Skyrim:Leveled Lists

Skyrim uses leveled lists primarily to adjust content to your level, but they are sometimes used to group objects for other reasons.

There are three kinds of leveled lists:
leveled item lists (LVLI)
leveled actor/NPC lists (LVLN)
leveled spell lists (LVSP).

Additionally there are non-leveled lists of objects (FLST) not considered here.

Leveled lists contain for each item on the list additional information: an object level and a quantity specifying the number of objects of this kind created by the list. Leveled lists are sometimes themselves objects nested inside other leveled lists.  A request for a leveled list always provides a desired quantity and a desired level, usually the player's level, possibly modified by the level of the encounter zone.  Leveled creatures with a level modifier of "very hard" will be at least the next higher entry on the list instead .

A leveled list is a list of objects, where each object is either an actual object (item, actor, or spell) or another list of the appropriate type, associated with a level (referred to below as object level, but this is specific to the list in question, not the object in general) and a quantity.  "Standard" behavior is for a list to contain one selection from its list; it picks exactly one object with uniform randomness and returns the quantity it has associated with that object, ignoring objects with an associated level greater than the level specified in the request or less than the greatest object level it can return based on its contents, subject to the previous constraint.  For example, a list that contains an item with item level 1, two items with item level 2, and 1 item with item level 4, being consulted relative to a player of level 3, will randomly select one of the two items with item level 2 - the item level 4 item has an item level that is higher than the player's level, and the item level 1 item has an item level that is lower than the greatest item level in the list after that comparison, so both are ignored.  If the listed item was itself another list, that other list figures out what it's going to return, and this list multiplies the number of everything it gets back by the quantity it associates with that list. These behaviors are modified with some flags set on the list itself, meaning anything using that list obeys the same flags:

All Levels:  If set, the list will not ignore items with an item level less than the greatest item level in the list which does not exceed the player's level.
Each:  If set, when another list applies a quantity larger than 1 to this list, instead of picking one option to return with a quantity multiplied by the other list's quantity, the other list's quantity determines how many options are selected individually, and then all of them are returned.
Use All:  This overrides the above two settings; this list always returns all of its contents, 1 of each selection.
Chance None:  The chance, whenever this list is consulted, that it will return nothing, instead of a selection.  This can be a fixed chance set on the list itself, or a global value.  When not set, it is 0 - the list always returns something.
Special Loot: This flag modifies  how items are selected from the list, in an unknown fashion.

Because the flags are set on the list (the only information passed in from the requester is quantity and desired level), duplication of tables with only the flags changed is somewhat common so that different behaviors can be achieved within a parent list, even though Chance None can be set by a variable, because those variables are global: if you want the same list to sometimes have a 0% chance of nothing and sometimes 25%, with the difference determined by what list is asking, the most practical solution is two lists with only the flag changed, despite the memory bloat this causes.

Duplication of objects is both permitted and common, as it is the primary means for manipulating a list so that what it returns is not uniform in probability: a leveled list containing an iron battleaxe and two steel battleaxes has a 1/3 chance of returning the iron one and a 2/3 chance of returning the steel one.

Items

Unique Item Lists
For some items, there is a single specific item that will appear, scaled in power based on your level at the time the item is created, and no more items from that list will ever be provided. Many of these items are listed at Leveled Items.

Single Item Lists
Many items are provided to the player by setting the quantity of every item in the list to 1, not setting Use All, and then either providing itself as-is for a single item guaranteed to be scaled in power to the level of the player, or with All Levels set, so that higher levels have a higher chance of appropriate scaling, but there is always a chance of getting something scaled to a lesser level.  For example, a #Leveled Healing Potion will always be a Potion of Minor Healing up until level 7, then has a 1/5 chance of instead being a Potion of Healing at level 8, a 1/3 chance at level 9, and so on, per its list.

Potions






Merchant Chest Lists
Most merchants rely on Merchant Chests, which themselves typically rely on a combination of items explicitly present and leveled lists to randomize their contents.

There are some lists shared by many merchants, regardless of "type":

The "PerkMasterTraderGold" list contains only one item, which it always returns exactly 1 of: 1000 gold.  The Master Trader perk works by unlocking this item; its absence is the general cause for merchants that are not upgraded by the perk.

There are many separate lists for the equivalent for Investor, presumably due to the need for an additional check on whether or not the player has invested their money yet; all of them work the same way: they contain 1 item, which is itself the "PerkInvestorStoreUpgrade" list, which contains only one item, which it always returns exactly 1 of: 500 gold.  Investing in a merchant will only work if their chest contains one of the lists that contains the list that contains the Investor gold.

Apothecary Merchant Chest Lists
A typical apothecary's merchant chest contains the following, in addition to some mandatory items, such as salt or a potion of cure disease.

Leveled Apothecary Ingredients
Note how these tables behave: they all have the same chance of not returning an item, and are identical in every way except for their name and contents.  The ingredients lists are not all the same length, meaning it is more likely for a rare ingredient to be the rare ingredient you want than for a common to match, and more likely for a common than an uncommon; furthermore, despite their names, it is equally likely for any of them to be nothing instead of something.  "Rarity" is instead enforced by the requesting list being expected to request fewer rares than uncommons and fewer uncommons than commons, which is why it is more likely, in general, for an Apothecary to carry at least one Briar Heart (usually 21.34%, since they usually stock 5 rares) than at least one Taproot (usually 15.47%, since they usually stock 10 uncommons), even though the former is rare and the latter is uncommon.  The odds of at least one specific common you have in mind is typically 35.54%, as they usually stock 15 commons.





Dwarven Scraps


Gold Rewards

Several quests or favors are rewarded with a leveled amount of gold. The amount of gold depends on your level, while the particular quest or favor determines which list is used. Note that the titles are taken from the internal reward names.



Leveled Gems
At each level, an item is added to the list, so at any level there will be the items listed at that level and every prior one on the list. It will then pick one of those randomly. Note that many have multiple entries, making that particular gem more likely.



Pocket Contents
 
 


For more detailed listings see this section.

 


For more detailed listings see this section.

 


For more detailed listings see this section.

 



For more detailed listings see this section.

Pocket Item Lists
 
Child Pocket Contents

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Poor Pocket Contents

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Common Pocket Contents

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Rich Pocket Contents

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In addition to those items, there is   which gives out the same Gems as listed at LootCitizenRingList25 (above). You will always find at least one of these gems. The chances are split up as follows: 100% chance on the first gem, 75% chance on the second gem, 50% chance on the third gem, and 25% on the fourth gem.

Item Enchantment
These are the possible enchantments on items; specifically, there is a separate list for Necklaces and a separate list for Rings.
Necklace Enchantments

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Ring Enchantments

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Soul Gems



Thieves Guild Lists
Several radiant Thieves Guild quests, namely The Fishing Job, The Heist Job, and The Shill Job, involve a randomly-selected gem or piece of jewelry.  These quests all use the same leveled list to select the item.

The leveled list has a 50% chance of picking one gem and a 16.6% (one sixth) chance of picking either one necklace, ring or circlet. It then randomly picks an item from that sublist. How it works is that each item has a number of entries, and the more entries on the list the more likely that item will be chosen. For example, assuming that a gem is chosen,
If you are level one there is a 60% chance of a Garnet being chosen and a 40% chance of an Amethyst being chosen.
Once you move up to level two, three more entries for Amethyst are added.
Now, there is a 62.5% chance of an Amethyst and a 37.5% change of a Garnet.
This means that if you are at level 22, then every single item added at levels 1, 2, 3...22 are on the list, not just the item(s) listed at level 22.

The below table details what items are added to these lists at which level. A grayed out cell indicates that nothing is added to that particular sublist at that level.


Spells
Dragon Priest
These lists are predominantly used by Dragon Priests. The following lists add all spells to the subject.


These lists add one of the following spells to the subject. Despite the name of the Walls list, it does not contain Wall spells.

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Cloak Spells

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Walls Spells

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Weapons
Enchanted Weapons
This table lists the enchanted weapons given as an award for Thane quests, as well as a few other quests. The type of weapon depends on the list chosen. The rest of the information, including material and enchantment, is the same.


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Material

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Enchantment

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Creatures
Dwarven Automatons


Bugs
 
 
 
 
 

References