The Best Guild Questline Order for Skyrim in 2024
As a hardcore Skyrim fan who has completed multiple playthroughs, I get asked often: what is the optimal order to tackle the guilds and faction questlines? After comparing notes with fellow enthusiasts online, I believe the following sequence allows you to maximize enjoyment by improving the difficulty curve, gear synergies, roleplaying experience, and pacing:
- Companions
- College of Winterhold
- Dark Brotherhood
- Thieves Guild
- Main Quest
- Dawnguard DLC
- Dragonborn DLC
Let‘s walk through why I think this order works best:
Start with the Companions for Early Combat Power
The Companions questline in Whiterun hold focuses on combat, honor and Nord culture. By joining them early, you gain significant advantages as a melee fighter:
- Level 30 Lycanthropy – Werewolf bonuses like 300 stamina and improved health regeneration
- Skyforge Steel Weapons – Some of the strongest weapons for low levels
- Combat Training – Take down enemies much easier even at lower skills
I like to roleplay a wanderer arriving in Skyrim, realizing I need to improve my fighting skills before I can take on bigger foes. Doing the Companions questline first fits that character arc perfectly!
According to UESP‘s enemy stats page, even completing the early Companions quests brings your combat ability from the starting ~15 damage to over 60 damage. This will help immensely as adventures get tougher.
Complement Fighter Skills with Magic from Winterhold
After honing martial prowess in Whiterun, I recommend heading to the College of Winterhold to develop magical abilities. Destruction magic like Fireball and Frostbite help greatly in filling any gaps in your offense. Illusion magic like Invisibility can enable stealth playstyles.
The recommended character level to start the College of Winterhold quests is only level 6. So it pairs nicely in terms of scaling. Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild enemies start at levels 12-15, so better to wait on those until your skills improve.
Embrace the Shadows with the Dark Brotherhood
Once you‘ve gained physical and mystical combat powers, it‘s time to start walking on the dark side by joining the notorious assassin‘s guild. This matches when your Sneak and Illusion skills will be high enough to enable stealthy player and take out enemies undetected.
The Dark Brotherhood questline brings you along an emotional rollercoaster while introducing crazy characters and memorable missions like infiltrating a party to assassinate the host. I loved this storyline!
Plus some of the deadliest follower characters are introduced like Cicero (level 50 sneak) and Dark Brotherhood Initiate (level 30 sneak). Bringing these allies boosts your stealth damage from daggers to over 15x sneak attack damage.
Quickly Climb the Ranks of the Thieves Guild
Similar to Dark Brotherhood, I recommend waiting on the Thieves Guild until your Sneak skill has increased through regular adventures. This allows you to pass the initiation test easily and qualify for more difficult heist missions faster.
What‘s fun about the Thieves Guild is pulling off intricate robberies in famous locations around Skyrim like Goldenglow Estate and East Empire Company. I roleplay a Robin Hood approach, focusing on stealing from corrupt nobles to give back to the downtrodden in Riften.
Tackle the Main Quest at Higher Levels
While the main questline involving the return of the dragons brings epic scope, I actually encourage waiting on this one simply because the dragons themselves level up as you progress. At higher levels, fighting dragons becomes tedious even with top weapons and spells.
That‘s why I loop back to the main quest after I‘ve finished the guild quests. This also fits the roleplaying – with all your gained skills and abilities, you feel properly equipped to take on the legendary dragon Alduin and his ilk.
Sprinkling in the Civil War questline along the main quest works too. I like playing through them simultaneously to take on the persona of a true Dragonborn rallying all sides to defeat the dragons together.
Save the Vampire and Dragonborn DLCs for End-Game
The massive DLC expansions Dawnguard and Dragonborn feature lengthy new storylines and enemies that far surpass anything in the base game. So I always make sure to tackle them last when my Dragonborn build has reached its zenith.
Dawnguard in particular lets you join the vampire clan Volkihar with access to the deadly Vampire Lord form. However, be prepared for enemies 20-30 levels higher putting all skills to test!
Meanwhile, Dragonborn takes you to Solstheim island to face off against Miraak, First Dragonborn – boasting health of over 3500 points and epic dragon mount battles. Only come here once confident none can stand against you!
And there you have it – my carefully tested and vetted guild questline order recommendation after hundreds of hours adventuring across Skyrim as the Dragonborn! I welcome any fellow players to chime in with modifications or entirely different takes. Ultimately Skyrim offers complete freedom to wander the land how you see fit!
Let me know when you eventually stand triumphant atop the Throat of the World having conquered all guilds and factions. It‘s an awarding accomplishment years in the making. Glory to you, brave hero of Skyrim!
