Skyrim Achievements: The Complete 2026 Guide to Unlocking Every Trophy

Over a decade after its release, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remains one of the most achievement-hunted games on any platform. With 75 base game achievements (or trophies, depending on your console) and an additional 30 spread across three major DLCs, going for 100% completion is both a badge of honor and a genuine test of patience. Whether you’re a first-timer aiming for that platinum trophy or a veteran returning to mop up a few stragglers, this guide breaks down every single achievement, organized by category, with practical strategies that respect your time.

Skyrim’s achievement list isn’t just a checklist, it’s a tour of everything Bethesda packed into Tamriel. You’ll assassinate emperors, become a werewolf, collect fifteen Daedric artifacts, and yes, steal a sweetroll. Some are story-locked and impossible to miss. Others require specific builds, careful planning, or just a willingness to grind. By 2026, most players have access to the Special Edition or Anniversary Edition on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch, all of which share the same core achievement structure. Let’s get into it.

Understanding Skyrim’s Achievement System

Skyrim awards 75 achievements in the base game, totaling 1,000 Gamerscore on Xbox or a Platinum trophy on PlayStation. The DLCs, Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and Hearthfire, add another 30 achievements, bringing the grand total to 105 achievements for those running the Special or Anniversary Edition.

Platform differences are minimal. PC players via Steam have the same list as console players, with no exclusive achievements for mods or console commands (though using commands will disable achievements unless you’re running a Script Extender workaround). Switch players have full parity with other platforms as of the 2017 Special Edition port.

Skyrim’s achievements fall into several clear buckets: story progression, skill milestones, exploration, crafting, faction quests, and oddball tasks like bounties or Daedric quests. None are missable in a permanent sense, you can always start a new character or reload an earlier save, but some require mutually exclusive faction choices (Imperials vs. Stormcloaks, Dawnguard vs. Vampires), meaning a single playthrough won’t cover everything.

One key detail: difficulty settings don’t affect most achievements. You can breeze through on Novice and still claim the vast majority of trophies. Only a handful, like Legendary, explicitly require higher difficulties or specific conditions. That makes Skyrim one of the more forgiving AAA games for completionists, especially compared to ultra-hard modes in modern titles.

Story-Related Achievements

Main Quest Achievements

The main questline is your bread and butter. It’s also impossible to miss if you’re playing naturally. Here’s the lineup:

• Unbound – Complete the tutorial (Helgen escape). You’ll get this within 15 minutes of starting.
• Bleak Falls Barrow – Retrieve the Dragonstone. Your first real dungeon crawl.
• The Way of the Voice – Learn the three words of Unrelenting Force from the Greybeards.
• Dragonslayer – Complete the main quest by defeating Alduin at the Throat of the World (first encounter).
• Alduin’s Wall – Complete “Alduin’s Wall” during the main quest.
• Elder Knowledge – Learn the location of Alduin’s lair from the Elder Scroll.
• The Fallen – Trap a dragon in Dragonsreach (only happens if you haven’t finished the Civil War).

The main quest achievements are straightforward. The only wrinkle is The Fallen, which is skipped entirely if you’ve already resolved the Civil War before reaching that story beat. If you’re achievement hunting, hold off on finishing the war until after this quest.

Civil War and Faction Quest Achievements

Skyrim’s major faction questlines each unlock their own trophy. These are mutually exclusive in some cases, so plan accordingly:

• Taking Sides – Join the Stormcloaks or Imperials.
• War Hero – Capture Fort Sungard or Fort Greenwall (depends on faction).
• Hero of Skyrim – Complete the Civil War questline for either side.

You’ll need two playthroughs, or a pre-war save, to hit both faction endings. Most players knock out Imperials first since Ulfric’s Stormcloak rhetoric gets old fast, but the achievements are identical either way.

Other major faction achievements include:

• Glory of the Dead – Complete the Companions questline. You’ll become a werewolf, cure yourself (or not), and take down the Silver Hand.
• Revealing the Unseen – Complete “Revealing the Unseen” in the College of Winterhold questline.
• The Eye of Magnus – Finish the College of Winterhold arc.
• Darkness Returns – Return the Skeleton Key and complete the Thieves Guild main quest.
• One with the Shadows – Restore the Thieves Guild to its former glory (requires tedious radiant quests in each hold).
• With Friends Like These… – Join the Dark Brotherhood.
• Bound Until Death – Complete “Bound Until Death” for the Dark Brotherhood.
• Hail Sithis. – Complete the Dark Brotherhood questline.

These faction arcs are where character build decisions really matter. Stealth archers dominate Thieves Guild content, while two-handed warriors breeze through the Companions.

Skill-Based Achievements

Leveling and Skill Mastery Achievements

Skyrim rewards raw progression with a handful of level-based achievements:

• Apprentice – Reach level 5.
• Journeyman – Reach level 10.
• Expert – Reach level 25.
• Master – Reach level 50.
• Legendary – Reach level 50 without changing difficulty from Master or Legendary.

That last one, Legendary, is the only difficulty-gated achievement in the base game. You need to set the difficulty slider to Master (or higher) at the start of your playthrough and never drop it. If you’re not a masochist, just use stealth archery or conjuration to cheese through combat while grinding crafting skills on the side.

Skill-specific achievements include:

• Reader – Read 50 skill books. These are scattered all over Skyrim and lore enthusiasts will hunt them naturally.
• Skill Master – Max out a skill tree to 100. Easiest with Sneak (crouch-walk into a wall with a rubberband overnight) or Smithing (craft iron daggers or jewelry).

Most players hit level 50 long before finishing all the faction quests. If you’re stalling, grind Smithing, Enchanting, and Alchemy in a loop: craft gear, enchant it, sell it, repeat. It’s boring but reliable.

Combat and Magic Achievements

Combat-focused achievements are simple but require specific playstyles:

• Thu’um Master – Learn 20 shouts. This ties into dragon soul farming (see below).
• Words of Power – Learn all three words of a shout. You’ll get this naturally during the main quest.

Magic users should lean into Destruction for raw DPS and Conjuration for tanking. Warriors can stack heavy armor and two-handed weapons. The game doesn’t lock you into a build, so respec via the Legendary skill system (introduced in patch 1.9) if you need to pivot midway through.

Exploration and Discovery Achievements

Location-Based Achievements

Skyrim’s map is dense with caves, ruins, and Dwemer ruins that reward curiosity:

• Delver – Clear 50 dungeons. A “clear” means killing the boss or looting the final chest. Radiant quests from factions will naturally push you toward this.
• Explorer – Discover 100 locations. Fast travel markers, inns, and dragon lairs all count. You’ll hit this passively if you’re not sprinting through the main quest.

For Delver, prioritize short dungeons like bandit camps or Forsworn hideouts over sprawling Dwemer complexes. If you’re grinding it out late-game, consult a map and sweep each hold systematically.

Daedric Artifact Collection Achievements

Daedric quests are some of Skyrim’s best content, weird, dark, and morally ambiguous. The achievement is straightforward but time-consuming:

• Oblivion Walker – Collect 15 Daedric Artifacts.

There are 16 artifacts total, giving you one margin of error. The tricky part: some quests have multiple endings, and only one path awards the artifact. For example:

• Azura’s Star or The Black Star (only one counts, both work for the achievement).
• Savior’s Hide vs. Ring of Hircine (both count if you exploit a bug during “Ill Met by Moonlight”).
• Wabbajack (requires “The Mind of Madness” in Solitude).
• Mehrunes’ Razor (finish “Pieces of the Past” and choose to kill Silus).

Skip the Skeleton Key, it’s tied to the Thieves Guild but doesn’t count toward the achievement. And whatever you do, don’t lose an artifact after picking it up. They’re quest items until you finish the associated quest, so you can’t accidentally drop them, but post-quest you can sell or misplace them.

For the full artifact list and quest triggers, RPG-focused wikis have comprehensive breakdowns with screenshots.

Crafting and Trading Achievements

Skyrim’s crafting loop is borderline broken in terms of power, and the achievements reflect that:

• Artificer – Make a smithed item, an enchanted item, and a potion.
• Master Criminal – Earn a 1,000 gold bounty in a single hold.
• Golden Touch – Have 100,000 gold. Not as hard as it sounds, sell looted gear or spam Alchemy for profit.
• Wanted – Escape from jail. Commit a crime, get caught, then break out (or resist arrest and flee).

Artificer is a gimme, you’ll knock it out in the first few hours if you’re even remotely engaged with crafting. Golden Touch takes longer but is trivial late-game. The easiest path: max Smithing, craft Dwarven Bows (Dwemer ruins have infinite metal ingots), enchant them with Banish or Paralyze, then sell them to every merchant you meet.

For Master Criminal, go to a low-level hold like Falkreath or Morthal, assault a guard, and rack up the bounty. Don’t pay it off, just let yourself get arrested or break out to trigger Wanted simultaneously.

One pro tip: if you’re farming perk points efficiently, crafting achievements become even easier with the right Smithing and Enchanting perks unlocked early.

Collectible and Side Quest Achievements

Dragon Souls and Shout Achievements

Dragon souls fuel your shout progression, and two achievements revolve around them:

• Dragon Soul – Absorb your first dragon soul (unmissable during the main quest).
• Dragon Hunter – Absorb 20 dragon souls.

Dragons spawn randomly after you kill your first one at the Western Watchtower. They also guard specific Word Walls scattered across the map. If you’re farming souls efficiently, visit marked dragon lairs, they respawn after a few in-game days. Fast travel between them, kill, absorb, repeat.

Thu’um Master requires 20 shouts learned, which means you need both Word Walls and dragon souls to unlock them. Some walls are locked behind main quest progression, so don’t stress if you can’t access every shout immediately.

Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood Achievements

Beyond the main faction arcs, these guilds have extra achievements tied to their side content:

• Taking Care of Business – Join the Thieves Guild (easy, just start their questline in Riften).
• One with the Shadows – Restore the Thieves Guild to its former glory. This is the grind. You need to complete five small jobs (burglary, heist, etc.) in each of the four holds (Markarth, Solitude, Whiterun, Windhelm) to unlock special “reputation” quests. It’s tedious and RNG-dependent since jobs are randomly assigned. Expect 20+ radiant quests total.
• With Friends Like These… – Join the Dark Brotherhood. Talk to Aventus Aretino in Windhelm to kick things off.
• Astrid’s personal quests unlock as you progress the Brotherhood storyline.

For One with the Shadows, patience is key. If you get a job in a hold you’ve already completed, just finish it and take another. Don’t quit jobs, they count as failures and slow your progress. Quest tracking tools can help manage the grind if you’re losing track of what’s left.

Challenging and Miscellaneous Achievements

Difficulty-Specific Achievements

As mentioned earlier, Legendary is the only base game achievement tied to difficulty. Set it to Master or Legendary at the start, and don’t touch it until you hit level 50. If you die constantly, lean into Stealth or Conjuration to minimize direct combat.

The DLCs add a few more difficulty-adjacent challenges (see below), but the base game is forgiving overall.

Bounty and Crime Achievements

Skyrim loves its crime system, even if the AI can be hilariously broken:

• Master Criminal – 1,000 gold bounty in one hold.
• Wanted – Escape from jail.

These are best knocked out together. Commit a crime spree in a minor hold (Dawnstar, Falkreath), resist arrest to jack up the bounty, then either fight your way out or surrender and break out of jail. Jail breaks are straightforward, lockpick the cell, avoid or kill guards, and leave the hold.

For a laugh, try racking up a 10,000+ bounty in Whiterun by punching Nazeem off the ramparts. The guards will remember your crimes, but you won’t care.

DLC Achievements Across All Editions

Dawnguard Expansion Achievements

Dawnguard adds 10 achievements centered on the vampire vs. Dawnguard civil war and the Forgotten Vale questline:

• Vampire Mastered – Acquire 11 vampire perks (requires siding with Harkon).
• Legend – Defeat the Ebony Warrior (requires level 80, which means a lot of grinding or Legendary skill resets).
• Lost to the Ages – Complete the Aetherium Forge quest (a fantastic side quest that’s easy to miss).
• Soul Tear – Learn all three words of Soul Tear, a shout exclusive to Dawnguard.

Most of these are straightforward. Vampire Mastered and Legend are the only real time sinks. If you’re going for vampire perks, side with Lord Harkon and feed regularly to unlock new abilities. For Legend, you’ll need to grind to level 80, expect 100+ hours unless you’re spamming crafting loops.

Dragonborn Expansion Achievements

Dragonborn takes you to Solstheim and adds 10 more achievements:

• Dragonrider – Tame and ride five dragons. Requires learning the Bend Will shout and completing the main Dragonborn questline.
• Stalhrim Crafter – Craft an item using Stalhrim (a new crafting material found on Solstheim).
• Hidden Knowledge – Learn the secrets of five Black Books (hidden throughout Solstheim’s dungeons).

Dragonrider is the most iconic. Once you’ve unlocked Bend Will (all three words), you can shout at dragons mid-flight to tame them. It’s gloriously janky and feels amazing.

Hearthfire Expansion Achievements

Hearthfire is the chill DLC, homebuilding, adoption, and domestic life:

• Land Baron – Purchase all three plots of land (Falkreath, Morthal, Dawnstar).
• Architect – Build three wings on a house.
• Landowner – Purchase a plot and build a house.
• Master Architect – Build three houses.
• Proud Parent – Adopt a child.

These are grindy only in terms of material gathering. You’ll need a ton of Sawn Logs, Iron Fittings, and Clay. Hire a steward (any follower works) to speed up resource collection, or just buy materials from general goods merchants.

Proud Parent requires completing at least one house to the point where you have a child’s bedroom. Adoption is wholesome but adds zero gameplay depth, it’s pure flavor.

Optimized Strategies for 100% Completion

Hitting 100% in Skyrim, 105 achievements across base game and all DLCs, requires at least two full playthroughs due to mutually exclusive faction choices. Here’s the optimal roadmap:

Playthrough 1 (Main Character, ~80 hours):

1. Rush the main quest to unlock dragons and shouts.
2. Complete the College of Winterhold, Companions, and Thieves Guild (including all radiant quests for One with the Shadows).
3. Side with the Imperials in the Civil War.
4. Join the Dawnguard (not the vampires) in the Dawnguard DLC.
5. Knock out all exploration, crafting, and Daedric artifact achievements.
6. Grind to level 50 on Master difficulty for Legendary.
7. Complete Dragonborn and Hearthfire DLCs.

Playthrough 2 (Alt Character, ~30 hours):

1. Rush the main quest again (you can skip side content).
2. Join the Stormcloaks for the Civil War.
3. Side with the vampires in Dawnguard for Vampire Mastered.
4. Finish the Dark Brotherhood questline (if you skipped it in Playthrough 1).
5. Mop up any missed faction or story achievements.

Efficiency Tips:

• Save before major faction splits (Civil War choice, Dawnguard vs. Vampires). Reload if you want to explore both paths without a full replay.
• Abuse fast travel for radiant quests. The game will send you to random dungeons, don’t walk.
• Use a guide for Daedric artifacts. Missing even one means replaying a huge chunk of content.
• Legendary skill resets (patch 1.9+) let you re-level skills after hitting 100, making it easier to reach level 80 for the Ebony Warrior.
• Mods disable achievements on consoles (unless you’re on PC with Script Extender). Keep a clean save if you care about trophies.

For those chasing the platinum or 100% Gamerscore, achievement tracking guides break down the order of operations with granular checklists. Reddit’s r/Skyrim and TrueAchievements also have robust communities sharing strategies and save files.

Final word: Skyrim’s achievement list respects your time more than most open-world RPGs. There’s no multiplayer grind, no missable collectibles (in a permanent sense), and only one truly punishing achievement (Legend at level 80). If you’ve sunk 200+ hours into Tamriel already, going for 100% is less about skill and more about methodical cleanup. Set a checklist, rotate between quest types to avoid burnout, and enjoy the excuse to revisit one of the best RPGs ever made.

Conclusion

Skyrim’s 105 achievements represent one of the most comprehensive, and surprisingly achievable, completion lists in modern RPGs. Unlike games that gate trophies behind obscure RNG drops or multiplayer modes that go offline, Skyrim respects solo players and rewards exploration, experimentation, and just sticking with it. Two playthroughs, some light grinding, and a bit of planning around faction splits will get you across the finish line.

Whether you’re chasing that platinum for bragging rights or just want an excuse to revisit the Throat of the World, the achievement list is a love letter to everything Bethesda built in 2011, and continues to support in 2026. Bleak Falls Barrow still slaps, Paarthurnax still makes you question your morals, and yes, you’ll still quicksave before pickpocketing that merchant for the fifteenth time. That’s Skyrim.

Now get out there, Dragonborn. Those dragon souls won’t absorb themselves.