Skyrim is an exciting place for adventurers, but it’s also dangerous. From boss battles to bandits encountered on the road, you’ll need a way to heal to ensure your survival. Using alchemy to make health potions is your best bet.
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Types of Health Potions
There are two major types of health potions in Skyrim—restorative and regenerative. By drinking a restore health potion, you can instantly heal yourself for a determined number of health points. Alternatively, you can use regenerative health potions. These regenerate a certain amount of health per second over a set period of time.
The amount of health that regenerates per second and the life of the potion both depend on the potion’s strength. The strength is largely determined by your alchemy level and related perks you’ve chosen.
How to Learn the Recipe for Restore Health Potions
If you’re new to Skyrim, there’s an easy way to kickstart the health potion tutorial. First, you can speak to one of the people in the locations listed below. They will start you off with a simple recipe for a restore health potion:
- Arcadia: Arcadia’s Cauldron in Whiterun
- Orgnar: Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood
- Zaria: Grave Concoctions in Falkreath
Alternatively, you can learn all the different recipes to make a restore health potion through trial and error. As you travel through Skyrim, you can collect ingredients on your journey. To understand how to use them, you have several options available.
Your first option is to eat a given ingredient. If you do this, one of the four effects the ingredient will have when crafting potions with it will be revealed. However, if you choose to eat an ingredient, you run the risk of suffering negative effects from it.
Another option is to combine ingredients at random while doing alchemy. Doing this will uncover the different effects of each ingredient.
All Ingredients Used to Make Restore Health Potions
If you’d rather not spend the time trying to learn how to make potions, we’ve got your back. The following are all the ingredients you can use to make restore health potions in Skyrim’s base game:
- Ash Hopper Jelly
- Blisterwort
- Blue Dartwing
- Blue Mountain Flower
- Butterfly Wing
- Charred Skeever Hide
- Daedra Heart
- Eye of Sabre Cat
- Felsaad Tern Feathers
- Imp Stool
- Rock Warbler Egg
- Swamp Fungal Pod
- Wheat
For those who have Skyrim’s Creation Club content, there are a few more ingredients that can be used to make restore health potions. Note that this is if you have the content packs Rare Curios or Saints & Seducers installed:
- Ambrosia
- Corkbulb Root
- Flame Stalk
- Heart of Order
- Marshmerrow
- Saltrice
- Void Essence
Please note that while all these ingredients have restore health effects, some combinations of these are undesirable.
Combinations to Avoid
Despite all these ingredients having a restore health effect, some of them also contain poisonous effects. This makes certain combinations of these ingredients undesirable for healing. The following are combinations of ingredients you’ll want to avoid if you’re trying to make a restore health potion:
- Butterfly Wing and Eye Of Sabre Cat negative results: damage magicka
- Blue Dartwing and Daedra Heart negative results: fear
- Daedra Heart and Butterfly Wing negative results: damage magicka
- Eye Of Sabre Cat and Daedra Heart negative results: damage magicka
- Rock Warbler Egg and Blisterwort negative results: damage stamina
- Swamp Fungal Pod and Imp Stool negative results: paralysis
- Swamp Fungal Pod and Wheat negative results: lingering damage magicka
- Wheat and Daedra Heart negative results: damage stamina regeneration
Note that even when used as a poison, these will still retain their restore health effect, thus healing the enemy.
How to Learn the Recipe for Regenerative Health Potions
Unlike with restore health potions, there isn’t a designated person to visit who hands you a regenerative health potion recipe. However, you can discover all the ingredients for regenerative health potions the same way you would for restorative health potions—trial and error. You can also rely on our ingredients guide below.
All Ingredients Used to Make Regenerative Health Potions
The following are all the ingredients you can use to make regenerative health potions in Skyrim‘s base game:
- Emperor Parasol Moss
- Garlic
- Gleamblossom
- Juniper Berries
- Luna Moth Wing
- Namira’s Rot
- Nordic Barnacle
- Vampire Dust
If you are playing with Skyrim’s Creation Club content, there are additional ingredients that include the regenerate health effect. Again, note that this is if you have the content packs Rare Curios or Saints & Seducers installed:
- Alocasia Fruit
- Ambrosia
- Angelfish
- Gnarl Bark
- Hydnum Azure Giant Spore
- Minotaur Horn
- Ogre’s Teeth
- Purple Butterfly Wing
- Screaming Maw
- Thorn Hook
- Void Essence
How to Make the Strongest Health Potions
Perhaps you’re passionate about alchemy or are gearing up to tackle a difficult boss battle. If so, there are numerous ways you can enhance the potions you create.
Enchanted Gear
The gear you have equipped will influence the potency of your potions. Throughout Skyrim, you can find enchanted rings, necklaces, bracers, and more that can enhance your alchemy skills. Instead of finding these, you can also enchant your own equipment with Fortify Alchemy to give your creations a boost.
The potency of that boost will depend on your enchanting level and the perks you’ve put into your enchanting tree before enchanting your equipment with Fortify Alchemy. Note that Fortify Enchanting potions can also be made to make your enchanted gear even stronger.
Alchemy Perks
Alchemy perks are the most significant way to improve the potency of your potions in Skyrim. The following are the best perks to get and upgrade if you want to make the strongest health potions:
- Alchemist: Strengthens your potions with each rank
- Physician: Health potions (along with stamina and magicka potions) are 25% more powerful
- Benefactor: Potions you make with beneficial effects are 25% better
- Purity: All negative effects are removed from created potions, and all positive effects are removed from created poisons
