Bloodmoon:Hints

Hints

As usual, there are always a large number of requests for hints and spoilers on lots of topics. This page contains some of those various hints in an organized fashion.

Please note: Many of these hints are based on the personal playing preferences of a wide variety of people and are included only as helpful suggestions.

Divine Intervention
It's a good idea to learn Divine Intervention before travelling to Solstheim, as it will transport you to Fort Frostmoth, the starting location for many quests both in the main questline and the East Empire Company questline. There is no Almsivi Intervention location on the island, but casting the spell is an easy method of returning to Vvardenfell instantly and for free, as it takes you to Gnisis.

Generic Loot
Unlike on Vvardenfell or in Mournhold, containers such as cloth sacks, barrels and crates found in caves often contain large quantities of gold, armor, enchanted items and potions, especially at higher levels, so make sure not to ignore them during your travels.

Great Item locations
Great artifacts, magic weapons, armor, and clothes are listed in the Artifacts and Unique Items pages. Other helpful loot:

Almost complete Glass Armor set, Throwing knives, note granting a Security skill increase - Found on Thuraver in Sjobal which is slightly northeast of Thirsk. Unfortunately, Thuraver won't give up the items peacefully.
Ten Scrolls of Bodily Restoration - These scrolls restore almost every attribute; they can be found in a submerged Leather-sealed Chest. The chest is located in a hole in the ice of a y-shaped inlet on the west coast between Mortrag Glacier and Hrothmund's Bane  .
A complete set of Nordic Mail (10% better armor rating than Ebony Armor at half the weight) on the dead Honor Guard after The Siege of the Skaal Village.

Stalhrim Locations
A full list of locations in which Stalhrim can be found is on the Raw Stalhrim page.

Free Raw Ebony
After escorting the new workers to Raven Rock and reporting back to Carnius Magius with the four pieces of Raw Ebony, you will receive the assignment to help Falco with some kind of disturbance at Raven Rock. This disturbance happens to be Hroldar the Strange. Knock him about a bit and talk to Falco.

As the mine is empty of people, you can use this to your advantage to steal all the Raw Ebony inside. There is a fair deal to be found inside, and the ebony can be sold for a good deal of gold. The ebony in the mine is owned by the Raven Rock Trader, who will be added later. Do not try to sell any of the ebony to him.

Armorer
If you use the Armorer skill a lot, stock up on hammers before travelling to Solstheim. There are very few hammers on the island; the two smiths, Zeno Faustus and Snedbrir the Smith, sell one Apprentice's Hammer and one set of Repair Prongs between them. While the randomized loot in chests contains more hammers than usually found on Vvardenfell, most have either 50 or 70 point locks on them - so if your Security or Alteration skill is low you will find very few hammers at all. In fact, because the loot is randomized, it will soon become obvious that this meager supply cannot keep up with your equipment's demands. Be prepared to pay through the nose for NPC repairs.

Easy Money in Raven Rock
At the point in the Raven Rock quest in which Falco asks you to take sides and decide which building should be constructed, choose the trader. Solstheim already has three smiths but no general merchants.

After leaving town for three days which allows for the trader to be built, enter the shop. When you access the barter menu, you will notice that the merchant has 10,000 gold, which is substantially more than most merchants, and a high disposition towards you. For those with high personality and speechcraft skills (or those who exploited the soultrap glitch) it is easy to sell most kinds of equipment for far more than what they are actually worth and make staggering sums of cash in very little time.

The proprietor of the smithy that can be constructed as an alternative also has 10,000 gold available for bartering, but she deals only in armor and weapons (though admittedly, the most expensive items in the game do tend to be armor or weapons, so it's not that much of a drawback).

How to be a Stealthy Nord
Nords are not a race typically known for their subtlety, but there is an item added by Bloodmoon that makes them more suited for this than any other race - the Whitewalker robe. Who can say no to Constant Effect 50% Chameleon? As long as you wear the robe, you are half-invisible. Admittedly, the robe has its downsides: It constantly does Weakness to Frost, Frost Damage and Drain Health while you're wearing it, which makes it of limited use – unless you've got a way to get 100% Resist Magicka, even for just a second or two (if you're a user of the Boots of Blinding Speed, you already know about this strategy). Just cast the spell or use the enchanted item, whatever, and immediately open your inventory and equip the robe. The Weakness and Drain effects will be canceled out, and since you're a Nord, you're immune to the Frost Damage. Non-Nords will also need a spell or enchantment to deal with that down-side of the robe when first putting it on.  You'll need to do the same compensation trick(s) every time you put it on again. Robes, like other non-armor clothing do not have to be repaired.

Note: If you kill King Helseth in the Tribunal expansion and acquire his magic ring, it will give you 100% Resist Magicka, and Restore Health 10 points per second, both as a Constant Effect. Thus, it cancels out most of the negative effects of the Whitewalker robe. Also, if you enchant an Exquisite-level amulet or ring with Constant Effect Chameleon 24 points and wear that as well as the robe, you will be basically invisible while equipped with them, including when attacking or stealing. 

Easy Werewolf Kills
Werewolves are weak against silver weapons, which do extra damage to them. The formula for damage calculation is: (silver weapon damage × 2)  + (sneak bonus × 4 (ranged × 1.5)). Using silver arrows against them while sneaking is a one-shot kill most of the time.
The smugglers encountered during The Frostmoth Smugglers carry enchanted silver weapons that are far more powerful than normal silver weapons.