We’ve put together a guide to help you on your way to picking up Skyrim’s ebony blade and fully enchanting it. We’ll let you know now that the method of enchanting can make some pretty significant changes to your game, so it’s a great idea to set up a spare save just in case things go a little awry.
For more on Bethesda’s modern classic of the fantasy genre, be sure to check out our picks for the best Skyrim memes, as well as guides for Skyrim Serana, Skyrim’s map, and Skyrim cure vampirism. Or, if you’re looking for another world of dragons and ghouls to explore, be sure to check out our picks for the best games like Dark Souls on Switch and mobile.
How do I get the ebony blade in Skyrim?
Despite being a terrifyingly powerful weapon, you can pick up the ebony blade pretty early on in your adventure. If you’re over level 20 and have completed the Dragon Rising quest line, head over to The Bannered Mare in Whiterun and ask barwoman Hulda. If you’ve already killed Hulda, sorry, but you need to start a new save or find an old file before you took her out to receive the Whispering Door ebony blade quest.
The ebony blade is the reward for completing the Whispering Door, and fortunately, the quest itself isn’t all too difficult. The first step is to head to Dragonsreach and find Balgruff the Greater – this is unless you have already joined the Stormcloaks, in which case you can find him in the Blue Palace basement. Balgruff explains his problems with his children, mainly his youngest son, and the quest begins in earnest.
Nelkir, Balgruff’s son in question, is in Dragonsreach regardless of your allegiances and points you in the direction of the quest’s namesake. Once you arrive at the whispering door, you have a conversation that reveals the voice behind the door as Maphela, a twisted daedric princess. She then tells you to open the door, requesting you find either Farengar Secret-Fire or Jarl Balgruuf to find the key.
Farengar is the easiest option as they’re always in Dragonsreach, saving you the trouble of travelling. Simply follow the character around for a bit, wait until they go to bed, and pickpocket the key. At this point you can return to the whispering door, open that bad boy up, and claim the ebony blade as your own – after ignoring all the warnings, of course.
Ebony blade enchantment in Skyrim
Now you have Skrim’s ebony blade, it’s time to go about the dirty business of enchanting it. This unique weapon requires a unique method of enchanting, and to boost the healing properties of the blade, you need to kill ten friendly characters. Of course, this removes them entirely from the game, so it might be a good idea to save maximising your ebony blade until you’re well into the end-game content, but we’ll leave that up to you.
The easiest way to upgrade your ebony blade enchantment to the max without having to lose any characters is by making the most of an exploit involving summoning a familiar and felling it ten times in a row. This doesn’t work on all versions of the game, but it’s worth trying. If that exploit doesn’t work for you, you will have to for the intended method of laying waste to the good people of Skyrim. Sorry.
There you have it, all you need to know to find and enchant Skyrim’s ebony blade. To find yourself with more space on your mobile, check out our guides on how to delete contacts on iPhone and how to delete apps on iPhone.
