Does difficulty affect loot in Skyrim?

No, difficulty settings in Skyrim only affect enemy stats and damage values – the underlying loot tables and leveled lists remain unchanged across difficulties. However, playing on higher difficulties incentivizes you to level up faster, allowing you to find better variants of leveled gear.

Breaking down Skyrim‘s difficulty settings

Skyrim has six difficulty settings ranging from Novice (easiest) to Legendary (hardest). Here is the precise impact of each setting:

As we can see, the higher difficulties dramatically tilt combat in favor of enemies in terms of stats and damage. But many players wrongly assume this also boosts loot quality – that is not the case.

Skyrim uses leveled lists for loot scaling

The majority of loot found as quest rewards or from chests and defeated foes will scale in quality based on the player‘s level at the time of the drop. The underlying system governing this is Skyrim‘s use of "leveled lists".

As the UESP explains, these leveled lists function like tiered buckets – a level 1 player may only access the lowest bucket with the weakest items, while a level 50 player can reach deeper buckets filled with more rewarding gear.

For example, looting a chest in Bleak Falls Barrow:

Difficulty settings do not affect this assignment of leveled lists at all. The quality of items is purely tied to player level.

However, playing on higher difficulties incentives rapidly leveling up your character so you can roll better loot.

Strategies for thriving on higher difficulties

Master and Legendary difficulties live up to their names – enemies hit ludicrously hard and even basic foes can shred your health bar within seconds. Here are some key tactics for surviving and succeeding against overwhelming odds:

Prioritize resistances, health, and armor

With enemies dealing up to triple damage, stacking raw defensive stats is far more important than weapon strength.

• Enchant gear with Health/Resist bonuses – Enchanting is vital for boosting survivability
• Choose defensive perks – Light/Heavy Armor trees, Block, and Alteration all help further mitigate damage
• Craft improved sets – Upgrading crafted gear boosts armor ratings dramatically

Ensure you have healing options

Enemies on Master/Legendary hit so hard that regeneration from Restoration magic or passives may not cut it.

• Hotkey healing/stamina potions – You‘ll need to use potions mid-combat very frequently
• Use vegetable soup – Regenerate health + stamina for longer engagements
• Learn healing spells – Fast Healing and Grand Healing give you burst recovery options

Get allies and distractions

Trying to solo large groups of enemies is a quick path to death on high difficulties. You need every advantage possible.

• Invest in Conjuration – Bound weapons provide damage while summons draw aggro
• Recruit followers – Multiple allies to soak up attacks and DPS make battles far easier
• Use scrolls and staves – One button distractions like Dremora Lords can turn the tide

Be selective with engagements

Even with all precautions, some battles are simply too much to handle. Analyze enemy numbers and types before committing.

• Stealth recon areas before entering – Know exactly what you are up against
• Isolate stronger enemies from groups – Pick off archers/mages before melee chargers
• Avoid losses greater than gains – Don‘t bash against unbeatable bandit hideouts at low level

Quicksave, quicksave, quicksave!

Quicksaving every few minutes is good practice anyhow for Bethesda games. But on higher difficulties it is absolutely critical in case sudden enemy spikes overwhelm you. Mash F5!

Surviving Legendary – An arduous but rewarding journey

Again, just because Legendary difficultly doesn‘t directly improve loot doesn‘t mean it isn‘t worth trying. Simply surviving and progressing against near-impossible odds provides immense satisfaction.

My first steps leaving Helgen on a new Legendary playthrough were harrowing, as even mudcrabs could quarter my health bar with a single swipe. I picked flowers, caught butterflies, and gathered ingredients – anything to level Restoration for survivability perks while avoiding any combat. After making it to Riverwood, every single quest became a calculated risk of life and death.

But after countless quicksaves and reloads, bloody struggles culminated in victory against bandit camps, draugr crypts and dragon showdowns. And with every managed success, with every level gained, my enchanted dragonbone armor reduced more damage and my Chaos/Firestorm spells obliterated more foes.

After 160 hours, maxing all my skills to 100, I had transformed into an indestructible god of destruction feared across Skyrim. And though it was arduous process – in the end, I wouldn‘t have had it any other way. This was my Legendary journey of triumph. Will you embark on one of your own?