lengthy questline, so your best bet is still either enchanting a piece of gear or merely stumbling open it. The bigger the fortify alchemy bonus, the better.

Next up, you’re going to need a lot of fortify restoration ingredients.Numerous ingredients in the game have that effect, and they are relatively easy to come across but annoying to get in large quantities because the grind is involved.

Abecean Longfin and Cyrodilic Spadetail can usually be found in ponds, lakes, rivers, and seas. Abecean Longfin is easily located from the surface of the water as it often comes hand in hand with dragonflies, who often fly above them on the surface.

Salt cannot be harvested naturally in Skyrim, but since it’s used more often in cooking than in alchemy, it can be found in the inventory of most local merchants, innkeepers, and apothecary merchants. Salt piles can also be found in random barrels.

Female elk exclusively drop small antlers; they are found all through Skyrim in abundance, except for maybe the Reach. The region is far too steep for them, but in any case, on plains and forests, there’s plenty of game to be found. All you need to do is be patient.

Yellow Mountain Flower was added with Dawnguard expansion. The flower is a relatively rare variant of normal Mountain Flowers, but 27 plants in total can be found in Ancest Glade and east of Falkreath. That number goes up to 55 with Skyrim Special Edition.

Fortify Restoration step-by-step guide

Now that you hopefully have everything you need to start with the exploit let’s see how it’s done.

1. Equip your Fortify Alchemy items (the gauntlets, necklaces, or rings that we’ve discussed earlier)
2. Make a Fortify Restoration potion with the ingredients mentioned above.
3. Unquip Fortify Alechmy items.
4. Drink the potion.
5. Equip the Fortify Alchemy items again.
6. Create a super-powered Fortify enchanting potion and follow it up with a super-powered Fortify alchemy enchantment. (this step is optional)

Once your alchemy is boosted, create super-powered potions that retain their effects as long as you don’t remove the enchanted apparel after the last consumed potion. Focus on Fortify Enchanting potions for permanent effects, as regular potions have a limited duration. Keep in mind that the magnitude of potions decreases once the Fortify Restoration effect expires, so consider using the restoration loop for vital stats only.

The Fortify Restoration glitch in Skyrim offers a myriad of possibilities, but it’s necessary to stay within the bounds of a 32-bit long integer; otherwise, the glitch won’t work; the number by which you increase the stats is not infinite.

Some alternative approaches to glitch involve leveling Speech by crafting high-value potions, creating super-powered Fortify Smithing enchantments for effective combat, achieving immortality through a Fortify Health enchantment, and removing cooldowns on Dragon Shouts with a Fortify Restoration potion and Amulet of Talos combination.

Additional exploits include fortifying magicka, stamina, carry weight, and barter prices, ensuring undetectability with a powerful Fortify Sneak enchantment, and simplifying lockpicking with a super-powered Fortify Lockpicking enchantment.

There are also other enchantments like Unarmed Damage, Resist Magic, and Resist Poison for diverse benefits, but be aware not to cause anything game-breaking, and like always, back up your save game.

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