Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has seen many different releases since its initial launch way back in 2011–from the Legendary Edition in 2013 that included all its DLC, the remastered Special Edition in 2016, to the VR version in 2017. The most recent version, its Anniversary Edition, was released in 2021, marking the 10th year since Skyrim’s initial release by including a ton of community content from its Creation Club.
To accommodate the new content–which added new quests onto an already deep world–Bethesda tinkered with the game’s level cap as they had done in previous versions. This was done as both a way to give players incentive to dive back in and to balance some of the game’s activity-based leveling to prevent players from reaching the cap too early. These changes may have led to some confusion among returning and new players to Tamriel, so we’ve put together this primer about Skyrim’s max level that will hopefully clarify how far you can go in the latest version(s).
What is Skyrim’s Max Level?
The answer to this question depends on what you consider ‘maxed’. The official max level in Skyrim is 81. This is the point when all skills are at level 100 and you can no longer acquire any new perks. At this point, the character is so powerful that no enemy in the base game would pose a challenge, so there is no real tactical advantage. And because Skyrim’s leveling system is based on individual skills contributing to the main level, the minimal experience gains beyond this point make leveling past 81 pointless in the base game.
Skyrim 10 Anniversary Edition Max Level
In the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim, which is version 1.9 of the base game, the game’s level cap is effectively raised to 252 with the addition of Skyrim’s Legendary Skills. Legendary Skills do not add perks or allow you to level any skill past 100; they simply allow you to reset a certain skill to level 15 and receive a refund for all the skill points that were used to level that skill. This isn’t a ‘respec’ mechanic, since by then there’s no point in re-assigning perks when you’ve unlocked them all, but a way to use skill leveling to raise your overall level past 81.
About Skyrim’s Legendary Skills
Legendary Skills might sound like an arbitrary move since you’ve got all the perks; that is until you consider that each level offers a choice to add 10 points in Magicka, health, or stamina to your character. Skyrim players usually end up creating balanced characters in terms of these three attributes, with more points in the pool of their play style. Now you can create a character that is near-immortal (health), who never gets tired (stamina), and who never runs out of spell-casting energy (Magicka).
