If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that I like Skyrim’s Survival Mode. You’ll also know that I really don’t think Skyrim’s world is particularly well suited for it, for a number of reasons, but there’s one thing I left out of that earlier article: Solstheim.
A harsh island in the Sea of Ghosts
Added by the Dragonborn expansion, the island of Solstheim is unlike anything you’d find in the province of Skyrim’s.
The southern half of the island is covered in ash from the erupting Red Mountain on the Island of Vvardenfell, located south-southeast of Solstheim. While you can’t visit Vvardenfell, the Red Mountain will always be visible on the horizon, quite the sight to behold, and a menacing one when you contrast the ashen wastes seen here with the green fields seen in Solstheim’s previous depiction in TES III: Bloodmoon. This half of the island is also populated by dangerous creatures such as Ash Spawns, savage creatures that rise from the ashes of fallen men and mer, and Burnt Spriggans, a fiery and even more dangerous variant of the already dangerous Spriggans.
The northern half of the island stands in stark contrast to the south. The ash is replaced by snow, the danger of being burnt alive is replace by freezing to death. The fauna here is closer to that of Skyrim: wolves, goats, bears, horkers. But that’s not to say there are no surprises. Solstheim is also home to Rieklings, an indigenous race of small, tribal creatures. They inhabit most caves in the northern half of the island, as well as a number of camps out in the open.
Reavers inhabit much of the island as well, and they don’t take kindly to visitors. And as a final cherry on top, packs of Werebears also roam the island, ready to ruin your day.
But now that the stage is set, it’s time for…
The real challenge
As you can figure out from the above, Solstheim is a rough, largely untamed place. Being part of an expansion, you’re also supposed to come here after you’ve already achieved some things over in Skyrim, as such most creatures are quite high level, ranging from 20 to 40.
So how about coming here at level 1 with nothing but the clothes you wear on your way to being executed in Helgen?
To achieve this, you must use console commands. First start a new game, create your character, and proceed normally until you reach Helgen keep and have your binds cut by either Ralof or Hadvar. After that, you can proceed with opening the console and teleporting to Solstheim.
coc DLC2RavenRock01
(List of other locations you can teleport to here)
After teleporting, close the console and the game should prompt you if you wish to enable Survival Mode.
Before going further, however, here are some ways to spice things up further:
Werewolf run - you can add the Beast Form ability to turn into a werewolf using
player.addspell 00092c48Vampire run - although it’s possible to set your race to the respective vampire variant of your preferred race using
setrace, I found that to be rather buggy, so I recommend you instead afflict yourself with Sanguinare Vampiris and wait 3 in-game days to become a vampire before teleportingplayer.addspell 000b8780
Or you could do both! Azura knows it won’t make things any easier, but it does make for an interesting combo.
And since I can’t go without mentioning it: I would avoid becoming a Vampire Lord. As fun as it is being an overpowered soldier of Molag Bal, asserting your dominance over the land by killing everything that stands in your path, I don’t think it fits with the survival theme of this challenge.
If you’re feeling particularly hardcore, you can also play on a higher difficulty, but I don’t find that to be particularly needed when everything will kill you in 2 hits and you barely deal any damage even at normal difficulty.
And of course, permadeath is another great way to inflict yourself with as much pain as possible, but again, not exactly needed, your masochistic urges will be satisfied even without that.
But everything you need to start the challenge for yourself out of the way, tome for some pointers and notes on the whole experience.
Getting into the thick of it
As stated earlier, most things on Solstheim’s start between levels 20 and 40. Reavers scale down to level 1 and Rieklings down to level 6, but they can still prove quite dangerous in numbers.
Although you can start your journey anywhere on the island, I recommend you start in Raven Rock, one of the few friendly settlements on Solstheim, and the largest one in terms of services. You’ll likely find yourself spending a lot of time in town as it alone provides most services you’ll require, as well as a number of jobs so you can live the fantasy of actually having a chance to earn a living!
Upon starting, venturing beyond the Bulwark isn’t really an option. You could, but you’d be burnt to a crisp before you have any time to deal damage back. If you manage to make your way north, you’ll probably freeze to death or be eaten by a pack of wolves or a bear. Instead, try getting some jobs in town. A number of them help you gain experience and money safely. Not enough to get you from rags to riches, but enough to get you kitted out to survive for more than 10 second upon leaving town.
If you have an inclination towards the arcane, you might find Raven Rock to be… limiting. There are no dedicated spells merchant in town, and while Fethis Alor will occasionally have some spell books in stock, they’re few and generally lower level spells. Instead you’ll want to head east to Tel Mithryn, where you’ll find more opportunities regarding the arcane.
Those with lighter fingers will have an even worse time. There are no fences, and few marks, most of whom have little worth stealing anyway. Stealing food in the early game to avoid starving is about as far as theft will take you, a far cry from the wealth you can earn practicing your craft in Skyrim. That said, your other skills as a rogue can still be put to good use. When the odds are stacked against you all across the island, being able to sneak past undetected and take out enemies from a distance with a bow will prove useful survival skills.
Surviving the untamed lands
I’ve probably made this rather clear already, but Solstheim is mostly wilderness with little civilisation. While there are still dungeons to explore and merchants to trade with, your life on Solstheim is more likely to be that of a hunter doing what they must to survive, something that I think plays rather nicely in lore, as Solstheim is Hircine’s favoured place for the Great Hunt.
But it is also a completely different survival experience than Skyrim. Don’t get me wrong, I think both of them are fun, but Solstheim ends up being more challenging in a satisfying way. Everything is more dangerous even when you’re at the same level as your enemies, so when you’re 20 levels bellow what you’re expected to be you’re forced to be especially crafty, use every bit of knowledge about the game to your advantage, not to stack the deck in your favour, but to even the odds. I’m aware this sounds like masochism, and maybe it is, but once you try it you just won’t find anything quite like it.
This challenge also helps you further appreciate Solstheim’s variety and level of detail. If you just come to Solstheim at level 20 to do some quests then leave, you only see some of the most prominent places: Raven Rock, Tel Mithryn, the Skaal village. But when you try to survive these lands from the very beginning, with no promise of returning to something else, you start seeing these lands differently. Details that would have gone unnoticed before now become familiar, and what used to be an annoyance now becomes a fun challenge.
Closing thoughts
I was hoping to make this challenge justice when I started writing this, but I don’t think it’s possible in a text format. It’s something you have to experience to appreciate, so that’s what I urge you to do: to experience this challenge with whatever variations and spice you deem fun.