Alchemy For My Apprentice Content . My dear apprentice , you have destroyed far too many of my alchemical stocks to go unpunished . My own master would never abide such abject incompetence ! " Can ' t take instruction , " she ' d say . " Nose in a book , " she ' d say . Luckily for your prospects , it is far less costly to write this simple manual than replace yet another cask of rare solvent . If you lose this manual , as I know you will , don ' t despair . I have invested your annual stipend toward printing multiple copies of this book and distributing them far and wide . In time , every alchemy station in Tamriel shall have one . Step One : Acquire Solvents You already know that every potion requires a solvent to serve as the potion ' s base . If you ever paid attention to my lessons , you ' d know the best solvent is clean water from a natural source . The purity of the water determines the quality of the potion , so the best sources are natural springs . I must once again emphasize the need for fresh sources of water . Remember that incident with the healing draught ? You cannot simply dip a flask into a stagnant pond , an ocean cove , or downstream from a tannery . I suppose you could find bottles of clean water about town , but it is best to do the work yourself . Incidentally , your " rain barrel solvent " will never work . You are to cease your experiments immediately . Step Two : Acquire Reagents Alchemy is a study of combinations . Where solvents are a potion ' s base , reagents are the active ingredients . Each reagent bears four unique traits . I ' m disinclined to explain the principles of quadratic amalgamation to you — again — but do try to remember the basics : match like with like . Henceforth , you are to find all reagents in the wilds — not in my laboratory ! Remember to look for plants and mushrooms . Plants and mushrooms , only ! Under no circumstances should you deviate from this . " Squirrel powder " was an abomination against the Eight . Furthermore , I must remind you to thoroughly clean both Mortar & Pestle after their use . Step Three : Craft Potions Bring a solvent and two reagents to any alchemy station . Different reagents are required , a fact I must stress once again . Combining Bugloss with Bugloss gets you nothing but foul - tasting water . When you have what you need , put them together and craft your potion . Reagents with positive trait combinations will produce helpful potions , while those with negative trait combinations can cause harm to whoever is foolish enough to imbibe them . If none of your reagents ' traits match , you lose both solvent and reagents . Experiment with different reagents to see what you can produce . I leave it to you to determine their traits , but will remind you that ingesting a reagent can teach you its most basic trait . Just one — don ' t gorge yourself ! While I recall of it , did you expect I wouldn ' t know you ' d finished off the nirnroot ? I could hear your teeth singing , and there ' s no way to hide a glowing chamberpot . Advanced Alchemical Principles Only when you master the basics of alchemy should you think to complicate the process . Through careful study you can learn to suppress negative traits when crafting potions , craft multiple potions from the simple set of reagents , or even combine additional reagents to produce more powerful potions ! But for now , " not poisoning yourself " is the goal I ' d most like you to achieve .