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) Works the same as 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.
Grand 0002e504 750
SR-icon-misc-Flawed Varla Stone.png Flawed Varla StoneCC none FExxx801 0.3 1000 1000 (Common) 1250 Works the same as a common soul gem, but does not break on use. Added with the Rare Curios Creation.
SR-icon-misc-Soul Tomato.png Soul TomatoCC none xx000804 0.5 250 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Equivalent to a Grand Soul Gem. Two can be found in Kinthal's camp (east of Karthwasten) on a stone table, and they do respawn.
Grand xx137F40 600
SR-icon-misc-TheBlackStar.png The Black Star none 00063b29 0 1000 3000 (Grand) 6200 (caps at 3000) Works the same as 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) See the quest Hunt and Gather.

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.

Bugs[edit]

  • Soul gems that you filled yourself, with the exception of grand and black, do not change in value when fully filled (i.e., 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.
    • PC Only The Unofficial Skyrim Patch fixes this bug.
    • 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.