Skyrim Beginner's Guide: Your First Hours, From Helgen to Whiterun

Skyrim is huge, and the first few hours decide how much fun the rest of your game is. This guide walks you from the opening at Helgen to Whiterun and your first dragon, with the tips new players wish they'd known. It covers only the opening hours, so there are no big story spoilers.

Which version to play

• Anniversary Edition is the one most people buy today. It includes the Special Edition, the three official expansions (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn) and a large pack of extra Creation Club content. It came out on November 11, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
• If you already own the Special Edition, you can buy the Anniversary Upgrade instead of the whole game again.
• Nintendo Switch 2: the Anniversary Edition arrived on December 9, 2025, with a free upgrade for players who already owned the Anniversary Edition on the original Switch.

Everything in this guide works the same in every version.

The opening: Helgen

The game starts with you as a prisoner in a cart, riding into Helgen alongside Ulfric Stormcloak, Ralof and Lokir. Things go wrong fast when a dragon attacks. In the keep, you choose to follow either Ralof (a Stormcloak rebel) or Hadvar (an Imperial soldier).

Don't stress about this choice. It does not lock you into a side in Skyrim's civil war. You can follow Hadvar out of Helgen and still join the Stormcloaks later, or the other way around. Pick whoever you like.

Riverwood: your first stop

• Your escort sends you to the village of Riverwood. If you followed Hadvar, you meet his uncle Alvor, the blacksmith. If you followed Ralof, you meet his sister Gerdur, who runs the lumber mill. They give you some useful items and point you to Whiterun.
• Alvor's forge is a good first place to try Smithing.
• At the Riverwood Trader, Lucan Valerius will ask you to recover a stolen golden claw. You'll find it in the same tomb you need to visit for the main quest anyway, so take the quest.

Pick a Guardian Stone

On the road out of Helgen toward Riverwood, you'll pass three standing stones: The Warrior Stone, The Mage Stone and The Thief Stone. Each one makes a group of skills improve 20% faster:

• The Warrior Stone: combat skills, like swords, axes, blocking and heavy armor.
• The Mage Stone: magic skills, like Destruction, Restoration and Conjuration.
• The Thief Stone: stealth skills, like Sneak, Lockpicking and Speech.

Pick the one that matches how you want to play. You can change it later by activating a different stone.

Whiterun and your first dragon

1. Head to Whiterun and go up to Dragonsreach to warn Jarl Balgruuf the Greater about the dragon.
2. His court wizard, Farengar Secret-Fire, sends you to recover the Dragonstone from Bleak Falls Barrow, an ancient Nordic tomb above Riverwood.
3. Bring it back, and you'll soon face your first dragon at the Western Watchtower.
4. After that fight, you become Thane of Whiterun and get a follower: Lydia, your housecarl.

Doing these main quests early is worth it: they unlock Dragon Shouts, a follower and the chance to buy your first house.

How leveling works

• You level up by using your skills. Swing a sword and One-Handed improves; cast spells and your magic skills improve. Raise enough skills and your character levels up.
• Each level, you get 1 perk point and add +10 to Health, Magicka or Stamina.
• Picking Stamina also adds +5 carry weight.
• You don't have to spend perk points right away. They're saved for later.

10 tips for your first hours

1. You can heal from the start. Every character begins knowing the Healing spell and the Flames spell.
2. Watch your carry weight. The base limit is 300 (150 in Survival Mode). Go over it and you can only walk, and you can't fast travel.
3. Fast travel works from outside to any place you've already discovered on the map, but not when enemies are nearby.
4. Carriages wait at the stables outside cities like Whiterun and can take you to the other big cities for a small fee.
5. Merchants have limited gold. If one runs out, sell to a different merchant. Their gold refills over time.
6. Buy Breezehome, the house in Whiterun, for 5,000 gold from Proventus Avenicci, the Jarl's steward. It becomes available after you finish the Bleak Falls Barrow quest.
7. Grab a pickaxe and mine ore. It's useful for Smithing, which lets you make your own gear.
8. Raise Speech to get better prices when buying and selling.
9. Save often, in different slots. Skyrim is a big game, and the occasional bug can catch you out.
10. Don't spread perks too thin. Focus on a few skills you actually use.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

• Picking up everything. Being over-encumbered slows you to a walk and blocks fast travel.
• Thinking Hadvar or Ralof locks your side. It doesn't.
• Ignoring the main quest for too long. Whiterun gives you Lydia, Shouts, a title and a house.
• Selling everything to one merchant. They'll run out of gold.
• Only keeping one save.

My take

Skyrim is still one of the best "just one more quest" games ever made. Get through Helgen, pick your stone, grab Lydia in Whiterun and then go wherever looks interesting. That's the real magic of Skyrim. What was the first thing you did after Helgen?