Skyrim:Soul Gems

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From left to right: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, Grand and Black Soul Gems

Soul Gems are miscellaneous items which can be used to trap the souls of dying creatures or NPCs. The resulting filled soul gems can be used as power sources for enchanted items, either when initially creating custom enchanted items or when recharging depleted enchanted weapons. Soul gems come in a range of capacities, from petty to grand, plus some special soul gems. Only black soul gems and the Black Star can be used to capture the soul of an NPC, which is always a grand soul in size. There are also soul gem fragments found in the game. These are classified as minor loot and are not actual soul gems.

Empty soul gems can also be harvested from geode veins, which are only found in Blackreach. Each mined vein will result in 2–3 soul gems of any size, including black soul gems. The mined soul gems are level-dependent; at level 16 grand and black soul gems will start to appear, and the probability for either will max out at level 31.

Types of Soul Gem[edit]

Standard Soul Gems[edit]

Name Soul ID Weight Value Capacity Weapon Recharge
SR-icon-misc-PettySoulGem.png Petty Soul Gem none 0002e4e2 0.1 10 250 (Petty) 500
Petty 0002e4e3 40
SR-icon-misc-LesserSoulGem.png Lesser Soul Gem none 0002e4e4 0.2 25 500 (Lesser) 750
Lesser 0002e4e5 80
SR-icon-misc-CommonSoulGem.png Common Soul Gem none 0002e4e6 0.3 50 1000 (Common) 1250
Common 0002e4f3 150
SR-icon-misc-GreaterSoulGem.png Greater Soul Gem none 0002e4f4 0.4 100 2000 (Greater) 2250
Greater 0002e4fb 350
SR-icon-misc-GrandSoulGem.png Grand Soul Gem * none 0002e4fc 0.5 200 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000)
Grand 0002e4ff 500

*If you get a message saying that you do not have a large enough soul gem to capture a soul, even though you have an empty grand soul gem in your inventory, it means that you are trying to catch a humanoid soul, which requires a black soul gem.

Special Soul Gems[edit]

Name Soul ID Weight Value Capacity Weapon Recharge Notes
SR-icon-misc-Azura'sStar.png Azura's Star none 00063b27 0 1000 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Equivalent to a grand soul gem, but does not break on use.
SR-icon-misc-BlackSoulGem.png Black Soul Gem none 0002e500 1 300 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Special soul gems that can capture humanoid souls. Guaranteed samples can be found at any level in Broken Fang Cave, Ilinalta's Deep, Ironbind Barrow, Castle Volkihar, Apocrypha and the Soul Cairn.
Grand 0002e504 750
SR-icon-misc-Flawed Varla Stone.png Flawed Varla Stone CC none FExxx801 0.3 1000 1000 (Common) 1250 Equivalent to a common soul gem, if you have Rare Curios CC installed, but does not break on use.
SR-icon-misc-Soul Tomato.png Soul Tomato CC none xx000804 0.5 250 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Equivalent to a grand soul gem, if you have Saints and Seducers CC installed. Two respawning soul tomatoes can be found in Kinthal's camp (east of Karthwasten) on a stone table. These previously appeared in the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion.
Grand xx137F40 600
SR-icon-misc-TheBlackStar.png The Black Star none 00063b29 0 1000 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Equivalent to a black soul gem, but does not break on use.
SR-icon-misc-LesserSoulGem.png Treated Soul Gem none 00094e40 0.2 25 500 (Lesser) 750 Unobtainable.
SR-icon-misc-GrandSoulGem.png Wylandriah's Soul Gem none 00043e26 0 0 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) (see bugs) Obtained during the Hunt and Gather quest.
SR-icon-misc-GrandSoulGem.png Warped Soul Gem none 0006a106
0006a109
0006a107
0006a110
0006a108
0010e44b
0.5 0 0 0 Received during Arniel's Endeavor. However, it cannot be used to trap souls.

Notes[edit]

A Lightning Attractor for creating black soul gems
  • To use a soul gem to recharge a weapon, first select the weapon in your inventory and then:
  • On PC press the Wait key, which is T by default
  • On PlayStation press R1
  • On Xbox press RB
  • Nintendo Switch Logo.svg press R
  • A small menu will open where the description ordinarily is, and you can choose a soul gem to use.
  • Soul gems are consumed upon being used to recharge a weapon. This is one reason why it is a good idea to fill your soul gems as efficiently as possible (e.g. grand soul gems for grand souls, common soul gems for common souls, etc.). A soul gem not being used to its fullest capacity could be considered a waste (losing a grand soul gem because you used the petty soul contained within to recharge a weapon, for example). However, you can simply drop a filled gem to empty it (note that this will empty all self-filled gems (see bugs)).
  • Standard merchants do not sell black soul gems. To purchase one you must talk to either Enthir at the College of Winterhold while he is in his quarters, or Falion in Morthal.
  • The quest Rising at Dawn requires you to fill a black soul gem to cure yourself of vampirism.
  • If you have the Dawnguard add-on installed, grand or greater soul gems can be transformed into black soul gems by using the Lightning Attractor found in the Soul Cairn. The Lightning Attractor can only be used once.
  • If you have the Dragonborn add-on installed, you can combine any soul gem (empty or filled) with an albino spider pod at the imbuing chamber in White Ridge Barrow to create a mind control spider.
  • After a black soul gem is used, the soul it contained goes to the Soul Cairn.
  • Humanoid souls captured by black soul gems and The Black Star will always be of grand value.

Bugs[edit]

  • Soul gems that you filled yourself, with the exception of grand and black, do not change in value when filled. For example, a common soul gem (valued at 50 when empty), will not increase in value with a soul in it, even though a prefilled common soul gem is valued at 150. This also causes them to not stack properly in your inventory.
    • The soul gems will stack properly if you store multiple filled gems in a container, exit the interface, then come back some time later and take them back. This is not a definite fix and may require multiple attempts.
  • Soul gems that you filled yourself may be emptied if dropped, or transferred to a follower or container.
    • PC Only The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.0, addresses this issue. Only partially filled soul gems will be emptied, in order to allow you to fix any errors in filling them.
  • Wylandriah's soul gem is fillable and can be used to recharge enchanted weapons, despite being a quest item. Recharging enchanted weapons or enchanting items with Wylandriah's gem will consume it and therefore break the quest.