One of the coolest additions to the Elder Scrolls games is the inclusion of Dragons. Since these flying, death dealing tanks are both hostile and all over the place you’ll get plenty of chances to sharpen your blades on their scales. What starts out as rare encounters that occur in specific locations, these fights will eventually become entirely random. Upon arriving in a town, the roar of a dragon will rend the air and shake the buildings, and once that beast notices you the battle is on.
Dealing with your draconic foes is never going to be the easiest thing in the world. Every time that you think that the dragons are getting simpler to handle, a new variation will come out, bigger and scarier than the last.
Above: Some of them are scarier than others.
However there are some tips and tricks for making the ordeal of slaying these foul beasts easier and that’s what we’re here for. Do take note that there are some spoilers for the storyline in the coming guide. Very few of them will occur in the first three sections, but once you enter the last two then there are some minor spoilers. With that said, onward to slay the beasts!
Basic Information
Combat Strategies
Dragon Types
Main Storyline Encounters
Roosts & Other Encounters
Fighting the dovah is simple enough in theory, but actually performing it can be very difficult. Dragons aren’t going to pull any punches or take any crap from you once they’re aware of your presence. There’s a long list of things that can’t be done to these beasts and that’s going to restrict your combat choices. This will be complicated by your choice of playing style but more on that later. However the rewards for slaying them are well worth it – dragons carry a large amount of gold leveled for your character as well as Dragon Scales and Dragon Bones that sell for a good bit of money or can be used to make powerful armors.
Dragons don’t seem to be affected by having their stamina or magicka drained so cold and lightning magic are only marginally useful. Their breath attacks seem to be governed like a Shout, which makes sense, but it stops you from being able to do anything to slow those down. So you’ll want to keep a few potions to help you resist fire or ice so you’re prepared for either of the attacks they will use.
Above: Yes, that will be a problem
To start, dragons can’t be frozen, paralyzed or otherwise rendered immobile. It is possible to cause them to recoil away by hitting them with hard enough attacks but they won’t actually be staggered. They recoil briefly before attacking again, giving you barely enough time to raise your shield. This means that melee combat with them can become a big ol’ slugfest. Even if you have a bunch of NPCs helping you the dragon can lash out with its mouth, wings and tail to ensure that everybody in a radius around it suffers for coming close.
Above: Coming from the front tends to end with you as dinner
That doesn’t mean that you should never try to fight dragons with a group. If you have a follower, the two of you can circle around the dragon and try to confuse it. It will lash its head back and forth, unable to decide on who to attack, which means it will only attack each of you once or twice at best before getting distracted. At about the midway point of the game there is a chance to bring a trio of dragon hunters with you to dragon roosts to slay them; this will make killing them in these specific locations much easier.
With this in mind there is an “ideal” method for hunting dragons as well as methods specific to each of the three character types. These are the most important parts to bringing these behemoths down.
There are four ways to approach dragon hunting: three based around each of the basic classes and one that can be considered the most ideal way of doing so. Every combat strategy shares a few major details, notably that any equipment or potions that let you resist physical, ice or fire damage are ideal things for you to bring along. Other than that your playing style will dictate how difficult these fights are and how you have to change up your tactics.
Possibly the most important thing about these fights is what sort of Shout you are going to use. The most effective Shouts in the game are:
Fire Breath: Useful against ice breathing dragons, notably the Frost Dragons.
Frost Breath: Useful against fire breathing dragons.
Marked for Death: This is immensely powerful against dragons when they land.
Dragonrend: You get this near the end of the storyline just as you’re battling dragons constantly. But since it forces dragons to land when they’re hit by it you’re going to be using this non-stop once it’s dragon-murder time.
There are other Shouts that can be useful depending on your playing style or the immediate situation but these are the most widely useful ones. For example, Become Ethereal or Slow Time can help if your hit points are getting low. If the dragon is picking a fight near a mammoth or sabre cat you can use Animal Allegiance to gain some assistance. Late in the game you gain the options to use Call Dragon or Call of Valor - these can be incredibly helpful but the recharge times make them prohibitive even in these situations.
Above: Fire Breath in action
Until you actually get Dragonrend you’ll need to draw the dragons into landing manually. Try to stay in wide open areas at all times. If you’re on a mountain path either run back to the ground or run up to a plateau to coerce the dragon into landing for melee combat. It won’t necessarily choose to land just because you’re out in the open - it may simply choose to keep strafing you with its breath, but this is the only way to get them to land of their own accord.
Above: Dragonrend will be your favorite once you get it
For the ideal setup you will want to have a strong bow with a decent enchantment, a strong melee weapon and either a shield or second weapon. Armor isn’t the most important so either light or heavy will be fine as long as you can move quickly in it. If you can carry a ring or amulet to help mitigate the damage from the breath weapon then you will be in very good shape to handle the hardest part of this encounter, since the parts when they’re flying around breathing on you can really drag down your health.
Above: You’ll carry a lot of different equipment with this build
The weapon and shield can be replaced with dual wielding magic if you’re playing a magic user - just be sure that you aren’t using the same magic as the dragon's breath attack since it takes reduced damage from that source. Should you have invested in that magic type heavily, then it’s possible to use it against them, but don’t expect it to work the miracles it does on regular enemies. However, a magic user will still need to carry a bow (or use the Bound Bow spell) since the dragon moves around so much and will tend to be outside of spellcasting range.
Good weapon enchantments to have on your bow are elemental damage (although this forces you to use two bows for different dragon types), or Silent Moon Enchant. While the Silent Moon Enchant is only useful at night, the damage bonus (not fire, even though it’s described as “burning” the target) is very effective all around. The weapon enchantment should be Absorb Health since you’re going to lose it rapidly in melee combat with the dragon.
With this setup you can simply fire your bow at the dragon until it comes close enough for spells, shouts or melee attacks. Honestly, this build is simple to play and can handle just about any situation whether it’s a dragon or not. This is the build used in most battles in this guide.
In something of an inverse of what you might think, warriors have a hell of a time fighting dragons. If you’re playing a pure melee character without the benefit of spells or bows then you’ll have only your Shout attacks to battle the behemoths. As you might guess it’s not exactly peaches and rainbows when that dragon really wants to roast you alive from the sky without actually ever landing to battle you. That leaves you with one option, wait for it to land and…
Above: Get right up in its face
A melee character is best off avoiding dealing with the dragons as much as he can until acquiring the Dragonrend shout. When used this reduces a dragon's defenses while also forcing it to land. This Shout is obtained by following the main storyline until completion of the quest Alduin’s Bane. Upon acquiring this Thu’um you can force the dragon to never even take off, which allows you to just run up to it with your weapon of choice to beat its face in.
The above may sound simple but until you get that ability every fight with a dragon is going to be a trial of patience if you don’t want to use a bow or magic. Your best bet is to have a follower who does use magic or a bow and then put yourself under cover. Step inside of a tent, under an awning or just out of view with your shield raised (if you have the perk Elemental Protection). Once the dragon lands, charge in and beat on it, preferably before it hurts you too much. Rinse and repeat to end the fight.
Above: Chaaaarge!
You may find yourself using your Shouts a lot to get ranged damage in. If this is the case try to get an Amulet of Talos as it reduces the cooldown on your Shouts by 20% which is a huge boon.
A pure melee thief setup isn’t going to have a whole lot of success dealing with dragons. The problem is that you can’t use sneak attacks on them and you’re probably using daggers, which don’t deal damage fast enough to kill dragons with any expedience. For these situations you’re going to have to use a powerful sword to make up the difference. The best thing to do is use a bow for dragon, mammoth and giant battles to gain experience enough with it to do serious damage to dragons with your arrows. Equip the strongest bow you can get, give it a good enchantment and then buy the best arrows available to deal maximum damage.
Even if you are sticking to using your bow for all encounters you might want to bring a shield to any dragon battles. Stick a Fortify Health enchantment onto the shield to enable yourself to stand toe to toe with the beast if it gets right in your face. However you’ll want to pull back constantly to try to get some space, then use the quick change menu to swap back to the bow. The video below is a pure thief character who has gained a huge amount of one-handed skill thanks to the dragon fighting involved in creating this guide.
Above: Late games fight using the Dragonrend to make the battle easier
Honestly a thief build should have some of the easiest dragon fights out there. The bow is an incredibly powerful weapon when trained up a bit and it can hit the dragon no matter where it hangs out. You might think a warrior wading into melee would have the easiest time but until you get Dragonrend that dragon may simply choose to never land. If that happens the archer can still yank down their health rapidly while a melee build stands there looking silly.
There are two distinct types of mages: the ones who run around in robes and use pure magic and the ones who use armor and weapons to complement their magical abilities. Both of them have a pretty easy time dealing with dragons so long as they’re given the right abilities to handle each dragon that comes after them.
The pure mage has a tough time since for the most part only destruction magic is helpful against dragons although summoning up an Atronach can help while the enemy is at a distance. Illusion just flat out doesn’t work without high level perks and Alteration is mostly useless. Having a decently leveled Destruction skill with the right perks will allow you to hammer on the dragons when they’re both at a distance and close by.
Above: Burn the dragon!
A good strategy to deal with dragons is as follows, using an ice dragon as the example: Summon up a Flame Atronach and start pummeling the dragon with fireballs (one-handed to preserve magicka) until it moves closer. Once it does so dual-wield the Flames spell to burn the living crap out of the beast, guzzling down potions to keep your magicka up until the beast either dies or flees back up into the air. Note that since lightning spells fire instantly, they're great for hitting flying dragons since you don't have to lead your shots, and they work for getting a dragon to land, too.
One of the safest ways to kill dragons with a mage character is if you’re using a battle mage type of character. Slap on a strong suit of armor that you’ve enchanted to enhance your survivability (resistances or health increase) then get a weapon that will drain HP from your enemies - a sword works best as it strikes fastest. Circle strafe around the dragon using your spell of choice while hitting the dragon with your sword. The dragon will often get confused and keep turning to keep up with you while you’re pulling his health down and keeping your own up.
Above: Something like this
Frankly a mage has an easy enough time so long as you can get a bunch of equipment on to bolster both your base magicka levels and regeneration rate.
As you level up the dragons you encounter will become more and more powerful. For the most part these changes are purely cosmetic, but there are a few differences between the various breeds the Dovahkiin must slaughter through the course of his adventure. There are a number of named dragons you will encounter, but these are just stronger versions of a particular dragon breed.
This is your basic type of dragon. They don’t have much in the way of special abilities although they can still tear into an unprepared character. Their attacks consist of either ice or fire breath, and depending on the dragon, a bite attack or a thrash move that hurts those on its sides. It doesn’t turn particularly fast though so it’s possible to strafe circles around the beast while beating on it.
The Blood Dragon is a big step up over the regular dragon thanks to one major addition: a devastating tail smash. Those who try to flank this beast will find themselves flattened by its heavy, spade-tipped tail. If you have flanking on your mind the only safe spot is between his tail and his wing, closer to the wing than the tail. Standing here will force him to turn at least a bit before he can tail or wing smack you.
In a sense, the Frost Dragon is basically an amped up basic dragon, although it is incredibly dangerous to underestimate this beast. While other dragons may use cold breath attacks, the Frost Dragon will use an incredibly powerful blast that can easily drain your entire stamina meter in a single attack. This will leave you unable to use power attacks or run from the blasted thing. We’ve seen plenty of situations where one of these beasts did a fly-by to drain our stamina and then landed some distance away and began spitting huge balls of ice at us to pile on the damage.
This is the real deal here. Elder Dragons are some of the strongest enemies the Dragonborn can encounter in Skyrim. They have powerful bite and tail attacks and their breath attack is intensely debilitating. It also leaves you on fire for a very long time which causes you to take extra damage from further attacks. All of their attacks inflict a large amount of damage so it’s imperative that you have equipment to protect you from them.
Ancient Dragons are basically just Elder Dragons with a slightly different color palette and do the slightest bit more damage. By the point they start spawning in, when you’re in the 40 – 45 range, this difference should be barely noticeable.
For all intents and purposes the Skeletal Dragon is basically a really strong Blood Dragon although it can use both fire and ice breath at the same time. It’s fairly resistant to damage, plus it has all of the strengths and weaknesses of an undead. The one dragon of this ilk that you will encounter is found in Labyrinthian, while the others seem to be glitches that cause a dead dragon to keep attacking you. Since the dragon is ground bound it’s possible to run away from the beast, take a few pot shots and then run away again. Just keep watch of your stamina if you’re not going to simply go toe to toe with the beast.
In this section of the guide we will take a look at all of the unavoidable encounters with dragons that occur through the main storyline. There are only five dragons you must fight to complete the game although plenty more will attack you while trying to progress from one point to another. There are even a number of unique dragons that will attack in service to their lord Alduin but these are covered in the following section.
The very first dragon you will battle is Mirmulnir. This isn’t that bad even for the unprepared since you will have numerous allies fighting alongside you. Since Mirmulnir gets so distracted trying to eat the basic soldiers you’re spoiled for choice on how to handle him. This fight is incredibly easy no matter how it’s approached if we’re being honest.
A melee character is best off hanging out inside of the tower and keeping track of the beasts’ movements until it lands. Rushing out of the tower, get a few attacks in and then retreat once it takes to the air again. Mages should do much the same since it’s unlikely that you’re prepared to go toe to toe with a dragon at this point.
But the easiest way to handle this fight is to simply bring a bow with you as the above video demonstrates. While he can strafe you with fire when you’re on top of the tower if you retreat down the steps then it’s impossible for him to hurt you. Keep retreating down the steps when he attacks and shooting from the top of the tower when he’s distracted. This will kill him in no time, granting you your very first dragon soul.
Shortly into the main quest line you will find yourself navigating through a fierce snowstorm to climb a mountain. The goal is to reach a dragon burial site with Delphine but a nasty surprise awaits the duo at the destination. Sahloknir obeys its master’s words, attacking the Dovahkiin and any allies he’s brought up to the site. If you don’t have some equipment or potions to help you resist fire then this is a very dangerous encounter.
Sahlokmir is a slightly stronger version of the Blood Dragon. Normally this would be a very difficult fight due to how powerful it is but it’s possible to have two allies helping you as well as any summoned allies. For mages, if you can’t summon up Atronach assistance then it’s possible to complete the quest A Night to Remember to gain the unique artifact Sanguine Rose. This will allow you to summon up a Dremora to aid in the fight. Fighters will have an easy time here whether they use a bow or not since Delphine has one and is incredibly accurate with her attacks.
When arriving at Karthspire you’ll find that you, Delphine and Esbern are besieged by a huge number of Forsworn and a vicious Frost Dragon. Normally the Forsworn will be too distracted by the titan but every now and again they’ll come after you which, to be frank, makes this near impossible. Luckily that’s a very rare occurrence so for the most part you and the duo with you can focus all of your energies taking down the beast. Esbern’s Frost Atronach is especially useful in tanking the dragons attention.
The dragon itself shouldn’t really be a problem at this point. Since there’s so many people attacking it the thing will go down rapidly. What complicates your life is that immediately after dealing with the dragon you’re going to have a large number of very angry Forsworn to contend with. Hopefully the dragon managed to help thin out the number of these freaks running around during his “fly around and murder everyone” phase.
Honestly this is, without a doubt, the hardest mandatory fight in the entire game. No matter how prepared you might think that you are Alduin is powerful enough to absolutely wreck your day. Coming into this fight with a follower, summoned allies and Paarthurnax’s aid will still leave you in a position where you’re likely to die at least once or twice.
Above: Dozens of unprepared Dovahkiin died to bring us this recording.
Everything Alduin does involves fire attacks so you’ll want to have equipment to help resist that. His attacks consist of causing fire to rain from the skies, flaming breath attacks, a massively powerful bite and a devastating tail lash. While he’s beating on you, fireballs will be raining down from above, your only option is basically to tough the battle out. Lastly he’s entirely immune to damage until struck with the Dragonrend shout.
Defeating him is a simple enough matter in theory but executing it is something else entirely. Once he flies within range hit him with a fully charged Dragonrend shout. This forces him to land as well as rendering him vulnerable. Ready your most powerful weapons, or ice spells, and charge the beast. Keep your healing spells and potions at the ready while unloading on him with your most powerful attacks if you want to bring him down. Don’t take any chances, heal up as soon as your health begins to dwindle to avoid surprise deaths, and he should go down before too long.
This isn’t a fight since you’re just trying to capture this dragon inside of the castle. After using your shout to draw the beast into combat don’t even bother standing your ground. Simply turn tail as soon as the beast comes into view and run back into the room. Hide next to the device on the side of the room and wait for Ohdaviing to walk partially into the chamber. Once you’re told to activate the device drop the trap to finish this mission.
Unlike the last fight this battle is actually incredibly easy. While any of your companions might have been left behind three of the most powerful warriors in Sovangarde are going to be fighting alongside you. Plus you should have leveled up a good amount as well as be equipped with much better equipment than the last time you battled, leaving Alduin to be immensely outclassed by the four heroes. It’s kind of anti-climactic to be honest.
When the four of you reach the misty area choose the Clear Skies Shout. Wait until told to use it and then use a level three Shout to clear the mists. This must be repeated a few times until Alduin stops trying to hide. The beast comes out to attack and your allies will begin attacking him but he is invulnerable until hit with the Dragonrend shout. Bring him down to the ground using that Thu’um and the quartet can begin laying into him. He fights in exactly the same manner as before but now there are plenty of targets to keep him distracted from focusing on you. It’s easy enough to complete this fight without even using a single healing item.
The previous encounters are far from the only fights with your draconic foes. There are four named dragons to encounter out in the world, random dragons to battle in almost every location, as well as just out in the wild and a number of dragon roosts where the beasts guard word walls. As you pass certain milestones the dragons will become more common:
• The first milestone is after killing Mirmulnir. Dragons will now begin to appear all across the world although they’re still a fairly rare sight.
• The second milestone is after acquiring Dragonrend. Dragons will become much more common and appear fairly often whenever you arrive at a city.
• The last milestone is after completing the main storyline. Dragons will appear constantly at this point, attacking you damn near any time you fast travel to a city or dungeon.
When you arrive in a small hamlet that you haven’t visited before Nahagliv will come to attack. For this guide the beast attacked upon arrival at Rorikstead during the “A Night to Remember” quest. He is essentially a beefed up version of a blood dragon.
After the wise dragon helps you battle Alduin for the first time the Blades will demand that you kill Paarthurnax in revenge for his actions ages ago. If you don’t do this then they will never point out other dragon roosts to you which means no more dragon slaying assistance. Doing this for them has the side effect of angering the Greybeards to the point that they will no longer tell you where Words of Power may be located.
That said the big guy is easy enough to kill. Hit him with Dragonrend while he is still neutral to you and then lay into him with your strongest attacks. He goes down surprisingly fast. You traitorous dog.
Vinthuruth is something of a random encounter although he is quite dangerous. He attacks upon leaving a random dungeon, occurring at the end of a Thieves Guild quest in the video below. Depending on the location that this frost dragon attacks you in he may have an ally with him - either a fellow frost dragon or a weaker blood dragon. Just to be safe heal up before leaving any dungeons after you’ve obtained Dragonrend since that’s when he starts spawning.
One of the most dangerous random enemies in the game, Vuljotnaak is a very powerful elder dragon who attacks you en route to a Word of Power. This has occurred on the way to Greywater Gorge and Grey Crone Rock so it seems to be fairly random. Whenever he attacks you’re going to need to be on the top of your game since one solid breath attack can actually kill a weaker character, notably if you’re lacking hit points or resistance to fire.
Ancient’s ascent is located in the mountains to the east of Falkreath. There are two ways up the mountain to your destination. The first path is a mountain path up the side of the mountain - this path is often guarded by a dragon that attempts to weaken you before you can deal with the beast at the top of the route.
An easier way to get to the destination is by going through Bonechill Passage, a small cave with a Frost Troll in it. This is clearly the easier path so head on through it and battle the dovah.
Found southeast of Ivarstead up a twisted path through the mountains, getting to Autumnwatch is actually harder than fighting the dragon. Unfortunately there are a bunch of bears along the path to distract you terribly from what you’re trying to do. This will often be one of the first locations that the dragon hunters ask you to meet them at.
This is one of the easier dragon roosts to get to. Head south from Winterhold right through the woodlands and up into the mountains to find this. More often than not the dragon will find you instead, coming down to attack you long before even reaching the word wall. Be careful as there is a non-hostile Hagraven in the area you may hit that can cause her to become hostile to you.
Above: Just south of the current location marker
This one is a huge pain in the rear end to get to. You’ll get there by either climbing the mountain to the north of Rannveig’s Fast and going over or taking a winding path just south of Morthal. The path is much more dangerous since there are Frost Trolls along very narrow paths. If the dragon attacks here you’ll be in big trouble. Going over the mountain works best as it will often prompt the dragon to attack when you have wide spaces to hang around in and battle the beast.
Above: Found in the mountains to the southeast of Riften
Another easy roost to get to, this one simply tasks you with trekking through the wilds south of Riften and then going southeast up the path. It’s almost certain that the dragon will attack while you’re wandering toward the actual path so it shouldn’t be an issue to fight it somewhere safe. Once it’s dead you can continue up the mountain to find the word wall easily.
Above: Located southwest of Winterhold
This one gets tricky. The dragon likes to roam far and wide which can mean you’ll fight him before even starting up the mountain, or you could battle him in the narrow pass. The pass itself has snow bears, giants and sometimes even Frost Trolls to contend with and they tend to prioritize you over the dragon for some reason. In addition there is often a second dragon flying around that will attack before you even get a chance to deal with the first one. As an example in the video below, a regular Dragon attacks shortly before a Frost Dragon comes to play.
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